Do people actually donate cars to public radio?

Curious City

WBEZ Chicago

Society & Culture, Education, Public, Chicago, Arts, City, Radio, Curious, Investigation

4.8 • 642 Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2025

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

An on-air spot soliciting car donations is a fixture of public radio, but do people actually donate? Yes, about 50 cars are donated a month.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for making WBEZ part of your life and for supporting it too.
0:05.2	Check out our thank you gifts like the WBEZ elevated tea with art by Chiwosu.
0:09.7	I love that one.
0:10.9	Make your monthly gift today at WBEZ.org slash donate.
0:16.3	It's Curious City where we take your questions about Chicago and the region
0:20.8	and investigate. Report. Explore. From WBEZ. It's Curious City, where we take your questions about Chicago and the region.
0:21.8	And investigate.
0:22.4	Report.
0:23.3	Explore.
0:24.7	From WB.E.Z.
0:26.6	I'm Erin Allen.
0:31.0	So, listen in to public radio. You have probably heard this.
0:36.3	Got a car you no longer need? Skip the hassle of selling. Donate it to WB.E.Z instead.
0:40.7	And a few Curious City listeners have written in asking what the process is like.
0:45.9	Where do the cars go? And why would a person donate their car instead of selling it for some extra cash or giving it to a loved one? I mean, do people actually do this?
0:50.2	We get about 50 individual like vehicle donations per month.
0:54.7	So yeah, they do.
0:56.9	This is my colleague Yolanda Maldonado.
0:59.2	She manages our vehicle donation program.
1:01.5	And she says it's not just cars.
1:03.3	People donate boats, travel trailers, and even riding lawnmowers.
1:07.7	And for the first time, Tesla's are being donated to WBEZ this year.
	...

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