The National Association of Broadcasters is encouraging stations to use the power of their airwaves to help with the Haitian relief efforts, but if you are a public station be warned that you can’t just do on-air fundraising without FCC approval.
fundraising
Classical Music Radio – How Do We Survive and Thrive?
Ever since the news that WUFT at the University of Florida in Gainesville is switching from classical music to news/talk, Mike and Mona and I have been privately batting around a discussion about what classical stations need to do to survive and thrive. We thought you might want to join the discussion.
Gleanings from a community radio conference
Thanks to Mona Seghatoleslami, an announcer and producer at West Virginia Public Broadcasting, for contributing this post about what to listen to from this year’s National Federation of Community Broadcasters conference. — Mike
The National Federation of Community Broadcasters held its conference earlier this month in Portland. It’s now posted information from conference sessions online. For some presentations, recordings are available; for others, only handouts or slides are posted.
I’ve listened to a couple of sessions that might interest classical radio broadcasters. The keynote by Kim Klein, “War, Locusts, Famine and Your Community Radio Station: You Can Raise Money in Times of Crisis,” included good perspectives on fundraising.
Behind the Scenes: Fundraising at a Classical Station
This is not going to be a compendium of fundraising ideas for classical stations, so if you’re looking for the foolproof idea that will make your fundraising SING during a recession, sorry. I wanted to give non-radio types a look at what goes on behind the scenes.
It’s almost impossible for public classical stations to generate “earned income.” Radio has always been free — like the internet — so you can’t really sell the product, unless you’re satellite radio and force people to buy a special receiver and pay a subscription fee.