Steve Robinson mentioned in Fox News blog...

From reporter Nancy Loo's blog (reporter at Fox Chicago):

On just about every day of the year, Chicago's media companies are competing with each other - elbowing others out of the way to get interviews and stories on the air faster and better. Today, we worked together for "Chicago Helps Haiti". Every TV and radio station in town spent an entire broadcast day soliciting calls and donations for the American Red Cross.

Steve Robinson, General Manager of WFMT-FM, was a driving force in organizing the event. He told me it took just two hours to get commitments from every broadcast executive in town including my bosses here at Fox Chicago, General Manager Mike Renda and News Director Carol Fowler.
Hewitt Associates stepped up bigtime by hosting the telethon at its facilities in Lincolnshire and finding an army of volunteers to answer the phones and take in the donations.

CDW Offers Huge Challenge Grant

This morning CDW (Computer Discount Warehouse) offered a huge challenge grant: $1,000 for each caller who donates $1,000 or more up to $100,000. We've never quite seen this type of huge challenge and we hope it works! Up to $1,649,460 in the grant total.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

VERNON HILLS, Ill ? January 21, 2010 ? CDW LLC, a leading provider of technology products and solutions for business, government and education, today announced a challenge match to help raise money for the American Red Cross Haitian relief effort as part of the CHICAGO HELPS HAITI relief drive.
CDW will match relief drive donations of $1,000 or more, up to a total match of $100,000. During the relief drive, people are encouraged to call 1-877-565-5000 to donate to the American Red Cross Haitian relief effort. The relief drive takes place today, January 21, 2010, from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. Chicagoans can also donate to the American Red Cross International Response Fund at www.chicagoredcross.org/haiti.

Chicago Helps Haiti Telethon

All day today on WFMT (starting at 5:58AM!) Steve Robinson, Sandy Ruffalo and myself, David Polk, will be reporting from the Chicago Helps Haiti Media Relief Telethon (http://www.hewitt.com/chicagohelpshaiti), live from Hewitt Headquarters in Lincolnshire, IL.

All day today, nearly every TV and radio station in Chicago will be asking their audiences to call 877-565-5000 to raise money for the Red Cross of Chicago specifically for Haiti relief. The calls come into Hewitt (a human resources consulting company), where hundreds of employees have volunteered to answer phones (Hewitt has also donated the space, phone lines and other resources to make this happen!).

Our own General Manager Steve Robinson initiated this huge collaborative project several years ago to provide relief for Tsunami Victims in Asia. When the earthquake hit Haiti, Chicago's media once again got together to organize today's telethon.