By Tara Trayers
Collegian Correspondent
The University of Massachusetts student radio station, WMUA 91.1 FM, raised over $40,000 in donations during the station’s 25th Annual Polkathon, a weeklong on-air fundraising campaign. The Polkathon began Nov. 13 and ran through Nov. 19 in hopes to raise $28,000 for various upcoming events and equipment for the radio station.
Staff member Billy Belina, a newly inducted International Polka Hall of Fame Personality, hosted the event this year. Belina is an Easthampton resident and a WMUA DJ and University of Massachusetts Housing Services staff member since 1979. He made a compilation CD of his famous Polka songs as well as other songs that were available in a premium package for donations. Over 100 of his CDs sold for approximately $35 a piece.
Many other guest DJs helped with the event, including Annie Goodman, a Pioneer Valley syndicated alternative news program DJ. Her show carried about $10,000 in donations.
Jill Weinstein, the Fund Drive Director and a senior at UMass, has
been hard at work on this project for the past year. Just about every day since the semester began, Weinstein has called, made arrangements, and organized for the event. She had to call businesses in the area to enlist their support. The station thanks the businesses by mentioning their support and does not direct advertisements on the various programs through out the week.
“I’m so happy. We raised over $40,000 dollars and surpassed our goal of $28, 000,” Weinstein said. “Most college radio stations are unable to accomplish this event.”
Weinstein had to find volunteers to devote their time to this weeklong event, that included signing up to volunteer any time from 5 a.m. to 12 p.m. Weinstein explains that listeners call in with donations from all over including as far as Japan. The donations go towards the station’s wish list, which includes technical equipment for the station of about 100 members. The volunteers helped to answer the nonstop ringing phones throughout the week.
“The Fund Drive Director’s job pretty much starts right after the event for next year,” Weinstein said. “This event has engulfed my life pretty much since I’ve gotten back to school,” she added.
Weinstein explains that the event planning really picked up around October and November when she was busy getting things into place. She claimed that the station is already planning for next year and that the duties of the director include a lot of responsibility and planning. She continues to work on the Polkathon after the event with processing the donations and orders. The station still has to mail out the orders and enter all the information into their database. Weinstein’s job as fund drive director is a paid position from September to May as she still needs to process the information and send out over 1,000 items to listeners. WMUA-FM is a federally licensed student-run, non-commercial radio station of the University, serving members of the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Vermont.
Full-time undergraduate students as well as graduate students, faculty, and staff members primarily run the station. Members of the surrounding communities also donate their time and efforts to help. The station is partially funded from the University’s Student Government Association, but needs to raise almost half of their annual operating budget.
The money raised from the Polkathon has allowed the WMUA to purchase and install a new transmitter and antenna, new CD players, cassette decks, and high quality processing equipment. First started as an AM radio station in 1949, the station continues to operate to provide various programs including blues, jazz, rock, hip-hop, polka, and other music programs as well as providing news throughout the day.
WMUA is an alternative radio station, which has a mission to provide programming not readily available elsewhere on the radio not covered in mainstream media often working in genres by commercial radio.
Other volunteers included over 70 Umass students and several
community members who are donating few hours to help take calls. Most volunteers stayed about two hours, excepting the dedicated Polka people that stayed from 5 a.m. until nighttime.
“There were so many people and tables of food including bagels from Bruger’s Bagel and many polish foods,” Weinstein said.
Most of the listeners and donators are from Polish associations.
Weinstein describes the event as being just plain crazy saying, “About 20 people were running around with not a second of rest. The phones were ringing off the hooks.” At one point during the show, a CD player was causing some problems.
“Many people called in with donations of their Polka bands
CDs,” Weinstein said. “We used most of their CD’s for the event,” she added.
The station itself had its 15 departments working hard on the event as well. “Each department was responsible for big role. For example, the Music Director had to round up the CDs to play, the Publicity Department had to print out advertisements, and the Visual Media Department had to make pictures for the shirts and other prizes,” Weinstein said.
The biggest amount donated by one person was $200, while the smallest amount was about $15. As a thank you for tax-deductible donations, CDs, gift certificates, concert tickets, T-shirts, and other special premiums were available for the donations.
The WMUA streams its programming live at www.wmua.org/listen, where listeners can tune in anytime. The programming during the week includes blues, jazz, rock, hip-hop and other music programs. During the weekend, specialties are aired. Polka, oldies, and dance music plays on Saturdays, while country, bluegrass, gospel, and electronic music play on Sunday. The station airs sports coverage throughout the week. The coverage includes basketball games from the University as well as traveling to Chicago to air the sports show. The studios are located in the basement of the Campus Center.
