91.7’s annual Fund Drive is biggest money maker for campus radio station

For 91.7 The Edge and radio stations like it, fundraisers are crucial to the station’s survival.

The radio station’s biggest annual fundraiser, the Fund Drive, starts tomorrow and ends April 21.

“It’s really crucial to the livelihood of the station,” sophomore music director Justin Cunningham said. “It helps us stay with the times and basically stay afloat.”

The drive will feature a concert series as well as a dunk tank, car smash and bowling tournament.

The biggest event will be the  concert series, which features 10 bands over seven nights at Pumper’s & Mitchell’s in downtown Whitewater.

The bands performing downtown will also be featured on 91.7 throughout the week, doing live interviews and performances.

On Monday, the radio station will host a number of events in and outside of the University Center, including the dunk tank, an open house, and the bowling tournament.

“We’ll be up in the UC balcony, yelling at people, throwing stuff,” Cunningham said. “So definitely be looking for free stuff falling down from the skies during the Fund Drive.”

The dunk tank will give students a chance to soak some campus celebrities, including faculty and athletes.

During the Rockin’ Bowl event, a donation will qualify students for a raffle where the top prize is a year supply of Topper’s Pizza.

On April 20, there will be a car smash on campus.

“If you pay a dollar, you get to take  a sledge-hammer to a car,” Cunningham said.

Bradly Ford, promotion director for the radio station, said the station is hoping to raise about a thousand dollars.

“We like to try and get $200 a night,” Ford said. “It would be nice to walk away with another thousand dollars for the radio station at least.”

Ford also stressed the importance of the Fund Drive during a time when many other college radio stations are shutting down.

“It’s a really big, important thing for our radio station,” Ford said. “It’s our big income raiser for the radio station to keep a steady supply of useful real world  equipment for the students that come in and are getting a broadcasting degree…so they can go into the real world and actually have experience with things that they’ll use at their work place.”

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