Shawn Campbell writesEasy Ways to Support CHIRP This Holiday Season

2014 has been great, and 2015 holds even more excitement as we celebrate the station's fifth birthday in January (and all year long), launch new and improved mobile apps in the spring, and begin broadcasting at 107.1FM sometime after the weather gets warm.  As we approach the end of the year, there are all sorts of easy ways you can help keep CHIRP strong moving into 2015. Here are a few:

• Buy tickets to the Chicago Music Dinner on January 19 at Lula Cafe, an all-inclusive three-course meal with beer pairings by Half Acre. This event celebrates the 5th anniversary of CHIRPradio.org. It's just a single seating with very limited tickets, and makes a perfect gift for the local music lover/foodie in your life!
• Shopping online? Use the link chirpradio.org/amazon and as much as 7% of your Amazon.com purchase price will benefit CHIRP! Bookmark it so you can use it year round, not just during the holiday season.
• And when you buy music digitally, bookmark and use chirpradio.org/itunes and chirpradio.org/insound. A percentage of your purchase price will benefit CHIRP.
• Shop in the CHIRP Store. We have some brand new items, and have discounted a few old favorites as well. Stock up on CHIRP gear!
• Know someone who's considering getting rid of an old car or truck? Encourage them to donate it to CHIRP before December 31 to take advantage of 2014 tax savings.
• And of course the end of the year is the perfect time for charitable gifts in general. All gifts to chirpradio.org/donatenow are tax deductible. And with the new broadcast operation to build, it's a great time to give!

Andy Weber writesCHIRP Radio DJ Andy Weber on CHIRP Radio

My love for CHIRP is really hard to describe in words. Passion would be the word that comes to mind, but it goes way beyond that for me.

Being a member of CHIRP, and more specifically being a CHIRP DJ, has come to define me as a person. I have been around a long time and I have seen people come and go throughout the organization, but one thing that never fails to impress me is how the idea of small band of dedicated souls can consistently produce this incredibly unique and quality radio product.

I started as a volunteer back in the infant days of the organization in hopes of having a station to scratch my broadcasting itch. I tell people I am a “radio guy” through and through, and that I just got side tracked for a few years. For about as long as I can remember I wanted to be on the radio - I used to play DJ all the time back in grade school days. Then it was on to high school radio, college radio and eventually corporate radio. I saw the transition first hand from mom and pop ownership to corporate ownership. It was incredibly disheartening not only as a budding young professional but as a music listener as well. The promise of radio in the early 1990's were all but destroyed by the end of the decade, and as a result shortly after, I abandoned my hopes and dreams for radio and set off in a different direction. But when I caught wind of CHIRP, it seemed that the perfect moment had aligned in my life to get back to what I love!

CHIRP is such a major part of who I am now. After nearly 5 years of being on the air every Wednesday morning, and each time I walk into our wonderful old factory building, I get a chill of excitement knowing that I am a part of something great.

When I look back on how much we have accomplished at CHIRP as a group and as a station during this journey, I realize the best part is still to come. CHIRP is still in its early years with many more great things to come, and I am honored to be on the ride to make sure this happens.

Radio has Returned. Support CHIRP Radio's Amazing and Talented Volunteer Community with a Gift Today!

Karin Fjellman writesCHIRP Radio Events Director Karin Fjellman on CHIRP’s Place in the Community

I was bitten by the radio bug in college. When I learned that CHIRP was forming in the summer of 2007, I knew something important and groundbreaking was happening. As a firm believer in the ideals of community radio, I had to get involved.

This organization has brought together so many incredible people from all walks of life, and it's been a joy to see them uniting for a common interest. I've had the unique opportunity to see CHIRP develop from holding meetings in public cafes, to building its own studio, to finally being on the verge of holding a broadcast license. And this is only the beginning.

In addition to being a founding member of CHIRP, I've also been an on-air DJ for years, and I currently serve as the organization's Events Director. The danger of any radio station is that it becomes easy to hole up in your beautiful broadcast studio and have a merely one-way relationship with your listeners. But that's not what CHIRP is about – and that's where CHIRP Events steps in.

The Events Department is charged with creating opportunities for CHIRP's volunteers, the station's audience, and the local arts community to gather face-to-face to share our love of music. Through booking local artists for our various events, I've had the pleasure of becoming a part of a music scene that is so stylistically diverse, yet unified in its support for one another. I've also loved getting to know our listeners at events like our music quizzes, record store crawls and of course our annual Record Fair & Other Delights.

As the station continues to grow, and as we get closer to obtaining a broadcast license, we're determined to host more innovative events, more often, and inclusive of more people in the community. But we can only make those dreams happen with your generous support.

You can help CHIRP Radio grow with a donation at any level during our Fall Fundraising campaign!

Sarah A. writesCHIRP Radio Volunteers Director Sarah Avampato on What Makes a “Typical” CHIRP Volunteer

August 2009.  I am at a party in Ukrainian Village. I only know one person, the girl hosting the party, so I’m forced to make friends.  It’s surprisingly easy, though, because these are the sorts of people I’d been longing to find ever since I moved to Chicago in 2006: artists, writers, musicians. People who make and do and create. There's a handful of starving artists, to be sure, but I'm also surrounded by people with “real grown-up jobs” who still make time for their passions.

At this party, I met a guy with a pin on his jacket: a white bird in a red circle.  He was very excited to tell people what the bird was about.  The pin, of course, was for CHIRP Radio, and the guy was a volunteer there.  I’d heard a little bit about CHIRP around the city, but I’d yet to take the plunge into volunteering.  That dude with the pin was pretty convincing, though, and not long after, I signed up to volunteer with CHIRP.

That dude with the pin was CHIRP DJ extraordinaire Bobby Evers, and almost exactly two years after that party, I sat down with him in the studio as he taught me how to be a DJ so that I can entertain your ears with French rap and bluegrass covers of Katy Perry songs on a regular basis.

Volunteers are the driving force behind CHIRP, and as a member of the Volunteer team, I am pleased to welcome all of our new faces as we bring volunteers on board.  While I wear many different hats at CHIRP, working with all of our volunteers is a constant joy.  People who support CHIRP come from all walks of life, from college students to thirty-something cat wranglers to parents and grandparents. Some of us love techno, some of us love metal, and some of us could program a six-hour block solely of old-timey banjo music. We are lawyers, teachers, designers, baristas.  We are underemployed or overworked or actually pretty content in our lives, thank you very much.

What I mean to say is this: there is no “one type” of CHIRP volunteer. What brings us all together is a deeply rooted passion for music, and for sharing that passion with anyone who will listen.  CHIRP would not be possible without its 250+ volunteers.  It’s not always glamorous work, either.  We stuff envelopes and fold t-shirts and cart heavy equipment across town. We organize supply closets and shout at Excel spreadsheets and get lots of paper cuts.  We do these things because we love and believe in CHIRP and its mission to support local music, arts, and culture.

CHIRP would also not be possible without its listeners and supporters. I am grateful every day for everyone who has given money, time, or attention to help us (literally) build our station.  Thank you for being a part of our community!

Support CHIRP’s amazing and tremendously dedicated group of volunteer superstars with a donation today!  Your contributions help in keeping both CHIRP and our volunteer community strong!