Five years ago on a Saturday night at 9pm, I fearfully stepped inside the CHIRP studio and DJ'd the first episode of Uneasy Listening. I was more than uneasy and many of you were kind enough to listen. I'd never been an on-air radio personality before. I'd never even had a personality before (and still only ocasionally do). But over the next three hours, starting with The Feelies "The Boy With the Perpetual Nervousness," I played everything from Boogie Down Productions to Sleater-Kinney to Laurie Anderson to Steven Wright and sort of managed to talk about it. Looking back I can't believe I left out The Muppets, Weird Al or Bob Dylan. Sorry.

Hundreds of shows later, I'm still at it because it's fun and nobody has demanded I exit the chair. However, my show and the more than 50 others on the station can only continue if people actually donate money the two times a year we unapologetically beg them to. See, even though none of us are getting paid, it's still incredibly expensive to keep the station running. Look at these numbers:

• $10 Covers 4 Hours of CHIRP’s Audio Stream

• $25 Covers the Cost of a Replacement Stylus for one of our Turntables

• $35 Covers ½ a week of CHIRP’s streaming service

• $50 Covers one day of rent for the CHIRP studios

• $60 Covers One Month of CHIRP's Phone Bill

• $60 Covers One Month of CHIRP's DSL Bill

• $75 Covers a Set of Head Phones for our DJs

• $120 Covers Two New CHIRP Banners for our Events

• $120 Covers One Month of Phone and DSL for the CHIRP Studios

• $240 Covers a Hand-Held Field Recorder for our Features Team

• $240 Covers Almost a Month of our Streaming Service Costs

• $300 Covers the costs of maintaining our new app for one month

• $365 Covers a Month of Network Services (T1) and Hosting

• $365 Covers a Week/Week ½ of Rent for CHIRP’s North Center Studio

• $500 Covers one month of rooftop rent for our antenna

• $1,200 Covers an entire month’s rent for CHIRP Radio

​And when we begin broadcasting at 107.1 FM in the coming weeks, that will add another $15,000 in annual expenses to our budget. What I'm trying to say here is PLEASE GIVE ANYTHING YOU CAN. Oops! I got too close to the mic there. Thanks for your continued support. 

Sincerely,

Your Friendly Neighborhood DJ Sherbert

CHIRP is a listener-supported radio station -- your gifts make everything we do possible!  Please make a special gift supporting our fall fundraising campaign today so we can continue to bring you great music and events -- and you'll help us launch our broadcast at 107.1FM.

If you would like to make a recurring donation or select a fall campaign thank you gift, please visit CHIRP’s main donation page to make your contribution (and don’t forget the enter the name of the CHIRP Volunteer or DJ in the “How did you hear about CHIRP” section so they can receive credit for your gift!)