WPKN will begin the on-air portion of our Spring Fund Drive on Monday, April 25. This three week on-air drive will run from 7am to 9pm daily and will end on Sunday, May 15.
We need to raise $200,000 during the Spring and have already been working on raising this amount. Our fundraising efforts behind the scenes have already started. Many of you who have been long-term donors to WPKN may have received a personal outreach/donation letter from Peter Bochan, general manager of WPKN. WPKN has been working with a paid consultant to launch the first ‘major donor’ campaign. Chris Frantz, a PKN programmer and member of the Talking Heads and the Tom Tom Club is the Honorary Chair of these efforts. Co-Chairs are Richard Epstein and Steve di Costanzo.
Leading into next week’s on-air fund drive, we have raised more than $35,000 towards this $200,000 goal through internal fundraising from WPKN board members and on-air programmers. The idea was for all of the WPKN family to make a financial gift/pledge in some amount to WPKN, over and above the many hours of donated time and service they give to the station. We have had a very high ‘buy-in’ by our internal staff and will now take this energy to the airwaves.
Our fundraising committee has been selecting musical premiums (and uploading this information to our online WPKN Shopping Cart), designing new WPKN logo-products, assigning volunteers to help with phones, and getting ready behind the scene. Online at wpkn.org we have set up the ability for people to make a pledge that is automatically spread over 12 months. Come Monday we will be more organized than ever as we “Celebrate our Community.”
We will be consistent in the format of the on-air fundraising; structured to balance both our programming and fundraising needs. You will hear a combination of music and pitching to maximize listenership with fundraising. As usual, individual programmers will be selecting their own special musical premiums for their respective shows as well.
This is our major fundraising effort for 2011 on all levels: through the mail with our ‘major donor’ efforts, on-line at wpkn.org and our on-air radio efforts for the next three weeks. We hope you will remember us in these efforts. Freedom comes with a cost. It costs WPKN just under $1,000 a day to run the station on a very tight budget. Unlike 99% of non-profit radio stations around the country, WPKN is one of the last, true ‘listener-supported’ stations. You are one of the reasons we are who we are. The Real Alternative.
Let’s “Celebrate our Community.” Thanks for your support!