I quit listening to NPR the day I got satellite radio. When I was a listener, I gave $100 a year. I hated the pledge drives in my area mainly because the station manager was the most annoying woman who ever lived. If she just explained things in a normal way it would be fine but her attempts and being cute and funny were an embarrassment.
I love NPR programming, listen almost every day, all day but I have been a sporadic donor. My local affiliate drives me nuts.
Almost every weekend they have a couple hours of dead air. Sometimes it happens in the middle of a show but it’s usually where the hourly news update from NPR should switch to the next program but instead, goes to dead air. It is as if the people that are responsible for making sure things go right don’t even listen to the station. Usually lasts through the whole hour.
“This American Life” is one of my favorite programs. I listen to the Sunday show, love it. Then all week they advertise a new episode, Sunday rolls around and they play the exact show they played the previous week. It happens way to often to be a mistake. Must be some kind of cost cutting thing.
The fund drives are unbearable. They take the “Pledge Drives are so great, I love this awesome opportunity for listeners to make their pledges, It’s so much fun!!!” approach.
I would respect them so much more if they just admitted that they were going to torture us die hard listeners until goals are met.
I always say I’m going to send them a check after the pledge drive (so as not to reward an undesired behavior) but then I forget.