Championship Sunday?
Today is the last day of WFMU's annual fund raising marathon. It's a marathon that has been full of adversity (the station's FM transmitter was off the air for an hour Sunday afternoon due to a blackout in West Orange) and tragedy.
In my younger days, the feeling of elation that came from one of my favorite sports teams winning a championship was unrivaled by any other. As I got older, and especially once I began working in the TV business my ability to feel that feeling outside of an immediate moment in a game virtually disappeared. I see the world of sports now for what it is: a bunch of well-branded corporations competing against each other in a contrived setting with the primary objective of generating revenue streams for their owners, sponsors and participants. So I may get absorbed into an actual contest but once it's over the feeling is more "so what else is on?" rather than the joyous afterglow or crushing depression that followed in the past.
The one thing that still gives me the old championship feeling is the moment each year when WFMU hits the financial goal in the marathon. I realize that last statement sounds goofy, but FMU is different from any other publicly-supported arts institution. It is truly 100% listener supported, no corporate underwriting, no pseudo-commercials like PBS, no government funding like NPR, no nothing. Just us listeners. It is something that should not exist in an overly-commercialized cynical, Ipod-infested, robot-radio infected world but it does. Human beings playing music they choose, talking about whatever they want to talk about, reminding the world that radio at its best is an art form. Radio at its best is not some idiot with an Ipod on shuffle - every time I see a pair of those goddamn white ear pods I want to throw them on the ground and stomp them into oblivion. It is not some automated system with snarky pre-recorded drop ins playing a rotation of MP3's narrowcasted based on market research.
WFMU is a community that thousands of us feel a part of even if you're someone like me who has never set foot in the place. A connection, a kinship, and a collection of voices that entertain and enrich my life even when they're not playing unlistenable crap that makes me turn the dial. I wouldn't have that any other way either.
They need $100 grand before midnight. I fear they won't make it given everything that's happened. It's nervous time. Will I start the work week off in a good mood or a bad mood? I did my bit already, it's out of my hands. 800-989-9368. Go team.
In my younger days, the feeling of elation that came from one of my favorite sports teams winning a championship was unrivaled by any other. As I got older, and especially once I began working in the TV business my ability to feel that feeling outside of an immediate moment in a game virtually disappeared. I see the world of sports now for what it is: a bunch of well-branded corporations competing against each other in a contrived setting with the primary objective of generating revenue streams for their owners, sponsors and participants. So I may get absorbed into an actual contest but once it's over the feeling is more "so what else is on?" rather than the joyous afterglow or crushing depression that followed in the past.
The one thing that still gives me the old championship feeling is the moment each year when WFMU hits the financial goal in the marathon. I realize that last statement sounds goofy, but FMU is different from any other publicly-supported arts institution. It is truly 100% listener supported, no corporate underwriting, no pseudo-commercials like PBS, no government funding like NPR, no nothing. Just us listeners. It is something that should not exist in an overly-commercialized cynical, Ipod-infested, robot-radio infected world but it does. Human beings playing music they choose, talking about whatever they want to talk about, reminding the world that radio at its best is an art form. Radio at its best is not some idiot with an Ipod on shuffle - every time I see a pair of those goddamn white ear pods I want to throw them on the ground and stomp them into oblivion. It is not some automated system with snarky pre-recorded drop ins playing a rotation of MP3's narrowcasted based on market research.
WFMU is a community that thousands of us feel a part of even if you're someone like me who has never set foot in the place. A connection, a kinship, and a collection of voices that entertain and enrich my life even when they're not playing unlistenable crap that makes me turn the dial. I wouldn't have that any other way either.
They need $100 grand before midnight. I fear they won't make it given everything that's happened. It's nervous time. Will I start the work week off in a good mood or a bad mood? I did my bit already, it's out of my hands. 800-989-9368. Go team.
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