If you read The Comic's Comic, then you may also listen to The Best Show on WFMU, Tom Scharpling's Tuesday night radio talk/comedy/music spectacular. Tonight from 8-11 p.m. EDT, Scharpling's show coincides with the radio station's fund-raising efforts, and Scharpling will welcome Paul F. Tompkins, John Hodgman, Ted Leo, Aimee Mann to the program. When he's not hosting funny people and musicians who like funny people (Best Show archives), Scharpling is an executive producer and writer for the award-winning USA show, Monk.
Anyone who pledges $75 or more tonight during the show gets an exclusive "Mirth Music and Mayhem: A Premium in Three Parts." That includes an all-new Scharpling and Wurster CD that goes out of print when the radio marathon ends, an all-star tribute to Paul McCartney's "RAM" that features new and original tracks from Death Cab For Cutie, Ted Leo, Aimee Mann, Portatastic, Danielson, Dump, The Black Hollies, The Hank IV, The Barbaras, James Pants, The Spider Bags and more, plus an environmental tote bag with the "Dogmo" logo and a Friends of Tom membership card. Call 1-800-989-9368 or go online at www.wfmu.org from 8-11 p.m. tonight EDT. Listen to an explanation from the man himself here:
WFMU's The Best Show on WFMU with Tom Scharpling from 3/10/2009
Of course, I cannot mention this radio fund-raiser without remarking on our culture and the fact that people seem willing (and sometimes more than willing) to make a donation to receive interesting entertainments over terrestrial airwaves and online podcasts, but ask them to pay for online print content and they gasp in horrors. Gasp! Horrors! Newspapers are dying because a generation feels entitled to receive their information for free, and yet when the newspapers die, where will they get their information. From people like me for free?! Apparently, even as I asked on Twitter today, that remains the case. I put a PayPal donation box on my site last year (it's on the left-hand sidebar column) and so far, one person has thought enough of what I do on The Comic's Comic to make a donation. One person! Losing a "downtown hipster comedy show award" is something I can get over fairly easily. But thinking that my dear readers couldn't fork over a buck a month (or more!) to help me not go broke on comedy journalism? Is that too much to ask? You tell me. How much do you really love the site?
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