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“In towns and cities... there is no more important institution than the local paper.”
Warren Buffett
KNX afternoon drive anchors Jim Thornton and Diane Thompson flank CHP Officer Jeremy Tolen, with employees of Walgreens who supported the toy drive and the KNX Street Team. Photo courtesy KNX.
Staff Report
The KNX 1070 Newsradio On Your Corner Toy Drive that took place this past Friday Dec. 12 at Mimi’s Café at the Cerritos Towne Center netted, according to KNX, the largest number of toys donated in four years.
This despite torrential rain and the broadcast time frame cut by four hours.
Listeners were invited to a live broadcast at Mimi’s and they generously dropped off a few hundred toys for KNX’s effort in conjunction with sister TV stations, CBS 2 and KCAL 9.
The toys will be distributed locally to less fortunate children by the California Highway Patrol.
Los Cerritos Community News was the exclusive print media sponsor of the event and published advertising four weeks prior to the toy drive to help drive donations to the event.
It appears, by all accounts, the promotional campaign was a great success.
The event started at 1 p.m., not its usual 5 a.m. because of the rainy weather in the area.
KNX completely took over the back room at Mimi’s setting up a mini radio station where KNX anchors Jim Thornton and Diane Thompson broadcasted from 2-7 p.m.
The KNX Business Hour, hosted by Frank Mottek, broadcasted from 1-2 p.m.
Residents in the area enjoyed walking in the back room to give their gifts to KNX representatives and watch Thornton and Thompson broadcast the latest news and events.
Howard Freeman, Marketing Director at KNX told LCCN, “our KNX listeners in the Cerritos and Artesia areas really came through for kids this holiday season. With the support of Los Cerritos Community News, Walgreens and Mimi’s Café in the Towne Center we collected a few hundred toys for the California Highway Patrol’s ‘CHiPs For Kids’ program. Thank you Cerritos and Artesia.”
Frank Mottek, host of the KNX Business Hour said, “this was our most successful toy drive to date and we can’t thank enough the people of Cerritos who stopped by to help bring some smiles to less fortunate kids in the area. We’ve joined forces with our sister television stations CBS 2 and KCAL 9 for six years now and from the looks of the mountain of toys, it appears this was our most successful effort to date. ”
Several dignitaries from the area came down to Mimi’s to speak live on the air including Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe.
“This is a great event,” said Knabe, “I am honored to be part of it and drop a few toys off for less fortunate families and children. Congratulations to KNX, the CHiP’s For Kids Program, Los Cerritos Community Newspaper and other sponsors for putting on such a wonderful event.”