Whew. I am so fucking bad at this fundraising thing. The only pledge I got today was from someone at the station. I was supposed to raise two grand over three pledge days to justify my existence & despite six hours of begging & pleading on the radio - & trying to make something worth listening to - I barely made one-eighth of that. If I got a call tomorrow saying, "Sorry, buddy, we can't afford to have you stinking up our airwaves any longer," I wouldn't be able to deny it.
Before this last show I looked over this brief article of tips for pledge drive. What I try to hook people with - unsuccessfully, obviously - is the whole idea of community radio. The idea of a real person playing music in a room, a person who chooses the music, who loves the music, who's the architect & builder of the program you're listening to. I guess that's not enticing enough.
But could I do better next time, should I be allowed a next time? I guess I'll have to try.
One good thing is this: defeat never encourages me. The fact that I didn't do very well the first time was like a gut punch. The second time was a mild headache. This last time was simply what I expected would happen. & I tried not to be a "crabby pledge person" whose "down energy dampens enthusiasm," since no one was listening all the way through. But toward the end, after half a dozen attempts to get any call at all, I did more or less give up.
How bad was it? You can listen to the show for the next thirteen days on Radio Free America. I wish I could edit out the breaks, because I think the Bowie covers were great. But, you know, not enough to donate to the station that was playing them.
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