Tag Archives: Membership Drive

Mark Your Calendars: The 2008 WPRB Membership Drive Returns This October!

“WPRB Forest” illustration by John Cei Douglas

WPRB 103.3 FM, the 14,000-watt community-supported, independent radio station located in Princeton, NJ – hey, that’s us! – is holding its second annual Membership Drive. The drive begins on October 1st, at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) and runs until October 8th, 2008. The 2008 Membership Drive will feature special programming including live in-studio performances, extended DJ sets, exclusive membership premiums – not to mention a few surprises!

After the cut, more details about this year’s membership drive.

digg_url = ‘http://blog.wprb.com/2008/09/mark-your-calendars-2008-wprb.html’; digg_skin = ‘compact’;Founded in 1940, WPRB is the nation’s oldest college FM station and broadcasts to the greater New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware area, as well as millions more online through its website, WPRB.com. In 2007, WPRB’s trustees and its undergraduate student board of directors decided to shift to a member-supported operating model for the future, thereby allowing WPRB to maintain greater flexibility and control over its programming.

While WPRB is located on Princeton University’s campus, the station does not receive funding from the school. Donations pledged during this drive will support station operations – equipment maintenance, transmitter fees, merchandise, music purchases and more. Last year’s inaugural drive raised over $40,000 for WPRB’s operating budget, and demonstrated the commitment of WPRB’s listeners support for unique and varied independent radio programming.

“We came into last year’s drive with absolutely no idea how well or how poorly we would do, so it was really very exciting and encouraging when we started to see the sort of enthusiastic response that we got from people as the week went on,” said Ye “Cody” Wang, WPRB’s 2008 Development Director. “Now we’ve got a great foundation of success to build on, and we know that our listeners are 100% committed to not only keeping WPRB on the air, but also to improving and evolving our programming and presence.”

This year’s drive programming kicks off on Wednesday evening at 7:00 p.m. with DJ Jon Solomon and special live musical guests Oxford Collapse (Sub Pop Records), Jennifer O’Connor (Matador Records), Home Blitz (Gulcher) and Brown Recluse Sings (Tequila Sunrise).

WPRB’s Membership Drive will also feature:

- Friday 10/3, 7:00 p.m.: Pop Recon will feature exclusive interviews with 4AD recording artists Stereolab and Philadelphia’s Dead Milkmen (Updated 9/22).

- Monday 10/6, 7:00 p.m.: x Clean Yr Room x welcomes Secretly Canadian recording artists The War On Drugs and Gulcher recording artist Kurt Vile.

- Wednesday 10/8, 6:00 a.m.: Classical Discoveries with Marvin Rosen features extended programming and special in-studio guests.

- Wednesday 10/8, 9:00 p.m.: A special live “Grand Finale” event! Stay tuned, and be surprised!

In addition to the special drive programming, WPRB will be giving away a brand new 2008 Toyota Yaris to one lucky listener this October, courtesy of FreeYrRadio.com. The FreeYrRadio campaign, which supports independent radio stations across the country, selected WPRB as a participating station this year, and hosted a special free benefit concert for WPRB this past summer that featured Secret Machines and DJ Dave P.

WPRB operators will be standing by at (609) 258-1033 to take pledges at all hours of the broadcasting day (usually 6AM-2AM ET). Additionally, pledges can be made online with all major credit cards by logging onto:

http://pledge.wprb.com/

Exclusive membership premiums are available to pledging listeners, and can be seen online at pledge.wprb.com. This year’s premium items were designed exclusively for the drive by illustrator John Cei Douglas and DJ Maria T (host of WPRB’s “Her Jazz” and “Pop Recon”).

In addition, WPRB plans to “reissue” its classic “Headphones” design, and special premium gifts – from CD’s and LP’s to signed records, box sets, DVD’s, limited edition artwork and more – will be available to listeners who pledge with a credit card at specified hours; these gifts range in value from $5 to $200 in retail value.

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Oxford Collapse visits WPRB!

The good men of Oxford Collapse stopped by WPRB earlier this week to record a special ten song acoustic set full of creative reworkings of favorites old, borrowed and new.

It will debut in October as part of WPRB’s 2008 Membership Drive.

Make sure to check out the new OC album “Bits,” released scant days ago on Sub Pop, and watch the WPRB blog for confirmation of other live guests and special events happening during this year’s drive.

While I’m at it, if you’ve got a design in mind for Membership Drive swag, the WPRB Design Contest is still ongoing.

Tues 8/12: WPRB & Free Yr Radio present Secret Machines and DJ Dave P

WPRB and Free Yr Radio are proud to present the Secret Machines and DJ Dave P on Tuesday, August 12th, 7:00 p.m. at Urban Outfitters (110 S. 36th St.) in Philadelphia, PA.

This is a free, all-ages event! Visit FreeYrRadio.com to get your ticket to the show! You won’t want to miss this!

What is Free Yr Radio? It’s a joint effort between Toyota and Urban Outfitters to generate awareness and support for independent radio stations they’ve partnered with. This year, WPRB was selected as a program partner, and we’re honored. They’ve graciously organized this concert, as well as a benefit compilation, to introduce this year’s selected stations to new audiences.

And for a bit of some really amazing news: Free Yr Radio has donated a brand new Toyota Yaris for this year’s Membership Drive! Between October 1st and 8th 2008, one lucky WPRB listener will actually get to win this. More details to follow very, very soon.

And now, more about who’s performing!

WPRB and Secret Machines go back quite a-ways, at least to the age of Web 1.0, before MySpace and Facebook, in those heady days when Google stock was worth just as much as Station Manager Cody’s old 1984 Toyota Corolla SR5 (exactly $0, since he gave it to the Salvation Army).

Anyway, unlike that car the Secret Machines are as valuable as ever. Texan transplants to New York City, the Secret Machines are currently on tour, and we’re thrilled they’ve decided to visit Philadelphia! Since September 000 (Ace Fu, 2002) to their last record for Reprise Records, Ten Silver Drops (2006), WPRB DJs have been charmed by the group’s early-era Flaming Lips approach to “pop [choruses] with demented twists.” In a live setting, they’re just as compelling; after their set opening up for Blonde Redhead, another DJ remarked, “They played their entire set as if it was a continuous post-rock opera.” The band plans to self-release their forthcoming next album through the World’s Fair group.

Opening up our event is local DJ and nightlife wünderkind, Dave P. Since the mid-90′s, Dave P and his crew have hosted Making Time, Philly’s premier dance party featuring live music from The Next Big Things and more. Every time we give away tickets to it on WPRB, the phone’s are ringing off the hook. So yeah, we’re really psyched to have Dave — on his birthday! — take some time out for us.

2008 WPRB Design Contest

The month of July is upon us now, and that means that there are only three months left until we kick off the 2nd annual, 2008 WPRB Membership Drive! In preparation for the awesomeness to come, we’ve set-up the 2008 WPRB Design Contest. Whether you’re a professional artist or an inspired amateur, we need your help in designing the artwork for our 2008 Membership Drive thank-you items. Submissions must be print-ready (and we strongly prefer line art), and should be emailed to development@wprb.com. Artwork should be in a 1-, 2-, or 3-color design, unless otherwise noted. Questions or comments should also be directed to that email address. We’ll be accepting submissions from now until August 18, 2008. More details after the jump.

Submissions should be in a reasonably high-res at a large size (minimum: 300 dpi, recommended: 600 or 1200 dpi; at least ~10 sq. inches), ready for printing possibly on T-shirts, hoodies, tote bags, or similar items to be determined at a later date. We also prefer hi-resolution file formats (vector graphics such as .eps, .ai, or .cdr please!), but we can work with most of the common graphical file formats.

Winning artists will receive plenty of mentions on-air during the October Membership Drive, and listeners will be directed to their websites and/or contact information according to the artists’ preferences. This amounts to possibly thousands of dollars worth of free advertising/having your friends think you’re the sh*t.

And once again, thanks to Tim Gough, Ed Moorman and Doctor Pizzoli, for last year’s amazing designs. Follow the links above to see samples of their excellent work.