WFMU's Shameless 1997 Grovel


...Isn't over yet!

WFMU would like to thank the thousands of listeners who pledged during our just completed Marathon... AGAIN!

Our just-purchased House of Tomorrow has become the House of Today! We need to put on another Marathon in 97 in order to survive! This Marathon is coming together as we speak - check back here for more updates as they become available.
After two years of toughing it out on the ghost-campus of our former owner, Upsala College, WFMU is finally ready to move directly into the heart of our listening community. We've finally found a building that's right for us and later this year we hope to move our studios and offices (but not our transmitter) to Exchange Place in Jersey City. Being one block from a PATH station will make it infinitely easier to attract the array of eccentrics who make FMU what it is - DJs, volunteers, artists, musicians and all-around weirdos of every stripe. We'll be able to really pursue our potential not only as a radio station, but as a community based resource. We'll be able to let our listeners participate in the station in ways that haven't been possible before. And by buying a building instead of renting, we hope to eliminate one threat that's long plagued arts organizations, and one that still hangs over our heads now - eviction. If you're curious, here's a blueprint of our future home .

What's so amazing about WFMU is not that we've survived an eight-year string of potentially deadly crises, but that we've done it without selling out. We've managed this because our listeners have always been there to turn us on, turn us off, to throw rocks at us when necessary, and to throw spare change in our direction during that ancient annual holy rite of listener participation - the WFMU marathon. Our 1997 marathon is now upon us, and we're hoping you'll throw enough change our way to propel us into our new digs and into an exciting new era. If you make your pledge on line, you're entitled to all the great tchotchkes WFMU is known for, plus you'll be eligible for two CDs each day that are reserved for folks pledging on-line each day.

From our new digs in Jersey City, we hope to interact with our listeners in ways never before possible, and we expect that this will enhance our efforts in bringing challenging, spontaneous freeform radio to more people. Our geographic isolation from the bulk of our listeners will end, and this will mean huge, positive changes for the station. We'll also see the end of another geographic limitation - the one imposed on us by the finite (and ever diminishing) range of our over-the-air 91.1 FM broadcast signal. We're still doing our level best to improve our signal at 91.1 by moving to a better transmitter site, but while we wait for the seemingly endless rolls of red tape to make that move possible, we're distributing our signal in other ways. We've already expanded our signal into the Hudson Valley, Pennsylvania and Western Jersey at our new frequency, 90.1 FM, and in the next few months, we plan to put our programming on the Internet with Realaudio software, making WFMU's programming available on multimedia computers worldwide.

The big risk for us (and one that's been deadly to other not-for-profit groups, not to mention a certain college) is dealing with excessive debt. That's why our 1997 marathon is so crucial - it marks the beginning of a fundraising campaign that will hopefully bring our new building's mortgage down to a manageable level. If you're among our more committed listeners, check out the page about our "House of Tomorrow" fund, which has made our imminent move possible, and will be the key to insuring that our real estate purchase doesn't cripple us.

We hope you'll be able to help secure WFMU 's future by pledging via this web page or by calling us at (800) 989-9368 (or 678-5400 in New Jersey). Either way, we've got some particularly wonderful stuff as a way of thanking you for your help. Check out the designs for this year's tchotchkes, and our beloved web site surfers are eligible for special CD giveaways online.

Our "House of Tomorrow" fund will be the key to the success of our imminent move. We're trying to find 400 extremely committed listeners to pledge $25 a month for one year.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Hope to hear from you during the marathon.


©1997 WFMU