Personally, I experience a little buzz every time I’m privileged to say it: “… and right now they join us live on Hear Nebraska FM.”

Then there’s a band name. And then there’s a pregnant pause, maybe the hum of an amp, and the music strikes up.

In the 18 months it’s been on the air, Hear Nebraska FM has hosted more than 60 live guests, musicians across genres from Omaha and Lincoln. It’s among my favorite branches of Hear Nebraska, and a real treat: transposing a band from its normal performance setting into a radio studio where the set feels both private and boundlessly public.

For co-host Jacob Zlomke and me, HNFM is a few hours each week when we get to dialogue directly with the scenes we care about.

But none of it would be possible without KZUM — Nebraska’s only full-power community radio station — and the dedicated professionals who devote their full-time energies toward maintaining KZUM as a Lincoln institution. The in-studio equipment, the place on the airwaves, the history of community engagement that saw people tuning into our fledgling show a year ago: That all happens because of the station and its larger support network.

It doesn’t come free. Especially now, with talk of federal funding cuts looming. KZUM and HNFM are calling on you, the listener, for your support. To make a pledge during the show, call 402-474-5086 tonight between 8 and 10 p.m. Or, if you prefer, donate online at kzum.org. Please be sure to note “Hear Nebraska FM” as the program to which you’re pledging.

We’re very sincere when we say that every little bit helps.

In addition to KZUM’s reward packages, we’ll be offering up a Hear Nebraska t-shirt and a vinyl copy of Hear Nebraska Vol. 2 to the first two people to pledge $25 during tonight’s show.

Look below for the evidence of what we’ve tried to do on HNFM, and what we hope to replicate and expand moving forward, a sort of “best of” from our year-and-a-half on the air.

Please help us add to what you hear below. Long live community radio.