My local PBS affiliate shows what I think is standard public television fare most of the time - children, cooking and travel shiws during the day and documentaries in the evening, plus some British drama.
Except every six or weeks or so they need to raise money and they put on a whole new slate of shows. Right now its Memory Makeover with Daniel Amen MD to be followed by All New Rock, Pop and Doowop.
Why do they do this? I suppose the answer is that’s what gets them the money, but still why?
That’s the answer. The “special” programming gets people to tune in, who might not otherwise watch PBS often, and thus, see the pledge-drive messaging.
Also, bear in mind that local PBS stations will often customize the gifts that they send to people who pledge money to the programming being run, with the thinking that “since you’ve tuned in for this show, you’re likely going to be interested in a similar book or DVD, and if you give us a pledge, you can have one!” My local PBS station will run the sorts of programming you describe on some pledge afternoons; during the Memory Makeover show, the’dy probably offer some book or tchotchke from that guy, then during the doo-wop concert, they’d offer a doo-wop CD. My station will also run things like Ken Burns documentaries (with Ken Burns DVDs as a gift) or marathons of Rick Steves’ travel shows (with Steves’ travel DVDs or books as gifts).
I would strongly suspect that, every pledge drive, they closely monitor which programs, and which gifts, generate the most pledges, and use that information to fine-tune what they do the next time out.
Decades ago during one of the Chicago PBS station’s pledge drives. a group of local SF fans signed up to be operators while the station was airing Tom Baker Doctor Who episodes. At that time during the pledge breaks it was usual for the camera to pan over the banks of operators as they were taking calls, and a number of them were in costume, or at least wearing his trademark scarf. It was later reported that the amount pledged during those breaks was a factor in the station deciding to continue airing Doctor Who.
In 1990, Tom Baker hosted PBS pledge drives - and when the Doctor asks for a pledge, people respond
PBS is a fickle friend.
Just get used to something and wham!, never to be seen again.
You’re zipping along with the way things are and they decide time to get some of those sweet donation dollars.
So they binge your medium best favorite series. Oh, yeah! Now I’m set.
And every 15 min. It’s 30 min. of not so good on Air personalities repeating and repeating the same words. Til you wanna jump out the window.
I’ve decided it’s just not worth it.
I did it once thru the whole series of Downton Abbey, replay.
My advice, don’t get too close and never rely on the logical thinking in programming execs.
Please just tell me they don’t still air that quack Gary Null.
I’ve had some experience with fundraising, and I know that any organization worth the name has more information on who is donating and why than you could ever imagine.
In many cases it’s the older cohort of viewers/users who give disproportionately. They may not have the most money, but they may have the most disposable income, and spend a lot of time watching TV. Let’s put on a 50’s doo-wop evening and the 80 year-olds will feel like teenagers for awhile and maybe renew their annual membership.
Around here Rick Stevens’ Europe seems to be a pledge time favorite, for all the retired people who dream of taking that once in a lifetime vacation to Tuscany.
I like PBS and the fundraising doesn’t bother me.
I don’t watch much PBS, but with NPR, they have programs recorded and edited for commercial, sorry, pledge breaks.
I can’t say that this is true for every PBS station/regional network, but PBS offers a smart TV app, Passport, which you can unlock by making an annual donation, and which features a lot (though not all) of the PBS series, all without pledge-drive interruptions.
I have it via our local PBS station (WTTW in Chicago), and I also make an annual pledge to Wisconsin Public Television in my mom’s name so that she can use the Passport app on her TV. At least IME, the annual pledge amount for a Passport subscription is something like $60, which is less than the annual subscription rate for most of the for-profit streaming services.
Us simple folk just call it ‘Bait and Switch’ 
PBS had fantastic music shows back in the day. I think one was called Soundstage. If they would rerun that stuff, I would take a peek. But their fundraising shtick is much worse than just plain old ads on the commercial channels.
Yup; produced by WTTW here in Chicago. After going off the air originally in 1985, it was revived in 2003, but the last new episodes were produced in 2018.
Austin City Limits is still produced and aired.
FWIW, the final few seasons of Soundstage, and several hundred episodes of Austin City Limits, are on the PBS Passport app.
I would love to see a list of the acts that appeared on Soundstage. I do remember Dr. John with Etta James.
The Wikipedia entry on the show appears to have a complete list of episodes and artists.
Pretty freakin’ amazing. Thanks for posting that.
You are very welcome!
I wonder how effective that is, though. I recall my local NPR station mentioning during one of their pledge drives that people who contribute generally were regular listeners for years before they decided to start contributing (And thus they directed their messaging at the people who are regular listeners but aren’t contributing).
So I would assume it’s similar for PBS, that most of they people who make donations are people who have already been watching for years (but maybe not, since people consume radio and television in different ways). So I am a little skeptical that a significant number of people tune in just for the special programming, hear the pledge drive messaging, and make an impulse donation.
I suspect that the special programming and pledge drives primarily bring in first-time donors (or convince a continuing donor to give a little more). And, then, once they’ve given once, said donors are then on the mailing list, and get reminded to renew. I also suspect that part of what the special programming does is pull in additional potential donors, beyond the “longtime viewer, never donated” group.
I’ve been a regular donor to WTTW for four years, though I’ve watched PBS for most of my life; when I finally did donate for the first time, it was during a pledge drive.
I donate, because I love it.
The peculiarities I can live with. I only curse at it about once a month.
But, yeah. Donate once, they’ll never forget you.
BFFs forever.