Holiday Auction kicks off KOZK fund-raising season

by Karen E. Culp

SBJ Staff

Ozarks Public Television will hold its annual Holiday Auction for KOZK and KOZJ Nov. 20-22.

The auction is the first of this year's auction season, which will also include two other on-air auctions: one in January 1999 and one in April 1999.

This auction season, the holiday and January auctions will be three days, while the April auction will be four days in length, said Bill Carhart, auction manager for KOZK.

Previously, Ozarks Public Television had held two auctions, the Holiday Auction and an auction in the spring which spanned about two weeks. The three shorter events are to be more concentrated fund-raising efforts, Carhart said.

"We have realized that the support for Ozarks Public Television is still here, of course, but the time is no longer so readily available," Carhart said.

After taking a look at the auction program, Ozarks Public Television officials decided to break the auctions into the three shorter, more concentrated auctions, Carhart said.

The Holiday Auction will continue to be the weekend prior to Thanksgiving and will focus on holiday gift ideas, Carhart said. The January auction will feature art, antiques, collectibles and getaways or vacations and the April auction will continue to be a general merchandise auction, Carhart said.

The auctions generate money for programming for Ozarks Public Television, and a big portion of that programming is for children, Carhart said.

"As the community has grown, so has Ozarks Public Television. We all truly feel we work for the viewer," Carhart said.

Instead of setting fund-raising goals for each individual auction, KOZK has set a goal for the auction year of $185,000, Carhart said.

That goal is about the same as the goal for the two years prior to the 1998-1999 auction year.

The overall operation for this year's auctions has become more compact, Carhart said.

The auction's operation will be contained entirely in the KOZK studios on the Drury College campus, Carhart said, including the auction warehouse and pick-up-and-pay areas.

The public television stations are also beginning a new cooperative program with other public television stations in the country. For the vacation packages Ozarks Public Television plans to auction off in January, it is participating in trade-outs with other public television stations in order to get the Ozarks' message into the minds of, say, people in Memphis, Tenn., or vice-versa, Carhart said.

"This will give those who donate vacation packages exposure not only here, but in Memphis, St. Louis. It's something new we're trying," Carhart said.

For the Holiday Auction, a donated value of $50 to $299 earns the donor a visual/audio presentation; $300 to $799 earns a visual/audio presentation and a listing of the business' name in a program guide; the same guidelines apply to gift certificates. For both general merchandise and gift certificates, donations worth $50 or less are placed in a "basket of values," and no donor identification will be given.

Major gifts start at $800. A gift of $800 to $1,499 earns the donor a place on the gold board, a live-sell phone bank, and the business will be featured in a newspaper ad and program guide; the donation will also be presented twice on air. Gifts of $1,500 to $2,999 will go on the gold board, be part of the live-sell phone bank and be featured in the newspaper ad and program guide.

Those gifts will also receive three visual/audio presentations on air over two nights.

Gifts of $3,000 and up will be part of the gold board and the live-sell phone bank, will be in the newspaper ad and program guide, and will have a 30-second video of the item presented three times during the month prior to the auction.

Four presentations will be made of the item over the three nights of the auction. The donor will also be invited for an on-air thank-you prior to the sale of the item.

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