The annual WFMU Pledge Marathon has begun, and The Freeform Station of the Nation needs you. Yes, you. And you. And even you. If you can swing it, please use the handy dandy WFMU Pledge widget to your right to donate today.
Just in case you are not aware: WFMU (91.1 on your FM dial in the NYC area, streaming at WFMU.org) is a 100 percent listener-supported radio station that broadcasts out of Jersey City. None of their funding comes from the gubment. Very little (if any) comes from corporate entities. None of the DJs are paid. The vast majority of the labor needed to keep the place up and running comes from volunteers.
Why? Because it is one of the only radio stations in the tri-state area–and America–where people can play pretty much whatever they want. In a world where most frequencies are programmed, and in many cases DJ’ed, by robots, WFMU remains a bastion of The Human Element.
Perhaps the very idea of a radio station seems quaint to you, in our world of MP3 players and fax machines, but I strongly disagree. I have been introduced to so much awesomeness thanks to WFMU, whether it’s music or comedy or just plain talk (although nothing they do could be described as “just plain”). Things that I never would have heard of otherwise, and wouldn’t even think to seek out. And I know that I would not have heard any of it on any other radio station. On any other thing, period.
My love for The Best Show on WFMU is well documented. What Tom Scharpling and Jon Wurster do on that show would be impossible to do anywhere else. No other station would give them the amount of time needed to make their “mayhem” happen. Not NPR, and certainly not Clear Channel-dominated commercial radio. And The Best Show is just the tip of a very deep iceberg. That is why WFMU needs and deserves support.
Beginning at 7pm tonight, WFMU is holding a 24 emergency pledge marathon. Normally, they hold only one pledge drive a year, but the station is in some dire financial straits.