During quarantine, I’ve found a few NPR classical music stations that aren’t near me but have amazing programming that I stream. If I donate to them, does the money go directly to them or does it dumped into a giant NPR pile?
NPR stations (and not every public radio station is a member of NPR) pay dues to National Public Radio. They also have to pay to broadcast the shows, although there are various groups that produce public radio content, such as American Public Media, Pacifica and Public Radio International, in addition to NPR.
You can give to individual stations, rather than NPR as a whole; your money goes directly to that station (although, as mentioned above, some of your donation will find its way to the national entity in the form of fees and dues).
Back when Mike Pompeo got all shirty with NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly, there were a number of donations made in support of Ms. Kelly. Peter Sagal tweeted the suggestion that donators take the opportunity to boost small, perpetually financially strapped, stations for maximum effect. So, I gave a little to Virgin Islands Public Broadcasting (I used to live in the USVI) and a little to High Plains Public Radio for no good reason I can remember. Felt like I did slightly more than simply donating to the national organization.
When a local radio station runs a fund drive, the funds are going to that specific station. Their expenses include their physical transmitter, staff and on air personnel, and fees for programming, which includes some payments to the NPR national organization. The news programming is probably the most often used, but there are lots of others: Fresh Air, Wait, Wait, Here and Now, On Point, Mountain Stage, 1A, Thistle and Shamrock, heck, Car Talk is still being broadcast.
Some of that money goes to the national organization, and some the to the station or organization that produces that content. Many of the news and science programs are created by the national organization, like All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Hidden Brain, Planet Money.
If your classical station mainly plays their own content and doesn’t buy syndicated shows, most of the money you donate will stay local.
Yeah, as noted the money normally goes to the local station/network but if it’s streaming nationally syndicated content then the station is paying for that.
Note that NPR isn’t the only provider of such; Public Radio International (PRI), based in Minnesota, is another big provider (and there are other smaller ones). PRI was the one that brought us A Prairie Home Companion, for example. Local stations may even stream programs from the BBC and other international sources. Plus they may pay for AP news feeds, weather reports, etc. If the content isn’t made on the spot, they’re buying it.
I used to work at a public radio network many years ago, on the Saturday morning shift (6am-noon). It started with classical music programming (my choice) followed by various livestreamed or pre-recorded programs. News bulletin breaks at set times edited and presented by yours truly off the AP news feeds (literally a paper printer feed, at that point). It was literally only me in the entire studio for six hours. Public radio is a shoestring business, but it was enormously satisfying.
Some NPR stations are owned and run as part of universities. For example, Indiana Public Radio is part of Ball State University at Muncie, Indiana. Because a donation to IPR is a donation to BSU, they’ll send you a form for a tax deduction in the amount sent. https://indianapublicradio.org/
IPR’s home station is in the David Letterman building in Muncie. There are 3 repeater stations in Anderson, Marion, and Hagerstown/New Castle. They all carry the same programs, except on Saturday afternoons in opera season, when WBSB in Anderson carries the live broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera shows.
That’s good information to know, WFSQ is part of Florida State University and all they broadcast is classical music and shows. WFSU has all the news and public radio programs. While I have no problem with my money helping out the whole broadcasting network, I definitely want to show my support for the classical music broadcasting non stop this year when I didn’t want to hear any news. And, all those years of listening as a student where I barely had anything to donate even though they were my friend during many late night study sessions.