Gas is $5.00 and over in many parts of California; Needles is already over $5.15 a gallon, with Barstow not far behind. Radio Brandy is being effected by donations and funding drying up faster than the Mississippi River! The only thing growing faster than the weeds in the Southern California desert are the For Sale & Foreclosure signs, most folks here commuting 150 to 200 a day are really feeling the pain.
Radio Brandy operations are already very efficient with the electric bill running $45 a month, it's the water & propane that went through the roof in California, propane is well over $4.00 a gallon and water just doubled in price along with trash pick up with water up to a whopping $200 a month & trash hitting $50
I see other community radio stations taking it on the chin across the country, LPFM stations in our area have seen donations completely dry up, as is just about every other charity including food banks who's shelves are how bare.
To questions arise for community radio stations:
1. What you going to do to ride out the rough times ahead?
2. What are you doing for the local community to help out?
For community outreach, we have taken in a couple dozen newly homeless pets, including boarding a few horses and chickens. The desert is the dumping ground for pets by the hundreds, we just watched another person dump five dogs on the side of the road and drive off. We are also hauling water for those in the area without running water, and picking up food for those without transportation. We are now using the Procaster AM to direct folks to cheaper gas stations, grocery store bargains.
New station funding sources include our techs offering to clean DVD players at low cost (The dust in the desert can wreck havoc on the gears and blind the laser). We will also be doing other repairs at low cost, people can't afford to just toss it in the trash anymore! $10 to bring a DVD player back to life is something people can afford, We are also looking into purchasing a professional DVD/CD restorer, couple bucks a DVD should add up! Young children can trash a disc in a couple seconds, if it's a game disc you are talking $30 plus to replace! Other funding sources for us will be selling restored table radios, an RF cable now that Radio Shack has stopped selling cable here; imaging a store that sells CB's & scanners and there antennas not selling the cable to hook them up!
To survive this meltdown in the economy, we are learning to think outside the box, most radio station tend to have technical talent that can be put to good use.
You know it's bad when the homeless camps are populated more by white collar types, than winos.
Steve
www.radiobrandy.com
Radio Brandy operations are already very efficient with the electric bill running $45 a month, it's the water & propane that went through the roof in California, propane is well over $4.00 a gallon and water just doubled in price along with trash pick up with water up to a whopping $200 a month & trash hitting $50
I see other community radio stations taking it on the chin across the country, LPFM stations in our area have seen donations completely dry up, as is just about every other charity including food banks who's shelves are how bare.
To questions arise for community radio stations:
1. What you going to do to ride out the rough times ahead?
2. What are you doing for the local community to help out?
For community outreach, we have taken in a couple dozen newly homeless pets, including boarding a few horses and chickens. The desert is the dumping ground for pets by the hundreds, we just watched another person dump five dogs on the side of the road and drive off. We are also hauling water for those in the area without running water, and picking up food for those without transportation. We are now using the Procaster AM to direct folks to cheaper gas stations, grocery store bargains.
New station funding sources include our techs offering to clean DVD players at low cost (The dust in the desert can wreck havoc on the gears and blind the laser). We will also be doing other repairs at low cost, people can't afford to just toss it in the trash anymore! $10 to bring a DVD player back to life is something people can afford, We are also looking into purchasing a professional DVD/CD restorer, couple bucks a DVD should add up! Young children can trash a disc in a couple seconds, if it's a game disc you are talking $30 plus to replace! Other funding sources for us will be selling restored table radios, an RF cable now that Radio Shack has stopped selling cable here; imaging a store that sells CB's & scanners and there antennas not selling the cable to hook them up!
To survive this meltdown in the economy, we are learning to think outside the box, most radio station tend to have technical talent that can be put to good use.
You know it's bad when the homeless camps are populated more by white collar types, than winos.
Steve
www.radiobrandy.com