An event that has become an annual tradition, marking not only the end of regular season basketball but the pending start of the post-season play, is set to make yet another run this Friday night.

The Clinton County High School Basketball Boosters / WANY Radio Auction will hit the air ways of the local radio station this Friday, February 18.

Set to run once again between the hours of 5:00 p.m. and the station’s normal 10:00 p.m. sign-off time, this year’s annual radio auction will once again feature a multitude of donated items and services that will be offered for sale during the organization’s biggest fund raiser of the year.

As had been the custom for several years now, the annual radio auction falls on the Friday night following the final regular season basketball game, which is once again the match ups between Clinton County and Barren County High Schools.

Those final regular season games will be hosted this Thursday night at the C.C.H.S. Lindle Castle Gymnasium and will also serve as Senior Night for Clinton County, with the traditional tribute to senior members of the various squads and organizations taking place between the girls’ and boys’ games.

Before the excitement heads to Edmonton and next week’s 16th District Tournament, local fans and supporters of the Lady Bulldogs’ and Bulldogs’ basketball programs will be taking part in the Friday night Radio Auction.

Long-time program host and Clinton County News Publisher Al Gibson said that this year’s radio auction should once again provide a full night of entertainment for those participating, as well as serving as a buffer between the regular season and the post-season tournament run.

“The Booster Club Radio Auction has become a tradition in this area and people look forward to it every year,” Gibson said this week. “In addition, the date itself, the night after the Barren County game, has become as much of a tradition as the program itself.”

He explained that during the early years, organizers moved the auction from date to date down through the years, before finally hitting on the night that has been utilized for the past several years.

“It just worked right to do it on the Friday night after the Barren County game the night before – people are excited about the upcoming district tournament and that in itself just created more traffic for the action,” Gibson said.

This year’s auction will be presented on the same basic format as has been the case for several years, with items being broken up into short segments, while bids are taken both from bidders listening to the program on WANY and using the telephone to place bids, in addition to taking bids from the crowd that traditionally gathers at the C.C.H.S. cafeteria where the program is now headquartered.

Gibson, who will be co-hosting the program alongside his long-time co-host partner, Jackie Flowers, added that the program was moved to the cafeteria several years ago after the “in-house” crowd, as they are referred to, became so large that the facilities at WANY simply couldn’t contain everything that was going on.

“This whole auction thing started out years and years ago when Sid Scott made the offer to the Booster Club, and for several years, he and I worked the program as co-hosts, with four or five volunteers from the club helping to organize the items being sold,” Gibson said. “After a few years, we had such a crowd coming to watch that we just couldn’t manage it in a little space, so we had to move to the cafeteria.”

Gibson said that Scott dropped out of the auction several years ago, and Flowers was added as a regular co-host to work the program.

Gibson also said he expects the items that will be sold this year to once again be plentiful and offer a wide array in terms of what bidders will be given a chance to buy.

Merchandise and services that are offered during Friday night’s auction, come from local and area businesses, professionals and organizations that donate to the auction each year.

Price ranges for winning bids during the program can typically range from just a couple of dollars for some items, up to several hundred dollars and even more for a select number of the “big ticket” offerings that are sold each year.

“We never really know what all has been donated until all of the members and parents get there that night and the items are laid out on the tables,” Gibson said.

The annual auction is a venue that allows the athletes and coaching staffs to join forces with the local community for the common goal of raising funds that will be used to benefit the Clinton County varsity basketball programs.

The Booster Club itself was organized in the early 1980s as a means to give Clinton County a way to raise funds that would help the program provide things that the local athletic budget wouldn’t meet.

Down through the past three decades or so since the club was first organized, the fund raising efforts have provided video equipment, camp fees and even travel expenses to name a few of the things that have been secured through the organization.

“It’s a pretty rewarding experience to see the local community get behind these youngsters who are representing Albany and Clinton County every time they put on the C.C.H.S. uniform and step out on the floor,” Gibson said. “Basketball is big in this region, and the across the board participation that this auction has enjoyed from this community is proof to these young players that their hometown is behind them 100 percent.”

Typically, the radio auction will see items being sold that include food, tools, clothing and a lot of farm-related products. In addition, area professionals also donate their services, which are sold in the form of certificates that the winning bidders can take and redeem from the professionals making the donation.

Past years have seen auctioned services include automobile work, legal and tax services and health care among the offerings.

In most cases, merchandise that is sold Friday night will be on hand and available for immediate pickup at the auction headquarters and buyers are urged to come out Friday night before the end of the program to pick up and pay for their merchandise.

Several of the items that are sold each year are handmade and many are made with a basketball theme in mind.

A second pick-up date will also be staged for those who can’t make it to the cafeteria Friday night, with that date and time being announced during the auction.

This year’s auction program will be operated in much the same fashion as has become customary in years past, with a series of items and services that have been donated by local and area businesses and professionals taking up segments for several minutes each during the auction.

While those items are being featured, radio listeners tuned in to WANY (106.3 FM and simulcast on MediaCom Cable channel 16) can call in to place bids on any or all of the items being auctioned at the time, while at the same time, those in the audience at the C.C.H.S. cafeteria will also be bidding on the same items.

The final 30 seconds of each segment is set-aside for “call-in bidders” only, giving radio listeners the final advantage in the bidding process over those bidding live from the cafeteria.

Gibson explained that by giving those calling in the final 30 seconds to place bids, the Radio Auction is allowed to be what it was first designed to be – a true call-in bidding event that allows those at home to be able to bid and buy over the telephone during the program.

That final 30 second period of each segment being dedicated to call-in bidding keeps the radio listeners from being “sniped” in the closing seconds by bidders in the cafeteria.

Radio listeners can make bids during each segment by calling 387-5569, giving the item they are bidding on, the amount of the bid, and of course their name.

As other bidders, both those at the cafeteria and those calling in with bids, raise the price of each item, repeat calls must be made by bidders to raise their bid before the segment comes to an end.

Much like a personal property auction, the bidding process is closed at the allotted time for each segment, with the drop of the auctioneer’s gavel – or in the case of the Boosters Club Auction, the ringing of the cow bell.

In addition to the short segments with several items being offered at a single time, there will also be extended bidding segments going on at the same time for what organizers believe to be possible “big ticket” items.

Those particular items usually run for two or three of the normal three minute long segments.

Those big-ticket items have in the past included furniture, autographed basketballs, high-end clothing items and even an offering or two of livestock, just to mention a few.

The program typically ends with a final bidding frenzy on houseboat vacations that have been donated by local marinas.

Bidders are urged to listen carefully to each segment, and to keep calling in with bids each time they are out-bid.

Challenge bidding often takes over during many segments, and friendly bidding wars can sometimes drive the bid prices up to surprising amounts as well.

“We’ve seen items bring three, or four times their worth, sometimes more, and then on the other side of that, I’ve seen items close out and go for what would be called a ridiculous bargain – you just never know how each segment will end,” Gibson said.

He added that often the best bargains are bought when an item is grouped with one that really grabs the interest of the crowd, often resulting in an item or service being ignored. It is those times when the really sharp bidder that is paying attention gets to take home a real steal.

In addition to the booster club members and parents of players working at Friday night’s auction, the coaching staff members and players themselves also get in on the program as well.

Players and coaching staff are utilized in answering the telephones that take bids from radio listeners, as well as working bid tally boards and even stints from time to time as on-the-air hosts for the program.

The radio auction will begin at 5:00 p.m. and plenty of food and refreshments will be available to those attending at the cafeteria.

Bid, buy and get in on the fun while picking up some great deals and supporting the C.C.H.S. basketball teams as they make the transition from regular season to the post-season tournament run next week.