Give a Christmas Gift to Public Radio

I would be remiss if I didn't pass along this message from This American Life's website:

Dear listeners,

Last week, the economic crisis that we’ve been reporting on hit especially close to home. A dozen colleagues from our home radio station, WBEZ Chicago, had to be laid off. It costs the radio station around $150,000 per year just for the internet bandwidth to deliver the free podcast and web stream of This American Life. That’s not staff. Not computers. Just the bandwidth. We really want the podcast to remain free, but the radio station cannot absorb these costs; that would mean more layoffs. So we’re asking for your help. We’re thrilled that last year, we were able to make up this entire bandwidth cost through thousands of small donations from listeners. So if you’re a regular podcast listener, or if you use this website a lot, please consider pitching in.

Thank you very much. In the current economy, your support means more than ever.
—TAL

As someone who's involved in public radio fund raising, let me say that a dollar or two is not too little to give. Every single cent counts. In trying economic times, we are all easily swayed by concern for our own/our families finances. However, the non-profits are getting hit just as hard as everyone else. No one is asking for you to break the bank to make donations this holiday season. Simply give what you feel you can. If everyone did that on a regular basis, the world would be in great shape.

...and that, my friends, applies to all non-profits, not just public radio.

With Great Power...

Naming a radio show is much like naming a baby -- it's a big deal. Once you've chosen a name you're stuck with it because if you change the name too often, you'll just confuse and then lose listeners.

You want that perfect that sums up the spirit of your show in a few memorable words that slide off the tongue with the greatest of ease (because you'll be saying it a lot). You want a show that describes who you are and what you play as well but also reflects the overall tone of your station. You want a name that's hip and catchy, but not too hip so as to scare off more cautious listeners. You want something that it's going to be easy to make a few show promos from and doesn't have listeners or fellow DJs wondering if you just put a bunch of random words together.

You don't want something that's already a title of anything else be it song, book, etc. You don't want something that names a specific time because god forbid your time slot changes, and you have to rename the show (this is especially important for college radio hosts - as a former Programming Director a college station I've been the scheduler and the schedulee, so trust me when I say this is a very real possibility). And aobve all, you don't want something that'll end in the radio equivalent of this article.

All of this being said, I've been searching for a new name for Evening Excursions for a little over a year. Why? Well originally Evening Excursions was three shows on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings named such as they were seen as the evening counterpart to Niki's Excursions, which airs in the mornings. As time went on however, Tuesday nights became Jazz Night, and Peter turned Thursdays into The Groove. Once I came on as a cohost of Evening Excursions with Christopher, it was decided that we really should focus some enery on a new name to better reflect what we're doing on the air (and so people don't get confused between us and Excursions during pledge drives).

I'm pleased to report that barring any catastrophe, we will have a new name for the show starting January 1st. I don't want to jinx anything so I'll refrain from announcing the actual name until I get the blessing of other folks at WYSO, but stay tuned to find out what we'll be calling Wednesday nights from now on....