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For more than 30 years, John Kiesewetter has been the source for information about all things in local media — comings and goings, local people appearing on the big or small screen, special programs, and much more. Contact John at johnkiese@yahoo.com.

WVXU Fund Drive Starts Thursday

WVXU kicks off a it's fall fund drive Thursday with a $50,000 matching grant, while WGUC listeners’ generosity earlier this month has shortened the on-air appeal on the sister classical music station until  Tuesday.

Thursday morning WVXU will announce the Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation matching grant.   Listeners will be asked to thank the Haile Foundation for its support with #ThanksHaile on Twitter, says Sherri Mancini, Cincinnati Public Radio vice president for development.

Some of the fall funds will pay for a new WVXU transmitter to be installed next month, she says.

Unlike recent years, separate campaigns are underway for WVXU and WGUC.

Why? To test a “silent” Crescendo Campaign. Mancini calls it a “non-fund drive.”

“We promised listeners we’d eliminate the fund drive if we could raise the $125,000 we would normally raise before Sept. 17th, the official start date,” Mancini says.

“We have only around $29,000 to raise, so we’ve already cut the first five days of the WGUC fund drive. Our hope is we can wrap it up with only two hours of on-air fundraising on ‘Two Hour Tuesday’ (8-10 a.m. on Sept. 22).

“We’ve had so many listeners tell us they like this new approach,” she says. One member praised the new approach by saying, “This fund-raiser is a gentle caress of the ears rather than the typical ear twisting of past campaigns,” she says.

As I’ve said for many years, long before I joined the WVXU team: Public broadcasting is a valuable, unique community service. If you’re tired of hearing the appeal for funds, then make a donation so the campaign can end sooner than later.

John Kiesewetter, who has covered television and media for more than 35 years, has been working for Cincinnati Public Radio and WVXU-FM since 2015.