to open the trips up to fans and friends, which are then advertised on The Joy of Music website. The majority of current European Joy of Music trips utilize a riverboat for travel between sites. This has made touring easier, because there is no need to pack and unpack when moving from city to city. At each stop, the group visits a church and Bish records for the program. After the records are finished, Bish then tapes the introductions and information shots that are included on the program. For the first 15 years of the program, 26 episodes per year were produced, each of which would be repeated once to cover a 52-week programming span. Currently, fewer programs are produced each year because of expense. When producing the full 26 episodes per year, it was necessary to raise an average of US$350,000–$400,050. Ninety percent of the funding for the program comes from donations. Other funding and support is provided by corporate sponsors. Production of The Joy of Music is expensive because when traveling, the guest artists, crew, and equipment must be transported to the taping sites. Proper equipment must be obtained. Following a taping trip, there are editing hours, along with production, duplication, and distribution costs, and staff costs to prepare the files for television stations. Bish once noted, "We literally sweat it out every month and pray that the money will come in. We do so much on so little that Hollywood would laugh at our small budget for one show." Bish has encountered challenges when filming The Joy of Music. It is sometimes difficult to secure permission to tape in churches and cathedrals because there have been problems in the past with other television crews at these locations. In addition, scheduling time in the churches can be difficult. Bish related the time when her crew had to start taping at midnight because there was a light show and a trumpet recital scheduled there first. At the Strasbourg Cathedral, filming had to be done in the middle of the night, and there were 130 steps plus a walk out onto the roof in order to reach the organ loft. The organ loft was mounted 80 feet high on a wall, and the camera person was afraid of heights. Furthermore, the restrooms were downstairs. There were also environmental issues, such as at the Ettal Monastery in Bavaria that was so