Celebrity Pitches Disc 1 CFE

Hello, this is No Atoms of NPR. K-A-N-U is here for you every day. Whenever and wherever you want to listen. You can hear news and classical music throughout Northeastern Kansas, and now on the World Wide Web, too. K-A-N-U is your choice for news and music. I hope you'll take them at it now to become a K-A-N-U listener member. It'd be great if just listening was enough to sustain us, but the fact is we need your financial help to keep the station a vital member of the community. We're here for you every day. Won't you be here for us right now? Please pick up the phone and call 1-888-824-5268, and you'll see how easy it is to support K-A-N-U. And thanks. I'm Bob Edwards of NPR's Morning Edition. You depend on K-A-N-U to bring you the latest news every morning, but don't forget we depend on you, too. Our pledge is what makes it possible for us to continue providing you with Morning Edition and the other programs you expect from K-A-N-U. When you call 1-888-864-5268 to pledge your support, you help pay for the news you rely

on. So make that call right now, won't you? Call 1-888-824-5268 and become a K-A-N-U listener member. I'm Terry Gross, the host of Fresh Air. If you know public radio, you know that pledge drives are the only way we can keep bringing good programming to you. That's why we call it public radio. We're listener-supported, non-commercial radio. In order for you to have quality programs like Fresh Air, you have to keep your end of the bargain and give your financial support. USK-A-N-U to put Fresh Air in your programming schedule, and they did. Now the station needs your support to keep it on the air. This are strengthened when everyone does their part, please call with your pledge. The number is 1-888-824-5268. Hi, this is Leigh Ann Hansen, host of NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday. You listen to K-A-N-U, don't you?

And you're not going to spend your valuable time on a second-class radio station, are you? That's why you've chosen to be a K-A-N-U listener. Well, all that's left to do now is to become a K-A-N-U listener member. Because your membership is what helps pay for the outstanding news programs you hear every day. All it takes is your pledge to ensure that K-A-N-U can continue to provide you with Weekend Edition, all things considered, and all the rest, please pick up the phone right now and call 1-888-824-5268. You'll be glad you did. Thanks a lot. Hello, this is Karl Castle of NPR News, asking you to join with the thousands of other K-A-N-U listeners who are supporting the news they depend on every day. We're here for you because many of your friends and neighbors have already become K-A-N-U member listeners. Why not return the favor now and call 1-888-824-5268 to pledge your support?

Listener memberships are the most important source of income for K-A-N-U. It's how we make this station work. So please call 1-888-824-5268 right now and support the programming you hear every day on K-A-N-U. And thanks. Hello, this is Garrison Keeler. Along with the grain elevators and the water tower, the most imposing building in Lake Wobagon is our lady of perpetual responsibility, Catholic Church. And the name of the church says a lot about Lake Wobagon and its people. Responsibility is something that we take seriously, responsibility to the church, to family, to friends, and if you're a listener, to public radio. After all, K-A-N-U is your window to the world of Lake Wobagon and far beyond. We can't pass the collection plate through your speakers, but we hope you'll do your

part right now and call 1-888-824-5268 with your pledge and thank you. Hello, this is Garrison Keeler. We can't pass the collection plate through your speakers, but we hope you'll do your part right now and call 1-888-824-5268 with your pledge and thank you. Hello, this is Bill Curtis. When I worked at K-A-N-U as a student many years ago, there was no such thing as National Public Radio. Today, fortunately, when you want to hear in-depth news or listen to great music, there is a place to find it, and because you depend on K-A-N-U, it's very important that you phone in a pledge right now and help support the programming you enjoy. Listener support is the single most important source of funding for K-A-N-U. It's why we're able to bring you morning edition, all things considered, and a lot more.

So pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-824-5268. The dollars you pledge now will come back to you every day. Once again, it's 1-888-824-5268. Thanks. Hello, this is Bill Curtis. Radio has changed a lot since my days as a student and reporter here at K-A-N-U, but one thing hasn't changed. K-A-N-U's commitment to quality. At a time when radio formats change like the seasons, K-A-N-U has brought you great music and in-depth news coverage every day for nearly 50 years. I hope you'll honor that commitment by becoming a K-A-N-U listener member right now. Listener support is why we're able to bring you the quality programs you've come to expect. So call us now at 1-888-824-5268. K-A-N-U is there for you every day.

Won't you be there for us today? Again, it's 1-888-824-5268. K-A-N-U. Thanks. Hi, I'm Marion McPartland. Here again to ask you to support piano jazz and the other programs you enjoy on K-A-N-U. We're here for you 365 days a year without standing news and wonderful music, but it's up to you to help pay for this service. You depend on K-A-N-U. So don't forget we depend on you, too. Please make a call now to pleasure support. It's easy to become a member. Just take time out right now and call 1-888-824-5268. Thanks so much. Hi, I'm Marion McPartland with a reminder that now is the time for you to pleasure support for K-A-N-U. If you enjoy piano jazz every week, please remember that K-A-N-U depends on you and

your contribution so we can keep piano jazz on the air. Membership support is a single most important source of funding for K-A-N-U, and the dollars you pledged now will come back to you many times over in the form of great music throughout the year. So please call us now at 1-888-824-5268, and thanks so much. Hello, this is Robert Siegel of NPR. Have you ever thought of radio as a portable medium? We're here for you, whenever and wherever you want to listen, whether you're looking for in-depth news on all things considered or great music, K-A-N-U is your place to find it. We've chosen to listen, and I hope that you'll choose to support K-A-N-U by becoming a member. Your pledge helps to pay for the news and music that you enjoy 24 hours a day 365 days a year.

We're a dependable companion here for you every day, please be here for us. Call 1-888-824-5268 and pledge your support. Thank you. I'm Susan Stamberg at NPR, is K-A-N-U part of your routine. Do you have breakfast with Bob Edwards every morning, get through the day with great music hosted by Rachel Hunter and Cordelia Brown, drive home with the hosts of all things considered? However much you depend on K-A-N-U, don't forget K-A-N-U depends on you too, because it's your membership that makes it possible for us to bring you the programming you rely on every day. Please call and pledge your support, and tomorrow Bob Edwards will be here for breakfast. In fact he might even pass the toast if you ask nicely. Hello I'm Linda Worthheimer at NPR. Have you ever thought about how much public radio is part of your life?

Think about the news you hear on K-A-N-U. It's here for you 24 hours a day, and now we're asking you to be here for us. When you call 1-888-824-5268 to pledge your support, you're helping to pay for the news you depend on. We reach out to you 365 days a year, right now, once you reach back for a moment and become a K-A-N-U member listener, it's easy to do, so don't wait. Call 1-888-824-5268 right now. Remember, the dollars you contribute are returned to you many times over every day on K-A-N-U. Thanks. Hi Darrell Good. Well first and foremost Bill, welcome to the campaign for excellence. We're so pleased you've taken this time to spend with us during the Spring Fundraising Drive here at K-A-N-U.

Thank you very much, and it's my pleasure to speak on behalf of K-A-N-U, one of my favorites. Now as Bill and I are chatting here today, don't forget the phone number. It's 1-888-824-5268 to phone in your support for K-A-N-U during the campaign for excellence. Bill Curtis, I guess the obvious place for us to start is for me to ask you how and when did you become involved here at K-A-N-U. It was around 1861-62. I was a junior and senior there at the School of Journalism. K-A-N-U enjoyed kind of a lofty position on campus, squeezed there by a hook auditorium. Not everybody could work there because its professional standards were so high. So I felt very fortunate to get a job as an announcer and looked down from the announced booth on HIDE into the rather unusual architecture in studio. You could study a little bit on the side, but I was studying so hard the foreign languages to pronounce the classical names that I didn't have much time for study elsewhere.

But I was proud to work there and also for the quality of the programming, it was unbelievable. Well then you'll be happy to learn we're still in the same building, they haven't moved us out yet. I think I have mixed emotions about moving you out of that building primarily because so many memories and also I thought it was so unique. So let's try and keep some of the quality of the studios. Yeah, absolutely. I'd agree with that. We're talking with Bill Curtis. He is the producer and host of American Justice and Investigative Reports on the Arts and Entertainment Network. He's also an alumnus of the University of Kansas as well as a former staff member here at K-A-N-U. We want to remind you of the phone number. It's 1-888-824-5268, that is the number to call during our spring fundraising drive campaign for excellence here at K-A-N-U. And Bill Curtis, you mentioned quality before, that's really the name of the game all the time on public radio, but especially this way because we're trying to raise the dollars

that are needed to continue providing our listeners with the quality programming that's available only on public radio. 1-888-824-5268 is the number to call. Bill, I want to ask you, looking back over your career and broadcasting all the way back to your days here at K-A-N-U to the present time, what's the biggest change you've seen in those years? Well, there are so many changes, but videotape, I think, is the biggest one. We were shooting in television film when I left K-A-N-U. Of course, satellites changed things, so we now cover Iraq like we would cover City Hall. And can't leave out the internet, that is yet to change our lives, but it will surely change our lives as much if not more in the next few years as all the last 30 years. It's been a wonderful time to be in this business. Well, of course, from where we sit here at Broadcasting Hall, another big change that has occurred since the 1960s, really is, recently, even as the 1970s, is that more and more stations

like K-A-N-U depend on listeners for the lion's share of the financial support that it takes to keep a station like this operating and providing you with programming like morning edition. And all things considered, that's why we turn to you right now at a time like this during the campaign for excellence. And invite you to call 1-888-824-5268 to pledge your support. It's 1-888-824-5268 K-A-N-U, we're chatting with Bill Curtis today and Bill, you know, I read your bio and I want to ask you one last question. There's a story in your bio that when you were a student here at K-U in the early 1960s, you acquired or swiped some loudspeakers somewhere and drove around late one night, booming your voice all over the campus. Now, is that a folk tale or did that really happen? Aren't you nice to bring that up? No, that's a true story. And it involved a fraternity on campus.

I was the band and radios. Of course, I was the one they chose to speak on the loudspeaker, which would have been fine if it hadn't been at 2 o'clock in the morning. Yes, the pledges were doing it in some kind of an initiation right. And a young mother who felt that we had awakened her baby called the police and we spent the night in jail, so maybe that's why I do American justice and investigative reports because I know it from the inside out. Well, forgive me for bringing up that dark chapter from your past. Maybe I turned out all right. Well, I suppose it would have been a primitive form of public radio if only you had stopped to ask passerby for contributions as you went by 2 o'clock in the morning. That's sort of what we're doing here during the campaign for excellence. That phone number, of course. To give it that number out easily. Well, you can give it out right now if you wish. 1-888-824-5268. Thank you.

Yes, that is the phone number. For the campaign for excellence, K-A-NU's annual spring fundraising drive, 1-888-824-K-A-NU because you depend on K-A-NU, it's important to step up right now and pledge your support become a member listener of FM915 and then you're helping to make possible the programming that you depend on. And FM915 and Bill, don't you think this is true that when something is around and available to you all the time, as public radio is 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it's only natural that we would tend to take something like that for granted. It was there yesterday. It's there right now. Sure, it's going to be there tomorrow. We take those things for granted, but boy, we really missed them if they were gone. That's why it's important to become a public radio member listener right now. 1-888-824-5268. Well, you said it well when you said if it's not there, you will certainly miss it because it's part of your life. But the fact is that the way the finances work is that a big majority of the budgets really

comes from the viewers. They support the kind of programming and that also is a vote that they want to see that kind of programming continue. You might be able to put a classical record on, but you certainly will not be able to tap into the vast library that KANU has and has build up over the years with announcers who have the experience and the depth of knowledge that really can be ranked among the academics as experts. You pay for it. In commercial television, you pay for it in another way by giving them the ability to run commercials. You pay for it in your time. So I sometimes think that if we all understood that and the listeners really come up to the bar, if you will, and not the bar that you drank from, but the bar is in a courtroom, and step forward and contribute why it makes things a lot easier for everyone.

Everybody has to do it and provide a quality alternative. I like to think at A&E, we provide a quality alternative. I've tried to dedicate my life to that, but we have commercials. KANU does not. It gives information there, and that is why that we should support this form of content because without KANU, it is very likely to go away. And I would hate to see that. Well put. And with that too, we're sort of out of time here, Bill Curtis, who would want to thank you for joining us during the campaign for excellence. You want to get that phone number one more time? Let me reach back into the years when I recall sitting in that announce booth, and when the light went on, I wanted everything to be perfect, and I would switch on my little microphone, having dusted my record and placed the needle right in the first groove, to say KANU from the University of Kansas.

Please call 1-888-824-5268, and in reflecting on those days, I don't think I've improved a bit. Bill Curtis, thanks again, thanks so much for joining us here during the campaign for excellence. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, you're very welcome. It's good to have a chance to join forces with you. I suppose public radio is all about partnerships between the listeners and the stations, and of course, between producers and stations, and I feel it's a great chance for me to have an opportunity to work with you to build up those resources for KANU. Yes, indeed. And let me just give that phone number right off the bed here, and then we'll get to it 1-888-824-5268, that's 1-888-824-KANU, it's toll-free call, so please, if you enjoy, let this one in Shamrock on KANU, please give us a call right now.

You know, Fiona, as we're getting ready to do this, it occurred to me that I believe KANU has aired the this one in Shamrock ever since it started. How long have you been doing the show now? Well, you must be one of our charter stations, I think we should have a special gathering at some point for all our charter stations. We've been doing the program as a nationally offered program since June of 1983, so it is quite a while now. It started as a local program for a while before that on WFAE Radio in Charlotte, North Carolina, and it was really on the strength of support from listeners to that station in the Charlotte, North Carolina market, that gave us the impetus to offer the program nationally, and of course, the resources to do that, and then ever since then, the program has been supported individually on all the stations, which carry it all across the US. I think we have over 350 stations now, so it really has been listener support from the beginning that's allowed the program to become a national program, and then has kept the program being popular and developed an audience for this music on public radio,

which is one of the few places where you can actually hear it on the radio, so our association is a long one, and it's been an important one for the music. And don't you think this is true that so often with things that are available to us all the time as public radio is? It's there 24-7, as they say now, every day with music and news programming. When something is there all the time, our tendency is kind of to take those things for granted and maybe not take a minute to think how important it is to, at a time like this, to pick up that phone and make the phone call. I think you're absolutely right. It's an unfortunate part of human nature, I suppose, we can take for granted those things which are maybe dear to us or have become so important to us that we almost don't notice them anymore, but you know yourself as you listen to KANU, how often you listen, although I wonder if Daryl, if it's true to say perhaps that a lot of people maybe aren't aware of how often they turn the radio on to hear KANU, it maybe does become such a common part

of their lifestyle. So maybe it's a good opportunity for folks just to sort of sit and think about that for a moment. Maybe you tune in as part of the Sunday block of folk acoustic programming, maybe Prairie Home Companions part of your routine or trail mix. KANU invests an awful lot of resources and energy into local programs as well as into bringing in national programming like the Thessalon Shamrock and other shows. You've got the good time radio review and maybe you just put your radio on every so often you just expect KANU to be there offering your programming that appeals to your pilot like that. If that's the case, sit back for just a second and think about how often you tune in and maybe even when you're not listening just knowing that you can pop the radio on and hear programming that speaks to you and share a listening experience with a whole lot of other people who share your taste in music and you need for quality and depth programming.

If that begins to describe you, call us at 1-888-824-5268. It would be great to know that you answered the call during the Thessalon Shamrock and helped to raise funds for KANU towards that ultimate fund raising goal of $170,000, but I guess our goal for the Thessalon Shamrock this time around is $1,000. I think it's doable, but only one call at a time and I certainly hope we'll be hearing from you right now. Indeed, yes, and we have phone lines available right now. Our volunteers are standing by ready to take your call at 1-888-824-5268. You know, Fiona, it is true that when we do these fundraising drives, we always ask when folks call in their pledges, what's your favorite program, what programming do you enjoy hearing? The Thessalon Shamrock is a program that gets mentioned a lot on those pledge forms, so I know that we're talking this afternoon to folks who are a regular Thessalon Shamrock listeners on KANU, and if you're one of those, then please go to the phone right now and make that call at 1-888-824-5268, Fiona, let me ask you this, since you've been doing

the show since 1983, what gives you the most pleasure as you do the Thessalon Shamrock nowadays? Well, there are so many things, I suppose, you know, I come in every day and there's a pile of padded envelopes on my desk waiting for me to open them, and they're full of CDs from quite well-established performers, people that we've heard through the years bands like Alton or performers like Dougie McLean, and then I open one of the packages, and it'll be a completely unknown name to me, and I pop it in the CD player, and there's always a surprise waiting, so it's fun to discover new music and have a chance to introduce it to listeners to the Thessalon Shamrock, and it's always a pleasure to meet people who share that interest, and who share a sense of connectedness, a sense of community, that we're able to enjoy together through public radio, so yeah, making that connection away from the microphones directly with people who listen and having a chance to meet them

in chat, and that's always been the most enjoyable part to me, and I guess every day we hear from people who are just hearing the programme for the first time, and it's amazing to think that after all these years we're still reaching and finding new listeners out there, and in new parts of the US, but we are, and it's always a pleasure to find that out and to know that, you know, our paths may cross one day. I know the number. Well, okay, then you can tell everybody else. I know the number, it's toll free, 1-8-8-8-8-2-4-5-2-6-8, and the Thessalon Shamrock has been thriving since the very beginning on KANU, thanks to listeners like you all through the years who've supported this programme, have given whatever you can afford to sustain the Thessalon Shamrock and all the great programmes that you hear on KANU. We appreciate it so much, and as Daryl says, if you're so nice to know that we get some new listeners this time and some new supporters to the radio station, and Daryl, I was just thinking as I was anticipating hearing from you and having this chance to chat, that I

do get to do some programming from time to time with BBC over here, and last night I was hosting a radio programme for BBC, one of their long-standing weekly programmes called Celtic Connections, which I helped to start about a decade ago, and I was also remembering that I had just received a bill, which was sitting on my desk here, which is my annual television licence bill, and it's a bill for 101 pounds, which I have to pay annually, which I suppose translates to about $160, and that's the bill that comes to all of us here in this country if we have a television, that we have to pay that as our annual if you like tax, for owning a television set, and that money goes to support BBC television and radio programming, and operations, that's our non-commercial broadcaster over here, our public broadcaster, public service broadcasting, if you own a television over here, even if all you ever watch is commercial TV, you have to pay that annual tax, and it supports

BBC operations across the board, it's a very different system, I guess it ensures that the funds are there coming in from users of public service broadcasting here, but it's a very different system in the US, first of all, you have a choice as to whether or not you want to support public broadcasting, and you set the amount yourself, you pick a value and amount that you think is appropriate for your listening and your budget, and all of it in the case of your support to KANU goes into radio, which is something you obviously love as a listener, and it all goes to invest and enrich in your own station, KANU, that's something that I think gives public radio in the US, the edge, really, over our wonderful BBC programming over here, is it's so local and it's so responsive to the taste and the flavours and the needs and the voices of your own local community, as KANU brings in national and international programming to complement those local voices and that reflection

of your own local community, so it's a very different system, and I think it's one that allows for individual expression, but it doesn't work if you don't call and you don't be part of it, so express yourself now with that call at 1-888-824-5268, exercise your choice to support public radio, and KANU will be all the better for it, we certainly appreciate hearing from you, and I think it's a bit nicer, don't you, Darrell, than being sent an annual bill as I am over here? I do indeed, it's quick, it's easy, we do all the paperwork, and you get all the satisfaction of supporting the Fissel and Shamrock and the programming you enjoy. I'm glad you brought up the BBC connection, I know we're going to have to let you go here in a moment, but before we do, that's the relationship of the BBC with its listeners and the annual tax that you pay is something we mentioned quite often during our annual fundraising drives. Do they still tell me do they still have the radio police, the radio cars that go out,

and we've heard about the radio cars that go out and seek out receivers that are illegally listening to the BBC? Yes, I always find that kind of curious, of course most people on television sets, so why do they even need this truck to go around and detect that you are watching a television set? I mean, presumably, if they just randomly knocked on doors, they'd find people watching their television, and they could then ask if they could display their license, but it's I think it's just perhaps a ploy to put in place to give people an awareness that it's not something that you should sneak a television set into your house and not pay. It's strange, they tax the viewing of television, but that's what covers also the contribution into radio. So it's different in the US, it is something, as I said, that you can exercise the choice over, but it's a choice that we urge you to make right now, because KANU and KANU's programming, and remember, we're talking right now, but the Thyslans-Sharmant want to

reach that fundraising goal for Thysl of $1,000, but you're blessed with KANU's great dedication to and commitment to folk and acoustic music programming. Remember, on Sundays, you have a pretty home companion, and then local programming, like trail mix with Bob McWilliams, Thysl, and then a real commitment also to live music from the studios, which I think is something that a lot of public radio stations have kind of shirked away from, because it's frankly more expensive, it's more time consuming, requires a lot of more intense involvement on the part of many more staff members, but not KANU, they are bringing you programs like the Good Time Radio Review from a local theatre, which I think is a wonderful service to and a wonderful entertainment opportunity for listeners, and of course, featuring a number of nationally known Celtic performers, including the likes of Connie Dover and Liz Carroll, who's got a new CD out now in Scarlet Glen. So you've got a great resource there in KANU, and I would urge you not to take that for granted at all.

Lots of communities have public radio stations, but they don't all have public radio stations that get so involved in providing live music to the community from the studios and local theatres and such, so stand up and be counted now at 1-888-824-5268, and to help make that kind of programming possible, it's a wonderful resource, and we'd love to hear from you now if it's something that you appreciate and that you would like to see continue in your community. Well, those are all good reasons to make the phone call right now to support the Thysl and Shemrock in KANU. Let me give you the number once again, it's 1-888-824-5268 to get in touch with our spring fundraising drive. You're at KANU. Fiona Richie, thank you so much for taking time out to spend with us here, it's been great to talk to you. You're very welcome, Darryl, and I certainly hope that the fundraiser is a grand success, and listeners come through for you loud and clear, and that you go soaring past that goal of $170,000. I know that every penny gets invested right back where it belongs in programming, so good luck to everyone at KANU.

Thanks a lot. Thanks, Darryl.