Why you should donate

VU meter shows total amount raised so far

WMBR is noncommercial radio, offering many hours of programming that cannot be found on any other radio station anywhere. We are 100% volunteer, with no paid staff. This is rare ‐ even among other local college and public stations. Our volunteers are MIT students, alumnus, staff and members of the local community.

Our primary source of revenue is listener donations. MIT provides the space and a small stipend, but over 99% of our operating costs are covered by your individual donations. We rely on your support to bring you our diverse programming!

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Where the money goes

The COVID-19 crisis caused major changes in the way we operate, and these changes still affect us to this day. When MIT shut down non-essential buildings in March 2020, we lost the ability to broadcast live from our campus home in Walker Memorial. Luckily, thanks to your previous donations, we were able to set up remotely controlled broadcasting capabilities. Read more about how our tech staff made that happen here!

We are happy to say that this past year has brought DJs back to the station as we pilot a hybrid system of pre-recorded and live broadcasted content. To help facilitate the return to studios, we replaced and upgraded various components such as computers, CD players, mixers, and amplifiers. We upgraded our transmitter monitoring equipment and Emergency Alert System gear to ensure continued FCC compliance. The receive antenna on the roof of Walker Memorial was replaced for improved over-the-air monitoring in the studio, and more consistent audio quality in streaming. Finally, since we are hybrid, we upgraded our digital playback system to enable easy switching for DJs new and old that want to go live.

Your donations continue to pay for our webcasting and artist licensing fees, which are our biggest expense. But you're also supporting whatever else we need to make all this possible, from providing remote broadcasting equipment to new recruits, to paying for increased server space and redundancy for our remote show library. To this, we are incredibly grateful! Thank you for being the best listeners a station could ask for.

Premiums

A variety of premiums were available as our way of saying thank you for your support. They are tokens of appreciation for your tax-deductible donation to WMBR. This year we offered short and long sleeve t-shirts, 45 adaptors, trucker hats, beach towels, and stickers!

Here's a sneak peek at what the premiums look like:

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