WELP WE KNOCKED THAT ONE OUT QUICK!

So in the interest of eNtErTaInMeNt and making sure y'all get a chance to participate in $10 day, I'm making a stretch goal of $500 - if we hit that, I'll do LIVE ON-AIR KARAOKE TO A SONG OF YOUR CHOICE on my next show!! WOW that's ridiculous!!

HEY EVERYONE WHOA IT'S SPRING DRIVE SEASON ALREADY

Which means I'm deep in the throes of Record Fair planning, and thus don't have a ton of time to throw this together. BUT guess since last drive I also started DJing professionally which I seriously could not have done without CHIRP, so please consider this the continued enabling of Music Taking My Life Completely Over. And enabling the Record Fair to exist! Because that's basically all I do in the spring. And I know y'all love going to that.

So, I imagine you have some questions about the drive:

How does my $$$ help CHIRP?

• $10 covers one day of transmission from our studio to our transmitter site, half a day of streaming costs, or one album that isn’t sent to us by an artist or label
• $25 covers the cost of a replacement stylus for a turntable
• $50 covers one day of rent for the CHIRP studios
• $60 ($5/mo.) covers one month or CHIRP’s phone or DSL bill
• $120 ($10/mo.) covers a turntable tune-up
• $240 ($20/mo.) covers a hand-held field recorder for our features team, or one month of maintenance for our mobile app
• $365 ($1/day) covers just over a week of rent for the CHIRP studios
• $500 covers one month of rooftop rent for our broadcast antenna
• $1000 covers a year of insurance for our studios or our broadcast antenna

Okay, cool, but what do I get out of it?

I'm guessing you mean besides a sense of goodwill at furthering the cause of independent music radio in The Second City?

Yeah. Let's talk tangibles. I've got bills to pay, lady.

Fair enough. Well, any donation made to a 501(c)3 non-profit (like us) is tax-deductible --

-- But I already did my taxes. What do I get right now?

Okay, okay. So we've got some pretty cool donor gifts this time around. If you sign up to give $5/month, or a flat $60, you'll get this dope pair of journals:

Nice, right? That's designed by Jessica Deahl. If you can manage to double that ($10/month or $120), you'll get a t-shirt version of the journal design plus our very awesome CHIRP Member Card (good for 2-1 entrees at a ton of restaurants, as well as admissions to local museums and other great stuff!)

Things get fancy at the $20/month level (that's $240 flat if you're not a math kid):

WOW A FESTIVAL BLANKET SO COOL! That's in addition to the aforementioned CHIRP Member Card.

If you can set aside $1/day ($365), you'll get all three gifts (journals+shirt+blanket) in addition to the Member Card. If you're feeling particularly generous (and feel like meeting my fundraising goal in one fell swoop, damn), $500 will get you all of the above plus a tour of the station! And Shawn's undying gratitude, I'm sure. As well as mine.

Wow, that's a lot. How do I make sure I get my sweet gift?

Either donate via this page and email development@chirpradio.org, or donate via chirpradio.org/donatenow and select "Jenny West's Radio Quest" where it says "CREDIT THIS DONATION TO THIS SOCIAL FUNDRAISER". Otherwise it won't count toward my goal. And I like meeting goals.

So like... are you putting anything on offer here? Like, personally?

Not sure how to take that, but... if you donate $50, I will bring my fancy DJ equipment (yeah people pay me to do that now weird) to your event and DJ for free for an hour. Add an hour for every $50. So like, if you did a $10/month thing + $30, that's the t-shirt AND a free 3-hour party. Pretty sweet deal, right? 

What if I don't live near Chicago though?

Well, I can at least curate a Spotify playlist for you or something. We'll figure it out.

Dang, cool. So this is pretty important to you, huh?

YES. This is the organization I honestly spend something like 75% of my free time on. Sometimes even my not-free-time. I've made amazing friends and awesome music scene connections through this group, and I'm allowed to DJ and share music I love with people once a week for two hours (my show's called Music For Chameleons, it's 8-10pm Tuesdays, check it out!). None of that would happen if this organization didn't exist.

Sounds like it's pretty important for the local Chicago music scene too.

Now you're getting it. We focus on local artists and labels pretty heavily - for some bands, we're the only chance they'll have to be on the air. We also promote local concerts and fellow non-profits, so we'd like to think there's a net benefit to the community.

Well, I'm sold. How do I contribute?

Through this page, or through chirpradio.org/donatenow. 

Great, that's taken care of. Good luck with your drive!

Thanks so much! And don't forget to tune in for your on-air shoutout. You're the best!

No, you are!

Oh, stop. We'll be here all day.

Supporting CHIRP is a Sound Investment! 

CHIRP is a truly a listener-supported, volunteer-driven station and it is due to the generosity of fans and supporters like you that we keep bringing local artists, new music, and Chicago happenings to Chicago and beyond. Please make a gift supporting our spring fund drive so we can continue to bring you great music and events!

No commercials. No voice-tracking. No algorithms. Just great music brought to you by true music fans.

If you would like to become a sustaining member by making a recurring donation (monthly or quarterly), or select a thank you gift, please visit CHIRP's main donation page to make your contribution (and don’t forget to enter the name of the CHIRP Volunteer or DJ in the “How did you hear about CHIRP” section so they can receive credit for your gift).