In April, like the 103 months that had passed since our September 2006 launch on the Internet, we were sweating. The first of the month stress once led a listener – a Mental Health professional – to comment on “Brad’s monthly cycle,” referring to the stress leading up to the rent and all those pesky first of the month bills. It seems they keep coming whether there’s sufficient revenue to cover them or not. Then comes the middle of the month, with the bill for our Time Warner circuit that gets our audio and video streams out to the Internet and eventually to you.
This past April, one listener had heard enough about the monthly scramble to pay the bills. On April 14th, he threw down the gauntlet and posed a challenge; Increase the monthly recurring support enough to cover most, if not all of the big monthly bills, and he would match the amount we raised. The goal was to increase recurring monthly support; those support payments that are charged to a credit or check card and come out of the MITM supporter’s account every 30-days. We started on the 15th and had until the 20th to reach our goal – and we did, barely, but we did. As May is about to come to an end, we’ve been able to see what a difference it makes with a big increase in our regular recurring monthly support. Radio Loyalty, our streaming partner with the “Miracle Martini Player” and the source of almost half of our monthly revenue, had an advertiser pay them over a week late – which meant that we in turn were late in getting paid. With the new monthly support money, we were okay despite the late payment.
I bring this up to say thank you – to everyone who became regular monthly supporters – and to everyone who puts up with an occasional push to keep MITM in business – while we grow the audience to a point where the advertising revenue covers more of the expenses. We’re grateful to sponsors, supporters and everyone who “Shares the Martini!” But this month, a special hats off to our supporters who have nothing to sell or sponsor, and who support Martini in the Morning month after month just because – because you want to be able to hear your favorite music online around the clock and around the world. You can see a list of our monthly supporters by clicking here. We also urge you to support our sponsors, doing business with people who do business with us validates their faith in Martini in the Morning and will keep them coming back as sponsors. If you do nothing more than reach out to them to say thanks for what they’re doing to help us keep the music playing, I’m pretty certain they’ll be happy.
Last thing – not everyone can or will become a supporter or sponsor by participating financially. I had someone suggest to me recently that if we were adequately communicating the importance of “Sharing the Martini,” growing the MITM audience to that point when the advertising revenue really kicks in would happen much more quickly than it seems to be happening now. So it’s time to renew our urgent plea to please “Share the Martini.” Between this newsletter and our Facebook page, not to mention a growing following on Twitter, Instagram and other social networking communities, we have over 25,000 people who could really move the needle. If just 5 new listeners came from each one, it would not only increase our total listenership, but also put us into a category where each hour listened would be worth dramatically more money. Imagine 10 new listeners from each.
Please, for the duration of this month and through the summer as we approach our 9th anniversary on the Internet, “Share the Martini!”