With the end of the fiscal year approaching, I thought I would reach out to you, my Facebook friends, for suggestions on how to solve a particular problem. You see, it’s all about raising dough. Isn’t it always?

As of July 1, WWFM will no longer be able to afford to pay for its specialty shows. That means unless hosts are able to find their own funding, they will either have to (a) do their shows live at whatever time they are assigned, probably somewhere in the middle of the afternoon, (b) produce them on a volunteer basis, or (c) stop doing them.

All three of these options are problematic. If a host were to do a show live, he or she would still have to record it and perform all sorts of touch up work on it, in order to get it in fighting trim for syndication. The host would not be compensated for that work, or for any script-writing. Essentially he or she would be paid for doing the equivalent of a one-hour live air shift. That’s unsustainable.

Obviously, doing it for free would be even more so.

“Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord” are on the line. In order to keep doing these shows, I would have to raise $5000 each for the coming year. I could do that through underwriting, or I could look into obtaining a grant. Either one would take time, but if it looked as if it were a realistic option, I would tough it out and do the shows for free until funding was secured.

Underwriting may be from a corporate source, it could be from a small business, or it could come from a particularly generous individual listener with a surplus of moola burning a hole in his or her pocket. I had even considered perhaps trying to pull together a consortium of individual donors, with everyone kicking in what they could – which brings me to crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter. I haven’t really looked into these, but I know they are out there.

It is not my aim to try to discourage anyone from supporting WWFM in general or to persuade listeners to shift their financial support from the station to one of my individual shows. This should not be an either/or proposition.

I don’t think anyone who follows this page is a Rich Uncle Pennybags, but I know there are a lot of clever people out there. If anyone can think of a creative solution to the problem of keeping “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord” alive in such a way that they can still be heard by the general population, and in a way that I can actually pay my rent, please post your suggestions below or feel free to message me. I am all eyes and ears.

If only I could just have Moe inflate the budget using a makeshift hose to the gas pipe. Then again, we all know how well that worked out.

Thank you for reading, and thank you in advance for your suggestions!