Pledge Week at WFYI - Love it or Hate it?

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Permalink Reply by Sara Croft on October 15, 2009 at 6:24pm

My guess is that they are losing pledges as the years go by, and so they are REALLY pushing it to try and reach more people. And, it's only turning them off. I think they'd be better off having several one-day pledge drives throughout the year.

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Permalink Reply by benjamintraub on November 12, 2009 at 1:52pm

Via HD radio you can tune out the pledge drive via 90.1-2, "the point." It's mostly music and the kind of talk shows that otherwise wouldn't have a healthy home on the FM station, a la Talk of the Nation which used to be on in the afternoons.

The same goes for TV. Don't want to watch some special about how to make fewer excuses in your life or some Celtic Women concert? Try 20.2 -its a pretty amazing Spanish language PBS. Or try 20.3, the Create channel - its got cooking and crafts and travel during the day, longer programs at night like Independent Lense, and goes to the good ole Classic Arts Showcase overnight.

WFYI actually takes less time for pledge than 75% of other Public Broadcasting stations. Two weeks for radio in the spring and fall and two for TV in the summer and winter. If they call you answer and pledge. If you get someting in the mail take action. Pledge will still happen to get all of the folks that will not respond independently.

Trust me, it IS annoying but it needs to be done. The idea that if everyone that watches or listens would send it $10-15 is true.

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Permalink Reply by Pat Coyle on November 12, 2009 at 2:00pm

I can remember the pledge drives all the way back to when they used to have the Monty Pyton guys in character with medical masks on their heads, fist clenched at their sides, knuckles up screaming "subscribe!" Never felt compelled to donate until this year. It happened while I was driving to work...I was listening and realized that I knew all there of the people on the air asking for donations...all three members or friends of SI...I felt convicted. Smaller Indiana pledged $300. I didn't hear if they mentioned SI on the air, but that would have been cool :-)

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Permalink Reply by Steve Stuck on November 13, 2009 at 12:08pm

Has anyone looked at NPR's tax filings. How in the world do they get away with getting taxpayers money with all the assets and investments they sit on.

The NPR Foundation for tax filing year 2008 sits on almost $249 Million in net assets. They held almost $70 million in hedge funds and about $10 million in private equities. Add on another $87 million in equities. They lost about $37 million on their investments in their fiscal year 2008.

Maybe the pledgers should be asking NPR whats going on?

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Permalink Reply by Robby Slaughter on November 13, 2009 at 12:12pm

I suppose I should have linked to my blog post on public radio financing already. There I discuss some of these issues.

What's curious is that some stations actually have a surplus and ask for money out of habit.

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