Friday, February 09, 2007

Children's Hospital Radiothon

It's that time of year again for the folks at Clear Channel's WKDD/98.1.

The Akron/Canton hot AC outlet undertakes the 8th Annual "Have a Heart - Do Your Part" radiothon for Akron's Children's Hospital, this weekend.

It actually started Friday, and continues with pledge lines open (866-543-0981) this Saturday and Sunday from 7 AM to 9 PM. You can also donate online at the station's website.

We hear that new this year, the radiothon becomes almost a telethon, or maybe you can call it a "streamingmediathon". WKDD has put up a link to live streaming video of the event.

Last year, the station raised $842,098 on behalf of the local hospital, including over $200,000 from change collected in its "Change Bandit" drive.

What we neglected to mention in 2006 was our own history with the radiothon.

In its earliest days, in the mid-1970's, the "Children's Hospital Radiothon" was sponsored by Akron's WHLO/640. Back then, WHLO was, as it is now, a talk radio station...but it was owned by Susquehanna, the company absorbed into today's Cumulus Media.

As far as we know, there's no direct connection between the two efforts, aside from the same beneficiary and radio facility. And of course, WHLO left the talk format for many years, before being returned to it by Clear Channel a few years ago.

But there is the memory of a certain youth spending Sunday afternoon answering the pledge line phones, as the radiothon - WHLO, mid-1970's version - set up at Akron's Summit Mall...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am choking. I just read the words clear channel and "Have a Heart - Do Your Part" in the same paragraph.

This is what Clear Channel calls [i]smoke and mirrors[/].

Anonymous said...

They can't do anything right can they?

Lay off...I get you dislike CC, I dislike things they do to, but you can't take this positive and turn it into a negative.

Anonymous said...

i agree with the 946am post..
childrens hospital is the real winner.......regardless of what entity helps raise mone for them....

Anonymous said...

oa-when i was a teenager, whlo640, both as a top40 stationa and as a newstalk operation also helped raise money for st.judes hospital for children when danny thomas started it. i served as a neighborhood canvassing captain in north canton for 3 years and helped raise money to help get the hospital operational. today, st.judes has kmart as a corporate sponsor and i now work with kmart as a vendor. kudos to whlo and to kk at wkdd for continuuing the tradition of caring for children.
david 5258

Anonymous said...

Next you'll tell me the radiothon is a conservative conspiracy, after all the WKDD/Clear Channel Streaming video is sponsored by…gulp…Diebold.


Get a life.

Anonymous said...

Cheers to WKDD and Clear Channel and the others listed...obviously the first poster lacks a heart.

Anonymous said...

$858,376
ANOTHER record year!

Anonymous said...

I agree, rich from Medina, the first poster doesn't have a clue what he's talking about!!