Dear Friends, Colleagues and Supporters of the “Bookmark” program on the CKUA Radio Network:
“Bookmark,” the half-hour weekly program dedicated to Alberta’s literary community and book trade, finished its second season on Sunday, June 28th. In these challenging economic times, CKUA Radio management faces some tough decisions in order to ensure the continued health and viability of this listener-supported public broadcaster. Spoken word programs are more time-consuming and therefore more expensive to produce than music programs. The station has decided to cancel the “Bookmark” program unless the community elects to support this show financially.
CKUA Radio is funded largely through listener donations along with some corporate underwriting of programs. Station management would like to continue to broadcast “Bookmark” and has come up with a plan to possibly save the show. It’s an idea called Co-Operative Program Sponsorship (CPS), something of a hybrid of corporate underwriting and a listener donation.
Under the CPS model, supporters of Bookmark are asked to donate $500.00 to support one broadcast of the program. Two programs could be underwritten at a cost of $900.00. Three programs at a cost of $1300. And six programs at a cost of $2500.
In return for supporting a specific program, the donor will receive acknowledgement in that broadcast. The donor will in fact receive 3 mentions during the show. While there will be no commercial content within these mentions, a reference to a company’s work can be made; for example, “Bookmark thanks donor sponsor Lotusland Books for supporting this edition of the program. Lotusland Books has been retailing books in Calgary for 40 years. We thank them for their support.”
The 2009-2010 Bookmark season would have 35 new shows and would begin September 13th, 2009. CKUA management has agreed that as long as we have donors for 20 of the 35 shows by the end of July, they will consider funding to be reasonably in place and will allow production of the program to proceed for a third season.
I am asking you to either make a pledge of support to “Bookmark” yourself or pass this request along to others of your acquaintance who may have an interest in this initiative. We have four weeks to raise the necessary money to keep “Bookmark” on the air. Please send your preliminary commitment to pledge for the program to myself as I am tracking the numbers on this campaign. I will be forwarding your contact information to CKUA’s Fund Development Office for follow-up. Therefore I would ask that you provide your preferred e-mail address and telephone number, as well as mailing address, when you make your preliminary pledge.
In addition to the CPS campaign, an alternate form of supporting “Bookmark” is a full corporate underwriting position. Such underwriting results in the sponsoring corporation being acknowledged in every Bookmark program as a major sponsor of the program. I believe there are a number of other acknowledgements, on the CKUA website, on-air mentions throughout the broadcast schedule, etc., that are built into corporate underwriting arrangements. My understanding is that a corporate underwriting contract starts at $5,000.00. More information on this sort of sponsorship can be obtained from CKUA’s sales manager Don Barnes by telephone at 780 428 7595 or by email at don.barnes@ckua.com.
I thank you all sincerely for your time and consideration and for your past support of the “Bookmark” program.
Ken Davis
Host, “Bookmark,” CKUA Radio Network
Update:
The good news is that to date we have raised $15,000 of the $20,000 goal to keep the “Bookmark” radio program on the air for the 2009-2010 season. Individual pledges have raised $5,000. Corporate underwriting commitments have raised another $10,000. I cannot express enough my personal appreciation of the pledges of financial support made by those of you who have stepped up and done your bit to ensure this service continues. I also must express my deep thanks to the two “corporate angels” who have committed to underwriting the show for the coming season—the Edmonton Public Library and Alberta Views magazine. They deserve your support!
The not-quite-so-good news is that we have two weeks left to get over the $20,000 mark or CKUA management will have to announce cancellation of the program…so we’re not quite out of the woods yet!
Ken Davis, Host
Filed under: books, interviews, news, Thank you
July 23: Good news!
I have just received word from CKUA that we have reached our fund-raising target for the “Bookmark” 2009-2010 production season and the show is on the air for another year!
To each of you who dug deep and supported this cause financially, to each of you who passed the word along to others, to each of you who listens to and supports the program and takes part in interviews and sharing feature ideas – a heartfelt THANK YOU!
“Bookmark” is not just a unilateral initiative by a few people … it is a broad-based co-operative effort by literally hundreds of people across Alberta to ensure the literary community and book trade in this province has a forum and a communication platform for reaching out to each other and to Albertans and to the world. You have more than proved that through this campaign.
So, I will no doubt be seeing or talking to some of you through the coming season as we organize a new round of interviews and features. Time to get to work!
Cheers,
Ken Davis
Host, “Bookmark,” CKUA Radio Network
I am delighted to hear that “Bookmark” will be continued – I really enjoy it and have already read one of the books that I heard about on your program. And I know of more that I plan to order through EPL.
It’s a great program for authors and readers – I am so glad you were able to get the funding needed to continue. And I wish you continued success.