Support WPFW During Their Winter Pledge Drive

Please consider making a pledge to WPFW this week

WPFW Pledge Line: (202) 588-9739 or 1-800-222-9739 or click here.

Those of you who are listeners to WPFW, 89.3 FM, already know that this week is the first week of the station's Winter Fundraising Drive. If you have not already made a pledge, I am encouraging you to do so.

My friends who are not listeners, I am strongly urging you to consider pledging something during this drive.

In either case, when you make your pledge, please indicate if you are a union member. If you are an unorganized worker but would like to be union, let the volunteer answering your pledge call know that. Let the phone volunteer know that you would like to hear more programming on WPFW that speaks to working people.

Please let the volunteer know that you want to hear more programming that speaks to the issue of Peace as a practical alternative to war, that calls for the end of the wars engaged in by this nation, the occupations, the manipulations, and the assassinations. Please ask for more programming that calls for the end of the immoral practices of torture and detention without due process. And please ask for more programming aimed at broadening understanding amongst the various peoples that make up our city and surrounding
area.

You see, WPFW is a member of the Pacifica Radio Foundation, a network of five stations and a hundred or more affiliates whose
mission it is to transmit the voices of peace, understanding, and justice. The mission is to be a home for a people's culture. This is non-commercial radio that is listener sponsored--and thus, in effect, listener-owned. However, to be
a part of the family, to have a voice in directing the station, one must be a member. A donation of $35.00 per year makes you a voting member of WPFW. If money is a problem, one can be a volunteer at the station and become a voting member.

Representing the listeners at WPFW is what is called the Local Station Board. Good people have been elected to this board but how much they can accomplish in helping to make WPFW a station that truly serves our community depends on the listeners. Make your voices heard.

Please note also, that while there are many "gifts" being offered during the Fund Drive as an incentive for higher pledges, and there is nothing wrong if you choose one of these, I am encouraging you to choose a new kind of gift being offered this year. When you pledge, let the phone volunteer know that you want your "gift" to be a meal for a hungry person or family. For a $35.00 pledge, a meal will be provided at Martha's Table for one person, for $65.00 a meal will be provided for a family of four, and a $125.00 pledge will provide a meal for three families of four. It's a small dent in a world of hunger but is a way of supporting the one piece of the media pie that belongs to us and at the same time share with our sisters and brothers in a dignified way.

Pledges can be made on-line but I encourage you to call in, because then you can leave a comment. Comments can be read on-air by the radio hosts if you choose. Either way, it will make a difference. Let WPFW know that workers and activists for peace and justice will support the station and want it to fulfill its mission.

[Disclaimer: WPFW also has a rich tradition of airing jazz and blues--that is a very important part of what the station is. However, perhaps we could begin to include traditional music of workers and peace struggles, and home grown music of the current generation. We all love music. We should be sharing with each other.]

What is the money for?

WPFW, while a people's radio station, is still an enterprise in the midst of a capitalist sea. There is rent to pay, maintenance of equipment, bills, improvements to raise the production quality for our listeners, and, although most of the work is performed by volunteers, there are some salaries to pay. (My understanding is that there are six union employees at WPFW.) About one-fifth of what you pledge goes to Pacifica to keep the Foundation alive. That is the guiding light that has kept the Pacifica Mission going since 1947. Keep that in mind. While the US Government and military reigned triumphant over the world, threatened the Soviet Union, and domestically turned on a great generation of labor, peace, and justice activists, a small group of people started a radio station dedicated to defying the Cold War and the season of hatred and prejudice it necessarily produced. Without Pacifica there would not have been a Democracy Now! Without Democracy Now there would have been no place to turn to on a national level for an antidote to the lies spewed over the voice boxes posing as independent news. That's why our buck should stop here.