Pledge Drive

Community is an interesting thing.
In Dallas, it has its own radio station.
KNON 89.3 – the Voice of the People.
Visit www.knon.org and listen online.
Better yet, pledge online.

I volunteer there.
Actually, its worse.
I am the President of the Board.

Can you imagine?
I’m supposed to be the voice of reason.
This will not end well.

People confuse us with commercial radio.
We’re not.
We can’t run commercials.
This is bad from a money perspective,
But good from a we-play-what-the-hell-we-want perspective.

They play Top 40.
We play bottom billion.
One of my DJs said that.
I love that statement.

KNON is the station where we play really good songs,
And SoundHound says “I have no idea what that song is.”
Bottom billion, baby.

People confuse “community” with “public”.
Public radio is NPR and PBS.
They have something we would like.
Money.

PBS is partially government-funded. So is NPR.
Your tax dollars at work.
So, you’re taxed for it and then you’re asked to donate.
Wow.

We’re not government-funded.
We’re community-funded.
That’s you.
Your tax dollars are further up the dial.
You’re not listening to them.

They have pledge drives.
You get gifts.
We have pledge drives.
You get KNON swag.

If you see anyone with a KNON shirt,
They’ve given us a donation.
It’s the only way to get one.
So, thank them for their donation.

Their pledge drive is very official.
It may be a call center somewhere.
Not that there’s anything wrong with call centers.

Our pledge drive is a volunteer
Who is telling the DJ to “shut up”
So she can hear the pledger on the phone.
She and the DJ are in the same room.

I was trying to spell my last name.
On the phone with a volunteer.
And I finally just said,
“Tell Dave it’s President Kevin. He’ll know the rest.”
That’s community radio.
Try that with any other radio station.

Best KNON pledge drive line ever:
“If you get a busy signal, you called the wrong damn number, because nobody’s calling.”
I heard that yesterday.
I have never been so proud of my DJs.

On PBS, you pledge to feel superior to your neighbors.
On KNON, you pledge to get the DJ to stop singing REM in the style of Bon Jovi.
I had to do that this morning.

Which sounds like more fun?
Which sounds more like you?

Spring Pledge Drive is almost over.
Pledge online. Now.