When I began this station in late 2003, the maximum allowed listeners was just 10. As it became more popular, I moved streaming out of the house to a dedicated stream service with a maximum of 30 listeners in May 2004. By September 2004 we had to move that to 250 as we first got listed in iTunes, then 350 in May 2005 at which point I began allowing donations, and so on till today at 2,000. ABN Old-time Radio has been 100% listener-sponsored since 2005!

By listeners taking care of the costs it has certainly kept this station alive for the longterm instead of it being an expensive hobby I would have had to give up.

I would like to say that ABN OTR is commercial-free but in fact there are those antique commercials in the shows. I'm not making anything on those. If you hear any contemporary advertising, it is being injected by a service you are using or I'm running something unpaid on the subject of OTR for friends of the OTR hobby. This station does not profit from any ads. Even if you paid for satellite radio, they play contemporary ads too, actually removing content from the OTR shows to do so. You can listen directly from this website either desktop or mobile or there are many apps that don't inject contemporary advertising.

Over the years donations have covered streaming costs, legal fees in 2010 which won us the freedom to continue to play old-time radio, a new computer in 2010 and again in 2023, and the expenses of acquiring, storing and digitizing thousands of reel-to-reel tapes starting in 2018. 2023 is the 19th year of donations fully funding operations. Thank you!

For 2024 the goal is $6,500.00. So far we received $6,343.70 which covers us to Dec 22, 2024.

I update the total contributed for the year and add the location it was received from (if given) as I see each donation. Be sure to include your address when using PayPal so your location can be added below.

If you'd like to make a direct donation, here are two methods:

By PayPal, you can choose the amount you want to donate once or monthly Or Send a Check to: MacinMind Software 583 Orchard St. Antioch, IL 60002 Write ABN OTR in the memo