(Shameless Horn-Tooting)

State Rep. Marc Gergely and White Oak Florist have returned as sponsors again this year of our International Village webcast. Thank you to both of these sponsors!

Gergely has donated $250 in underwriting as a "challenge grant" and is asking for individuals to match his contribution. Thank you to Nancy N. and Larry and Rikki Berger of The Saturday Light Brigade for contributing their own donations toward matching Gergely's pledge!

Also, thank you to the kind soul who anonymously posted a note about our fundraising drive on the Radio-Info.com discussion board.

Just a friendly reminder that I hope you'll consider a donation to make this webcast possible --- and successful. (Any additional funds raised will go directly to offset the operation of Tube City Online and Tube City Almanac.)

Also, we continue to solicit advertising support from businesses and organizations. Details below.

For the past two years, Tube City Online has provided the only live, continuous coverage of International Village. Although there are two radio stations licensed to McKeesport, neither broadcasts from the Village any more.

That's despite the fact that tens of thousands of people attend the annual three-day festival --- and the fact that several hundred people tuned into our webcast last year.

. . .

Well, we plan to provide the same public service again this year from a new location ... but we can't afford to lose money on the event.

Wireless access alone will cost us $125. We've purchased a couple of handheld transmitters and microphones so that we can interview people live from around the festival --- used, those cost us about $50 at the recent Dayton Hamvention.

And the computers we bought last year turned out not to work, so now we're pricing a used laptop --- at least $300.

No one takes a salary from this event, and the executive director (me) will wind up subsidizing this from my own pocket. (If anyone wants to see the bills from last year, email me privately. We wound up spending about $1,000 on the three-day event.)

. . .

So ... we're again appealing to you for help. If you can donate a few dollars, we will very gladly and graciously accept your money. Use the ChipIn button to donate securely using PayPal or a credit card. And thank you!

. . .

In addition, we'd like to find a few sponsors to underwrite the broadcast. This is a great, low-cost opportunity to promote your church festival, volunteer fire department, labor union or other worthy cause.

If you want to advertise, please email me at jtogyer@gmail.com, or call me at (412) 614-9659:

• A $50 donation will entitle you to one 15-second announcement per hour throughout the broadcast, along with ads at Tube City Almanac and LightningFM.org throughout the month of August.


• A $100 donation will entitle you to one 30-second announcement per hour, along with banner ads at Tube City Almanac and LightningFM.org during that week.

Besides airing your commercials during the broadcast, we will display the name of your business or organization in our booth throughout the event.