WKIT pay for play tremendous success

[Jeremy Mixer <mixer@zoso.net>]

I made this post to the Led Zeppelin list Saturday morning and am
forwarding it to this list since many will find this interesting.

I also think that for you PD's, GM's and station owners out there that
this is an excellent way to raise money for a charity after these recent
tragic events.

Jeremy
WKIT


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 06:54:48 +0000 (/etc/localtime)
From: Jeremy Mixer <mixer@zoso.net>
To: zeppelin@zoso.net
Subject: WKIT fundraiser effort (nzc)

Folks- I wanted to share with you an amzing thing.

The Bangor Radio Market is #268 I beleive off the top of my head, ranked
by size.....New York is #1, Los Angelas is number #2, etc...... we are not
talking a large area here.

I went home earluy Thursday morning to visit family and friends down in
Saco, 3 hours (more like 2 1/2, 2 the way I drive) the city where I am
from.  I was glued to news radio all week since these horrible tragedies
struck our nation and our world....and I do not know when this was
announced, but this is what happened.

Our general manager, Bobby Russell, at WKIT, along with station owners
Stephen and Tabitha King, agreed to throw their rock format out the window
for the day. We did a "pay for play" to raise money for the American Red
Cross releif fund. You call the request number, make a pledge of $10 or
more, and we will find and play ANY song that you want to hear. Be it
normal stuff like Zeppelin, Skynerd, Neil Young, CSN&Y, etc....we'll play
it of course. Garth Brooks? Sure! You pay, we play. Whitney Houston and
Bette Midler! Tool, Megadeth, Ray Charles, you pay, we play. It ws really
strange hearing the Backstreet Boys on the local classic rocker for many-
but for a good cause, we did it.

This started at 5 AM Friday morning. EVERY song played was paid for with a
generous donation. Some of $10, some of $20, some of $50, some of $100.
Stephen King pledged $500 for a song. A few organizations donated $1000 or
more.

To make this fundraiser even larger, Mr. King, the wealthy and generous
man that he is, agreed to match all donations up to $40,000, everyone knew
that there was no way in hell we could make that much since the plans were
only to do it for the day....

At 2 PM, after doing this for 7 hours, the $40,000 mark was passed.
Everyone was astonished. Meanwhile, I, who had just received email from
Tony, a co-worker and friend there, that this was even going on, via the
Boston-Radio-Interest mailing list in which I am subscribed to. I left
from Saco towards Bangor at about 2:15.

Stephen King changed his match to anything up to 40,000 to anything up to
80,000, The phones were rigning rediculously off the hook. Backstreet
Boys on WKIT, Uncle Kracker, Coco Montoya, Bob Seger, US MArine Corps
Band....all being played.

I came home and took a shower and decided I would swing by the ol station
to see if I could lend a hand. Immediately I was on the phones, this
started shortly after 5 PM.

Due to overwhelming response and only planning to do this for the
day.....the phone lines were shut down to pledges after 6, although we
were still taking donations.

We expected to possibly be through by the time the Superstar Concert
Series special with "The Who" started at 10:30, Bobby told me that it was
more important to play the songs that were pledged for until they were all
done. I stayted for the entire 7 hours from when I got there at 5 to the
actual start of my shift at midnight. Gathering up songs, working like a
chicken with my head cut off......voluntarily.. Tony was there too, so was
Carey Haskell, the station's traffic manager who thought he would lend a
hand, and Dave Isaac, the weeknight guy who usually does his shifts by
himself. at that time by himself. But at that point in time, it was nearly
impossible to do it alone. We had stopped taking phone calls, Tony was
digging up music, I was locating music, Carey was keeping it organized,
and Dave was keeping up with the paperwork; marking off what had been done
and trying to work a reasonable playlist out with the many requests that
had been pledged.

By 9 we expected probably midnight, maybe 1 or 2.....before we got through
all of the pledges.

By midnight I knew this would last the rest of my airtime till 6 in the
morning.

6 AM comes, and normally Saturday mornings at 6, it is time to pop the CD
$1 in for "Flashback." our regular show at 6AM on Saturdays. Since Bobby
had instructed me to keep playing the songs and play the Superstar Concert
Series after the songs were done, I made the judgement that this meant
that "Flashback" was to be delayed as well, in amazement that I was
actually nowhere close to the completion of the pledgesd. I figured I
would finish by 9:00, the scheduled end of my 12-9 shift.

9:00 came and needless to say, after 16 hours of playing radio, I was
exhausted. Scotty Moore came in to take over, and Bobby, amazed that we
hadn't even come close to the end, came in to give Scotty a hand.

It is 9:45 right now folks, I have never had a busier night at any radio
job since I first got into radio 2 years ago.....

and the pay for playback continues- on the backload of songs that we have
had since 6, it is 9:45 now, I am home after a 16 hour day. And I feel
good.

The unofficial total from the listners- $70, 230!!!

This means that with Mr. and Mrs. King's generous donation to match the
songs- $140,460 all from a tiny city in eastern / central Maine.

We stopped taking the requests, however continue to accept donations to go
to the Red Cross.....and I beleive the final tally WILL make $80,000.

Granted the generosity could not have been done without the station doing
this sort of thing, but even more notable and more important is the
listeners and how they, as well of the rest of us, are in Unity,
something that can never break apart.

Just thought I would share this.....
------------

UPDATE-

as I forward this onto the Boston Radio interest list, it is now Monday
morning, I just got out of my 3rd and final shift at WKIT for this
weekeend, and am at home, trying to catch up on email and enjoying a beer
at 6 in the morning.

I posted that to the Led Zeppelin discussion list and had meant to CC it
to here as well, at 9:45 in the morning on Saturday. I estimated that
maybe the songs would finnaly run out within an hour or two. Boy was I
wrong........... at 2:25 PM the final song was played and then the station
went back to it's regular "Classics of yesterday and only the best of
today's rock" format.

I have gotten several calls in my two overnight shifts that followed my 16
hour day immidiately after my 2 1/2 hour drive back from Saco. Many people
could not get through, many were not listening and are still saying that
they are going to bring money to the station for the Red Cross.

To close off this email, I would like to extend thanks to EVERYONE who
pledged, everyone who donated money for the Red Cross without pledging,
the entire staff of the Zone Corperation, Bobby Russel, the GM of the
Zone Corperation and host of WKIT's morning show, as well as Stephen and
Tabitha King, two regular people like the rest of us who unlike the
rest of us are very well known, and wealthy due to Mr. King's success as
an author. A couple who have always lended a financial hand to the City of
Bangor, the University of Maine, and the state of Maine just out of the
goodness of their hearts, and now matching the $70,000 plus dollars
donated to the red cross by listeners of their classic rock radio station.
I would also like to thank anyone who has donated some of their hard
earned cash to the Red Cross in generalk, or any of the other charity
fundraisers that are going on for this effort. THANK YOU

Jeremy Mixer
weekend overnight guy
WKIT Bangor, Maine

ps- please feel free to forward this message onto any PD's, GM's, or radio
owners that you know.