Onward – a note to our contributors

Onward!

As you can see, we didn’t make our goal.  With cash contributions we ended up around $1200.  That is not enough to buy our transmitter and other equipment, but it is an encouragement!  We are going to advance from here on multiple fronts:

1) continue downloading and preparing content

2) work on our “sound”, what the broadcast day will look like, how announcements and scheduling will work, and the interplay between on-air, stream and our website.

3) organizationally, we want to move on getting our IRS 501(c)3 determination letter.

4) We will be getting the T-shirts printed and fulfilling the other “perks” that you have selected.

5) strategize about funding:  apply for grants?  set up a booth/table at the local farmer’s market?  start hitting up local businesses as potential underwriters?

We would like to hear your input.  If you have suggestions, questions or just want to know what is happening, please contact us through the website http://wmfh-lp.org  or at  FriendsOfwmfh-lp.org

 

Synopsis

Link to our fundraiser

Synopsis

This is a fundraiser to buy equipment to launch an audio-books radio station on the FM dial and internet streaming.

Why

We look at the state of education today. Why aren’t people graduating from highschool? Why are colleges having to do remedial work? And what about the people who are the product of this system over the last few decades and are now out trying to make their living? We don’t blame teachers or administrators. Some of the best minds in the country are interested in making our education system work. But we want to do something that may help.

Would an increased familarity with classic works of literature lead to a broader interest in literacy, a better understanding of history and more appreciation for people of other places and times?

It is a sure bet that more rock/country/hip-hop/sports/political-talk on the radio, more of the same stuff playing today, leaves most of radio out. It’s just another entertainment backwater. Public radio is a great source for national news and some insightful and interesting programming.

What

We want a public-radio feel with a classic literature content. We would love to have commentary, interviews with authors, editorials which put current events in the light of history, local works, local authors… there’s a whole world out there which is waiting to be opened up.

We have a population we can serve: folks who don’t read for one reason or another, those folks who don’t go to the library and have no idea of the treasures between book covers. And there are people who are just too busy trying to keep up with the world, we’ll serve them a bit of poetry during their drive to work.

The content is ready. Volunteers have prepared an incredible resource at librivox.org.

Who

We are a husband and wife in Columbus, MS. We work. We don’t have time to save the world. But maybe we can focus enough of the random energy of humanity on our corner of the world to get this project going. We registered a non-profit corporation, Classic Book Radio with this specific goal: to improve literacy through the broadcast of classic works of literature.

We have experience in IT and radio and we love books.

You

If you are interested in radio, would like to see a new format on the air;

if you are interested in books and want other people to love them like you do;

if you are interested in education and want to help push back the dark cloud of ignorance

please contribute to our project.

Less than a week left…

Less than a week left in our crowdfunding campaign at indiegogo.com

If you have not contributed, please do so.  Even $10 or $5 will be appreciated. We’ve got a stylish T-shirt coming out, so go for the $40 level and you’ll be looking good.

Also, I’m hoping we can get someone to go for the “60 seconds about my favorit book” perk. We have a lot of time in the radio day to fill up, and I’d like to hear your voice on there.

 

Twitter

We participate in Twitter these days, trying to build some kind of a following.

What we hope to do is use Twitter to put out our schedule as the radio day progresses.  But that doesn’t happen yet.

They are doing TwitterFiction today, so I put in my 2 cents (read from bottom to top):

TwitterFiction