WAMC really is our radio station. I did not fully comprehend this concept until I went to Albany on Thursday, June 4, to volunteer to answer phones for the fund drive. While WAMC (90.3 Albany, WOSR 91. 7 Middletown, WCEL 91.9 Plattsburgh, et al ) does plenty of original programming—The Round Table every Monday - Friday from 9 AM - noon, The Media Project at 6 PM on Sundays, and Vox Pop on weekdays from 2 - 3 PM—the programming that is most original and sui generis is the thrice-annual fund drive when Alan Chartock, Selma Kaplan, Joe Donahue, David Galletly and David Guistina and the rest of the WAMC crew ad lib ad infinitum. They beg, cajole, philosophize, extemporize, and share intimacies as they try to persuade listeners to make a pledge. Their stamina is amazing. And as I witnessed, the fund drive would be impossible to pull off without the army of volunteers from three states who come into answer phones at WAMC's threadbare headquarters on a sketchy stretch of Central Avenue. (A sign at the front door warns ominously "No Loitering.") When I arrived on Thursday for my shift, I saw two dozen familiar faces manning the phones (though I'd never actually seen any of them before.) These men and women were familiar because they reminded me of all the volunteers I've seen working at library book sales, fire department cookouts and garden-club plant sales in our region. As I watched Joe and Selma talk about the drawing for two nights at the 1802 House in Sheffield, I realized that the WAMC Fund Drive is a variation on the silent auction fundraisers, which have become ubiquitous in our region. WAMC gets donations from everyone—including Tanglewood, Ward's Nursery, Barrington Stage Company, SPAC, Mother Myrick's Confectionery—and tickets and gifts go to the callers who donate the right amounts at the right times. It's obvious that it has become difficult to get anyone to donate to a charity without their getting something in return. I was surprised that the volunteers sit only a few inches away from the microphones where the WAMC personalities sit face-to-face at a cramped wooden table, and you can hear everything that Alan and his staff say. You see what a mom-and-pop operation the radio station is. (Once you've seen the bare-bones offices, you might even say it's a Ma-and-Pa Kettle operation. You cannot imagine NPR stars like Nina Totenberg or Cokie Roberts working in such conditions.) Thus, I could see Alan shaking his head on Thursday about 4 PM when David Galletly handed him a sheet of paper about the Carbon Reduction Certificates from the Adirondack Council that would be given to anyone who pledged $100. "Let's give it a try," Alan said ambivalently. As David started to explain on air that the Carbon Reduction Certificates would sponsor the removal of three tons of carbon from the environment (equal to what the average household produces in six months' use of electricity or six months of driving a car), the phones started to ring off the hook! (In the previous two hours, I had answered only two phone calls and the volunteers read, ate mindlessly and kibbitzed like people do in airport lounges when their planes have been indefinitely delayed.) Suddenly, the room pulsed with energy as callers made $100 (and $200 and $300 and $500) pledges, often stating that their gifts were second pledges in honor of their grandchildren. Alan was visibly nonplussed. "Boy was I wrong," he said. "I had my doubts...I really misjudged people." (Did I really hear Alan Chartock say, "I'm wrong"?) In half an hour, the station raised $20,000 and the Adirondack Council stepped in with 200 more Carbon Redcution Certificates, which kept the phones ringing steadily until 6 PM. It was inspiring to witness people calling in to help save the planet instead of calling in to get free concert tickets or cheesecake. It was uplifting to see how one not-for-proft can help another. It was humbling to see how Alan Chartock and his staff try every trick in the book to raise money to keep our public radio station on the air. After the slow afternoon, it was exciting to see WAMC pull in $40,000 so quickly (even though it was still $300,000* shy of its $800,000 goal.) As Selma Kaplan was heard to say, "The Adirondack Council saved the day!" In more ways than one. Donate Now to the WAMC Fund Drive*800-323-9262 or WAMC.org(*As of 9 AM on Saturday, June 6, WAMC had raised $602,567)
