Behind the Scenes: Funding Drive

The purpose of any funding drive is to raise funds, but I went into organizing this year’s event focused on making strong ties to the community first. Starting something that hasn’t been done before means creating a strong foundation for future years. Whether it was finding major sponsors for the drive or local businesses to partner up with for the Friends Card program, there was pavement to pound.

Finding local businesses for the Friends Card has been very rewarding. It was flat out awesome to walk into restaurants/stores around both the Loyola and downtown campus and get the positive reaction that I got. Before starting at my position as Funding and Promotions Coordinator, I very rarely visited the NDG neighborhood. After soliciting up and down Sherbrooke West, I have gained a strong sense of the community spirit that exists on this side of the mountain. Hopefully, the connections made between the radio station and this community will continue to grow in future years. Please take some time to look through our website and see who has partnered up with the radio station to give our listeners special discounts off their products/services with your donation to CJLO.

Getting major sponsors on board for the Funding Drive proved to be more difficult. After determining that the Funding Drive would take place in March, I started contacting businesses as early as December. Sending off emails and proposals to companies outside of the city and then waiting for their responses can be very difficult on the nerves. Therefore, I made a strong effort to partner with companies that have close ties to the University. The Campus Retail Stores, Erke Canada, and McAuslan Brewery are really excited to be on board and have happily donated excellent prizes for our listeners.

I’m also hoping that the Funding Drive will reinforce the strong links between our programmers, their shows, and the community as well. This Funding Drive should serve as a platform to demonstrate how our radio station reflects our listening audiences. This little radio station has been gaining in popularity, and now is the time to show why more and more people are tuning in. Check out all the special programming that CJLO 1690 AM has to offer.

Thank you for your support, and for listening to CJLO 1690 AM. Good luck to all our DJs, programmers, volunteers, and donors.

-Kevin G hosts The Wake-Up Call every Thursday from 6-8am