Pledge Drives

What do you think about pledge drives? There are many different types, of course, but the one that I'd like to discuss here is the local public television station pledge drive.

I've lived in Gainesville pretty much since 1977, and one of the bright spots in this college town is the local PBS station, WUFT-Channel Five. Aside from showing great PBS series like Cosmos and Connections, WUFT also showed the 1980s mini-series version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (by Douglas Adams) as well as a whole slew of British comedy shows. But one of my "special moments" with WUFT came on an evening in 1977. They were showing a string of Marx Brothers movies in order in induce people to donate money. They'd usually say something like, "If this is the type of programming you like to see on WUFT, then this is the time to call in with your pledge." Only for the rest of the year, they would never show the programming that they reserved for pledge nights.

This night, though, they were showing Marx Brothers flicks (the earlier, funnier ones), which as black-and-white movies came in real good on my black-and-white TV. The only problem was that, every few minutes, the station would interrupt the movie (usually at a completely inopportune moment) and then ramble on for several minutes with their guilt-mongering ("This is NOT free television!") and pleas to meet the pledge quotas. Finally, about halfway through the final movie, enough people were calling the station complaining about the interruptions (without making pledges) that one of the women conducting the on-air pledge drive suddenly lost her composure and angrily blurted out something to the effect that that was it, you unappreciative people out there. We don't want your complaints, we want your money. And we're not going to finish showing the movie, how do you like that?!! After a few awkward moments though, she was apparently overruled by her colleagues and the movie was quietly put back on to its completion.

I think public television is generally pretty good, but I have to admit that I haven't been one of its financial backers (except through my taxes, that is). Gainesville's WUFT has tried over the years to provide interesting programming for the area, though in recent years I haven't been too impressed with its program lineup. Perhaps they should try regularly showing the programs that they only put on when trying to attract financial donors.