Guitar drums up dollars for KRVM.

Byline: Andrea Damewood The Register-Guard

Jackson Browne and a few other rock legends have donated their signatures to help keep KRVM's coffers from "Running on Empty."

The public radio station fell about $20,000 short of its $60,000 spring fundraising goal, development director Bobbie Cirel said.

To help cover a bit of the loss, the station placed a Fender Squier Strat electric guitar - featuring the indelible scribbles of Browne and fellow musicians Steve Earle and Keb Mo - up for a silent auction in January.

On Saturday, at a benefit concert at the WOW Hall, the guitar was scooped up by a Eugene man for $475.

"Everything helps," said Criel, who blamed a computer database error that failed to mail flyers to about 1,000 people for this year's fundraising shortfall.

KRVM, on the dial at 91.9 FM, is owned by the Eugene School District and relies entirely on listener support and federal public broadcasting money.

Browne and company lent their names to the guitar in 2003, when they played a show at the Cuthbert Amphitheater, Cirel said.

The Fender was one of several donated by the Guitar Center that the station had autographed, she said. The others were auctioned previously.

"This was really the last one," Cirel said.