The Giving Time of the Year

The Giving Time of the Year

Blessed to be a blessing is a phrase I heard a long time ago and right now I see a lot of it going on.

It’s a quiet Sunday afternoon as I compose these words for this weeks featured article on my website and podcast and I’m thinking about a multitude of things.

It’s now been 8 full years that I’ve worked for WOWO Radio, the first 6 as one of the Advertising Account Executives and for close to 2 years, as the General Sales Manager.

I grew up with WOWO, as thousands of others did too.  In 2025 WOWO will turn 100 years old and when people hear I work at WOWO, nearly everyone has a story about WOWO to tell me.

It happened a few times this past Friday during the All American Stores #PumpForPennyPitch event.

But please, this is not about me, it’s just my personal story and the impact that WOWO and our listeners and our airstaff and all the supporting players have at this time of year.

Look, I started working in radio as a teenager and worked for our parent company, Federated Media in my 20’s, on the air at WMEE.  WOWO was not owned by Federated Media back then, so while I’ve worked for our company a couple of times, it’s just been the past 8 years that I’ve worked for WOWO.

In between, I worked for other radio stations and some of them would do something nice around the Christmas Holidays for listeners.

But what struck me during my first week here in December 2013, was something that occured on a Friday afternoon when we were having our annual #PumpForPennyPitch event.   I saw how at other stations, they gave cash and prizes away to listeners as an extra incentive for them to listen.  But at WOWO, it was the listeners who were giving their cash to help others in the community.

The contrast, stuck with me and now every year, I make a point to come out and support our on air staff during the Penny Pitch events that occur over a 4 week period this time of year.

This year we kicked things off with a live broadcast of Christmas On Broadway and the lighting of the 40 foot Christmas tree on November 19th.  Over 4000 people came to the event hosted by Steve Shine and it was our first opportunity for people to give to Penny Pitch this year.

Penny Pitch has been around for over 70 years and began when WOWO radio personalities Bob Sievers and Jay Gould received a letter requesting funds to purchase a special typewriter for a handicapped boy and they in turn asked for listeners to contribute their pennies. Penny Pitch evolved from helping individuals to helping local organizations that in turn help individuals.

My first Penny Pitch in 2013 was for the benefit of Turnstone, a local organization that wanted to raise funds to build ramps for handicapped individuals would needed them at their homes.  I got to talk to Nancy, their CEO at the time along with some of the listeners who gave and hear the stories.  As you can imagine, it was eye-opening.

Every year a different local charity is selected by the Penny Pitch Board of Directors.  This is my second year serving on the board and it is not easy selecting from the numerous charities that apply.

The 2nd event each year to raise funds for Penny Pitch is the Bob Chase Memorial Hockey Game played on Thanksgiving evening at the Memorial Coliseum with our world famous Fort Wayne Komets Hockey team.  WOWO and the Komets have a 60 year history together and the late Bob Chase was the voice of the Komets on WOWO until he passed away just a couple of years ago.

Event #3 is the gas station event that took place on Friday.  We actually had it at 3 different All American stores in the area including on Lima Road on the Northwest side of Fort Wayne, just east of Fort Wayne at the All American store in New Haven and our live broadcast of the Pat Miller Program from 3 to 6 was at the Ossian All American store, just south of Fort Wayne.  I decided to visit all three locations and got to talk with listeners and donors.

This coming Thursday and Friday is our big grand finale radio-thon for Penny Pitch. Both days, December 9th and 10th, our two local shows, Fort Wayne’s Morning News with Kayla Blakeslee and the Pat Miller Program will be broadcasting live from Sweetwater Sound, just like we did last year.  Four hours in the morning and 3 in the afternoon each day with nearly all the program content focused on this years Penny Pitch recipient charity, the local Gigi’s Playhouse that needs to raise over $80,000 to purchase transportation to expand the services they provide as a downs syndrome achievement center. I bet we raise over $100,000 this year from our listeners.

When I titled this piece The Giving Time of Year, I know that WOWO listeners who can give a few cents will give again this year, just like the donors who give much bigger amounts.   If you want to join them, here’s a direct link to give online: https://pennypitch.ejoinme.org/donate2021 

Or perhaps you have other organizations you support.  Perhaps it’s individuals that you give to.

All of us have something to give; time, money, an encouraging word, let’s all participate and you too will be Blessed to be a Blessing

The Heart of the WOWO Radio Listener

The Heart of the WOWO Radio Listener

It’s time for Penny Pitch and time to share with you what I know about The Heart of the WOWO Radio Listener.

First let me share with you what Penny Pitch is all about.  Penny Pitch began in 1948, as a way for WOWO radio listeners to give to help those in need. It continues today with our two day radiothon Thursday and Friday, which I’ll tell you more about in a moment.

A couple of years ago, our WOWO Program Director at the time, Ryan Wrecker worked on creating a number of special events for WOWO’s 90th anniversary and some of the information is from that event that you can listen to here.

I’m also including some of the audio in the podcast version.  Bob Chase tells the story of how WOWO’s Jay Gould got a letter from a mom of a handicapped son.  There was a special typewriter that was very expensive at the time, about $1900 and that typewriter would be a real blessing to this young man.  Jay read the letter on the air and told listeners that if they had a couple of pennies they could contribute to mail them in to WOWO.  Pretty soon, they raised over $7000 and most of it was in pennies.

Over the years WOWO’s Penny Pitch Charity has raised a tremendous amount of money for wonderful families and fantastic local charities.

Penny Pitch is still going strong and has a separate board of volunteers that select each years local charity based on the applications we receive.

When I joined WOWO in December 2013, my first week was the week of WOWO’s gas station promotion for Penny Pitch. Pat Miller broadcasts his afternoon talk show from the Phil’s One Stop Marathon gas station in Georgetown Square and listeners drop off their pennies and folding money into the orange buckets.  In 2013 Turnstone was the charity that would be getting all of the Penny Pitch donations and my eyes were opened to what made WOWO listeners different from the listeners of other stations I had worked for previously.

That difference was the heart of the listeners.

That December day in 2013 was miserable weather-wise. It was not only snowy but cold and windy.  But in the last hour, I met a young man who made an extra special effort to join us that afternoon.

He and his wife were from Indianapolis and moved to Fort Wayne earlier that year when they discovered their young daughter needed special care.  Friends told them about the services of Turnstone and they were blessed to get the help they needed.  This young man, in his early 30’s was also a WOWO radio listener and when it was announced that Turnstone was going to be receiving the Penny Pitch donations in 2013, he started collecting funds on his own at his office.

When I met him that afternoon 4 years ago, he came with a huge jar stuffed with money that his friends, co-workers and acquaintances had donated.  He drove across town in that lousy weather to personally thank Nancy, the executive director of Turnstone at the time and WOWO for selecting Turnstone for Penny Pitch.  By the time he finished telling me and Nancy his story and handed over the jar filled with donations of love and money, everyone of us had tears streaming down our faces.

Here’s what stuck with me that day about the heart of the WOWO Radio Listener compared to what I saw at many of the radio stations I worked for previously.  At the other stations, listeners tuned in to see what they could get by winning.  WOWO listeners tuned in to see what they could give to help others.

I’m going to wrap this up with an opportunity to join us for this years Penny Pitch Radiothon.

December 14th and December 15th… Thursday and Friday, Fort Wayne’s Morning News with Charly Butcher and the Pat Miller Program in the afternoon will be devoted to raising funds for Shepherd’s House in Fort Wayne.  Listen all day and tell your friends and family.  We know the WOWO Radio Listener Family will give generously like you have for decades.  Thank you for your support and involvement.

Time to Apply for Penny Pitch 2016

The time is now for local charities to apply to be a chosen organization that will receive funds from WOWO Radio’s annual Penny Pitch fundraiser that will take place this fall.

PennyPitchLogo

Click here to get the details on how to apply and do it A.S.A.P.

This will be my 4th year as a WOWO insider, seeing how it all works and it is amazing.

Penny Pitch began in 1948 as a way for listeners to give their spare change, pennies, to help those who needed help locally.  Over the years it evolved to supporting local charities who would then use the generous donations for a specific need.

2013, my first year with WOWO listeners give over $87,000 to benefit Turnstone.

In 2014, $130,000 was raised and given to support Boomerang Backpacks.

2015 was another record year with over $141,000 donated by listeners and that amount was doubled by a local company to more than $280,000 that was divided among 4 organizations.