Indiana Public Radio does this, too. In addition, their style of pledge-drive talk is much better than that of WFYI in Indianapolis. Instead of the whining and pleading, they are all, “We’re professionals here. Our news coverage wins awards every year. We give you what you want, and nobody else does. We don’t like these pledge drives, either, but we have to pay for this programming. You listen; do your part.”
Dignity, that’s the difference.
Right!
I tell ya…good, free radio is SO hard to find.
I also don’t listen to him enough to know for certain, but the few times he’s been on and I’ve been too lazy to change the channel I’ve been subjected to woo-woo spirituality of the worst kind. Unsupported blanket statements about the nature of life without the excuse of a longstanding religious tradition (or the aesthetic benefits watching a religious service can have regardless of actual belief.)
In short, it was the type of talk that Dopers would scream “CITE” every other sentence. For instance, he says that “when you change the way you’re looking at things, the things you’re looking at change.” I wondered how he was going to connect this to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle to at least provide a modicum of scientific background to the claim, however misplaced. But no, he seems to just hang it out there as a sort of optimistic turdnugget.
I don’t listen to NPR for two reasons:
First, Baltimore has a wonderful classical station which is run by Baltimore City Community College. They fund-raise for two days per year. http://www.wbjc.com/
Secondly, while in the car I listen to CBC on Sirius Satellite. Public broadcasting for North America, paid for by Canadian tax dollars. Yes, we pay for the Sirius service, but it is not solely for CBC.
Perpetually
Begging
Stations
Need
Pledge
Revenue
I will pay for what I want to see and hear. I pay for cable TV and satellite radio. If I don’t find I am getting value for my dollar, I won’t buy it.
My kids used to like PBS for the kid’s shows but most of those shows are now available on cable channels at various times so there is no limitation on viewing. My wife used to watch the cooking shows, but we get the food network. I used to watch Nova but now I have the Science Channel.
NPR bores me. The stories they report on can be found in various periodicals and I can do without the reenactments and sound effects.
Lest I give anyone the wrong impression, let me just state clearly: I think NPR (and public boradcasting in general) has some really good quality programs and some very professional and enjoyable people working on them. I really enjoy Weekend Edition with Scott Simon, and Diane Rehm is one of the best interviewers I’ve ever listened to, even with the speech impediment.
The local NPR station employed one of my all-time favorite radio personalities, Glenn Mitchell, until his death last year. His two hours a day, five days a week were never boring, and half of his Friday broadcast was a Straight Dope-ish call-in called “Anything You Ever Wanted To Know”. Even now, after they’ve reformatted his time slot and replaced half of it with BBC America, the station still keeps the “Anything You Ever Wanted To Know” format.
Especially here in North Texas, where every other station has the same damn Clearchannel format, where all the morning shows employ the same phlemmy-laugh sophmore dropouts, and all the commentary is so right-wing it makes me want to puke (even the classical music station - bleh) … the local NPR station is like a breath of fresh air. After moving here, it’s about the only radio I can listen to without twitching.
I’m not even put off by the fundraising itself. It’s just the presentation. It’s the suddenly-chummy producers and the executive donut box holders yammering on the air about the benefits of membership and the quality of the programming and so on, for 15-20 minutes at a stretch, sans script, sans personality, sans direction, using the word “um” far more times than necessary, taking up more than half the air time of the show they’re interrupting… it makes me scream. Yes, I understand you want more money. Yes, I know you have a goal to meet this hour. Yes, I know that what you’re begging for on-air is your job. I get all that. I don’t need a reminder of this every time I turn on the radio (literally!) from 7 AM to 10 PM. It’s insulting.
I want to support them. But I feel that if I give them money, then I’m only helping prove for them that their annoying-the-crap-out-of-the-audience tactic works.
Wow. Maybe I should’ve put this in the pit. Sorry folks, it’s off my chest now.
You know…I watch PBS on most Saturdays to catch the woodworking and home improvement shows. Unfortunately, since the local PBS station has a fund drive every 12 weeks or so, I am forever missing the 2nd part of one of Norm Abram’s projects (DAMMIT!) because they pre-empt their regular programs…
…I think they are basically saying, “Pay up, or this dreck that you’re watching now, instead of the good stuff you usually watch is all you’re going to get!” Personally, I think it would be more effective if they kept playing the stuff I like to watch, and put the pledge pleads at the regular breaks, instead of like they do it now…(and yes, I do donate to my local station).
Wow. I just gave 75 bucks this morning…but I really, really wanted that KUOW tumbler! I think the fact that NPR has kept me company while night-nursing my son since his birth in July is really the reason I gave this time. Although, after midnight programming is the BBC so my little boy may just have a British accent…that or he will have Ira Glass’s accent.
Seriously, I dread the pledge drive. You can tell that our local hosts are not thrilled with the vamping they are forced to do, but they do a good job at it, really. Plus I find the best-of-the-best reruns pretty interesting too. In all, NPR is the only place I find interesting stories. I learn things and I am happy to give a little for it. That, and I want to look ultra-cool with my KUOW tumbler!
You might want to shop around for one that spells KNOW properly. It’s a common typo, what with the U and the N keys so close together… 
I don’t listen to it enough to feel pressure to donate, but it’s on at work quite a bit. The other day just depressed me. They were doing their pledge drive, and the hosts had on a “special guest” who just happened to be a representative of a local mortgage company, there to explain to us grateful viewers why now is a really really really good time to refinance your mortage. I hate advertising, and I hate product placement. This was the most blatant example I’ve heard yet on NPR.
Public Broadcasting funding is basically welfare. If there is a market for the kind of programming that they provide, then they should be able to sell commercial air time. Government funding for
Sure the pledge drive is annoying. Personally I don’t mind having a drive and telling us how many donations you need, how much money you need etc. What I hate is the “guilt trip” segments that they do from time to time. Look, treat me like an adult. Just give me the facts and let me decide. Don’t try to guilt me into it. That tactic really seems to go against what NPR stands for.
For that matter, I am even more annoyed after listening to the pledge drives, upon learning that they receive Federal Budget money. Another thing that really goes against what NPR stands for.
However, as annoying as the pledge drives are, I much prefer them to other radio stations commercials. Sometimes tv commercial can actually be entertaining, but radio commercials are always annoying. They talk real fast, and are very pushy with their tone, and you really notice the volume and tone change from you regular music or talk show. I will gladly take NPR’s pledge drives over commericals.
Is there a better way? Why not use subscriptions. This would be similar to pledge drives but instead of a week of intense begging once a season, they would just talk about their subscription options maybe twice an hour. It could be q quick 30 second plug or a longer 3 minute explanation. They seem to prefer the sustaining memberships over the lump sum donations anyway.
Also, give us some statistics such as average number of subscribers and average subscription cost. (People that want to pay more can sign up for more expensive subscriptions.)
Just a note, this thread is 6 years old and some of the original contributors haven’t been around here in a while.
Juatr noticed somebody raised a very old thread.
Comment removed
I now have absolutely no memory of this event.
I understand they need funds, but what I hate is that for an entire week they talk constantly about how they’re in a modern streamlined pledge drive and they’re only going to beg you for money one hour a day for three days!
I just keep them as a preset when I’m channel surfing, and get the shows I really care about on podcast.
This. Commercial radio ‘holds you hostage’ every ten minutes or so. Public radio, three times a year.
I gave up commercial radio years ago. And where I live (NYC metro) there are enough public radio stations in the area that they stagger their drives during the year, so it’s easy to find one that’s not begging when one gets too annoying.
We only have two, an NPR affiliate and a classical station. They do their fund raising at the same time, but the NPR station has Two Jewish Guys.
