Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Pledge Drive

WPRB’s Walpurgis Night Pledge Drive

You don’t have to sell your soul for great music, but we sure would appreciate your support.

This Sunday morning on WPRB, I’ll be tossing my pointy hat into the ring – or pentagram, as the case may be – in an attempt to elicit your contributions, on the eve of Walpurgis Night. Walpurgis Night, the night before the feast day St. Walpurga, is a time when evil spirits are believed to roam the earth. There’s a memorable scene in Goethe’s “Faust,” with witches gathered for an orgy of the damned on the Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz Mountains. So don’t be surprised if there is a fair amount of witchery – and Goethe – reflected in my musical selections.

Walpurgis Night also happens to be the eve of May Day. We’ll temper the horror with equally pagan cavortings around the May Pole, replete with mummers, hobby horses, and musical depictions of Robin and Marian. And, as if that weren’t enough, Sunday is also a full moon, so get ready for a cosmic convergence of lunatic proportions. Tobias Robison of “Masterclassics” (heard Tuesday mornings on WPRB) will be my sorcerer’s apprentice, as we venture to conjure your pledges.

Remember that WPRB is independently owned and operated. The station relies on listener support for the bulk of its operating budget. When you make a financial commitment to WPRB, you not only support off-the-beaten-path classical music, you provide a variegated platform for stimulating programming in all genres, with on-air hosts fully engaged in putting together their own playlists and sharing the music they love. This makes for a uniquely rewarding radio experience.

For the convenience of true believers everywhere (to say nothing of its staff), WPRB is adding a sustaining member option. For as low as $10 a month, you can make an ongoing commitment to the station by way of an automatic charge to your credit card. The commitment can be for whatever amount you decide, but $10 a month is the minimum. The donation will continue, in perpetuity, until you tell us to stop, which you may do at any time by emailing cancel@wprb.com. It’s that easy.

A sustaining membership means you’ll never have to renew, and that WPRB can save time, paper, and postage on not having to remind you. Think about all that lost revenue at the end of a year, as memberships lapse. It could be weeks before the station secures a renewal. I mean, you’re going to renew anyway, right? The hassle is eliminated with a sustaining membership.

WPRB has until May 4 to acquire 1000 unique pledges. Anyone who donates tomorrow morning between 7 and 10 EDT will be eligible for one of three prize drawings (one per hour), which could make you the winner of a fistful of lovingly curated CDs. That’s above and beyond any of the other loot to which you’re entitled for the amount of your pledge. Call 609-258-1033 or visit pledge.wprb.com.

Toby and I will be raising hell and dancing around the maypole, this Sunday morning from 7 to 10 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. Thank you for your ongoing support of Classic Ross Amico.

Luis Ricardo Falero, “Departure of the Witches” (a.k.a. “Witches Going to their Sabbath,”1878)

April 28, 2018
Support Classical Music Radio & End Pledge Drives

For devotees of classical music radio, I understand that a pledge drive can seem a bit like the insurance salesman scene from “Take the Money and Run.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-mg_NmKKRc

Alas, membership drives are one of the realities of public radio. We rely on listeners in the community, people just like you, to keep us strong, so that we can go on presenting the most stimulating blend of basic repertoire, worthwhile arcana, and intriguing contemporary music we know how.

The good news is, you can shorten our impending fall campaign by donating now. If we can raise $35,000 before Wednesday, WWFM will prune its on-air fundraising to just two days. Two days in the company of a bunch of hardened fundraisers? You know you can do that standing on your head.

We’d be humbled to take your money and stay – on the air, that is. Please, consider making a commitment to keeping us solvent, so that we can all get back to enjoying the liberty of around-the-clock classical music.

Celebrate 35 years of The Classical Network with your gift today. Simply head over to our website, wwfm.org, hit the big red “Hit 35K!” button, and fill out the form. It’s fairly quick and easy, and it will probably make you feel good. It’s always nice to know that you’ve made a difference.

Two days in the company of your favorite radio hosts is a lot better than getting locked in the hot box with an insurance salesman. I hope. Thank you for supporting WWFM – The Classical Network!

October 21, 2017
WPRB Thanks & Pledge Drive Extension

I’d like to extend a note of personal thanks to everyone who contributed to WPRB 103.3 FM yesterday morning during Classic Ross Amico. It was kind of a slow start, and then, at a point, when it finally got busy, we were understaffed with telephone volunteers, possibly dropping a few calls, yet we managed to raise something like $1500.

Your support demonstrates not only that you appreciate all that I do, getting out of bed at 4:00 in the morning, putting together an interesting program, interviewing guests from the arts community, and most of all, sharing the music, it also shows that you care about maintaining an independent, locally-based alternative to the bland homogeneity that settles drowsily across the playlists and presentation heard on many other radio stations.

It’s heartening that our contributors have been so generous and, as always, enthusiastic. However, the station still came up somewhat short of its $60,000 goal. Therefore, WPRB is leaving up its pledge page for another week. We won’t be hard pitching over the air, but we will put out the call occasionally, for anyone who really wanted to contribute but either missed the opportunity or could not.

Sorry, the special “Classic Ross Amico” thank you gifts of lovingly assembled CDs are no longer available (well, maybe, if you contact me directly, but you need to make a pledge to the WPRB page); however, the stickers, the downloads, the calendar and the WPRB apparel are all still yours for the taking, for the next week only. Follow the link to make a pledge and claim your gifts:

http://wprb.com/wprb-membership-drive-2016/

I’d also like to thank the labels, performers and distributors who were so kind as to help me secure premiums for the drive: John Baker of Affetto Records, Clipper Erickson, piano, of Westminster Conservatory, Tom Steenland of Starkland Records, Becky Starobin of Bridge Records, Inc., and Gail Wein of Classical Music Communications.

Thanks also to WPRB’s Sandy Steiglitz, Marvin Rosen and Jack Hollingsworth for donating their time and on-air talent and for helping to answer the telephones. Nobody’s too proud at WPRB, unless it be the justifiable pride of sharing unusual music with our devoted listeners. Thank you again for your support!

October 21, 2016
Support WPRB Classical Music Pledge Drive

I’ll be answering phones for my friend, Marvin Rosen, tomorrow morning at WPRB. Marvin has been a consistent champion of contemporary composers for the past 20 years, on his program Classical Discoveries, broadcasting beautiful and worthwhile music that very few in radio will touch.

Consider supporting him with a pledge tomorrow, from 5 to 11 a.m. EDT. That’s an early start, even for Marvin! We’re all volunteers there. For us, it’s a labor of love, and I’m not sure anyone loves what they do more than Marvin. Call 609-258-1033. Show him you care, and pick up a nice thank you gift in the process.

Then, if you’re able, don’t forget Classic Ross Amico on Thursday morning, from 6 to 11. In a kind of Faustian pact, our positions will be reversed, the servant shall become the master, and Marvin will be answering the phones for me. Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha! We’ll both have some fantastic CDs on offer, yours to claim for a pledge of $45. You can view Marvin’s list here:

http://www.classicaldiscoveries.org/index_cd_premiums_2016_temporary_file.html

My list will be up tomorrow.

As an added bonus, Sandy Steiglitz, host of “Sunday Morning Opera,” will be my co-host on Thursday, so I will be very fortunate indeed to have all my radio friends around me.

Thank you for supporting the diverse, creative, and idiosyncratic programming on this community-driven, independent radio station. Again, call 609-258-1033, or pledge online at wprb.com. Please note: thank you gifts are available only to those who call. That doesn’t mean we appreciate our online supporters any the less! Thank you on behalf of WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com.

October 18, 2016
Vaughan Williams Special on WPRB This Week

Get ready for the old switcheroo!

Tomorrow is Yom Kippur, so Marvin Rosen and I will be switching up on WPRB. For this week only, Classic Ross Amico will be heard on Wednesday, beginning at 6 a.m., and Marvin’s Classical Discoveries will be heard on Thursday, beginning at 5:30.

I hope you’ll join me tomorrow, as October 12 is the birthday of one of my favorite composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams. The widely held perception of RVW as a large, rumpled, bushy-eyebrowed bear-of-a-man roaming the English countryside in search of folk material will be offset somewhat as we hear some of his lesser-played symphonies, in fabulous, under-the-radar performances.

Don’t expect the same old, same old. Sure, there will be plenty of the pastoral stuff we all know and love, but I will be more inclined to play the underexposed “Charterhouse Suite” or “Household Music” on Welsh hymn tunes than, say, the “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis” or “The Lark Ascending” – lest it be in a moment of weakness, by way of an historic recording, or in honor of the late Sir Neville Marriner, who conducted on one of my favorite Vaughan Williams albums.

We’ll have a chance to hear Vaughan Williams himself conduct, some archival radio broadcasts, and a rare LP from 1977 that, to my knowledge, has never been reissued in any form. I hope also to touch on some of the composer’s operas and piano music and anything else I can think of that never gets done – whatever I can cram to into five hours, I suppose.

I’ve been letting my eyebrows grow wild for the occasion. Join me tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 EDT on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wrpb.com. I’ll be wearing my most rumpled jacket, with cowpats on my shoes, on Classic Ross Amico.

PLEASE NOTE: The WPRB Pledge Drive will commence this Thursday night at 7:00. Please start searching under your seat cushions for change and keep your eyes open for those quarters when you vacuum your car. You’ll want to have $45 in hand, I’m sure, on the morning of October 20, when I’ll be offering dozens of CDs for you to choose from as “thank you” gifts for your pledges of support. Of course, a pledge in any amount will be gratefully accepted – every little bit counts – but wouldn’t you like a nice disc for yourself to commemorate the occasion? I’ll have more on this as the week unfolds. By all means, support your favorite shows in the meantime, but spare a thought for me, won’t you, waiting, all lonely at the finish line, next Thursday. The last thing I want to do is walk home with all these duplicate CDs. Call 609-258-1033 on the morning of October 20, and thank you in advance for your generosity!

October 11, 2016

Tag Cloud

RECENT POSTS