Courting Generation X

continued

To meet those goals, the station needs to raise more money during its on-air fund drives. So far, they've succeeded, hitting $178,000 last fall, an all-time fall record, and $167,000 this past spring, an all-time spring record. They're aiming at $200,000 for this fall's drive from October 11 to 18, and then at $185,000 for next spring's.

Smith is confident they'll make it. "The public radio audience has been growing over the past thirty years. Ninety-two million people listen to public radio now. Morning Edition has more listeners than Rush Limbaugh. And radio listening is increasingly locally focused. No one else is doing it [playing jazz and blues] in Washtenaw County, and we've been doing it since the get-go."   

[Originally published in October, 2012.]