Most Mortem

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.