KQED, a public radio station in tech-savvy San Francisco, kicked off its pledge drive Thursday by offering listeners a deal: If they make a gift of at least $45, they don’t have to listen again to any of the pitches the station makes during its two-week fund-raising drive, which starts May 5.
Instead, donors can gain access to an online broadcast stream that is running the KQED programs in full, with no interruptions, from a separate set of announcers.
By donating $45 or more at kqed.org/donate, donors receive a passcode that gives them access to the stream. All they will miss is the live traffic updates.
Donald Derheim, KQED’s chief operating officer, says the station has long wanted to offer this kind of option. “A lot of people say, ‘I love KQED, and I hate pledge.’ For people in public radio and public media, that kind of wears you down.”
But only recently did it seem practical to offer the option, he says.
The radio station attempted the pledge-free streaming two years ago in an internal experiment but says too few people had smartphones or tablets that allow them to listen while on the go.
Mobile devices, he adds, have “become much more like the transistor radio of many years ago and the radio of today.”
In addition, surveys conducted by KQED found that a percentage of its radio listeners were turned off by the pledge drives. Mr. Derheim wouldn’t say publicly just how big a share of people complained.
Many other stations have been experimenting with ways to avoid too many days of pledge drives, often offering pledge-free days if supporters contribute enough money before a drive opens.
For instance, WBUR, a Boston public radio station, promised listeners last month that it would cancel its June pledge drive if donors gave $1-million. The listeners did; WBUR raised $1.4-million.
KQED acknowledges that it is taking a risk by offering people a way to avoid listening to the pledge drives. “This is a little scary in the sense that part of the pledge-messaging is reminding people about the different work that we do,” Mr. Derheim says. Plus, he says, the station often uses the pledge drives to remind listeners that the government provides money for less than 10 percent of its budget.
But he says the risk seems worthwhile. “What we really want here is a relationship with new listeners that are annoyed by the pledge and are willing to pay around it,” he says.
The radio station holds three pledge drives each year, lasting 12 to 16 days. These drives are expected to raise $2-million each, with an average donation of $145, Mr. Derheim says. “Once we hit the goal, we get off the air.”
