The May edition of the NAB’s community service newsletter, Licensed To Serve, has hit the inboxes.
Not surprisingly the bombings in Boston and local broadcasters’ responses to them take the lead.
Entercom Boston (WEEI[FM], WAAF[FM], WRKO[AM]) and Greater Media Boston (WBQT[FM], WKLB[FM], WMJX[FM], WBOS[FM], WROR[FM]) are highlighted for multiple efforts.
Greater Media cancelled contests and donated the prize money the One Fund. WKLB worked with singer Kenny Chesney on a fund for prosthetics for amputees resulting during the bombings.
Entercom donated $25,000 to the One Fund while WAAF’s Greg Hill raised another $11,000 for victims. Entercom and its WEEI sports station were big promoters of the “Boston Strong” campaign featured at many sporting events.
In South Carolina, Media General’s WBTW(FM) raised money for people whose condos were destroyed by a fire in the Carolina Forest. A total of $27,000 was raised for the estimated 200 newly homeless.
In the wake of the fertilizer plant that exploded in West, Texas, Clear Channel’s WACO(FM) in nearby Waco, Texas organized an online artist memorabilia auction to benefit the West fire department, which had been devastated by the explosion.
On the health front show host Gene Baxter and engineer Scott Mason of KROQ(FM), a CBS Radio property in Los Angeles, participated in the Donate Life Run/Walk to raise money for the OneLegacy Foundation. The foundation promotes organ donations and transplants. Last year, Baxter and Mason made news when Baxter donated a kidney to Mason.
Another CBS Radio property, WCCO(FM) in Minneapolis collected unneeded coats in a “goodbye to winter” campaign called The Good Neighbor’s Coats for Kids Drive. The coats will be set aside for distribution after summer.
And speaking of seasonal drives, Cumulus’ WZNS(FM), Fort Walton Beach, Fla., donated over 100 prom dresses for use at local high school proms. For kids that couldn’t afford to purchase dresses, the effort included a local mall to store the dresses and provide fitting rooms along with a dry cleaner that donated services. The program has run for nine years.
