Gawd, when will this seemingly endless public radio pledge drive be over so can I get my radio station back? I’m not freeloader, I’ve paid my dues, I’m a supporting member of the station, but I can’t take it anymore.
Jim: That number again, is 555-555-5555. Our friendly volunteers are standing by to take your pledge.
Tim: And when you think about it, Jim, any listener who doesn’t contribute the minimum of $1 per day for the rest of his life, not counting adjustments for inflation, is really just stealing. Do you think Scott Simon, Garrison Keillor, the boys at Car Talk work for free? Sure they sound funny, but you should see the goons they send out to collect if this station misses a payment. So pick up the phone and call in now, and nobody gets hurt.
I’ve switched to sports radio for the duration. I hope it’s over soon.
They’re sending out the NPR ‘Pledge Enforcement’ van.
It won’t end soon, it never does. They have 2 pledge drives a year, and if you are unlucky like we are in Austin, there will be some sort of short fall during the year and a mini drive will have to be held.
I was listening to an NPR show one (“Rewind”, although I believe that it is now off the air) and a listener wrote in with a brilliant idea. I have no idea how it could be implemented on a radio, although it could be possible on the Internet.
The suggestion was to give listeners some form of key that would “unlock” normal programming once one had contributed. Seems like a good idea to me; they’d probably meet their goals quite quickly if one knew one could end the pain by pledging at the beginning of the drive.
Here in the Boston area, I listen to three listener-supported stations. WUMB (folk radio), WBUR (news/public affairs programming) and WGBH (news/public affairs, classical, jazz) and they are all having pledge drives this past week into next week. At least WUMB pretty much seems to keep it to once a year, but the other two have two or three drives a year.
A couple weeks ago I got a letter from the NDNPR asking for money. Of course, I threw it out immediately so I can’t give a direct quote. The basic message/analogy was that since I listen to this programming (Icouldn’t name the NPR station if you held a match to my dog’s feet) I was essentially guilty of piracy for not contributing. That’s what you’re dealing with.
To be honest, I’ve never heard an NPR affiliate station pledge drive in any other city but where I live, held by the station where I work. The one thing we never do is harangue people or guilt them. Our drives are civilized and friendly. The folks who pitch are businesspeople from the community. They talk about the history of the station, the programs they like, and the alternative to it, and ask people to pledge if they think it’s worth it to them. During the day, nobody was ever on more than seven minutes at a time, or four times an hour. And in the end, the people gave us $120,000 to pay for the programs they want to hear. They do it every six months, and have consistently helped us achieve our goal for fifty years in a row. We must be doing something right. I’m sorry for you folks who live in a city where the drives are annoying and the pitchers badger you. There’s another way to approach it; I guess they haven’t figured out what that is yet.
I found the drive in my city to be rather tasteful, not as pushy as the PBS drives, and the premiums they were giving out were pretty nice.
What is currently annoying the piss out of me is that now, as soon as we’ve finished the NPR drive, a commercial oldies station is copying the format on behalf of some charity. It sounds like they’re doing their best to ape the NPR format so people don’t realize they’re turning their money over to a commercial radio station. I’m all for charities, but it feels sneaky to me, and I don’t necessarily trust that I really know where the money is going.
Quite convenient that you can’t give a direct quote, isn’t it? Consdiering that your interpretation is most likely bullshit. I’ve never seen or heard a public radio pledge drive make any insinuations even remotely similar to the one you are alleging here. Equating a failure to contribute to piracy? I call bullshit on your claim, and ask you to back it up.
The one here in Houston is tasteful in my opinion. They have two a year and usually make over their goal each time. Their Thank You gifts are usually nice. Of course, Houston’s a big city.
They were supposed to have their fall one right after all that Katrina mess came through (it was either that or Rita), but they rescheduled it so it wouldn’t interrupt their news during the hurricane recovery. I’ve never felt guilted or like anyone was trying to equate listening and not paying with piracy. And since the only commercial classical station went under, I think a lot of people donate because it’s the only station in Houston that really plays classical or opera music on a regular basis. A couple weeks of pledge drive out of the year doesn’t bother me.
I didn’t get too tired of the beg-a-thons, because they were necessary. I pleged as often as my budget allowed, because i listen quite a bit, but now, I’ve had it with the hand-out boogie, because (and they rarely talk about this during begapalooza) of the 175 million dollar windfall NPR raked in in 2003. Ray Kroc’s widow dropped that little bit of change on 'em, and my donations dried up. 175 mil is HUGE money for a non-commercial radio corporation, and if they can’t invest that kind of cash and make it pay off, then I’ve got to wonder what they’re doing with the cash I send 'em.
FWIW, I’ve noticed a more aggressive tack coming from the stations too, though not quite as, shall we say, pushy as what friend duffer has allegedly experienced, but, still, they drag out the guilt horse for its’ semi-annual beating, and I switch it to AM for talk.
Not a single penny of that money went to a single affiliate station in the country. It went into the investment coffers of NPR, to keep their business going, upgrade facilities, buy equipment and the like.
The station in your city is buying the programs you listen to with that money. NPR doesn’t get any local pledge money. You are not being asked to support NPR. You’re being asked to support your local station.
If you’re going to abandon your support of anything, please do it based on correct information, rather than some cockamamie idea you’ve got into your head that has no basis in reality.
NPR holds license to the programming that the local affiliates buy, and the local affiliates beg money from listeners to do that. NPR uses the money it gets from the licensing of the prgrams to stay afloat (plus, whatever government money is floated their way). So now, while the NPR mothership rakes in a monumental windfall, it doesn’t change the cost of the programming (which ain’t all that expensive to make anyway, let’s be honest, the big constant money outflow is in technology and maintenance thereof, plus, of course, the news side) or reduce the load on the affiliate stations, they just create a bigger, badder mothership, and tell the affiliates to pound sand?
If I’m wrong here, tell me, but damnit if that doesn’t seem bloody stupid. Most of these programs come from the locals, and, of course, so do the listeners, it would make sense to me to reduce the burden being placed on the listeners by making the programs more affordable and reducing the needs of the locals to beg for as much cash. The more I learn about NPR, the more their cred goes down the toilet. You can’t rail against the ‘corporate machine’ culture (like the reporters and commentators on NPR like to do) from the top of your own machine.
I’ll back it up. Maybe. if I can get them to send the same letter. I wasn’t making that up, though I can understand your skepticism… I’ll do what I can. But for now you’ll just have to do what you can to trust me on that statement. I remember standing at the kitchen counter reading the letter thinking “Where the hell did this come from?” But, again, I’ll try to get the direct wording. May take a bit of digging, and may not be able to get something for you, in which case I’ll have to let it go. But I know what I read, regardless of what you think. But I will try to get the info.
There is only one thing more annoying than being prodded, badgered and cajoled into giving every damn hour–and that being prodded, badgered and cajoled AFTER you give!
I started listening to NPR about 6 years ago. First pledge drive, I said to myself, said I–pledge like the good soul your are. So, I called and pledged.
And listened to the guilt fest for another 4 days.
Now I switch to AirAmerica until the people stop talking about dollar a day subscribers and the like. I give every year. I am not giving more than I do.
Same with PBS. They get me once a year–every other plea is thown away (actually recycled or shredded).
But I cannot stand the constant nagging to give more, we rely on you. I know! Preaching to the choir! Shut up! So, I go away for a while…
What convinces me not to pledge is the “quality stuff” they air during drives (in this instance I’m talking TV, but the TV and radio is run by the same guys here.) The quality stuff they do to “draw in the audience” consists of absolute crap totally not geared toward me demographic, taste, or intelligence.
Such as 70’s disco and soul hits. Or late 60s watered-down hard-rock/flower power pop hits. Sung by the original artists with whose voices havent held up. I’d prefer documentaries thankyouverymuch (not that I don’t like any stuff in those genres, just not poorly performed stuff that I didn’t necessarily like the first time around.)
And what’s worse is how the pledgemasters act like the music was earthshattering or something and how it really changed their childhood and stuff. I can’t wait 15 years till some button-down corporate type extols the life-affirming affects “grunge” had on him as Pearl Jam plays their “I love the 90s” PBS drive.
So if by any chance I contribute not only would I be spending money, I’d also encourage more of the same crap the next time the drive came around, since it got my money the last time :rolleyes: