WBHM Rides with You: WBHM’s Fall 2013 Membership Campaign
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Public Radio WBHM 90.3 FM/WSGN 91.5 FM’s Fall 2013 Membership Campaign will begin Wednesday, October 9, and feature a collaboration with local artist Véronique Vanblaere, along with notable business and civic leaders as guest hosts.
In response to outreach from WBHM’s Junior Advisors, Vanblaere has created a custom and public radio-inspired “WBHM Rides with You” design for the station, depicting how she carries WBHM’s programming with her throughout the day. The art will be featured on a glass given as a thank-you gift from the station for contributions of $90 or more. (Read more about Vanblaere and her inspiration for the design.)
“When I received the call that I was the chosen artist for the Fall 2013 Membership Campaign it immediately turned my day into a fabulous-can’t-get-any-better-exhilarating one — well, actually my whole week!” says Vanblaere. “WBHM has been such a staple of my daily media diet that being associated with them through my artwork is a little dream coming true. I am 110% behind them.”
Through the WBHM Junior Advisors, the station offers service, learning, cultural and social opportunities for those committed supporters in the 21-40 age range. The group serves under the guidance of the station’s senior Friends of WBHM community advisory board.
“The Junior Advisors are excited to partner with Véro whose vibrant and graphic design reflects her own devotion to WBHM,” says Katie Suttle Weinert, chair of WBHM’s Junior Advisors. “We are confident WBHM’s many supporters will react as positively to Véro’s new design as they did to Bethanne Hill’s spring design.
“WBHM is unique to our community and could not continue without the community’s support,” says Weinert. “We hope our collaborations with local artists provide supporters with a thank you that is just unique to our community.”
Also during the station’s Fall 2013 Membership Campaign, WBHM will continue its tradition of welcoming key community figures as guest hosts, including Vanblaere who will talk more about how public radio inspires her. Other guests will include recording artists Eric Essix and Les Nuby III, actress and story performer Delores Hydock, musical historian and composer Bobby Horton, UAB’s nationally renowned cybersleuth and director of research in computer forensics Gary Warner, media power couple al.com’s Edward Bowser and See Jane Write Magazine founder Javacia Harris Bowser, and Matt Hooper, Junior Advisor and senior communications director of the American Heart Association, Greater Birmingham.
“The future of WBHM is in the hands of the community we serve. In the new budget year that starts this month, there will be only two on-air membership campaigns,” says WBHM General Manager Scott Hanley. “We fully believe that the growing community of listeners in Birmingham and North Central Alabama will stand up to be counted as supporters with a call, a click, or a check.”
Listener support is WBHM’s chief source of funding; the station also receives significant funding from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, various grants, business underwriting and donations of vehicles. Donations may be made in advance and during the drive by calling 800-444-9246 or online at wbhm.org.
About WBHM
Public Radio WBHM 90.3 FM, a listener-supported service of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is “Your NPR News Station” and home to the Alabama Radio Reading Service for the blind and print-impaired. WBHM programming and award-winning regional journalism also can be heard in North Central Alabama on WSGN 91.5 FM through a partnership with Gadsden State Community College and on 104.7 FM in Fort Payne. Listen and give online at WBHM.org and follow the station at WBHM903 on Twitter and Facebook.
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