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How's the WJIB fundraiser doing?

W

webcastboy

Guest
Hey Bob - any updates on how the WJIB fundraiser is going? "Well", I hope? :)
 
Sometime this-coming week, (marking 6 weeks) we'll hit the $88,000.00 goal! So far, 2,249 separate contributions. I'm inpressed!
 
Wow, that's awesome, Bob! Congratulations

JIBGUY said:
Sometime this-coming week, (marking 6 weeks) we'll hit the $88,000.00 goal! So far, 2,249 separate contributions. I'm inpressed!
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The power of direct response advertising!!! Excellent news, Bob! :)
 
YAY!!! ;D Congrats, Bob!

You know, I'll bet there's something to be learned by other fundraising stations by WJIB's experience. Perhaps not so much at fundraising powerhouses like WBUR...but certainly WZBC or WMBR could do worse than to study WJIB's success.
 
webcastboy said:
You know, I'll bet there's something to be learned by other fundraising stations by WJIB's experience. Perhaps not so much at fundraising powerhouses like WBUR...but certainly WZBC or WMBR could do worse than to study WJIB's success.
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I can tell you that WMBR is comfortable with the amount of money that they presently raise in their annual fall fundraisers. That's not to say that they have a copius surplus of funds, they don't, but the amount that they do pull in every year is just about right for the modest, completely non-profit operation that they are (no paid employees whatsoever, including management). They average $75k donations in their one annual fundraising week per year. Along with the annual $15k that MIT gives them, that's all they need.

They even survived paying almost one years entire annual income to MIT a few years ago for them to install an air-conditioning system into the station, for an $80k price tag. The station survived for over 40 years in a windowless basement that was often well over 90 degrees with sauna bath humidity all summer long. With the increase in digital broadcast equipment prematurely failing due to those conditions, air conditioning finally became a necessity rather than a luxury, and they had to pay MIT $80k for a four-compressor A/C system which turned out to be a lemon and only worked at full cooling capacity for just the first season. We've had MIT HVAC workers come down and scratch their heads over it every summer since then, but it's still only working at a fraction of it's original power. It's still a bit better than not having an A/C system at all, it takes the edge off of the worst of it, but it's nowhere near $80k worth of cooling.

I don't know about WZBC nowadays, I believe they have one paid managerial advisor, and they have to pay more frequently for outside tech. work than WMBR does, because WMBR, run by MIT students and grads, does practically all their own work on their studio and broadcasting equipment in-house. Still, I don't think WZBC needs to raise more money than they currently do annually either.
 
Re: How's WJIB fundraiser: GOAL REACHED. Announcement today.

The 3 minute on-air announcement expected to be at 5 PM today (Wed)..
 
I can tell you that WMBR is comfortable with the amount of money that they presently raise in their annual fall fundraisers.
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Well, I won't speak for WMBR, but I will say that WZBC's fundraisers (every other year) are a joke. It's some of the worse pitching I've ever heard. Yet they raise about $30k or so each time. I rather strongly suspect that if WZBC took their donor list and simply called all those donors every two years, and did NO on-air fundraising, they'd still raise about the same amount. In other words, their "fundraiser" is objectively a failure: even though it raises money each time, it's not reaching anywhere near its potential.

Or its real need, for that matter. If there was a fire in Cheverus Hall (where the transmitter is) or McElroy Commons (where the studios are) the station would be dead and buried. They don't have any savings or equipment ready to go in case of a disaster. I suspect WMBR is in roughly the same position.

This is what I mean about lessons that stations like WMBR and WZBC*** could learn. WJIB focuses on a goal of serving its listenership as best it can, and then organized a fundraiser that fits directly into that schema. WZBC focuses on a goal of serving its own DJ's and the listenership is a side benefit...and the fundraisers are done because they feel a station should do it. There's no budget analysis of what they really need the money for, and no subsequent fundraiser planning to achieve a specific goal that's matched to a budgetary need.

*** I'm dumping on WZBC because I'm more familiar with their inner workings than I am with other stations, but I'm reasonably confident that MANY other smaller college stations around here operate similarly...WMFO, WBRS, WMWM, WXPL, WDJM, WZLY, WUML, WUMD and WRBB all immediately come to mind. I wouldn't be surprised if WMBR and WHRB have similar problems (albeit probably not as severe).
 
After all the "sophisticated" marketing that stations do and after all the "pros" have told us about why _________ (fill in the blank) won't fly on commercial radio, one man goes directly to his listeners and actually FINDS OUT that people really do want local programming; they really do want their station to be different from all the others and, yes, they really do want music on AM radio; and, YOU BET they really do care!
 
FPB said:
After all the "sophisticated" marketing that stations do and after all the "pros" have told us about why _________ (fill in the blank) won't fly on commercial radio, one man goes directly to his listeners and actually FINDS OUT that people really do want local programming; they really do want their station to be different from all the others and, yes, they really do want music on AM radio; and, YOU BET they really do care!
Click to expand...
This is true!!!! Very well said!!!!!
 
Bob is saying that there will be no more fundraising announcements for the rest of the year. He is still accepting donations though especially since he didn't take into account the cost of mailing out the
newsletters, etc.

"The power of the listeners who have kept WJIB alive..."

podcast of this announcement is up now. Note: last half minute or so cut off. I set it to end at 5:05
or so; all you miss is him saying "the music continues here at WJIB"

http://wmwm.freehostia.com/WJIBAnnounce425.mp3
 
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