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.

This American Obsession

As if it weren't perfectly obvious to everyone around me, I have a pretty healthy obsession with public radio. It probably makes perfect sense given that I am a DJ on a public radio station, but even with that distinction, I'm taking it to a whole new level.

Like most NPR junkies, I start my morning with Morning Edition and ride home from my day job to All Things Considered. Saturday mornings aren't complete without Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and Car Talk.

But by and large, my biggest public radio obsession is This American Life. I cannot go a week without Ira Glass and his amazing group of authors, interviewers, and essayists. In fact, it's gotten to be that I can't go a day without them. Thus, I began a sort of personal challenge to listen to every single episode in the now 13 year run of the show. Podcasting and a day job where I spend a good chunk of time researching has made this feat a bit easier to accomplish.

So intent am I on this, I've even made myself a little spreadsheet of all the episodes so that I neither miss nor repeat any. Currently, I've listened to roughly 54 out of 367 so I'm about 15% there as of today.