In 2010, one of our long-time WGUC announcers asked his musician friends to record an acoustic adaptation of a Christmas classic. He compiled the collection into a CD called the RING CD and Cincinnati Public Radio offered it as a thank you gift during the fall fund drive. It became one of our most popular gifts, musicians loved being a part of the project and it is a strong locally-produced CD listeners can’t get anywhere else.
The response was wonderful and we reordered more CDs right away. The musicians donated their time and talent in order to support their favorite local public radio station. It gave them a chance to support the station, but also to be let loose and create new music of their own. We continued the project the following year, and the year after that. The tradition continues today with incredible results, including 9 benefit CDs, 3,774 CD requests and $377,400 raised from CD sales from 2010-2017.
Cincinnati Public Radio shared the RING and Get Real Gone CDs with another local public radio station for cost to expand the reach. All future CDs will be available for public radio stations across the country to offer as well.