The Giving Time of the Year

Blessed to be a blessing is a phrase I heard a long time ago and right now I see a lot of it going on.

It’s a quiet Sunday afternoon as I compose these words for this weeks featured article on my website and podcast and I’m thinking about a multitude of things.

It’s now been 8 full years that I’ve worked for WOWO Radio, the first 6 as one of the Advertising Account Executives and for close to 2 years, as the General Sales Manager.

I grew up with WOWO, as thousands of others did too.  In 2025 WOWO will turn 100 years old and when people hear I work at WOWO, nearly everyone has a story about WOWO to tell me.

It happened a few times this past Friday during the All American Stores #PumpForPennyPitch event.

But please, this is not about me, it’s just my personal story and the impact that WOWO and our listeners and our airstaff and all the supporting players have at this time of year.

Look, I started working in radio as a teenager and worked for our parent company, Federated Media in my 20’s, on the air at WMEE.  WOWO was not owned by Federated Media back then, so while I’ve worked for our company a couple of times, it’s just been the past 8 years that I’ve worked for WOWO.

In between, I worked for other radio stations and some of them would do something nice around the Christmas Holidays for listeners.

But what struck me during my first week here in December 2013, was something that occured on a Friday afternoon when we were having our annual #PumpForPennyPitch event.   I saw how at other stations, they gave cash and prizes away to listeners as an extra incentive for them to listen.  But at WOWO, it was the listeners who were giving their cash to help others in the community.

The contrast, stuck with me and now every year, I make a point to come out and support our on air staff during the Penny Pitch events that occur over a 4 week period this time of year.

This year we kicked things off with a live broadcast of Christmas On Broadway and the lighting of the 40 foot Christmas tree on November 19th.  Over 4000 people came to the event hosted by Steve Shine and it was our first opportunity for people to give to Penny Pitch this year.

Penny Pitch has been around for over 70 years and began when WOWO radio personalities Bob Sievers and Jay Gould received a letter requesting funds to purchase a special typewriter for a handicapped boy and they in turn asked for listeners to contribute their pennies. Penny Pitch evolved from helping individuals to helping local organizations that in turn help individuals.

My first Penny Pitch in 2013 was for the benefit of Turnstone, a local organization that wanted to raise funds to build ramps for handicapped individuals would needed them at their homes.  I got to talk to Nancy, their CEO at the time along with some of the listeners who gave and hear the stories.  As you can imagine, it was eye-opening.

Every year a different local charity is selected by the Penny Pitch Board of Directors.  This is my second year serving on the board and it is not easy selecting from the numerous charities that apply.

The 2nd event each year to raise funds for Penny Pitch is the Bob Chase Memorial Hockey Game played on Thanksgiving evening at the Memorial Coliseum with our world famous Fort Wayne Komets Hockey team.  WOWO and the Komets have a 60 year history together and the late Bob Chase was the voice of the Komets on WOWO until he passed away just a couple of years ago.

Event #3 is the gas station event that took place on Friday.  We actually had it at 3 different All American stores in the area including on Lima Road on the Northwest side of Fort Wayne, just east of Fort Wayne at the All American store in New Haven and our live broadcast of the Pat Miller Program from 3 to 6 was at the Ossian All American store, just south of Fort Wayne.  I decided to visit all three locations and got to talk with listeners and donors.

This coming Thursday and Friday is our big grand finale radio-thon for Penny Pitch. Both days, December 9th and 10th, our two local shows, Fort Wayne’s Morning News with Kayla Blakeslee and the Pat Miller Program will be broadcasting live from Sweetwater Sound, just like we did last year.  Four hours in the morning and 3 in the afternoon each day with nearly all the program content focused on this years Penny Pitch recipient charity, the local Gigi’s Playhouse that needs to raise over $80,000 to purchase transportation to expand the services they provide as a downs syndrome achievement center. I bet we raise over $100,000 this year from our listeners.

When I titled this piece The Giving Time of Year, I know that WOWO listeners who can give a few cents will give again this year, just like the donors who give much bigger amounts.   If you want to join them, here’s a direct link to give online: https://pennypitch.ejoinme.org/donate2021 

Or perhaps you have other organizations you support.  Perhaps it’s individuals that you give to.

All of us have something to give; time, money, an encouraging word, let’s all participate and you too will be Blessed to be a Blessing