William ‘Bill’ Mundhausen, founder of the nonprofit Orion Center, which operates media portal Key LOZ and Key Radio, is marking more than 20 years of empowering local communities. Orion Center does this by bringing people together, fostering a sense of community and a common understanding of the truth, resulting in action toward positive change.
The nonprofit organization was founded in 2000 by Mundhausen, a first-generation American born to parents who immigrated from Germany. He grew up in New York and was exposed to science at a young age due to being part of the German-American community. He also became active in politics due to the social climate at the time as well as his curiosity into the nation's running due to his position as a first-generation American. Mundhausen became a Christian in adulthood, developing an interest in the intersection between the Bible and science. He and his wife, Margaret, then moved to California, where he worked in corporate information systems for a major corporation. After some years, they decided to move to the Midwest, as they felt it was a better place to raise their children.
Settling in the Lake of the Ozarks region, Mundhausen decided to found Orion Center, which began as a science center, initially serving around a dozen public school districts. It also operated a museum with exhibits ranging from a Biblical archaeology collection, an original Mercury space capsule, a geology collection from a former Missouri state geologist, and more.
After several years, the museum became a community center, known as the Key Gathering Place, bringing various members of the community together to learn about various topics. Mundhausen says this naturally evolved into a political hub, as people wanted to relate what they learned to how society should be governed.
Four years ago, Orion Center acquired a radio station and began broadcasting to the Lake of the Ozarks community. However, Mundhausen realized that, in today’s world, people rarely listen to the radio except when traveling in their cars. This led to Key Radio transitioning into more on-demand content, such as podcasts and videos.
According to Mundhausen, when the internet was invented, it held the promise of bringing together people from all walks of life and promoting understanding through the free dissemination of information. However, that promise has not been entirely fulfilled since the Internet became widely available to the public in the 1990s. High levels of internet use have resulted in degraded communication skills and increased isolation and loneliness, and the internet and social media’s tendency to create echo chambers has resulted in greater political polarization. As a result, people from opposite sides of the political aisle no longer communicate with each other in good faith, therefore making any chance of agreement and compromise nearly impossible. He also believes that, as the US became the global economic and cultural superpower, many Americans became more individualistic and less concerned about their communities.
“Over the past 40 years, the US has lost its shared belief system, which is why we have such polarized politics these days,” Mundhausen says. “People aren't willing to cooperate with each other because they don't have a shared vision for the country.”
Seeing the negative impact the internet had on the social fabric, Mundhausen created Key LOZ, an interactive online portal containing videos, blogs, podcasts, news, and events curated for the Lake of the Ozarks community. There are various sections, including politics, entertainment, family, religion, and more.
Aside from hosting news and educational content, Key LOZ will also have a social media component, where people can discuss issues constructively. The comments that have the most likes will rise to the top and each discussion topic has a set expiration date. Once that date has passed, the moderation team will summarize what was discussed and what was decided, and come up with solutions for the community.
According to Mundhausen, this is a virtual incarnation of the earlier community center, using the internet to bring people together rather than just publish content that’s designed to create outrage for clicks.
“We have to bring people back together rather than drive them apart,” Mundhausen says. “This has been my mission in founding Orion Center 24 years ago. I believe that ranting on social media accomplishes nothing, so we need to figure out what concrete actions to take. The vision behind Key LOZ and Key Radio is to unify people in our local community and serve as an example for other communities across the country and around the world.”
Media contact:
Name: Bill Mundhausen
Email: [email protected]
