Researchers in public radio's Audience 98 project were just about blown away by those survey results, says spokeswoman Leslie Peters. Pubcasters know this audience discontent has been building for years as pledge drives grow longer. Now they're devising ways to cut back on the old necessary evil. WJHU, Baltimore, pulled more calls than ever before, even though it shortened its fall drive by one-third, says fundraising consultant John Sutton. And Wyoming Public Radio slightly beat its fall 1996 proceeds with 40 percent less on-air pledging.
Some stations even go pledge-free, briefly.
North Carolina's WUNC eliminated its usual three-day summer drive this year and raised 30 percent more than usual, says Regina Yeager, development director. Other stations make an explicit bargain with listeners. What it lost were the slow days in the middle. The station was able to dispense with the heavy on-air promotion of premiums that made past pledge drives sound like a shopping list. If cutting days in advance sounds too risky, a station can still invoke the less-pledging motivation by promising to quit early if it reaches goal.