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Support Radio Survivor

Radio Survivor is a reader- and listener-supported labor of love.

We rely on contributions to cover our costs as we try to build towards being more sustainable. For us, sustainable means being able to pay all contributors and editors a fair rate for their valuable work and begin investing in more in-depth coverage and investigative stories about radio that matters.

We hope you will help us in this cause to support, encourage and catalyze great radio that is focused on serving communities and listeners, instead of in service of over-leveraged debt obligations or distant shareholders.

Our radio show began airing on non-commercial stations around the country in October, 2017. That means more people than ever are relying on us to stay informed about communications freedom.

Your financial support helps us to continue producing the show and to continue providing it free of charge to community, college and low-power FM radio stations.

You can support Radio Survivor three different ways:

Make a monthly contribution through our Patreon campaign.

Underwrite or advertise on the Radio Survivor podcast and radio show

Please Note:

We occasionally offer content that is exclusive to Radio Survivor patrons who contribute via Patreon, only accessible through the Patreon website. Because this is a separate platform from PayPal we are only able to offer this content to people who contribute through Patreon. To see this content, please contribute via Patreon. Thanks for your support and understanding.

Donate to us via Pay Pal:


Why contribute to Radio Survivor?

Radio Survivor has been covering and supporting great radio–from college and community broadcasters to internet radio and podcasts–since 2009.

Radio Survivor is not the voice of the industry.

Instead we aim to give voice to the tens of thousands of amazing stations, DJs, programmers, producers and podcasters who create out of a love for radio, communication and community.

In the spirit of listener-supported radio we were able to drop display advertising in 2015 because our Patreon supporters now collectively contribute enough to replace all income we received from ads. Next we would like to end our reliance on Amazon-affiliate sales.

As co-founder and business manager Matthew Lasar writes, “online affiliate advertisements influence content for online sites. Anyone who tells you that this isn’t true is blowing smoke in your face.”

Moreover, web display advertising is experiencing a rapid race to the bottom that not only encourages cheap, low-quality content, but also threatens the trust relationship between publishers and readers. We want you to trust us, and not be suspect of our motivations and editorial judgement.

Relying on readers and listeners instead of advertisers and affiliate sales means that we can use the standards of public interest, aesthetics and community service to determine what we cover, instead of popularity, page views and click-through-rates. As a practical matter that means we aren’t motivated to publish click-bait stories with sensational headlines in order to briefly boost ad revenue.

That leaves us free to cover and highlight stations, people and programs that aren’t already famous or infamous, ones that deserve wider attention and support. We are liberated to dig deep into issues that affect our ability to make and receive great radio, from fundraising and policy to politics and international development, without the concern that these topics won’t attract eyeballs the same way that cute cat videos and celebrity listicles rife with animated GIFs (no offense to cat videos — we love cats, but think we should only be writing about them when it relates to radio).

However, the time and resources that it takes to publish Radio Survivor and produce our podcast do not come without a price. We can only do this with the financial support of our readers and listeners. We hope you’ll assist us in sustaining and growing this enterprise.

Amazon Affiliate Links

Occasionally, Radio Survivor posts links to books, films, and other items on Amazon. We also feature an Amazon link on our website. As an Amazon Associate, Radio Survivor earns from qualifying purchases.

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