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WFYI sets on-air fundraising record

Kathleen McLaughlin
April 22, 2011
Keywords
Communications, Fundraising, Media & Marketing, Philanthropy, Radio, Radio Stations
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Public radio station WFYI will be comfortably ahead of its fundraising goal when an on-air drive wraps up Friday evening.

As of noon, WFYI-FM 90.1 had raised $275,000, breaking a previous record of $273,000 with hours to spare.

CEO Lloyd Wright thinks Congress' threat earlier this year to eliminate funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting prompted many listeners to realize how much they value public media. "I think we can feel good at this juncture about the result of that federal funding question," he said.

The CPB will keep its funding, at least for the rest of this fiscal year ending Sept. 30. WFYI, which also operates a public television station, gets 40 percent of its $9.3 million operating budget from individual gifts and 16 percent from the state and federal governments. The rest comes from grants, corporate sponsors and special events.

WFYI conducts two radio pledge drives a year with a goal of $250,000 each. The previous record was set last April, at the end of the 12-day drive.

The broadcaster also conducts three on-air drives a year for WFYI-TV Channel 20. The March drive raised $250,000, well above the $180,000 goal.

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  • Suggestion to DS Wills
    SandyRApril 25, 2011 2:44 PM
    I could be wrong, but I'm betting DS Wills has seldom if ever listened to WFYI, FM 90.1. Please take a week and leave your radio dial set there and then tell us where you can get the same qualify of programming.
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  • Think I will keep it
    JimApril 25, 2011 2:01 PM
    I concur with Joe...PBS and NPR, thank heavens, still actually report news in a semi unbiased manner, and still root out corruption...our newspapers have been reduced to internet fodder, and were it not for NPR and PBS, we would be forced to get all our news from the liberals at the networks, or the even more biased and inflammtory Rupert Murdock and his talking heads...that is tantamount to no news at all...PBS still has the best Arts programming, period, but of course, the guy worrying about infrastructure is not going to be worried about the arts...same people who say schools should teach nothing but math and science, and they are dead wrong Yes, seriously, the government should continue to fund PBS and NPR...forever. So what if Red and Green is till on...the guy who paints is too, and he has been dead a long time. When I look at all the cable networks being touted by the infrastructure guy, all I see there is reruns too...hundreds of station running Andy Griffith, 2 1/2 Men, King of Queens, Raymond, Seinfeld...HBO runs the same stuff over ad over too...that PBS replays shows makes it no less valid...if it did every station on television would be invalid.
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  • Red Green?
    garrison keelerApril 25, 2011 1:26 PM
    WFYI has Red Green on? Really? I loved that show before it stopped production FIVE YEARS AGO!
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  • only 16 %
    JoeApril 23, 2011 9:43 AM
    For the service that they provide, I would give them a lot more of our tax money. I don't even want to get into why NPR and PBS are important, but just want to point to the fact that many private citizens and corporations get a lot more in subsidies than these guys. And some don't even pay any tax as we have been recently finding out...
    Reply to CommentFlag Comment
  • Tax dollars - WHY?
    DS WillsApril 23, 2011 1:16 AM
    Can someone explain that, in this day & age of countless TV programs and the internet, are we still required to use our tax money to support this albatross? Seriously? Red Green, Antiques Roadshow, and the like? Things are different now, and it's time we decide which is a more important use for our money - TV programming or infrastructure.
    Reply to CommentFlag Comment

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    1. Many serial killer types and psychopaths work as lowly bureaucrats, just waiting to impose their wrath on a powerless person, child, or pet. Don't forget, the BTK killer was a dog catcher.

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