All Brass Radio has launched its annual fund raising campaign to help keep the 'free to air' programme beaming brilliant brass band music across the internet airwaves.

Based in the USA, for the past 16 years Dr Jim Fox has been a pioneering advocate and fan of brass band music and has managed to keep his venture going thanks to an incredible amount of hard work and commitment, as well as the generosity of bands, players and brass band lovers who send him recordings to play.

Commercial free

It also enables the broadcasts to be 'commercial free', because there are listeners to the station that are willing to become donors.

Jim told 4BR: "It is a labour of love — but what love. We have to pay royalties, and in the United States they can be paid via several companies, so this is one of the largest costs the station has each year.

Then there are the other costs: internet hosting, radio hosting, purchasing the latest CDs if we don't have them, paying programmers and voice artists. We have kept the station up to date with the latest technology so that listeners can enjoy the best of brass band music anywhere in the world."

All Brass Radio is one of the few stations we know of that the listeners control the playlist — so we encourage people to be a part of itDr Jim Fox

Extra support

He added: "We would love to able to do some live broadcasts and link up with people such as 4barsrest to find out more about what is going on in the banding world, so that is why we need that extra support.

We have always been very grateful for the support we get, but if people can help us we would be delighted.

All Brass Radio is one of the few stations we know of that the listeners control the playlist — so we encourage people to be a part of it."

Help out

If you wish to help go to the front-page at: www.allbrassradio.com and make a donation.