THE SITUATION:

In 1981 the University of Washington budget cuts forced KCMU FM, the 10-watt student-run college radio station, to look to the community for support. By 1983, the station was supported largely by low-income students and a handful of small businesses in the University District. However, the signal managed to reach small pockets of listeners in the Greater Seattle and Bellevue area and as far south as Renton.

KCMU's board of directors wanted to increase the station's broadcasting power to expand the listener ship. To fund the power increase they needed a matching capital improvement loan from the student government. To support their request for this loan, they needed (1) money to cover half the cost of the increase, and (2) quantifiable data documenting that our demographics included a population, which when increased, could add significantly to KCMU's coffers.

As KCMU's assistant manager, I accepted responsibility for designing and implementing a strategic marketing and fundraising effort to (1) gain stronger support from listeners with deeper pockets while (2) gathering pertinent demographic data to support our loan application.

THE SOLUTION: 

A few months prior to the October Beg-a-thon, I designed a strategy to attract more and larger contributions from more of our listeners. It included a marketing message, incentives, prizes,  business involvement and on-going membership rewards.

Rather than the lackadaisical "give what you can if you can" approach used in previous fundraisers, I created an aggressive, self-mocking message I felt would appeal to our audience of radical students, avant guard professionals and other sub-cultural edge-runners. The radio spots ran along the theme of "anarchy takes sacrifice; if you want to hear music no one else will play -- you have to pay for it."

We created a line of sponsorship incentives for different levels of giving. My sister, (who just happened to be one of Seattle's hottest cutting-edge designers and an avid KCMU listener), designed a totally chill station logo that we printed on everything -- bumper stickers, T-shirts, sweatshirts, coffee mugs, tattoos, cars... Our smallest premium was a KCMU sticker that we slathered everywhere and our largest premium was "an hour on the air with the DJ of your choice" which rewarded a $500 gift. (We awarded five of those!)

We solicited discounts and merchandise from our underwriters and local businesses -- free sex wax tune ups for your skis, free guitar strings, free piercings, free pizza, free tickets, free massages, free love... Well,  you get the idea. And of course, we gave away free records and our newly created record review newsletter. Even the DJs offered premiums, most of which are best not mentioned here to protect the guilty.

By the time the week-long fundraiser officially began we were already receiving donations. One $1200 dollar check arrived with a note: "I can't get your station at my house, but we play it all the time at the office, so I told my staff I would match what they gave. Maybe with your new increase I'll be able to hear KCMU at home, too. My wife will love that." I promptly called this guy up and asked him to to on the air and challenge other business owners to match their employees, too.

We met our goal on day five! 
By the end of the week we exceeded our goal by 40% !

When the phones finally stopped ringing we prepared to mail out pledge confirmations to all our callers. I wanted their information. I wrote a questionnaire requesting demographic information (age, income, marital status, education level, etc.) and soliciting suggestions about programming.

I created a membership database for the information and stuck a pin in a wall map for every contribution that came in. (Incidentally, we had less than 5% of our pledges go unfulfilled.) I ended up with encouraging demographic data and an excellent representation of our broadcast footprint.

The data was encouraging -- 70% of our listeners were 16 to 23 years old and mostly college students, but 20% were in the 23-35 age range and mostly employed. If the demographics were encouraging, the pins were downright inspiring. We had listeners as far away as Renton and Bellevue and the density in those pockets was nearly equivalent to the density in our own back yard.

Our listeners were out there! And they had money!

THE RESULT:

Armed with solid demographic data, a sizable bank balance and future financial commitments from some of our more affluent listeners, the station manager presented our case to the student government. Matching funds were released. That was in 1985.

In 1986 The station moved to 90.3 FM, relocated its transmitter to Capitol Hill and boosted its power to 400 watts. The station's range was extended 15 miles.

In 2001 KCMU became KEXP 90.3 FM, maintaining all staff, the same format and frequency, while almost doubling its wattage from 400 to 720 and moving to a new technologically-advanced studio near downtown Seattle.

And that's the way it was.

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