The BigI105 Radiothon

Currently I am interning at Citadel Communications, where I work as a promotions assistant at the country radio station I105. For the past week I have been fortunate enough to be apart of the marketing and the promotions for the largest radiothon in the area benefitting The Children's Miracle Network. This is an event that is recognized throughout the area as it solely benefits the Children's Hospital at The Hershey Medical Center. The radiothon was a three day live broadcast from the Lancaster Harley-Davidson, and I was responsible for much of the marketing and promotions for the event.

The radiothon broadcast began on Friday, February 22 and ran through Sunday the 24th, however I105 has been preparing for the past year. I began my internship in January so I fell into the marketing research and planning near the end, however my responsibilities ranged from basic marketing, marketing research, networking, and promoting the event.

My involvement with the radiothon began in late January by receiving autographed materials from national recording country artists to be auctioned at the event. Autographed materials ranged from a signed Kenny Chesney CD to a guitar signed by George Strait. I then replied to these artists with thank you letters which maintains a professional relationship for future events. The radiostation donated $5,000 alone from the autographed materials so it was a big success. As far as interacting with famous people, I105 and Lancaster Harley Davidson brought Willy G. Davidson, grandson of Harley Davidson, to the event. Willy G.'s presence alone made the event very easy to advertise as well as generate a large amount of money to be donated.

As the commencement of the event began to grow near, advertising was a large concern of I105. Since we own the radiostation, naturally it was very easy to advertise on the air. For those who don't listen to country music, I created and posted flyers in and around the Lancaster area, as well as the Harley Davidson dealership. We touched many other media outlets including online advertising on many websites, television on WGAL, as well as local newspapers. There is more to advertising than just creating and posting advertisements as I was consumed with research marketing as our station was aiming to surpass the benchmarks that were set in previous radiothons.

All of the preperation paid off as the event ran smoothly and with all of our combined efforts, we raised over $200,000 for The Children's Miracle Netowork.