Monday, March 05, 2007
2007 WFMU fund-raising Marathon
Free form listener sponsored WFMU devotes the next two weeks of programming to our annual fund-raising marathon. Fun, prizes, premiums, silliness, special performances, nonsequiturs & Freudian slips, repetitious rants. The first few days are particularly hyper. Then it settles down & certain "themes" emerge in the pitching, maybe a slogan or two. & lots of music.
This year I'll participate in the marathon by showing up on a few days, answering phones (never phone #1 or #2 unless there's nobody else), chatting with bored volunteers, & stuffing envelopes. There are plenty of staffers required to sign up for the "MC" role, which involves being sidekick to the on-air DJ, doing paperwork, & maintaining order in the phone room. I'm pretty good at that job with late night DJs inclined to absent-mindedness & digressions. I've been on the other side of the studio window dozens of times, begging for dollars doesn't come easily to a lot of DJs - never did for me. During premarathon meetings, when Manager Ken would make his annual announcement that one's place on the schedule did not depend on one's marathon total, I swear he always looked at me. I stayed on the schedule year after year despite being one of the most unconvincing, disorganized DJ pitchmen WFMU ever had. But sit me in the MC chair as a second banana between 11 pm & 6 am & I was all patience & rationality, double-checking pledge cards, keeping track of prize giveaways, unconcerned about the slow pace of late night money-raising. A few years ago I gave up MCing frantic daytime shows. Then I realized it didn't matter if I MC'd or not, as long as I dropped by & played the venerable old station hipster, a role that suits me well.
WFMU throws prizes & premiums at supporters. Individual DJ premiums are big attractions now. These are mostly CD compilations of audio weirdness, rarities, & live radio performances. But this year I'm going for John Allen's reproduction of the 1973 WFMU teeshirt.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
This year I'll participate in the marathon by showing up on a few days, answering phones (never phone #1 or #2 unless there's nobody else), chatting with bored volunteers, & stuffing envelopes. There are plenty of staffers required to sign up for the "MC" role, which involves being sidekick to the on-air DJ, doing paperwork, & maintaining order in the phone room. I'm pretty good at that job with late night DJs inclined to absent-mindedness & digressions. I've been on the other side of the studio window dozens of times, begging for dollars doesn't come easily to a lot of DJs - never did for me. During premarathon meetings, when Manager Ken would make his annual announcement that one's place on the schedule did not depend on one's marathon total, I swear he always looked at me. I stayed on the schedule year after year despite being one of the most unconvincing, disorganized DJ pitchmen WFMU ever had. But sit me in the MC chair as a second banana between 11 pm & 6 am & I was all patience & rationality, double-checking pledge cards, keeping track of prize giveaways, unconcerned about the slow pace of late night money-raising. A few years ago I gave up MCing frantic daytime shows. Then I realized it didn't matter if I MC'd or not, as long as I dropped by & played the venerable old station hipster, a role that suits me well.
WFMU throws prizes & premiums at supporters. Individual DJ premiums are big attractions now. These are mostly CD compilations of audio weirdness, rarities, & live radio performances. But this year I'm going for John Allen's reproduction of the 1973 WFMU teeshirt.
Labels: WFMU
