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…
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