WSIE to hold fundraising weekend Friday, December 2 through Sunday, December 4

WSIE (88.7 FM), the only radio station in the St. Louis area to devote significant airtime to jazz music, will be holding an on-air fundraiser beginning at 4:00 p.m. this Friday, December 2 and continuing until 4:00 p.m. on Sunday.

Premiums for financial supporters of the station will include underwriting announcements, CDs from local indie jazz label MAXJAZZ, and the chance to appear on-air as a newsreader or, for $300, as host of a two-hour jazz show. The station hopes to raise a total $50,000 for continuing operations.

Here's hoping St. Louis area jazz fans will show some support for WSIE, which, due in part to cutbacks in money from the state of Illinois, has operated on a very modest budget in recent years. If the station can develop its own regular fund-raising successfully, as other local public media outlets such as KDHX (88.1 FM), KWMU (90.7 FM) and KETC (Channel 9) have done, it could go a long way toward ensuring that WSIE continues to program jazz for the foreseeable future.