Underwriting WWJJ helps your business!

If you own or manage a business in our community, you may have been approached by salespeople from the local commercial radio stations to buy advertising. Commercial stations are focused on regional coverage and their efforts to gather the most listeners from Live Oak, Lake City, Valdosta and the surrounding counties where their signals reach. While many larger business, especially those with outlets in several cities, can afford to advertise on the big commercial stations, a small businesses simply cannot afford to spend the enormous sums of money necessary to put together an effective advertising campaign. That's where we can help! The cost to underwrite WWJJ is tiny compared to the big guys. You reach your target audience without the high cost of advertising to people that wouldn't usually shop at your business. Because our costs are so low, every small business can afford to have their underwriting announcements aired on WWJJ.


We don't air commercials...
it's an Underwriting Acknowledgment!

What is the difference between a
commercial and an underwriting announcement?
Most of you are familiar with the underwriting messages that open and close most PBS programs. These non-commercial commercials are known as "enhanced underwriting." Sometimes, they are "very enhanced." They look like commercials, they sound like commercials ... but legally, they aren't commercials. Why? Watch carefully the next time you see one of these messages on PBS. They tell you about a product or a company, but they don't tell you to buy anything the company makes or offers.

An underwriting message must stop short of telling the viewer or listener to take some form of action. It may also not be overtly promotional. That means that we cannot entice customers to buy products at your once-in-a-lifetime sales event. What we can do is tell them who you are and what you sell and why your business is unique.


An Example ...
To better understand how underwriting works, let's invent a business: Big Fish Real Estate, Inc. The nice folks at Big Fish wish to support their community radio station. They would also like to let the residents on the lake know that they are good neighbors, a company that cares about the community. They would like to have their underwriting support acknowledged. It's a reasonable request.

Every now and then during our broadcast day, we will take time out to acknowledge those who are making public service community radio possible in our area. Acknowledgements will sound something like this:

"Portions of WWJJ's broadcast day are underwritten by ..." This will be the standard lead-in. A brief series of acknowledgments will follow. This might be Big Fish's message : " ... "Big Fish Real Estate, Inc., has served the real estate needs of the Our Area since 1492. Big Fish Realty is a full service realty and brokerage firm for residential, business, and industrial real estate sales. Big Fish is located at 120 Hatley Street SW, somewhere in OurTown and is proud to support WWJJ 91.7. Their phone number is 555-4444."

The message is a proper underwriting acknowledgment because it doesn't tell you to do anything. It doesn't suggest you "stop by" 120 Hatley Street SW, it doesn't tell you to call them if you wish to buy a home. It doesn't tell you to "be the first on your block..." In short, there is no "call to action."

The FCC frowns on non-commercial radio stations that air commercials. And the FCC's frowns often come with hefty fines attached. Stations can also lose their licenses or have them suspended. WWJJ will strictly follow the letter and the spirit of the law when it comes to underwriting messages.

Underwriting messages, however, do more than simply acknowledge the support of a business or organization, they provide information many listeners will likely find useful. It's helpful to listeners, for instance, for a restaurant to include its hours of operation and location. Or what type of food is served.

Proper underwriting not only helps keep us on the air, but it is also very beneficial to the sponsor. We can help keep the your business name in the forefront of our listeners minds, while you have the satisfaction of knowing you are contributing to something that makes life in our area very unique. You also have an opportunity to get your business on the air at a cost that won't hurt. It is a win-win situation. We have underwriting plans for as little as $100 per month, but nothing is set in stone. We are still experimenting with the concept and have a great deal of flexibility.

We want long term relationships with great sponsors. We do not want to clutter up our broadcast day with an overabundance of underwriting announcements. We also want your announcement to stand out. The goal is to be a great community station that does not sound like your average commercial station with 30 minutes of commercials every hour.

Not all of those helping to underwrite WWJJ's operating costs may choose to have their support acknowledged. If that is your wish, it will be respected.


WWJJ is a non-commercial, non-profit community radio station that relies on the support of the community it serves to stay on the air. This support may come in many forms. People can volunteer to help out at the station. You could help by organizing or attending fundraisers. Maybe you'd even be willing to organize some of these activities. Most of the station's financial support, however, will come from individuals, groups and businesses in the form of underwriting the daily operations of WWJJ.


How to help!
If you are interested in helping to support WWJJ's public service community broadcasting, especially the vital job of underwriting the work needed to keep the station on the air - We'll let you know how to contact us before we begin officially broadcasting. Perhaps you are a specialist in some of the many areas that could be of help, including sales and grant writing. Maybe your company would be interested in helping to sponsor WWJJ.

Privacy Statement:
All donations, contributions and other help are kept confidential, unless you desire otherwise. With your permission, we would like to acknowledge you on the air, but we will not make public the amount of your contribution, be it large or small. Most importantly, we will never sell or share your name, address or any other vital information. We respect your privacy. That's a promise.

Broadcast the news about your community event.
If you or your non profit organization, like a church, club, civic group, Boy/Girl Scouts, school or the ladies knitting society is having an event that your neighbors need to know about, tell us, and we'll give you on air publicity.

The funds generated from sponsorship announcements are what keeps WWJJ on the air.  We can't do this without you. Your support is essential. 

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