I'm writing the script for this edition of Words on Books on Thursday, two days before this station vroooms into the Fall Pledge Drive. You're hearing it on Sunday, the day after Pledge Drive got going; or next Wednesday, by which time you've been hearing pleas for support for five days straight.

There are some people who tune in to Pledge Drive because they actually like being cajoled, enticed, encouraged and talked to directly. It's nice when someone cares enough about you to ask directly for a little of your hard-won moola.

Others can't stand Pledge Drive. They consider it a big interruption to their usual routines of turning on the news in the morning, Amy Goodman in the later morning, public affairs discussions after that, classical music or jazz after that after that, Fresh Air after that after that after that, and so on throughout the day and into the evening.

To both of these listeners I say: Pledge early and pledge often. Every penny you contribute goes a long lo-o-o-ong way here, where we are frugal with your funds and creative with how they are spent.

It's a bit like voting: If you stay home and don't vote someone sure enough gets elected anyway, propositions succeed and fail, and they'll tell you all about it next day on the radio. If you do actually vote, mark, seal, and stamp the envelope or walk down to the polling station, you can take pride in helping change the world. You've done your part, however small.

It's the same with sending money to this station: If you don't do it others, probably, will, and the station probably, will continue. It won't cost you a dime to do nothing.

But think about it: If you join today, you immediately have a moral voice in your community radio station. You do get to vote for members of the Board of Directors. You have the ethical right to complain, to discuss, to suggest improvements and lobby for changes. If you don't contribute time or money, you can still complain. But it won't feel right to you and it won't feel right to anyone else.

This is one of those times you really do have to put your money where your mouth would like to be.

We come to you over the airwaves and on the Internet completely free. To be so gosh darn free we have to pay salaries, and health care. We have to pay the electricity company, the National Public Radio and Public Radio International people. We have buy microphones and telephones and CD players and wires to connect them, and big antennas on surrounding hills, and small antennas to send what we're broadcasting to the big antennas. We have to pay to have handicapped access to our office, and we need to pay for the office itself, and the chairs, the computers, the connections to the Internet so I can record this show, and the outlying studios in Willits and Mendocino, and a fax machine, and a coffee machine and dish soap and toilet paper and the list goes on.

We pay for all of this, no matter how much we might want to skimp on some things.

If you don't pay, we can't play. It's that simple. We need your support for all the reasons you're hearing this week, and this week we intend to break through your last resistance and get you to generously give us as much money as you can.

The decision to reach into that stash of silver dollars and send us a few will make you feel good right away. Then it will make you feel good for the rest of the year, knowing your silver dollars help keep all of us on the air. And by the way, as soon as one of our volunteers takes your call, or your check arrives at PO Box 1, Philo, California 95466, or you stop by the station with your silver dollars, as soon as that happens, all of us here will start feeling way good.

Well, we already feel pretty darn good. We got good radio here. When you call in we're going to feel even better, perhaps elated, exalted, certainly pleased, gratified, satisfied, hopeful, well taken care of, in touch with you, good feelings like those.

It's a good feeling all around, and you are the one who gets it started. Right now, make that simple phone call to 1 800 298-1296, or, more locally, 895-2233. We like to hear the phones ring. It's truly music to our ears.

Aired Sunday October 19, 2008 at 10:55 am and Wednesday October 22, 2008 at 1:00 pm

NOTES:

The Reader's Bill of Rights:

The right to not read
The right to skip pages
The right to not finish
The right to reread
The right to read anything
The right to escapism
The right to read anywhere
The right to browse
The right to read out loud
The right to not defend your tastes

               -- From Daniel Pennac, Better Than Life 1994

The Community Radio Listener's Bill of Rights:

The right to not listen
The right to skip listening
The right to not finish listening
The right to listen twice
The right to listen to anything
The right to escapism
The right to listen anywhere
The right to station surf
The right to listen to loud radio
The right to not defend your tastes

               -- Tony Miksak, Words on Books

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Copyright © 2008. All materials posted here are copyright protected. Please do not copy or distribute without contacting Tony Miksak for written permission.