# An open letter to my local public radio station. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 12, 2014, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-open-letter-to-my-local-public-radio-station/681119 "2014-02-12T04:11:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-open-letter-to-my-local-public-radio-station/681119/41 "2014-02-12T18:41:11Z")
First off, we do contribute to our local NPR station. I haven’t done so this year, but I probably will within the next month or so. So, yeah, we do pay for it. Second, our local station apparently approaches pledge week as irritation marketing at its finest. This damn pledge week will go on for as long as it’s scheduled. Sometimes, if it’s been particularly successful, they’ll end the drive a few hours early, but no more than that. But to the best of my knowledge, they’ve rarely offered an opportunity to skip the on-air drive in favor of online pledging. Otherwise, it’s ten minutes of begging at a stretch. I find myself reaching for an NPR podcast on my Zune. (BTW, I’m the lovely and talented Mrs. Doors.) ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-open-letter-to-my-local-public-radio-station/681119/42 "2014-02-12T18:45:10Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Our station encourages people to donate before pledge week, and if they get enough money to meet their goal during that period, they skip the fund-raising. Is a pretty good deal. > > It probably only works well in NPR friendly areas where a lot of people donate regularly though. That’s pretty much what the local NPR stations do in my area. They now have one day of fundraising every four to six months rather than a pledge week (which sometimes lasted _three_ weeks). ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-open-letter-to-my-local-public-radio-station/681119/43 "2014-02-12T19:12:03Z")
On a side note, on Saturday I donated some money to a college radio station I used to work for, and on Sunday I won a prize on a local college radio station worth more than my pledge. I can’t guarantee that this will happen if you pledge, but I’m guessing it will. ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_Mike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Lucky\_Mike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_Mike)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-open-letter-to-my-local-public-radio-station/681119/44 "2014-02-12T20:04:48Z")
> [@MsRobyn](#): > > First off, we do contribute to our local NPR station. I haven’t done so this year, but I probably will within the next month or so. So, yeah, we do pay for it. > > Second, our local station apparently approaches pledge week as irritation marketing at its finest. This damn pledge week will go on for as long as it’s scheduled. Sometimes, if it’s been particularly successful, they’ll end the drive a few hours early, but no more than that. But to the best of my knowledge, they’ve rarely offered an opportunity to skip the on-air drive in favor of online pledging. Otherwise, it’s ten minutes of begging at a stretch. I find myself reaching for an NPR podcast on my Zune. > > (BTW, I’m the lovely and talented Mrs. Doors.) Well, with that said, i so hate the pledge drives too, but they are really motivated by dollars. i accept it as a part of some of the best radio and news around. I mean car talk, who does that. Or, wait wait dont tell me. or BBC newshour, or morning edition, or all things considered. I respect your position, but NPR and public radio is the last bastion of real journalism and radio entertainment that exists. Every thing else is focused around what sells. I respect the rant now, because it is an expression of frustration not a lack of care for good content radio. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-open-letter-to-my-local-public-radio-station/681119/45 "2014-02-12T20:29:00Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > That’s pretty much what the local NPR stations do in my area. They now have one day of fundraising every four to six months rather than a pledge week (which sometimes lasted _three_ weeks). Yea, it works really well. That said, we’re in VT, which I imagine must have some of the most donators-per-capita in the country, so a long pledge drives would be kind of superfluous anyways. More tight-fisted markets probably need more direct prodding. > [@sailboat](#): > > You might be right. Logically, it sounds plausible that every person and organization is operating optimally at all times, and that all management is based on rational analysis of good data. > > Surprisingly often, I find that not to be the case, however. It happens. But I find that nine times out of ten, when someone from outside a business, after putting a minute or less of thought into a problem, is super-sure that all the people who have made careers out of that business, and no doubt spent hundreds of hours figuring out the best way to do things, must be idiots, they usually aren’t as super-intelligent as they think they are. And really, in most cases, they’re basically just trying to rationalize why something they find personally annoying must be wrong in some broader sense. NPR fundraising drives are annoying to the OP, therefore they _must_ also be a bad idea for NPR. That an optimal universe isn’t one which minimizes things that annoy him personally seems impossible, therefore the people that cause annoyances must be idiots. ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-open-letter-to-my-local-public-radio-station/681119/46 "2014-02-12T20:29:52Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I’m sure some senator from Oklahoma will be along with a bill to prohibit publicly funded broadcasters from pulling one anothers’ pud on air, to protect our children. I was just thinking, that’s an awfully…interesting…way to solicit donations! ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-open-letter-to-my-local-public-radio-station/681119/47 "2014-02-12T20:47:37Z")
I know the OP would rather the government fully subsidize public radio so that they don’t have to do these fund raising weeks anymore ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-open-letter-to-my-local-public-radio-station/681119/48 "2014-02-12T20:54:30Z")
So, if they never ask for donations, they’ll magically get donations for just being so awesome? I’m convinced this is true. It’s just so logical. ---
**Author:** ![amreman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@amreman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amreman)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-open-letter-to-my-local-public-radio-station/681119/49 "2014-02-12T21:27:19Z")
Thee was a time when I drove my daughters to high school en route to the office. May car had my 5 radio stations, all public, but also provided another 5 for my daughters. One morning, during the 8 minute drive, they had some DC station on. Three, ahem, gentlemen talking heads and one lady. They created numerous teas out of dried and crushed animal penises and they had the lady do taste tests. It does not take much imagination to know what intellectual discussion ensued. I was relieved to note that no music was played during the drive and therefore could not have been damaged during that broadcast! I happily contribute to my local stations and thoroughly enjoy their programming on the regular broadcast and through extensive podcasts. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-open-letter-to-my-local-public-radio-station/681119/50 "2014-02-12T21:53:42Z")
Was it Bob and Tom? ---
**Author:** ![Inbred\_Mm\_domesticus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/aca169/32.png) [@Inbred\_Mm\_domesticus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inbred_Mm_domesticus)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-open-letter-to-my-local-public-radio-station/681119/51 "2014-02-12T22:04:26Z")
Buy a smartphone, get a cheap data plan, get a car stereo with an aux and get whatever radio you want for the rest of your life. The upfront cost is a bit much but it’s worth it to free yourself of shitty NPR. Morning Edition: Steve Inskeep’s 20 minute long questions broken up by 10 minutes of ‘cool’ music the hipster interns found. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-open-letter-to-my-local-public-radio-station/681119/52 "2014-02-12T22:06:23Z")
> [@MsRobyn](#): > > …(BTW, I’m the lovely and talented Mrs. Doors.) _Still_? The generosity of women never ceases to astound. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-open-letter-to-my-local-public-radio-station/681119/53 "2014-02-12T22:09:55Z")
> [@Lucky\_Mike](#): > > Hmm, did not read it that way, but out of respect for the possibility I will defer to him to answer this. I have donated in the past, before we got pledge drives for Valentine’s Day, Day of Giving, Spring, Fall, We Just Feel Like Begging For Money Today Day, and all the others. Like I said, I can remember when it was twice a year. Now it’s seemingly once a month. When they cut it back to twice a year again I’ll start paying again. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2014, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-open-letter-to-my-local-public-radio-station/681119/54 "2014-02-13T02:14:19Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > _Still_? The generosity of women never ceases to astound. I know. We’re just awesome that way. 😃 (As an aside, can you believe it’s been almost 12 years?) ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2014, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-open-letter-to-my-local-public-radio-station/681119/55 "2014-02-13T05:11:43Z")
> [@MsRobyn](#): > > (As an aside, can you believe it’s been almost 12 years?) :eek: NoshutuplalalalalalaIcan’thearyou [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-open-letter-to-my-local-public-radio-station/681119.md?page=2)