I'm sure not in a major radio market. In Connecticut, I listen to Connecticut Public Radio on WNPR. Over the summer, they introduced daytime talk content between Morning Edition and All Things Considered, something that pleases me a lot.
But what does not please me whatsoever are their incessant and ever recurring pledge drives. It seems like every two months, there's a pledge drive and that's because it's true! They've started a three-day mini pledge drive today. They did one of these right before the holidays. In the fall, they did another. They did one in the summer before I went to India. That's 4-5 times in 6 months. In comparison, San Francisco's KQED does three pledge drives per year.
When I was fully employed, I gave generously to my public radio affiliates (KQED, WBEZ in Chicago, and also to my college radio station, Radio K). But since WNPR pollutes what I want to hear with these incessant pledge drives, I've been unwilling to give even at the student rate. They're really pissing me off.
Can you pick up WCNI up in New London? That''s Connecticut College's station.
We contribute to MPR/The Current. The pledge drives really are annoying but it doesn't seem like they do them quite as frequently as your station. Maybe every 4 months or so.
I noticed that WNPR has been asking for a certain number of callers per hour rather than a certain number of dollars.Still, I'm getting tired of it. Connecticut has a ton of public radio stations and they all seem to run this cabal regarding who gets to ask for funds when. It just seems to never end sometimes…