Dear APRI Supporter,
Our WABE Fall Pledge Drive Challenge Grant worked even better than we had hoped!
First, APRI supporters contributed almost $6,500 to fund the Challenge Grant. The station was so impressed that they gave us an extra half-hour of "air time"; that is, APRI was given on-air credit on All Things Considered from 5 - 6:30 pm on Monday, Oct. 16.
During those 90 minutes, APRI got at least 4 - 5 plugs, and our website address was given at least twice. Most impressively, contributions during that time totaled nearly $24,000 -- almost quadruple our $6,500 grant!
The station's General Manager and the Development Director were most appreciative, to say the least.
A number of APRI supporters were also manning the phones all afternoon, and they deserve special thanks: Kate Binzen, Heidi Glick, Kim Ouellette, Nan Halpern, Annie Christopher Evelyn Brewer, Kate Shopshire, Karen Stack, Joe Torre, Perry Mitchell and Pam Woodley.
Our efforts earned APRI a tremendous amount of good will from WABE management, which we will do our best to capitalize on. There is a board meeting Thursday, Oct. 26 at 4 pm at the station, and APRI Steering Committee members will, as usual, prepare a Status Report and put a copy at each board member's place. That will generate discussion, and we will also talk to as many members as possible after the meeting -- which all of you are invited to attend; call Perry Mitchell at 404-373-0842 for details.
We now have the station on record as committed to providing an all news/talk HD channel, which is scheduled to begin broadcasting by year-end. But as we warned earlier, you need an HD radio to receive the signal. Prices are around $200, but will come down rapidly in the next year.
APRI is still pressuring WABE to add more NPR-type news/discussion programming on its current analog signal, and your e-mailing the general manager will help: jweatherford@pba.org.
Let's keep pushing,
APRI Steering Committee
atlantapublicradio.com
Posted by Atlanta Public Radio Initiative
at 9:46 AM EDT
