I suggest you do small things like syndicating the blog, and adding small web buttons that bloggers use, like the 88x31, and 80 x 15 (especially the latter). Larger ones would be good too. Put a 'link to us' in the 'support us' section.

I don't know ANYTHING about the technology, but how about providing a Folk Alley 'personal cache' where we could pay a dollar per song to download & store our favorites, accessible to listening only through Folk Alley. Would that cause too many problems with copyrights?

I've often longed to go back and review a song from one of the shows. It would be nice to be able to go to a particular song, click "listen" and be able to hear it on the spot at a later date.

I moved to Sweetwater (out in the middle of nowhere) Texas from the Austin area, and I don't know what I would do without our Abilene NPR station. I was so used to big university town availability of independent TV, music, news, and thinking. Support for public TV and Radio is essential, and we all must fight to keep these open, alive, and doing the great job they do. As well as supporting Folk Alley, I will continue to support my NPR stations as well.

Is there a "Matching Grants Funds" program in place from major employers?

Al - How about auctioning off some famous or well respected person's guitar (as part of a mid year pledge effort)...one that might be donated to Folk Alley for this purpose? I liked the Baby Taylor drawing idea during the Spring Pledge Drive so much - this other might be a great mid-year 'event'.

I recall Thomas Paine's caution from "The Crisis": "What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly." Both public television and radio fit his characterization. If we value them, and do not want them to be perennial hostages to the politicians of whatever stripe who occupy the national legislature and the White House, we need to pony up the cost of operating them ourselves. As a longtime contributor to both media, I am willing to do my part to keep public broadcasting free of political manipulation and censorship by intimidation. Opportunistic politicians have pulled our chains for too long with their threats to cut funding. If everybody who found public radio and television essential sources of valuable information helped pay the freight, the relative pittance that the federal government throws in would be irrelevant.