(Shameless Horn-Tooting)

The newest sponsor of our International Village webcast is McKeesport Housing Corp.! They're new to our broadcast this year, and they join our returning sponsors, State Rep. Marc Gergely and White Oak Florist. Thank you for your support!

For what it's worth, Gergely's challenge grant of $250 hasn't yet been matched. We've received $50 since announcing Gergely's contribution (thank you to Susan, Eric and Kelli!) but we're still $200 short.

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Also: Are you interested in being a volunteer broadcaster? Contact me at tubecitytiger@gmail.com. And thanks!

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By the Way: The Daily News carried a very nice mention of this project recently, but I need to issue a slight clarification. In case anyone cares, I no longer represent Lightning Community Broadcasting Inc., and haven't since last July, when I resigned from that group.

Lightning is a separate organization, and several of its volunteers will be helping us with this webcast, but this effort is officially being run under the Tube City Online banner.

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(P.S.: We continue to solicit advertising support from businesses and organizations. Details below.)

Interested in Advertising?: For the past two years, Tube City Online has provided the only live, continuous coverage of International Village. Although there are two radio stations licensed to McKeesport, neither broadcasts from the Village any more.

That's despite the fact that tens of thousands of people attend the annual three-day festival --- and the fact that several hundred people tuned into our webcast last year.

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Well, we plan to provide the same public service again this year from a new location ... but we can't afford to lose money on the event.

Wireless access alone will cost us $125. We've purchased a couple of handheld transmitters and microphones so that we can interview people live from around the festival --- used, those cost us about $50 at the recent Dayton Hamvention.

And the computers we bought last year turned out not to work, so now we're pricing a used laptop --- at least $300.

No one takes a salary from this event, and the executive director (me) will wind up subsidizing this from my own pocket. (If anyone wants to see the bills from last year, email me privately. We wound up spending about $1,000 on the three-day event.)

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So ... we're again appealing to you for help. If you can donate a few dollars, we will very gladly and graciously accept your money. Use the ChipIn button to donate securely using PayPal or a credit card. And thank you!

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In addition, we'd like to find a few sponsors to underwrite the broadcast. This is a great, low-cost opportunity to promote your church festival, volunteer fire department, labor union or other worthy cause.

If you want to advertise, please email me at jtogyer@gmail.com, or call me at (412) 614-9659:

• A $50 donation will entitle you to one 15-second announcement per hour throughout the broadcast, along with ads at Tube City Almanac and LightningFM.org throughout the month of August.


• A $100 donation will entitle you to one 30-second announcement per hour, along with banner ads at Tube City Almanac and LightningFM.org during that week.

Besides airing your commercials during the broadcast, we will display the name of your business or organization in our booth throughout the event.