They tend to aim for an older audience. Typically you'll see specials about Tom Petty or classic rockers.
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PBS Pledge Week: it's baaaack!
- Thread starter joebtsflk1
- Start date
They tend to aim for an older audience. Typically you'll see specials about Tom Petty or classic rockers.
I'll watch that Pink special, but I wouldn't watch the Four Lads Reunion or whatever else they run during pledge drives on a dare. Most of their programming during pledge drives seems to be shows aimed at 60+ year olds. How is that going to build a sustaining audience that pledges money to the local station yearly? What's odd to me is that KCPT, the local PBS station in KC, owns a AAA station that seems to target a lot younger audience, but they don't promote each other as far as I know.
In the 1980s, KCPT would bring on Hugh Bowen of KCTV to do pledge drives. Bowen was the longtime booth announcer for KCMO-TV/KCTV, with a booming voice. He would often wrap up his pledge pitches by urging viewers to "call 931-1919...that's Westport 1-1919!" (I think they use a different phone number now.)
I don't really understand what they're dong with The Bridge, though it is a welcome respite from so much else. But it seems inherently limited by signal problems due to its location east of Grain Valley (the same kind of signal problems the old KCFM/KXXR/KISF/etc/etc ran into at 107.3).
I don't really understand what they're dong with The Bridge, though it is a welcome respite from so much else. But it seems inherently limited by signal problems due to its location east of Grain Valley (the same kind of signal problems the old KCFM/KXXR/KISF/etc/etc ran into at 107.3).
I don’t remember Hugh Bowen on KCPT at all, but I usually just watched the Frugal Gourmet back then, and my parents watched Louis Rukeyser and Lawrence Welk.
how old is the typical "viewer like you"?
I imagine it depends on the station, as well as the market the station’s in. KCPT ran a 2013 Barbra Streisand concert the other night, I enjoyed it but I doubt many other people in their 30s were watching it.
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The 60 + folks are the ones who are giving most of the money. That's why you continue to see the Lawrence Welk show, Doo Wop, and 60's artists programming. PBS also offers Austin City Limits and countless other options. The world doesn't revolve around only your age group and your cult worship of Taylor Swift...
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It's been mentioned in a few other threads that NPR radio stations are struggling with declining donations and pledges. While I have no inside information on PBS TV, I'm guessing they may be even worse off, especially with many of their donors either much older, or having departed this Earth. To your point, @tbolt909, when "pledge break" season rolls around, it's usually the same stale programming featuring resurrected Doo Wop artists, Andrae Rieu, Andrea Bucelli (sp?), and Larry Welk. It's been a very long time since I've found programming on PBS that I actually stopped and watched - and that was probably a dozen years ago. Our local PBS station has had the same lineup on weekends for at least 15 years, including British comedies featuring actors that have mostly all passed away.
One of my first gigs in radio broadcasting was working for an FM CHR / AM Talker and I remember hearing the talk hosts on AM all the way back then asking if PBS was still relevant and necessary. "Home Improvement" shows like This Old House have been superseded by superior programming on networks like HGTV. Programs about animals that PBS used to feature have been replaced by programming on Animal Planet and Discovery. Mister Rogers has been gone for years, and Sesame Street moved to HBO years ago, while some PBS stations still do air older episodes. People that once tuned in to PBS for cooking shows now have the Food Network and the Cooking Channel. So - how relevent is PBS and how long can it be sustained?
The question of relevancy is irrelevant. Nobody has exclusivity in the media today. That includes radio, TV, and film. Public broadcasting was never designed to be the ONLY place for certain programming. It was designed to be the best. To deliver quality programming without the pressure of making a profit. It was also built around LOCAL ownership. All of those cable channels are national, funded by national advertisers. Public broadcasting is local, with local ownership, management, and funding. The federal funding they receive is based on the amount of local money they raise. That's how they determine relevancy. So that's why these pledge weeks are so important. Pledge weeks are the PBS version of election day. People vote with their money. Yes, donations are declining as money is tight. But it's up to the local stations to find ways to sustain their operations, and for the local members to respond.
History of UHF Television
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UCTV, University of California Television
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True and also PBS affiliates back when they were known as NET affiliates were originally about providing educational content to TV. However we have to go back 2006-2007 when YouTube was in it's infant stages educational content were starting to be produced by K-12 school districts, Educational foundations and universities to reach to Millennials when they were in High School and College at that time via YouTube.
Now the thing keeping PBS relevant for now are investigative documentaries like Frontline, PBS Newshour, Amanpour and Company and local edtions models after the national shows.
I'd rather be a fan of Taylor Swift than a doo wop/60s group that hasn't had a hit in 50 to 60 years. They would love to have had the long term success she has and be billionaires like she is. As long as PBS stations keep playing Lawrence Welk, doo wop, etc. as part of their pledge drives, they're going to drive away younger viewers who would potentially give them some money. Maybe not as much as someone who's 60+, but if they got a $50 pledge annually from a 30 year old for the next 50 years, they'd end up with more money than if they got a $100 pledge annually from a 60 year old for the next 20 years.
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Those same PBS stations run children's programming all day. So younger viewers may not want Lawrence Welk. but they want Daniel Tiger or Sesame Street for their kids. The money goes to the same place. And yes, there are other channels for kids programming. But they have commercials trying to get your kids to buy things.
Taylor Swift will one day be forgotten just like many of the Doo Wop groups of the past(You'll have to change your photo). Public Television obviously knows the demographics of their members/donors. Your age group just wants stuff for free. If they start putting up some serious money, then you will see a programming shift.
In the meantime, PBS still has a fairly diverse schedule. It's not all to my liking, but much of it is good...
Taylor Swift has been on the charts since 2006, most of the doowop groups only were widely popular in the 50s and early 60s, so she's already outlasted most of them in terms of charting hits.
Your age group is the one who gets early bird specials at restaurants, senior discounts at the movies and other places, social security benefits, state property tax credits for being a senior, etc. while having had 40 years (for people in their 60s) to save money, yet you begrudge younger people for "wanting everything for free" while taking the aforementioned discounts for things your generation should be well able to pay full price for. In the meantime people in their 20s and 30s have to pay full price for the things you get discounts for, while we work so you can get the social security benefits we won't get, even though we're paying in.
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But they don't run pledge drives on the PBS subchannels that run children's programming all day.
Remember that PBS is not only commercial free but also free. Not everyone can afford (or wants to spend money on) cable and streaming.
The change will take a long time, because there are more 60+ year olds giving more money to keep Lawrence Welk, the Four Lads reunion, etc. on the air. Also I see you have no retort to the facts I gave you about all the breaks your generation gets for stuff my generation pays full price for.
Anyone who worked for a living paid into Social Security. It's not a free gift or entitlement. You should be more concerned about the politicians who view it that way. They are the same ones who have contempt for PBS.
Don't be absurd about Senior discounts. Saving 50 cents on a cup of coffee is ridiculous. You're making generalizations. Here is one -- Don't waste all your money getting tattoos and piercings...