NEWS FROM FBI RADIO

Australia Asks … Richard Answers
Richard Branson comes on board to save FBi Radio

Sir Richard Branson today rang FBi 94.5FM in response to their hugely successful ASK RICHARD CAMPAIGN and pledged to help the Sydney community radio station from becoming another recession casualty. The ASK RICHARD campaign has challenged listeners to come up with the most creative and attention grabbing Branson-esque stunts in a bid to get the Virgin boss to come on board and save the station.

Sir Richard Branson commented: “Congratulations to FBi radio for running and truly inventive and original campaign. I’ve been amazed by the effort that your supporters have gone to and have had a great laugh at some of the very creative entries. Clearly FBi inspires great passion from its listeners and it’s worth saving. I’ll do my bit providing some prizes, but really it’s up to FBi’s listeners to show that they want the station to survive. So I say sign up and save FBi!.

Sir Richard revealed that he found out about the Ask Richard campaign when a young woman swam two and a half miles from a neighboring island in the Caribbean to tell him about FBi’s efforts. She ended up staying for dinner after walking in when Richard and his family were dining.

To help FBi with the supporter drive, Branson offered the station two tickets to LA and two tickets to the UK flying Virgin Atlantic, along with tickets to the upcoming V Festival in London, to use as a prize to encourage their listeners to become supporters and get behind the campaign to save the station.

The supporter drive is asking for music fans to log onto www.fbiradio.com and pledge to donate $84 a year to go towards ongoing operational costs of the community station. Sir Richard pledged on air to sign up himself to become an FBi supporter himself.

As part of today’s contact, Branson also offered FBi access to his senior management team from Virgin Management to help consult on future fundraising and sponsorship opportunities, to help the station raise their $1 million target.

FBi’s Station Director, Meagan Loader commented: “FBi is chuffed that Sir Richard has responded to our Ask Richard campaign and pledged his support. Our listeners have gone to great lengths to grab his attention and it’s a great credit to them and our station community to achieve this outcome. We always thought Ask Richard was a campaign that would appeal to Sir Richard, and we sincerely appreciate his generosity in contributing to our fundraising campaign.”

As another sign of support, over 100 Sydney bands have come together to perform at Save FBi Gigs throughout June. Full details of the Save FBI gigs can be seen at http://www.fbiradio.com

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