Did KCBD Charge The Food Bank To Raise Money?

Evidently KCBD decided to implement a charge on this year's 'U-Can Share Food Drive'.  We don't deny their right to make money, but to take the payment STRAIGHT from the charity affected is a pretty sorry thing to do.

A post on a scouting website claims that, this year, KCBD charged $15,000 for the previously free broadcasts for the U-Can Share Food Drive. I don't deny the value of their airtime and/or the time and energy put forth by their hosts. What I do have a problem with is that this particular event has been the marquee event for KCBD resulting in good will for them year round. If it's a "for profit' series of remotes, I think they need to back off on patting themselves on the back just a bit.

Now the initial article claimed that this charge was 'sprung' on the Food bank while a later post claims that the Food Bank knew that this was coming since last year (I would also like to claim the wisdom of the Food Bank for paying the fee when there are lots of television and radio stations that would have LOVED to pick up the slack, but that's another story).

It's not uncommon for a third party to pay a broadcast company to do remotes to raise funds.  Let's say a widget company wants you to mentions their widgets while you raise funds for people with too many freckles. That's cool. Everybody wins. The widget company sells more widgets, the broadcast company makes a few bucks and the overly-freckled pick up a few bucks to fight freckles.  BUT, when you take that money STRAIGHT from the hands of charity to pay for YOUR food drive, that is shady.

The responsible thing for KCBD to do was to find a third party to underwrite their broadcast. They may or may not have asked the food bank to help with this, I don't know. Even then, the Food Bank does not employ a staff of salesmen and getting an underwriter would have been a task beyond their capabilities. .It would not have hurt anyone if this would have been the "KCBD/XYZ Bank U-Can Share Food Drive".

Just allowing a co-sponsor would make all of this a non-issue.  Then, there is the other side, KCBD may have just wanted all the credit and to get paid both. This would be about the most piggish of any possible scenario.

Now, I'm not the first to notice this story. I let it go by because I thought it was just a rumor.  The link has been posted and re-posted and more than a few have asked for KCBD to please deny it, but as far as I know it has been complete silence.  I wish KCBD would come out and deny this and/or say it was a mistake to charge the food bank.  Fifteen grand would have fed a lot of people.

On behalf of those people who donated the first fifteen grand, we didn't know it was going into KCBD's pockets, we thought it was feeding hungry people.  Also, will KCBD be charging the Children's Miracle Network?  I don't even know how they can come out front at this point and let people know that they've changed direction and now charge for these services.  Since this is a situation they put themselves in, it's up to them to figure out how to be transparent and honest with their audience.  All I know is, I am now less likely to donate now because I don't want my money going to these advertising costs.

Our radio stations bowed out of the U-Can-Share Food Bank this year. All we ever wanted was a tip of the hat for our guys working or our listeners contributing and we were always given the feeling that we were intruding on KCBD's event. We know that charity work should be selfless, but there's a lot of people who need help out there. We decided that this year each of our stations would bring to light and/or help whatever other causes caught our eyes this holiday season.

This was a hard decision to make and now we're very glad we made it.  If I would have found out that KCBD was profiting from my guys work, well....I can't even put into print what I'd do.

So Dan Jackson, you're the station manager, consider this. Your audience and every one of those screaming kids you put on TV that busted their humps to raise food and money for the South Plains Food Bank deserve an answer. Did KCBD take the first $15,000 raised?

I hope everyone will share this. I don't believe that we'll ever get an answer from KCBD and people have a right to know where their money goes. As for the Food Bank, please don't pay for what some of us would happily do for free again. Both parties have seriously breached the trust of the giving public and we need answers so we can get back to the work of feeding the hungry.

 Note: This morning we had an air personality call the Food Bank. The director confirmed that they indeed made a business decision to pay KCBD but they haven't seen an invoice "yet".  A second source just came forward and confirmed this as well blaming it on 'the parent company" of KCBD.  This is SHADY!  Please pass this around.  We also need to find another way to feed the hungry on the South Plains without KCBD  taking a payment off the top.