As Albany and Clinton County digs out from under the third major winter weather event of the season, the arrival of spring may be on the minds of most, but is still more than a month away.

Still, as we make the turn toward the final weeks of winter, thoughts have been turning too in recent week, the arrival of one of the premier community events held on an annual basis that brings the community together for a common cause – the Clinton County Basketball Boosters / WANY Radio Auction.

With basketball’s regular season coming to an end this week, the annual fundraising event is slated to be held this Friday night over the airwaves of WANY, getting underway at 5:00 p.m.

The auction, which might better be described as an “event” will continue until the normal sign-off time for WANY, 10:00 p.m., or until all available items have been sold.

With favorable weather conditions now in the forecast for the remainder of the week – mostly clear skies with highs in the mid 60s, lows in the upper 40s – hopes are high that the auction will be held on schedule, without any problems concerning weather delays.

The Booster Club members have been working for the past few weeks collecting donations from local businesses and professionals and as is usually always the case, the lineup of goods and services that will be offered for sale will be long and varied.

Long-time co-host Al Gibson, who has been at the microphone on auction night since the very first edition, says that the process has been refined over the years, and the format on auction night will basically remain the same.

Gibson will again be joined by another long-time fixture at his side during the broadcast, Jackie Flowers, who took that position many years ago after the late Sid Scott stepped down from his work as co-host of the radio auction.

Scott and Gibson came up with the idea for the fundraising event during the initial years after the formation of the Basketball Booster Club back in the early 1980s.

Since those first years, the event has moved from it’s humble beginnings based out of “Studio A” at radio station WANY with just a handful of people on hand, to it’s current home base at the Clinton County High School cafeteria, where at times the number of people attending the auction in person can well exceed 100.

After bouncing around several times down through the years, the event has settled on a tradition of being held on the night following the final regular season basketball game, normally a Thursday night contest against Barren County, as is the case this year.

That situates the program in-between the end of regular season play, and the start of the post-season 16th District Tournament, which will be played this year beginning next Monday night at host Russell County (see separate article beginning on page 1)

The program will again be a combination of radio listeners/bidders who are listening over the WANY frequency of 100.9 FM, and those who are attending on a live basis in the high school cafeteria.

Items will be grouped together in a string of series with normal items being bid on for a specified length of time, normally.

The basic premise of the auction is unchanged from years past, with a group of three or more items or services being described over the air and listed on a large bulletin board at the cafeteria for segments that usually last for just three minutes.

Bidders calling in over the phone or in person, can continue to raise the bids on items until the segment ends, winning bidders are announced and the process starts all over again with a completely new lineup of items.

From time to time, items that are deemed to be “big-ticket” items and would likely garner more attention, are stretched out for longer featured times and are usually run in conjunction with the groups of normal items being auctioned off.

To keep the bidding process fair to bidders listening to the program over the radio and calling bids in via telephone, and to prevent bid “sniping” from the crowd of bidders attending the event inside the cafeteria, the final 30 seconds of each segment is always allotted as “phone bids only” and live bids from the cafeteria audience are not taken.

In addition to Gibson and Flowers doing the on-air presentation throughout the night, there is a long list of others on hand for the auction night work at the cafeteria, including merchandise organizers, bid description board workers, final bid tally keepers and of course the members of the Lady Bulldogs and Bulldogs basketball squads who man the telephones throughout the program, talking to bidders and announcing each bid as they are called in.

At times, the pace of the activity inside the cafeteria reaches levels that become chaotic, but there is still usually a degree of “organized chaos” said Gibson.

“While we depend on our telephone bidders to keep the program true to it’s original premise, we have the most fun during the night from the in-house audience,” Gibson said. “Their antics inside the cafeteria are always entertaining and help us keep things going at a fast pace of action.”

The lineup of items and services that will be offered at Friday night’s radio auction will, of course, be as varied and interesting as it has ever been, normally ranging from clothing to health and personal services to furniture and tools and from time to time, even pets and livestock.

While the majority of the items and services that will be offered for sale during the program are smaller, inexpensive and certainly affordable, there are always several items that are promoted as “special” items and are featured for extended segment runs and usually garner higher prices.

Those items can range from houseboat or pontoon boat rentals to handmade items or even antiques or collectibles.

The radio auction is designed as a way to raise funds to help with expenses associated with the varsity basketball program in Clinton County.

The premise behind the Booster Club and the fundraising events is to give the small high school program a boost in providing things to it’s student-athletes that might not otherwise be possible on an often strained athletic budget.

While larger schools in larger communities and cities are often able to go the extra mile, smaller programs like the one here often work on shoestring budgets and additional fundraising efforts such as the ones planned for this weekend are just one attempt at reaching for some status of financial equality with the larger programs.

Gibson also noted again this year that the auction event is always a reminder of how well the community comes together for a common cause, especially when the youth of the community is concerned.

The items that are auctioned off during the program Friday night have been donated to the effort by local business owners, professionals and individuals who always step forward with fantastic offerings that make the effort a tremendous success each and every year.

Items that will be sold Friday night can be picked up during or after the auction at the C.C.H.S. cafeteria that night for awhile following the end of the program, and an additional pick-up day will also be announced throughout the program for those who can’t make it out Friday night.

While most of the items being sold will actually be on hand for pick-up by the winning bidders, other items and services that have been sold will involve gift certificates that can be taken to the vendor.

Home listeners/bidders enjoying the program over the WANY broadcast are reminded that only one telephone number is necessary with the multi-line “roll-over” system in use at Clinton County High School, and the telephone number that will be used Friday night is (606) 387-5569.

Bidders using the telephone will be asked to state a bid amount as well as the caller’s name.

If a caller is out-bid by another caller or in-house bidder during a particular segment, then placing a new bid is as simple as making another phone call and placing a new bid on the item.

When bidding has ended on a group of featured items, new items are then presented and described, and the process starts over again.