WDBX 91.1 FM has been broadcasting in Carbondale since 1996, but in a day when many people stream music online, the local community station is working to stay on the air.

Last week the station appealled to the community, asking for $20,000 to help the station survive. WDBX holds membership drives every year, but this is the most it has ever asked for. The station has raised more than $18,000 as of Monday night.

“This time we were in dire straits,” said Navreet Kang, board member for Heterodyne Broadcasting Company, the not for profit organization which holds the station license.

As a community radio station, WDBX is one of a handful in Illinois. It is nonprofit and receives all of its funding from the community. One-third of the money that keeps the station afloat comes from the station’s underwriters, local businesses that help fund the station. The organization’s staff, which totals more than 100 people, is completely volunteer.

“If we don’t get the funding, we would be gone,” said Chuck Leebens, host of Chuck’s Place. He said WDBX is “one of the last vestiges where people could hear the diversity of music, rather than listen to some other station play the same song over 30 times.”

In recent years, it has seen a decrease in underwriters. While that number has stabilized, it is still lower than past years.

Kang said he has high hopes for Jenny Griffin, the newly hired director of underwriters, who is expected to increase the amount of businesses that fund the station.

“We were stuck paying for bills with money we didn’t have, and that has been changed,” Kang said.

WDBX isn’t the only station suffering. Joey Helleny, a senior lecturer of broadcast journalism, said competition from online streaming services such as Pandora, Spotify, and iHeartRadio has caused a decrease in radio listeners.

Helleny said the majority of people still listen to the radio at least once a week.

“But the time spent listening has been eroding somewhat, especially among younger listeners,” he said.

Helleny said stations need to emphasize local content if they want to succeed against web streaming. He said some examples of local coverage are news, weather, traffic and entertainment events.

“If listeners get in the habit of tuning in for severe weather and other hyper-local information, then they are more apt to visit [the station] regularly,” he said.

More than 80 different programs are broadcast from WDBX, with each show offering something different ranging from blues and gospel to doo-wop, hip-hop, talk and more.

“You would be hard-pressed to not find a certain kind of music,” Station Manager Dave Armstrong said.

Leebens, whose show airs every Monday from noon to 2 p.m., said besides keeping the station running, WDBX urges residents to visit the facility and see how it functions. There are also open spaces in the schedule, so the station is accepting applications for DJs, Armstrong said.

“We want people to come in and say, ‘I’d like to be a part of this,'” he said. “We want to thank you for supporting us over the years and rallying together to help us now.”

Kang said the fundraiser will end Sept. 1. and donations can be made online at WDBX.org, where the shows stream live or in person at 224 N. Washington St, in Carbondale.