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Thunder 102 Shamless

I

ironman

It's pretty sad when our local politicians and radio station Thunder 102 gear up for a telethon for Haiti,when children right here in our own county are dying and go without medical care and proper living conditions due to lack of funds...
Sorry about Haiti but where was Haiti when our tower's came down...
Thunder 102 supports only political gains...SHAME ON YOU!
 
Yes, that concerns me also in general.

When we had the last two disasters, Katrina and 9/11, all local charities feeding homeless etc, suffered immensely.

The US is quickly turning into a third world country. Just visit the streets of Detroit, MI , Camden , NJ, etc. Peoeple in this country are hurting big time. I know its not the popular thing to say at this time. To say anything against the land of Haiti is currently, Taboo, bt the US is in an economic freefall.

It might be wonderful in taking the focus off the US but it doesn't solve any.. We are seeing more and more homeless than ever before. josh
 
Josh;
And also in the Thunder 102's county, Tax foreclosure is up this year as well 955.
Why dosen't the station run a telethon to help people here to keep their homes
Thunder 102 loves to be in with all the politicians for their own capital gains.Remember political ads keep them alive.
 
As person in the radio industry, I applaud any effort by a local radio station to help any human being in need, American or not.

Ben Smith
WGMF
 
wirelessinnepa said:
As person in the radio industry, I applaud any effort by a local radio station to help any human being in need, American or not.

Ben Smith
WGMF

Ben,
Your making this personal...you missed the point
there are children in thunder 102 community that are ill and dying, & they are aware of it
there are people losing there homes but to no avail, they won't help...
It's just another political stunt for thunder 102 to try & make themselves look good in the public eye
do for your community first & i could care less if the raise money for whatever
but make sure your donations get in the right hands
Click to expand...
 
There is a song that speaks about people hurting. Every time I hear people chase to help disasters in far-off lands I remember the song, Easy to be Hard by Three Dog Night.

There's going to be billions of dollars going to Haiti. What the US government should do is force the corrupt government of Haiti to allow all the orphans to go to the US where their are many homes already waiting for them but because of the corruption in all of these third world countries they won't let people from the US easily adopt them ... they charge tens of thousands of dollars for each child and hold them like their hostages. I know this as my wife and I were interested in pursuing a child from outside the US & investigated the Dark, Corrupt World of Adoption Outside the US. josh
 
I THINK THE FACT THAT THEY DID SOMETHING FOR HATI IS ADMERABLE. The way they deliver it is the problem. In todays world you can't devote that much of an effort to a cause as such unless your individual station is billing well over $100,000.00 a month. They would be far better served as a station if they ran psas by the ton . Put it on your web site.. Put it in your news. Talk about it between songs. You can support the charity with out all the work and still make enough money to support the next disaster. You can do all the charity work you want but in the end it cant come at the expense of billing. In todays market in January how many stations are at goal? Dam few I bet. Id wager a six pack thunder is already under budget. In a small market which Sullivan County is and is going to be for a long time to come. You have to hit the billing mark every month. Talk about charity for the locals.... If you had as much tied up in a local stick..... Would you rather have your staff focused on billing or talking about sending a few bucks to a charity..... Don't tell me Im unfeeling. Dont tell me I dont get a live and local connection the the community...Hey kids Im not a bean counter I love live and local radio.. Even on a small market level...
They cant be spending this much time on this and bill at the same time. In the end Talent wants to get paid. Ni----MO wants to get paid and the Bank wants to get paid. Ihave seen this happen before. People become to scatterd and loose focus on billing enough to keep the lights on ...
 
There may be children suffering in this area, but there are literally tens of thousands who need our immediate help in Haiti. We're talking just a few days until a monumental disaster could be upon them. The second wave of this disaster is preventable. Thousands are starving and suffering with little food or water and Civil War style medical treatment. It sounds as if Thunder 102 could support any charitable cause, and you would find a reason to complain that they did not support another cause that you identify. Yes, we should help our own, yes children here need aid, yes this foreign country has had a corrupt government.. but are you blaming the citizens of this impoverished nation for that government or for the natural disaster which has beset them? I'm so proud of our country for being a major presence in during this disaster and for everyone who has chipped in a dollar here and there to support these people. Why must you look upon any effort to raise funds as self serving and detrimental to your area? When the 911 attacks occurred, the Red Cross pleaded for funds to assist.. from the tone of your post, it sounds as if you would have found fault with helping there too.. after all, in your mind, these were Wall Street Fat Cats from New York City and helping them would have taken away from whatever cause you seem determined to believe will suffer from our outpouring of generosity. Any agency or business from Thunder 102 to AT&T and Sports Superstars that are organizing ways to raise funds to help in this disaster should be applauded.. you however, are misguided!
 
One poster wanted to know why the people of Haiti didn't send money to the US for 911... sir, the daily take home in Haiti is $2.00 a day! Another wants Thunder 102 to run more psa's... devoting your entire broadcast to raise money for these people is a bold move. As you can realize, you can lose listeners who are not into this sort of thing and breaking normal format and devoting a huge chunk of your broadcast day to a charity is not what you would call a ratings bonanza. But what I do know is Paul Ciliberto has his heart in the right place. This is not being done for political reasons, it's being done because it's the right thing to do.
 
emo said:
There may be children suffering in this area, but there are literally tens of thousands who need our immediate help in Haiti. We're talking just a few days until a monumental disaster could be upon them. The second wave of this disaster is preventable. Thousands are starving and suffering with little food or water and Civil War style medical treatment. It sounds as if Thunder 102 could support any charitable cause, and you would find a reason to complain that they did not support another cause that you identify. Yes, we should help our own, yes children here need aid, yes this foreign country has had a corrupt government.. but are you blaming the citizens of this impoverished nation for that government or for the natural disaster which has beset them? I'm so proud of our country for being a major presence in during this disaster and for everyone who has chipped in a dollar here and there to support these people. Why must you look upon any effort to raise funds as self serving and detrimental to your area? When the 911 attacks occurred, the Red Cross pleaded for funds to assist.. from the tone of your post, it sounds as if you would have found fault with helping there too.. after all, in your mind, these were Wall Street Fat Cats from New York City and helping them would have taken away from whatever cause you seem determined to believe will suffer from our outpouring of generosity. Any agency or business from Thunder 102 to AT&T and Sports Superstars that are organizing ways to raise funds to help in this disaster should be applauded.. you however, are misguided!
Click to expand...
Emo, You to make this personal. And your the misguided one. We have always supported blood drives, food drives, flood disaster etc.We're not saying not to raise funds in times of disaster all we're saying is help your communty first. We're just making a statement. What part don't you get "HELP YOUR COMMUNITY FIRST" And make sure the funds raised for any kind of fund raiser get in the right hands. I do believe people should help people in need, but it sounds like your looking for an arguement. After all we still have famalies still living in trailers from Katrina
 
Ironman, yes this is personal.. because you're slamming a good group of individuals for a cause that can never be 100% satisfied. You will never have 100% employment, no homeless, no poverty and people who are not hungry in this country. But are you watching the news? 200-thousand people dead, scores injured and facing death due to inadequate medical care, no water, and nowhere to go! Are you saying that we do not help any other country until every problem in America is resolved? They are cutting off peoples limbs with hack saws and local anesthetic, water is like gold there, the capitol city is leveled. Who's going to decide when the local community has recerived enough funds, or when the people from Katrina have had enough.. you? I don't think the Red Cross decided that there are unresolved problems in America, so Haiti will have to wait. We're doing triage here, yes one hand is cut and bruised and needs attention.. but the other hand is bleeding profusely and needs immediate action. Any organization that helps by either raising awareness, assisting with drives for either money or materials, or sends aid in the form of machinery or people with the expertise to assist should be applauded. As to your ascertion that there are families living in trailers due to Katrina... yes there are, and I've followed that disater closely too. Totally mismanaged, and there are hundreds, maybe thousands of trailers that are sitting on lots unsued... but did we stop our initial impusle to reach out and donate money, food and manpower..no. Sounds like your problem is more how these organizations manage and distribute their funds and who gets them. I suggest you stop berating those who are organizing donation drives and those who give and get more involved in the management of these funds. If your angry about where these funds go, try and get a seat on the local Red Cross and raise your voice in protest of any individual, organization, or media outlet who is raisng money for Haitian relief and watch the looks you get from your peers!
 
It's all in how you do it Emo. Thunder 102 is a very small operation. There is a cost to the effort. A very real cost to the business. A small market radio station can't miss the billing goal and stay in business. You have to have balance. You cant devote that much air time and effort to a single cause of a national scale. Every dollar counts. The difference between raising 1000 and 3000 or 20,000 is not that much.
At the end of the day if you are short on your goal in what you need to collect to keep the lights on is off by 1000 or 3000 you have a big problem at a little station. They could have done just as much good with a lot less effort.
 
Richard,

Ok, I can understand your point from that aspect.. but for some to deem this effort "shameless"...I think that is not the case. If tow people where in the water after a boat sank and an adult gave his life vest to a younger child who is struggeling.. you may say that the Adult is risking his life to try and save the child... That's the case here.. but to say this act is shameless? So this station is not a Wal-mart in your eyes, not the big fish in the sea.. but I admire the Mom & Pop organization that does what it thinks is right, not what the coportate bean counters want. If they are risking something, that's their choice.
 
I never said it was shameless.. In fact its admirable. I do think small town stations often get cought up in a tidal wave and sometimes loose focus. Hey if they want to do it and still bill what they need to more power to them. I think too often radio has turned its back on bieng in and of the community. I applaud them for there efforts. There are however more effective ways to do it and accompish the same goal.
 
I think Thunder 102's next project should be to hold a radiothon to collect donations to send the majority of you back to school for spelling lessons.
 
but that would mean that they would have to do something for the local community, but that would never happen, because for them it be politically incorrect
 
What's the point of the beef here? How is this station "shamless" for raising money for Haiti? Yes, undoubtedly we have issues here in the US. All countries do. However, we don't have dead bodies lining the streets with millions literally starving to death or in immediate risk of dying from dehydration.

Social problems aren't in black and white - they're in shades of gray. How many people in Camden or Detroit starved to death, died from a lack of water or from being crushed to death in a building yesterday? We pay dearly (via taxes) to ensure that people don't starve. There's welfare, WIC, Section 8 and a myriad of other programs to at least provide a safety net. Those who do starve or die on the street sadly almost always have other issues that government can't solve.

The earthquake in Haiti is an emergency. People are dying by the thousand on a daily basis through no fault of their own and nobody in that country has the capability to do anything about it. We can argue that it's their own fault, we can argue that their leaders have pissed away billions over the years, we can even argue that Haiti is a horrible investment for foreign aid. But can we watch people die like that for lack of help?

So, I am sorry but you simply can't analogize the social issues in a place like Detroit with what's happened in Haiti. And it's not right to blast a local radio station for doing what they think is right. Maybe you even have a point with the concept of "keeping it ($) at home" but you have to pick your battles - and this is not a good one.
 
Where are you writing in from ironman? Do you reside anywhere in the listening area of Thunder 102? Former employee maybe? Just from looking at the website, it looks like Thunder has done the "Thunder Country Blood Bowl" 3 years running. Looks like they are currently promoting the YMCA and the Red Cross on their website too. What's your station doing? What are YOU personally doing? Ever worked at a radio station?

Personal? Nah...not for me...I don't even know the folks at Thunder 102...never been in Sullivan County, NY actually...just my observation that a person who throws stones at another's efforts at charity, especially from a perch of anonymity, has a lot to learn...and it has nothing to do with radio.

Why don't you sign your name so we all know who's opinion this really is?

Ben Smith
WGMF
 
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