How Butte Radio Stations Secured Funding For Annual Fireworks Spectacular
I was not even a full year in my career with this Butte group of radio stations when the panic button was firmly pressed in our GM's office. It was 2003 and the group in charge of funding the annual 3rd of July Fireworks Show was out of money. There were not funds to cover that summer's upcoming fireworks show on the 3rd of July. It was that day, I believe, that we went on-air and started collecting donations from listeners. Soon local businesses joined in and started challenges with other local businesses in their respective fields. Donations and momentum continued to grow until the final day of the donation drive where we teamed up with our radio friends down the street from the Butte Broadcasting Group and did a citywide bucket drive on the corner of Harrison and Dewey live on all of Butte's local commercial radio stations and wound up getting enough donations to fund the fireworks show for not only that year but for the next three years. After that, Brooks Hanna Ford picked up the bill for a few years. And since then, Town Pump has been the sole sponsor of the annual 3rd of July Fireworks Show
