For the past two weekends, my radio show has been in Pledge Drive mode. KUVO only has three pledge drives a year, a lot fewer than many other public radio stations, and this was the last one of 2004.

The first weekend, my opening hour had a live band in the Performance Studio to start things off. Eric Gunnison and Wake Up Call, performed a superb set, and certainly helped the pledges start coming in. Us not being on-air for the first four minutes, due to an engineering slip up, possibly didn't help, or maybe it did? Maybe a taste of what might happen if no-one pledged (ie. radio silance/static), spurred people on.

The second hour was even more frantic. My studio guest was British blues muscian (and Denverite of the past 25+ years) David Booker. He and I always make each other laugh, and there then followed an hour of pledge-rapping, that chiefly consisted of obscure British cultural references that no-one but Dave, myself and any UK listeners would get, interspersed with me laughing way too loudly at Dave, plus the threat of us playing a Lonnie Donnegan CD that he'd brought in. Needless to say, our threat worked, and we met our goal for the number of pledges needed for both hours.

I'd made extra tea, and had some McVitie's Chocolate Digestive biscuits for us both. I mean, two Englishmen, on Teatime Jazz? Tea and bickies is compulsory, surely?

The next weekend, saw my goals for each hour raised by 50%. Despite that, my dear friend Susan Gatschet-Reese and I managed to exceed the goals for the two hours I'm on. We pledge-rapped our butts off, getting more and more frantic (some would say "hyper", or "nuts") as the show progressed.

Love her as I do, she can be a tad bossy at times, but buoyed by the need to make folks laugh enough to call in with a pledge, I gave as good as I got, and the phones started ringing.

The jazz I was playing was all classics, and all fairly short, due to the need to get back on the mic, and get people calling in.

If I'm honest, I didn't really expect anyone to call in - so convinced was I that my show wasn't that significant, compared to others on the station. But that's just me all over: my own worst critic. As it goes, I met my target number of pledges the first week, and despite a 50% increase for the second week, I exceeded my goals.

If by chance, any of you reading this are one of the 42 people who called in a pledge for Teatime Jazz, may I give you a heartfelt and sincere thank you. I was stunned that, that many people called for my show, and even more touched by some of the kind comments of the pledge forms. And no, this isn't false modesty, this is the genuinely humbled reaction of a novice broadcaster, going through his first pledge drive as a regular host of a show.

Today's show: lots of long, long, long, tunes, and a lot of love, going out to all you Teatime listeners.