WMPG community radio launches the Beg-A-Thon fundraiser today in the face of “the death of Internet radio,” said Jim Rand, station manger, in an e-mail interview. The campus and community radio station’s bi-annual event has been a station tradition since the early 1980s, he added, and a way to keep in touch with the community it serves.
“We are funded by grants, mostly via the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, USM Student Activity Fees, local business support and other fundraising events,” Rand said. Listener donations account for 25 to 30 percent of the station’s budget, he said.
“Fundraising and listening to radio in general has been on the decline or flat in recent years at public, community and commercial radio,” said Rand, adding the drop in listeners is because of new technology and Internet advances. “We speculate that technological changes such as iPods are directing people away from radio.”
WMPG offers some streaming and archive downloads at www.wmpg.org to try and tap into a market of technology and return listeners to the airwaves.
“We provide these downloads as a free service,” said Rand, “but may need to create some type of revenue from them in the future. This may be done with a sponsor tag or subscription service.”
WMPG’s goal to have their entire schedule available on demand has been delayed because “there are license fees associated with this service which are still being negotiated,” said Rand.
“On March 2, 2007,” a report in SaveTheNet.org reads, “the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which oversees sound recording royalties paid by Internet radio services, increased Internet radio’s royalty burden between 300 and 1200 percent.
“The vast majority of web casters were barely making ends meet as Internet radio advertising revenue is just beginning to develop,” the report continued. “Without a doubt most Internet radio services will go bankrupt and cease web casting if this royalty rate is not reversed by the Congress, and web casters’ demise will mean a great loss of creative and diverse radio.”
The increased royalty burden could mean “the death of Internet radio,” said Rand.
Jan Wilkinson, WMPG’s local music director and treasurer, said the week-long campaign is more than just a fundraising event and is a rallying point for the community and a rare opportunity for the station to interact with its listeners.
“During Beg-A-Thon, our listener donors are invited to come by the station, have a bite to eat, meet our volunteers, pick out a thank you gift, see WMPG’s World Headquarters,” Wilkinson said in an e-mail interview. “In short, they get to see firsthand that they are part of our community.”
The funds raised from listener donations during Beg-A-Thon comprise most of the station’s operating budget, Rand said.
“This is the most effective way of raising money in the shortest amount of time,” said Rand.
WMPG accepts online donations at www.wpmg.org, via mail at 96 Falmouth St. Portland, ME 04104 or by telephone at (207) 780-4943.