Where Difference Matters, You Can Make A Difference

For 56 years, KCPR has been on fire. Ignite the sound with your donation.

“Is this the damn switch?” That phrase sparked the fire in August 1968 when KCPR hit the airwaves. For more than five decades KCPR has been serving Cal Poly and the greater San Luis Obispo area, fostering community and student development.

While the station’s staff, location, and music have evolved over the years, our identity and community have remained rooted in our motto: Where Different Matters. In the past, present, and future, KCPR celebrates and prioritizes diverse sounds, voices, and perspectives in our music and programming.

Every fire needs fuel. For our 2024 Pledge Drive, we invite donors, alumni, staff, and students to reflect on our rich history and ignite the sound.

KCPR is student-run, with station staff being part of at least one of six teams: content, news, marketing, music, podcasting, and art. On each team, students gain experience working with cutting-edge technology to create innovative media.

While balancing schoolwork, jobs, and extracurriculars, KCPR students attend weekly meetings, volunteer at booths on and off campus, and create content such as live Burnt Dog Sessions, podcasts, and artwork. Our student writers and reporters write articles and produce weekday newscasts about the community we love. Currently, our unpaid student staff of about 70 volunteers work 6 or more hours a week in the station. Our 10 paid student managers receive stipends that cover about 5 hours of work per week, while they typically work upwards of 20 hours. Your donation can help create more paid positions and provide better pay for our team.

Along with increasing stipends, your donation will help enhance student experiences. Pledge Drive funds pay for students to attend academic conferences, submit their work for national awards, cover music festivals, book bands for concerts, and much more.

As the station evolves the cost of staying on air increases. The anticipated cost of maintaining our infrastructure over the next five years is $125,000, not including recent storm damage totaling $8,500. After years of use, one expected expenditure is the need to repair the studio A and B audio consoles to keep them going. KCPR needs your help to continue its commitment to providing cutting-edge technology for student learning.

Your support will help our fire burn even brighter!

Our donors have kept this station running for decades, and we’d like to express our gratitude for your continued support to Ignite The Sound of KCPR with exclusive 2024 pledge drive donor gifts!

PLEDGE DRIVE DONOR GIFTS

All of our donor gifts this year were designed by winners of a community-wide design contest we held during the 2023 Fall Quarter. 

With every donation, you will receive a sticker pack chosen out of dozens of designs by the KCPR team: 

To tie into our “Ignite The Sound” theme we’re offering limited edition KCPR matchboxes!  Spark your support with a donation and receive this collectible item:

Enjoy our custom Burnt Dog coffee blend in our exclusive, limited edition mugs for when you are listening to our KCPR morning news: 

We'd like to thank SLO Roasted for their generous partnership in sponsoring our custom coffee blend. 

And, with our limited-edition KCPR shirt, alumni, parents, students, and staff can represent the radio station we all love so much! 

Thank you so much for donating! Gifts will be sent to your mailing address by the end of August or sooner. 

For questions about shipping please email: kcpr.marketing@gmail.com

*Note that no international shipping will be fulfilled.