I have this weird fascination of listening to my local NPR station during their fund raising drives. I find the tactics they use to hold programing hostage in an attempt raise money very amusing.
setting $ targets every half hour, like their requesting a ransom
shaming you for potentially missing out on the programming that would be airing if people would just donate
extolling the exaggerated virtues of the programming
offering trinkets similar to arcade prizes for astronomical donations, and acting like it’s worth the value of the donation
hearing them finally get exasperated and declare they hate raising money
Mine (well, maybe most) does a thing where they start the driver later depending on how many sustaining members they have (sustainers donate a small amount per month automatically instead of a larger amount once per year).
When they started that policy, I became a sustainer the next day. We’re shaving three days off the pledge drive now.
I regularly give, but I listen very sparingly during fund drives. It’s so tedious and annoying. I’m more likely to pop in a CD or hook up my iPod then.
My local station (KPLU) just successfully raised $7 million in a few months to purchase its own broadcast license from the university that owns it. This to keep it from being sold to the rival public radio station (KUOW), which was going to shut it down.
I tell you, “save the station” is much more compelling than “give us a bit to find our operating budget.”
What is very annoying is being stuck listening to them even when you have donated.
The most creative fund raising device I recall was for WBAI in NY around 1970.
Steve Post and Marshall Efron, who was the guest, said that they were going to play Mr. Bojangles and keep playing it until they met their goal. And this was the original, not the good David Bromberg version.
I’m not sure it worked since I had no money at the time and switched it off.
That’s a heck of a price for a broadcast license, although I have no idea how much those things normally cost so maybe it’s cheap.
WABE’s broadcast license is held by the Atlanta Board of Education. I know this, because it got mentioned once every 30 minutes during the APS cheating scandal, as the reporters tried to show they weren’t biased. At the time I hoped some semi-wealthy donor would just buy the damn license and gift it to the station so they could stop saying that.
A number of years ago the local station decided to tell a story that the actual fund drive is only one hour a day for five days and you absolutely must give if you want to keep the fund drive short! We hate them as much as you do so let’s not go back to the old model!
The advertising for the fund drive was all day every day for several weeks in such abundance that they weren’t interrupting shows for advertising, they would occasionally play snippets of shows between advertising. Back-to-back-to-back-to-back challenge grants with perpetual impending deadlines, $75 book bags, $25 bumper stickers, ringing phones and call center din in the background. The whole spectacle of a fund drive plus the added annoyance that they’re constantly saying it’s not a fund drive.
I used to listen all the time but I replaced them with podcasts and haven’t been back. I don’t particularly like SquareSpace and Stamps. com ads but they’re easy enough to skip when ifeel so inclined and they don’t insult my intelligence. I tried the NPR one app but it’s a data hog and overrun with unskippable ads for itself and my local station and non-ads akin to station identifiers which frequently derail actual content and leave dead air. It requires input to keep listening while I’m driving and I don’t think it offers anything I can’t get in podcast form, either.
When I was recently in a antiques store, they were playing a noncommercial classical station which I have forgot the name of. They were doing their fundraising, which involved playing an opera, turning down the volume, and making a pitch before bringing the music back to full volume. And it wasn’t a rare thing–they must have did it every few minutes. How can you annoy your listeners more?
It seems to have gotten worse in recent years. I wonder if the percentage of time NPR spends on advertising, saying call letters, and endlessly listing the names of people who worked on a story, is any less than “commercial radio” spends on advertising. “NPR is supported by NPR member stations” is a new one. Must I be reminded of that basic fact like twice an hour? Also generally annoying is the snooty sounding new woman voice who delivers it.
To answer the original question, I am a sustaining member of WABE here in Atlanta. Every month $20 disappears from my account and goes to them. I listen to NPR on the days I have to commute to the office, which is about 10 times a month. On days when I work from home, i listen to Morning Edition while I prepare and eat breakfast. So, almost every day I listen to at least 30 mins of WABE.
BUT, during pledge drives, I turn it off. Just can’t even. I think my sustaining membership buys me that freedom. I’ll flip over to BBC on XM Radio on those days.
Agreed, never heard that at all. When you get a Water Bottle for a donation of $50, I don’t think anyone is actually thinking it’s a $50 water bottle. Plus you actually see the real value of the “gift” when they send you the receipt that you can use for tax purposes.
Years ago when I lived in Roanoke VA, I gave $200 to WVTF, the local public station, I received, as my gift, a signed lithograph from a locally famous artist. When the donation paperwork arrived the amount I could list as a deduction wasn’t $200, it was $175, since the value of the gift I received was listed as $25.
Sometimes the “retail value” of the gifts really does meet or exceed the donation, because the gifts were donated to the station or offered at a very deep discount (my experience is with KQED in San Francisco). This is one way a commercial enterprise can help underwrite the costs of public radio; it also is a form of advertising for the company. For example, Eton emergency radios are a frequent gift item, usually in combination with something else. I never would have heard of Eton if it weren’t for these pledge drives.
What I find interesting about the pledge drive tactics is how they change from drive to drive, as if they are trying different models to see what works. For a while they were emphasizing sustained memberships (self-renewing) as a way to reduce the length of pledge drives; last time they didn’t mention that at all. Instead, they started having a daily goal, in addition to hourly matching goals. I’m all in favor of having them find the best approach for the shortest pledge drives. I have the radio on during pledge drives as much as at other times, mostly I sort of tune them out.
I am very fortunate in that I’m smack in the middle of two NPR stations: WHYY in Philly and WNYC (NYC). Thus far, their money begging schedules are staggered so I just switch stations when it begins.
The local programming is different, but I get the standard BBC morning news, Teri Gross in the afternoon, and so on.
The moment I hear “we’re taking the time now so you, the listener, can . . .” BLIP! Station change!
WITF gets $15 a month from us, and it’s worth every penny. I keep fake flowers in the Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me mug I got as the gift.
During pledge drives, I usually just listen to podcasts of my favorite shows. They get my money; I’m not about to waste my time listening to the snappy patter and loopy speech of sleep-deprived on-air hosts. I interned at WITF during a fall pledge drive. It ain’t pretty. Let’s just say the coffee is like motor oil during pledge weeks.
