On Tuesday, Sept. 15, each listener to WUTC 88.1 FM has the power to make a difference when Chattanooga’s National Public Radio station will seek the financial support of “listeners like you” during an unprecedented, one-day only pledge drive .
“It gets said a lot, but it’s true that we are living through a period of extraordinary challenges and, for us at WUTC, the impact came early on when it was necessary to cancel plans for our usual spring pledge drive in March,” said Station Manager Bryan Lane.
“Given the uncertainty so many faced as their businesses or workplaces had to shut down, they worried about how to keep themselves and their loved ones safe from COVID-19 and the otherwise uncharted waters all of us found ourselves in, March clearly was not the time for a business-as-usual, weeklong pledge drive.”
At the same time, Lane said, the national and international coverage provided by NPR’s global news operation has never been more important and WUTC’s local voices more of a critical connection as “community” was being radically redefined in a world gone virtual.
“We’re always proud to bring the depth and excellence of NPR news and the people and stories of Chattanooga and the Tennessee Valley to our listeners—but even more now,” Lane said. “We’re also proud to be part of a community that includes the Chattanooga Area Food Bank, which has become more important than ever for the role it’s played during the last six months.”
In a nod to what the Chattanooga Area Food Bank has meant to the community during the pandemic, WUTC is giving the Food Bank 10 percent of proceeds from Tuesday’s One-Day Pledge Event.
“We’re confident our listeners value both the mission of the Chattanooga Area Food Bank and WUTC’s mission of delivering NPR-quality news, information and entertainment programming,” Lane said, “which is why we want to use our platform to help the Food Bank.
“We also know that listeners don’t particularly enjoy funding appeals on air and that our listeners have a lot on their minds right now—health and safety, the economy, an upcoming national election—so we are limiting the amount of time in this drive that we ask for support on air to just one day. Listeners can pledge on that one day or, of course, they can go online to www.wutc.org anytime.”
Several companies and Chattanooga-area employers including Unum, Hartford and IBM will match their employees’ gifts to WUTC, which Lane described as an important source of funding. Lane encourages WUTC listeners to check with their employers on the possibility of matching their pledges.
WUTC is the source of music programming featuring local favorite Richard Winham; talk and information on all things past and present-day Chattanooga on “Scenic Roots”; and stories of your fellow Chattanoogans on “Tennessee Valley Story Corps.” Operating on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, WUTC also serves as a place of learning and employment for UTC students.
WUTC 88.1 FM is a public-service, nonprofit organization licensed to UTC. In addition to analog radio, both WUTC and WUTC-2 HD can be listened to online and via the WUTC app available in the Google play and App stores.
