RADIOTHON FOR ST. JUDE SET TODAY

Regular K103-FM listeners might notice a format change today -- country music mixed with pleas for donations -- but it should be a familiar change.

For more than 10 years the "Country Cares for St. Jude Kids" Radiothon has been heard on radio stations across the country. It begins at 6 a.m. today on KEZS/K103-FM radio and features country music, celebrity endorsements and pledge appeals from St. Jude patients.

The 12-hour radiothon benefits St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., a research center for catastrophic childhood diseases.

Since 1962, when the hospital opened, more than 13,500 children from 47 states and 53 foreign countries have been treated. Patients, most of whom are referred by a doctor, are accepted regardless of their ability to pay for treatment.

During the day, K103 radio personalities will be at four Cape Girardeau businesses to collect pledges. Pledges also will be accepted by phone or at the radio station offices, 324 Broadway. To make a pledge by phone call 335-3777 or 1-800-920-8444.

About 80 percent of each pledge goes directly to the hospital. The radiothon pledges covered 58 percent of the hospital's funding last year.

Daily operating costs at St. Jude Hospital are funded by public contributions, many of which are gathered during pledge drives and radiothons.

Cape Girardeau Jaycee members will answer calls as listeners phone in pledges. Last year the fund-raiser gathered more than $32,000.

"You have to be setting goals," said David Voye, area director for St. Jude. "We try to be realistic and optimistic and hope to surpass last year's goal."