I've got to really hand to it to those hippies at KPIG up in Freedom, California. Despite playing some truly outstanding music and faithfully serving the communities of the greater Monterey Bay Area, they still somehow manage to be a fully functioning commercial radio station. Some of the commercials may be obnoxious, but they remind you that people can still make a living playing good music on the radio without having to beg for money every 13 weeks. The only pledge drive you'll ever hear on KPIG is when somebody's Vietnamese pot-bellied pig needs a liver transplant or something.

Here in Clovis, I support the local college station. They ding my credit card each month for a few bucks and send me nice letters. I try hard to think of it as an admission ticket to A Prairie Home Companion and a couple other shows I listen to each week. Donation has connotations of failure in my psyche and I don't like to think of Garrison Keillor that way.

I'm noticing more and more things that I like are resorting to donations to keep going. The Oxford American (a wonderful publication) has gone the full not for profit route, while No Depression is looking for "unknown angles" to join their Founders Circle. Sounds exclusive. For $150 you can be a Contributor, $500 you're a Benefactor and if you can spare $1000? By god you're a Revelator that's what you are!

Praise Jesus! My church and NPR have been doing it for years but now, even The United Auto Workers Union Pension and Benefits Corp General Motors wants in on the action.

Which got me to thinking, that Michael Moore fellow, he cares about the auto industry right? He has some showbiz connections he ought to host some kind of telethon for the auto workers' pensions. Yeah...get Bruce Springsteen on there singing about that Pink Cadillac and then towards the end, hometown favorite Bob Seeger singing that Chevy truck song...

"Like a rock

I was strong as I could be

like a rock

Nothin ever got to me

like a rock

I was somethin to see

like a rock"

That'll get those phones to ringing.