the only thing that the KUOW fund drive inspires me to do is turn off the radio

By josh
April 8th, 2008 @ 7:37 AM soapbox

Do pledge drives really work?

12 Comments so far

  1. josh on April 8th, 2008 @ 7:46 am

    To clarify: I like local public radio. But the times that I have donated to public radio have been when Ira Glass takes twenty seconds before a podcast to ask for contributions to cover the cost of making This American Life available on the internet.

    Local hosts holding me hostage for long stretches during the 7 am hour to painfully ad-lib explanations of why I really like Morning Edition is not effective. It only reminds me that I can just listen to it on the internet.


  2. Julia Frey (lajulia) on April 8th, 2008 @ 8:35 am

    Josh, I understand the annoyance of the fund raisers. Luckily I live in a place where I have two (or more) public radio stations to choose from and when there is a fund drive on, I click over. I don’t know what you mean by "do they really work" as I assume the stations are not lying when they say they’ve raised $XX during the course of the drive.

    If you regularly listen to KUOW (which I did faithfully when I lived in Seattle) I hope you support them regularly. If not, at least write to the station manager and get some answers to your questions. Then write about that here too!


  3. wesa on April 8th, 2008 @ 8:57 am

    I wish that once you donated, you were granted permission to listen to a non-fundraising KUOW station…kind of a "pay and we will stop annoying you" type deal.


  4. markinfrance on April 8th, 2008 @ 9:40 am

    I often wonder why they last so long. Is it to wear down the resistant? Or to make sure they catch those who are off for a week on business or vacation?

    I always give money on the first day (KPLU for me though). Then I curse the rest of the world for not doing the same thing. If all the apples would drop on the first couple of shakes, they wouldn’t need to shake the tree so damn hard, right?


  5. Patricia Eddy (patriciaeddy) on April 8th, 2008 @ 9:43 am

    I would be a lot more inclined to donate if those people asking for donations didn’t talk to me like I was 2 years old. Whoever is on between 6 and 7:30 in the morning (Marci?) sounds like she would be a great kindergarden teacher, but she makes me feel like they think I’m an idiot.

    WE GET IT! YOU NEED MONEY! You don’t have to talk to us like we’re 5.


  6. citylimits on April 8th, 2008 @ 10:40 am

    Sadly, they do work, which is why they continue. If people stopped donating through them organizations would change strategies sooner or later.


  7. Brad (muddball) on April 8th, 2008 @ 12:46 pm

    I suspect if people stopped donating through pledge drives the stations would simply go away, thus solving the problem some of you perceive. I support my local public radio station and don’t let the pledge drives bother me. Speaking of treating you like you’re an idiot, the pledge drives are much, much less annoying than the incessant, idiotic commercials for mattress stores, jewelry stores, and FREE LAPTOPS that pander to the lowest common denominator and pervade commercial radio in the Seattle market.

    If you don’t like it, don’t listen. And if you don’t donate you are complaining about something that you get for free, which is pretty silly.


  8. maggie on April 8th, 2008 @ 1:15 pm

    I’ve worked for both public TV and radio and they DO work. Very well. Yes, even the infomercial-style public tv fund drives. Otherwise they would stop doing them, of course!


  9. alejo699 on April 8th, 2008 @ 3:06 pm

    I feel guilty for hating pledge drives, yet I still do and I never donate money. I just began listening to KUOW again (since I’ve been car-less I don’t listen to the radio very much), JUST in time for a pledge drive. Now if I could stream NPR to my MP-3 player….


  10. Udayan Tripathi (udayan) on April 8th, 2008 @ 5:51 pm

    @wesa, they want to catch you over and over again.

    Sure the pledge drives are incessant and annoying but… oh. I’ve got nothing. Bummer.


  11. antishay on April 9th, 2008 @ 2:34 am

    Eh, the pledge drives don’t piss me off as much as they used to. Besides, sometimes the people are pretty funny :P

    Today they were talking about pledges in the value of lattes. Yes, how Seattle of them. And yes, I recorded it (nerd!). It’s for the Files post I put on my blog every Saturday. But anyway, it’s like 20 seconds. Have a listen!

    http://www.antishay.com/wp-content/sound/sf_paidinlattes.mp3


  12. gargamello on April 10th, 2008 @ 8:41 am

    I also think they talk down to the listeners during these things. Sure they need to raise the money but I’m surprised they haven’t refined the approach the way they have with, say, presenting carefully nuanced political situations in faraway lands (hi Tibet).



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