C’est La Guerra
Michigan Radio’s fall pledge drive is over, but we still have the enduring memory of Jennifer Guerra imploring her listeners to donate by featuring a short voiceover by a young woman named Britten who stated her title as “creative inspirational doer.” Now you can read all about her found-object work on Michigan Radio’s website. Apparently she’s a good friend of the Observer’s Vivienne Armentrout. “Of course not everyone is a creative inspirational doer, like Britten Stringwell. But that doesn’t mean you can’t reduce, reuse and recycle.” Some of us are reactive inspiration-killing bloggers, and we still manage to reduce and recycle posts.
That was a brutal week. I think they need to give out a secret frequency to people who donate in the beginning of the week so we can drive in sanity until the drive is over. I was actually coming into work early to get around the ~20 minutes per hour dedicated to soliciting pledges.
posted by Zach on October 22nd, 2007 at 1:40 pmI actually like the tennis ball piece, but the writing is so cloyingly pedantic one wants to turn the channel in about two seconds.
What the pedants of Michigan forget is that only the already-convinced are listening. The facists are simply laying in wait, drawing a bead, and couldn’t care less.
posted by ggb on October 22nd, 2007 at 6:27 pmIf I ruled the world/NPR, I would hold auctions for the 20 minutes per hour, and allow the winners to choose music/insightful commentary to replace that hour’s inanity. As long as I’m in fantasy-land, I would also force Dianne Rhem to retire so she could stop bullying her guests with stupid questions.
posted by MDS on October 22nd, 2007 at 9:27 pmThey’re so all about new members!
I wish I’d saved my first pledge for marriage.
posted by Huckett on October 23rd, 2007 at 5:21 pmIn another place, in another time, the local NPR station had their fund raiser last until they reached a particular dollar amount. When they reached that amount they just stopped. I thought it was a great way to tell people to get off their asses and call and I always pledged early; I wanted it to end. But of course with that system you have to stick to your budget and there is never a little extra cash around to be creative with.
posted by abc on October 23rd, 2007 at 5:48 pmThe NPR station in New York is ridiculous– they don’t even say how much money they need to raise or their hourly goal or anything. It must be a scam… and the richest NPR station in the world. Does it actually cost more to broadcast in a densely vs. lightly populated area?
posted by Brandon on October 23rd, 2007 at 6:25 pmNPR stations started going away from the pledge drives last until they reach their goal for a couple of reasons (not particularly because of not being able to budget).
First new donors are key, because when people move away they generally stop donating to the public radio station they had been listening to. Of course this is logical…the problem comes in replacing them and that is why new donors are key. New donors typically donate in largest numbers the longer the fundraiser lasts. So a shorter drive may be good in the short run but can hurt the station down the road.
Second, after several drives, listeners start taking longer to pledge. They realize just because they pledged doesn’t mean everyone else has so the drives started to grow longer.
Brandon as for your question…I don’t think the issue is the population density, but rather cost of living and staff size. Obviously paying the staff a living wage in New York is more expensive than most communities. I’m also guessing New York’s NPR station has a lot more reporters and more talented on-air staff than most stations.
posted by Andy on October 24th, 2007 at 10:54 pmPer my old station in Jacksonville, public radio stations are charged for programming on a sliding scale based on how many listeners they have.
posted by StarChild the Lurker on October 25th, 2007 at 10:28 am“I think they need to give out a secret frequency to people who donate in the beginning of the week so we can drive in sanity until the drive is over.”
It’s 88.3, to the extreme left of your radio dial.
(And I solute the blog and its commentors for not latching onto the easy innuendo of “doer.” [And c’mon, shouldn’t the style-sheet say hyphanted do-er?]
Wait, no I don’t. I just can’t come up with anything better than “Doer? I’d do ‘er.”)
posted by js on October 25th, 2007 at 5:40 pmi lift my do ‘er flask to you, sir.
posted by peter honeyman on October 25th, 2007 at 8:43 pmHeh. Did my misspell “solute” lead to Dewar?
posted by js on October 26th, 2007 at 1:04 pma bunch of bucket-lickers you guys are being. those words came out of my mouth. Not a professional speaker, but sometimes letting words drip out and you title me this and that.
Climb a tree … or talk jazz about me. britten
posted by britten on November 11th, 2007 at 11:18 pmThat’s pretty inspirational. I think.
posted by Dale on November 12th, 2007 at 12:41 amDon’t you hate it when you wake up in the morning and you can’t decide whether you want to put on your e.e. cummings persona or the Allen Ginsberg one?
posted by Parking Structure Dude! on November 12th, 2007 at 12:14 pmSometimes I talk like that, after my Dewars.
posted by js on November 12th, 2007 at 1:48 pm