We all know the business of radio is tough and competitive. Well, this is new spin on keeping the radio spins going. In order to save the radio station from extinction, WMVY-FM Radio Becomes a Non-Profit and tries the donation route to keep it on the air. The owner of WMVY, Aritaur Communications, is looking to raise $600,000 in donations by the end of January, to reinvent WMVY as a nonprofit Web streaming venture. “It’s not often that a commercial operation gets up and says we’re going into the noncommercial, public radio business,” said Joe Gallagher, Aritaur’s president. “But I think that in this case it fits: it fits the programming, it fits the sensitivity, and I think it’s ultimately the one that works.” Read the pledge letter below:
This is real. We must evolve. Or face extinction.
By early 2013, mvyradio will either become a non-commerical, listener-supported operation or go silent. It’s that urgent and that simple.
For almost 30 years, mvyradio has broadcast on 92.7FM, bringing the Cape, Islands and Southcoast an eclectic mix of music and a spirit deeply rooted in our surroundings. It’s also been a fixture on listeners’ home computers, smart phones, tablets and internet radios.
Despite a devoted listenership, mvyradio has not been solvent.
We’ve been fortunate. Aritaur Communications has covered our losses, but that is no longer feasible.
As a result, Aritaur has sold the 92.7FM frequency to WBUR, Boston’s NPR news station. Once approved by the FCC in early 2013, WBUR will be heard on 92.7FM.
This is both an opportunity and a pretty gigantic challenge.
First, the opportunity. Only the FM signal has been sold to WBUR. Aritaur is contributing mvyradio’s programming, online content, equipment and staff to the non-profit Friends of mvyradio. So, the core is there.
That means mvyradio, as you know it — all the music, personalities, shows and web content — can live on as a non-commercial, internet public radio station.
That’s the opportunity. The future. Commercial-free.
Now the challenge. We need — the Friends of mvyradio needs — to raise $600,000 in pledges by the end of January.
Yes, that’s an enormous lift. But, one well worth making to keep an independent radio gem like mvyradio on the air.
Do you want mvyradio to live on? Or will it die like so many other independent broadcast treasures?
Please click through to the pledge page and help save mvyradio..
We are not asking for money now. But if we reach our $600,000 goal, we will collect on those pledges. And yes, those donations are tax-deductible.
We have 60 days to reach $600,000. Will you help save mvyradio?
So many of you have been so generous in supporting our online operations and streaming. And now, as we fully transition to a non-profit, public internet radio station, we need you to dig deep to make this dream a reality.
Once you pledge, please spread the word. Share this email. Tweet the urgency of saving mvyradio. Like us on Facebook and tag your friends and network to help, too.
This is about keeping independent radio alive and thriving. This is an urgent message for the Vineyard and beyond, for everyone who wants to hear an original radio station, commercial-free and deeply rooted in its majestic surroundings.
There’s a fork in the road. And only one saves mvyradio.
Help us continue to bring you music that you can’t hear anywhere else, with programming free of commercials, delivered by real DJs from a small house at the end of a dirt road on Martha’s Vineyard to your internet radio, computer, iPad or smartphone.
Without you, mvyradio will be silenced, ending nearly 30 years of friendship and entertainment.
Please pledge. Please pass this on. 60 days is all we’ve got.
Thank you. We really — truly — cannot do this without you.
Sincerely,
Barbara Dacey and PJ Finn
