Terry Green Blogs About KUSP

In the past two weeks I traveled to two public radio meetings… one quite small, a meeting of the NPR Board of Directors; and one quite large, the PRDMC (short for Pubilc Radio Development and Marketing Conference). I could easily perceive the pressure on public radio rising at these meetings.

NPR is experiencing pressure on its major sources of revenue while the need for the programming it generates (and the expectations of the listeners) grow steadily. NPR gets significant income through program underwriting announcements from foundations and businesses, and the sagging health of the general economy puts the squeeze on those budgets. Income from the NPR endowment is affected by the return on their investments, which isn’t so great right now. The biggest share of NPR’s revenue comes from member stations like KUSP, and we’re not seeing our budgets grow – so we’re ill equipped to send more to NPR.

At the same time, people want and expect more from NPR, over-the-air and on-line. They’ve resisted making cuts in the news-gathering part of the company (probably the only national news operation in America that can say that), meaning that the pressure comes even more acutely on other activities. I’m sure that played a large role in the decision to end the Bryant Park Project.

At PRDMC, the financial pressure on local stations was evident, for the same basic reasons. “Development,” in non-profit jargon, means getting the resources you need to fulfill your mission. That obviously includes fund-raising. One overriding theme of the conference was that station people need to pay close attention to the feelings and attitudes of their listeners – something we certainly try to do at KUSP. Those needs can be hard to reconcile with what stations can do… many listeners now regard pledge drives with absolute scorn, but there’s no revenue model for public broadcasting that doesn’t depend mostly on voluntary support. Pledge drives, it must be said, give people the chance to become new member-supporters of public radio.

Once a member is “in the door” and we know who they are, we can ask for their continuing support in various ways – through the mail, via e-mail, and so on. Getting that first gift in a way that’s affordable, though, is very hard to do without pledge drives.

As I’ve said before, I’m happy that KUSP’s pledge drives are shorter than most. Also, not many stations have fewer drives than we do (at two per year). But our number of new members is tailing off dramatically in recent years, and overall we have fewer current donors. This is something that’s been true in other communities as well, and I hope it is a trend we – and you – can turn around.