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Duke Children’s Hospital Honors CBC Radio Stations for Miraculous Radiothon |
CBC President & CEO Jim Goodmon (left) & WRAL-FM VP & GM Ardie Gregory proudly display their Duke Children’s Hospital Newletter covers. |
Representatives from Duke Children’s Hospital recently came to Raleigh to make a special presentation to CBC President & CEO Jim Goodmon & WRAL-FM Vice President & General Manager Ardie Gregory. The group honored WRAL-FM MIX 101.5 and WCMC-FM for stellar performance in their 2007 Radiothon for the Kids at Duke.
Kristen Johnson and Ken Baroff from the development office at Duke Children’s Hospital and Children’s Miracle Network Radiothon President Bob Lind gave the pair a framed replica of the Children’s Hospital newsletter celebrating the $1,004,591.99 raised by WRAL-FM and WCMC-FM in the February 2007 Radiothon.
The headline read: “Hundreds of volunteers. Two stations. One goal: $1,004,591.99.” The 2007 Radiothon marked the first time MIX hit the million dollar mark in the 13 year history of the event.
WRAL-FM’s Sheri Logan (left) & Bill Jordan (center) reveal the final amazing number for the Radiothon in February ’07. |
“It was a thrilling and terrifying experience,” said Gregory of the 2007 Radiothon. “We were so proud to raise this large sum of money and then quickly realized we’d set a new standard. This milestone could not have been reached without the commitment of Bill Jordan, Sheri Logan and Vanna Fox and the staffs at the radio stations and the Children’s center who volunteer hundreds and hundreds of hours to make a difference in the lives of sick children.”
The presentation was made all the more meaningful because of the presence of Lind. He spent 12 years at CBC in a variety of capacities including Vice President of Radio. Lind now works for the Children’s Miracle Network and flew in from Florida to be a part of the event.
“We started the radiothon before I left [CBC] but now they’ve taken it into the next stratosphere,” said Lind. “[Children’s Miracle Network] is now doing radiothons all across the country and in Canada – even Ireland, England and soon to be Australia. But very few, given the size market that Raleigh/Durham is and the size of the radio station, there are very, very few that can compete with WRAL and what they’ve done.”
There are 16 radio stations in the country that belong to the Million Dollar Club. Lind said that WRAL-FM performs at about 4 times the national average when considering the percentage of the total listening audience for each CMN Radiothon in the U.S.
“We talk about [WRAL-FM] all the time around the country,” he said. “People look at the number for Raleigh/Durham and ask, ‘Is this correct?’” They usually get the numbers WRAL-FM raises in much larger markets.
Stay Tuned…
MIX’s 14th Annual Radiothon for the Kids at Duke
February 12 – 14, 2008
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Lind says a number of factors play into the MIX Radiothon’s success including ownership, management, committed people on the air, a great hospital, a growing part of the country. “But not one single factor alone could produce this result,” he said. “It’s pretty amazing.”
“It’s just a connection that works,” said Lind. “It’s all of these factors coming together. I’m really proud of what they’ve done.”
Lind spearheaded the early radiothons at WRAL-FM in his tenure at CBC. “We raised $125,000 for the first few we did and we were thrilled, and it was great,” he said. “Here we sit all these years later and the radio station’s relative size is about the same as it was then and yet look at what’s happening to these dollars.”
Lind said, “It’s fitting because that’s the way the company does everything.”
