1,200 Listeners Worldwide Support UMass Boston Radio
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1,200
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Policy 2001-2002By Pat Monteith
On day six of WUMB Radio’s recent 11 day on-air fall fundraiser, the station had barely obtained enough pledges from its listeners to total 40 percent of its $125,000 goal, but this was no surprise to the staff. Most public radio stations nationwide were struggling to reach their fall fundraising goals in the wake of the September 11 tragedies. By ten o’clock that morning, however, everything had changed and WUMB was on the way to becoming one of only a handful of stations to meet its target.
The catalyst for that change was a spontaneous $5,000 challenge gift from a long-time listener in Concord. The phones started to ring, and the station raised more than $21,000 in one day and never struggled for the rest of the week. WUMB heard from nearly a dozen other listeners who pledged between $1,000 and $2,500. “We never expected such a strong validation for our folk music program schedule in light of the serious problems with the economy right now,” says WUMB General Manager Pat Monteith.
In total, more than 1, 200 listeners made contributions. Approximately 11 percent of the total was pledged through the radio station’s secure web page from listeners who can only hear the station over the Internet. Pledges came in from twenty states and as far away as Switzerland, England, and Japan, including a $1,000 gift from a listener in Vancouver, B.C.
While most of the donations came from people listening for several years, 30 percent came from those only listening for a short period of time, including Regina in Westport who said, “I’ve been in Massachusetts for four days and my radio dial hasn’t moved from 91.9.”
The most rewarding aspect of this fundraiser for the staff, however, was the amount of money collected in additional gifts to support public radio station WNYC in New York. That station lost its two transmitters and antenna systems, which were located on top of the World Trade Center. The cost to replace the systems and lost revenue is nearly $4 million. In addition to making a donation to help WUMB reach its goal, 418 of the station’s listeners donated more than $7,200 to send to WNYC to help with their rebuilding project.