KUAF collects 95% of fall fundraising goal
by October 25, 2018 2:15 pm 306 views
Fayetteville radio station KUAF 91.3 FM, the flagship National Public Radio station for Northwest Arkansas, raised 95% of its target amount during its recent fall fundraiser.
Kyle Kellams, the station’s longtime news director, said donations to the radio station in September totaled $143,000, just a few thousand short of its $150,000 goal. The radio station closed the month with an on-air fundraiser Sept. 24-28.
“The on-air fundraisers are still most effective,” Kellams said. “It’s the closing push to the month.”
Listeners made pledges via telephone or through the station’s fundraising website supportkuaf.com. Kellams said there were slightly more donations made by telephone as opposed to the website, but the dollar amount from each was roughly the same.
About 75% of the station’s annual $1.2 million operating budget comes from donations by listeners and various underwriters. Kellams, a KUAF employee since 1989, said the money helps pay for NPR programming including “Morning Edition,” “All Things Considered,” “Ozarks at Large” and “1A,” as well as other costs related to technology and equipment.
The news talk/classical music radio station holds dedicated fundraisers three times each year — in the spring, fall and winter — although pledges can be made at any time through the website.
Established in 1973, KUAF operates with a 100,000-watt transmitter and reaches a 14-county area in Northwest Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma and southwest Missouri.
In 2010, the radio station, which is owned by the University of Arkansas, moved from campus to the $2.5 million Carver Center for Public Radio at 9 S. School Ave.
The radio station also streams live at kuaf.com and is available in high definition. It also has two other HD stations: a 24-hour classical music station, KUAF 2, and an all-news station, KUAF 3.
KUAF, which has 10 full-time employees, is also a content partner of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal, which hosts a twice-weekly news segment on the radio station’s midday program “Ozarks at Large.”