It is with tremendous gratitude, humility and a profound sense of validation that we thank the more than 1,300 JAZZ.FM91 listeners who donated during this first fundraising campaign of our new fiscal year.
Thanks to you, we raised more than $250,000 in the nine days of our on-air appeal. This is an amount well beyond our cautiously conservative estimates of what was possible in these unpredictable times. Your generosity and the many heart-warming messages we received during this campaign indicated that we are on the right track toward our recovery, and that in many ways we provide an essential service — particularly these days — for many of our dedicated listeners.
During this campaign we presented 12 live performances featuring 28 local musicians. Not only is this a welcome enhancement to our fundraising efforts, it is also our responsibility as “Canada’s jazz station” to provide this platform for musicians at a time when few others exist. If you missed any of the performances, you can watch them (with broadcast-quality audio) on our Facebook page.
We also want to give special thanks to the members of our JAZZ.FM91 volunteer council, who helped us out in small and safely distanced numbers; all the donors who contributed during our pre-campaign, allowing us to match donations to kick off the campaign; those donors who contributed to other matching hours, including Michael Finlayson, Chris and Susan Climo and the Hecla Foundation; and, of course, the unsung heroes of all our fundraising efforts here at JAZZ.FM91: the existing perpetual donors who don’t often get thanked during the campaigns, but without whom we simply could not carry on.
We also want to give a warm welcome to the record percentage of new donors who have joined the JAZZ.FM91 family. We will continue to work every day to assure you that you made the right decision! Special thanks too for the many “lapsed” donors who came back to JAZZ.FM91 after several years. Your renewed confidence in us is an inspiration.
In a few months, we will mark 20 years since CJRT-FM became JAZZ.FM91, Canada’s only 24-hour jazz station. This continued legacy of more than 70 years of high-quality, community-rooted, not-for-profit broadcasting is only possible because of you. We are very grateful, and you should be proud of what you have built.
Stay safe and stay well. While we may not have the Thanksgiving with family and loved ones we wish for, we still have much to be thankful for — not least great music and a great radio station bringing it to us every day.
Thank you.
Michael Booth
Operations Director, JAZZ.FM91