Oh boy! The only thing better than a story about the opening of a brand-new drive-in theater is having some nice video of it to embed for you.

NBCDFW (secretly KXAS-TV), Fort Worth TX’s news leader, ran a fine little story about the construction work that’s nearly completed for the Coyote Drive-In just north of downtown. Two of its three screens are in place, its food pavilion is almost done, and earth movers are ripping out debris that would get in the way of driving and parking and watching movies. If that sounds a little familiar, it’s because we mentioned the Coyote here a few months ago.

But don’t take my word for it. If you want to read what’s pretty much a transcription of the story, head over to the NBCDFW site. But I think you’ll be better off just watching that great two minutes of video. If it doesn’t bring a smile to your face, you’re not a drive-in fan.

The Town and Country Drive-In, which we profiled here in December, announced that it has raised enough money to continue operating. In a press release, quoted in the Abilene Reporter News, owner Glenda Thornton said that the “Go Digital or Go Dark” campaign had succeeded. “Thanks to this support we were able to obtain financing and make a down payment to get the project going,” Thornton said in the release. KTXS, Abilene’s News Leader, also has a story and a nice video segment about this good news.

Since the amount raised was just a down payment, fundraisers will continue this year to pay off the new digital projectors. The drive-in is also looking for volunteers. If you’re interested, you can sign up at the Town and County’s Facebook page.

Thanks to a nice article in the Abilene (TX) Reporter-News, we now know that the Tower Drive-In of nearby Rule has begun a Kickstarter fundraiser to pay for its digital conversion. Be sure to watch the nice little video they made to support the project. It really makes you feel like you’ve visited the Tower, and it’s embedded just to the right of these words.

What makes this conversion fundraiser a little different is that Tower owner Deon Gordon says she has a quote on a used digital projector for less than $39,000. That makes it about half the price of most drive-in digital conversion projects.

It’s a good long article with a long conversation with Gordon. I learned, for example, why drive-ins seem to be staying away from 3D. “There is a requirement from the studios for you to charge a premium and they get the premium,” Gordon said. “I charge six dollars for both movies and if I had to put a $3 premium on it, then any week or two-week period where I’ve got a 3D movie I’d price a lot of my customers out of being able to come.”

According to the article, Gordon already advertises on nearby radio stations to pull in patrons from a wide area, since the Tower is the only movie theater for 50 miles. I hope that means that a lot of civic-minded, forward-thinking north Texas residents will realize that they all need to chip in to keep their nearby source of entertainment alive. We’ll see!