The 2011 WTJU Rock Marathon Fundraiser starts at 6am on Monday morning!

I’m really excited about the fundraiser this year, for a number of reasons. I’ve been a WTJU listener since I was a kid, and a volunteer at the station for almost three years now — I’ve written in the past about how much I like WTJU, so it would be a cause for celebration in any event; WTJU is a noncommercial, open-format community-supported radio station that plays the kind of great and interesting music that you’re just not going to find anywhere else in town, so that alone should be enough reason to open up the checkbook and do your part to help keep a great station on the air.

BUT I should also note that this will also be the first fundraiser for the Rock Department since that whole mess last summer where the station’s new Director spent his short-lived tenure at the station attempting (and failing) to convert us over to a commercial format. One of the unforeseen benefits of that debacle was that WTJU received a huge amount of grassroots support from the local community, and the two fundraisers that have happened since his departure (Classical and Jazz) have both done extremely well, $$$-wise. A lot of you told us how much you care about WTJU, and well… now’s the time to put your money where your mouth is, and help us raise the funds we need to stay on the air and bring you more great programming.

That said, we’re kind of at a disadvantage holding a fundraiser right in the middle of February; the close proximity to the Winter Holidays means we’ve had to pull everything together in a hurry at the last minute… and furthermore the new DMCA regulations which went info effect on Jan 1. have prohibited radio stations who stream their content on the internet from playing the same artist more than 4 times in a 3-hr period, which means it’s going to be a lot trickier to do artist-specific shows (which in past years have been our biggest moneymakers). Not to mention the fact that the Rock Department traditionally receives the smallest amount of donations (or rather, we receive the smallest denomination of donations from the highest number of individual supporters — lots of college kids and broke artist types giving $5 each, instead of a single philanthropist giving $1000 to support the Classical Department, for instance). So I guess we’ll see whether the same will hold true for the Rock Department (whose supporters tend to be younger, and thus more transient and with lower incomes), or whether the rising-tide-raises-all-boats theory will help us out here.

Anyway, enough of the behind-the-scenes bullshit. Here’s what great music is coming up:

(click to enlarge, or read the full version here)

I’ll be trying to do a day-by-day summary, as best I can inbetween the Four shows I’m hosting, the three live appearances I’m helping to run, and the five other shows I’ve agreed to co-host or answer phones for (it’s gonna be a crazy week). But here’s what coming up tomorrow:

At 6am a bunch of volunteers from the station will all get up at the crack of dawn to do a 3-hour preview show of what you can expect in the upcoming week;

of what you can expect in the upcoming week; at 9am Zak and RJ will host a tribute to the mighty Merge Records ;

Zak and RJ will host a tribute to the mighty ; at 10:30 I will assist Colin Powell in a show all about songs with themed dances , like the Twist, the Watusi, the Mashed Potatoes, the Funky Chicken, etc. That’s an idea we’ve had for a few years now and I’m excited it’s finally coming together.

I will assist Colin Powell in a show all about , like the Twist, the Watusi, the Mashed Potatoes, the Funky Chicken, etc. That’s an idea we’ve had for a few years now and I’m excited it’s finally coming together. At Noon , Colin and Robin (of “Grits&Gravy” fame) will rock the Soulful Situation time slot with two hours of music about awesome contemporary Soul and Funk artists , from Sharon Jones to awesome underground bands that have yet to break through;

, Colin and Robin (of “Grits&Gravy” fame) will rock the Soulful Situation time slot with two hours of music about awesome , from Sharon Jones to awesome underground bands that have yet to break through; from 2 to 4pm , Charlottesville expatriot and Rolling Stone scribe Rob Sheffield will appear on Tyler’s show to talk about his new book, Talking to Girls About Duran Duran, and they will presumably be playing songs that fit the book’s topic;

, Charlottesville expatriot and Rolling Stone scribe will appear on Tyler’s show to talk about his new book, Talking to Girls About Duran Duran, and they will presumably be playing songs that fit the book’s topic; at 5pm , Helvidius and DJ Steev and myself will play two hours of romantic Valentines Day songs on a show called Singing Valentines ;

, Helvidius and DJ Steev and myself will play two hours of romantic Valentines Day songs on a show called ; Then at 7pm , Charlottesville’s much-beloved pop-rock supergroup Borrowed Beams of Light will perform live on air! Borrowed Beams is the side project of Adam Brock, whom you may also know as the drummer / backup singer for The Invisible Hand and the Nice Jenkins; he’s backed by half of Corsair and some of his former bandmates, and his short EP and single have garnered a ton of acclaim around town, despite the fact that I believe the band has only performed live twice.

, Charlottesville’s much-beloved pop-rock supergroup will perform on air! Borrowed Beams is the side project of Adam Brock, whom you may also know as the drummer / backup singer for The Invisible Hand and the Nice Jenkins; he’s backed by half of Corsair and some of his former bandmates, and his short EP and single have garnered a ton of acclaim around town, despite the fact that I believe the band has only performed live twice. The evening will wrap up with two hours of Chillwave at 9pm, followed by a all- Virginia Hip-Hop show in the Can’t Stop Won’t Stop time slot at 11pm.

at 9pm, followed by a all- show in the Can’t Stop Won’t Stop time slot at 11pm. Then, late night, Vic is doing two hours about the History of House Music from 1 to 3am, and I’ll be burning the midnight oil bringing you three hours of Electronic Music Pioneers from 3 to 6am. (It’ll basically be stuff from the 40’s up through the 70’s … starting with Pierre Schaeffer, up-to-but-not-including Giorgio Moroder).

SO; get your tape decks cued up, your wallets open, and your radio dials cued to 91.1 FM; AND for those outside of the Charlottesville area, don’t forget that you can always tune in online!