September 5, 2007

BBC Radio 1 Celebrates 40 Years of White People

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Macca on Radio 1
The BBC’s venerable pop-music outlet, Radio 1, turns 40 years old later this month, and to celebrate, the network is featuring ten days of special shows hosted by major figures in music. The series, called “Radio 1 Legends,” kicks off on September 17th with Sir Paul McCartney, then continues with more guest DJs:

Dave Grohl (9/18)
Gwen Stefani (9/19)
Paul Weller (9/20)
Paul Oakenfold (9/21)
Noel Gallagher (9/24)
Debbie Harry (9/25)
Arctic Monkeys (9/26)
Ozzy Osbourne (9/27)
Norman Cook (9/28)

Okay, first of all, of course dance music is central to Radio 1’s history, but Oakey and Fatboy Slim?! Were, um, Rob Da Bank and Jive Bunny not available? Secondly, I know I just posted about the trouble with demanding social realism from our art, and I also know this is the BBC, but I’ll go out on a limb and say that non-whites have made some contributions to music in the last 40 years. Perhaps one of them could have been included?

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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