Thursday, August 25, 2005

Too Bad Nobody at WBEZ Reads This Blog...

Otherwise they would know that I'm already a ticking timebomb of fury today!

A few weeks ago, Scratch & I decided to donate to Chicago Public Radio. We listen to it, a friend of ours works there, it's nice, non-yelling radio, etc. So we pledged. I won't disclose how much because it's tacky, but let's just say, we live in a small apartment, both work, and Scratch is in grad school, so we don't have much.

In thanks for joining the CPR community, in addition to our free gift, I received this email today:

Dear Marguerite,
As I write this note, our end-of-year ticker reads $680,656 to go by midnight on Wednesday August 31. We’ve made incredible progress in the past few weeks closing that funding gap to pay for all of our programming for the year. Tens of thousands of listeners brought us this far by contributing whatever they could.
To insure we end the year with all the bills paid, we’ve planned 40 hours of on-air fundraising over the next few days. We hope we won’t need them all. And that’s where you come in.
There’s a little extra reward for your assistance in this final push.
Time Out Chicago is giving every E-Update subscriber who makes a contribution of any amount before the end of the day tomorrow a FREE eight-week subscription to the magazine. It’s a fantastic weekly guide to events, activities and culture in and around Chicago. Time Out Chicago is the where-to-go what-to-do weekly.

And… you’ll be automatically entered in the drawing for a 2006 Toyota Prius hybrid donated to the cause by our friends at Grossinger City Toyota and Grossinger Toyota North in Lincolnwood.

Or call anytime after 6 a.m. tomorrow (Friday) at 877.366.8924 (that’s 877.DON’T.WAIT)
There are three ways you can help right now.
>>Join, renew or give just a little extra to push us further toward that goal.>>Forward this message to your friends who listen to the station.>>Show your Chicago Public Radio gear around town this weekend. Pull out your shirts, hats, chairs, mugs, bags, whatever you’ve got. Let’s keep the station top-of-mind.
We are grateful to everyone who already participated in this summer campaign. We don’t take your voluntary participation in “free” public radio for granted.
Now, let’s work together to end this year free and clear of bills, and end it many hours before that midnight deadline next Wednesday.
Sincerely,

Wendy TurnerE-Update Editor and On-Air Fundraiser
wturner@chicagopublicradio.org

So, the message I am taking from this is: WHY DON'T YOU GIVE US MORE??? WE WANT MORE!!!! YOUR DONATION SUCKED!!!!!!!!! MAKE UP FOR IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe I'm overreacting - but heck, LifeSource waits 8 weeks before hitting me up for more blood - maybe CPR could hold off until the check goes through?

Comments:
Well shit, no comment. I am all over your blog today! I will speak for development at the radio station when I say that they don't know that you just paid up. They get a huge database of people and they target everybody on that list, whether you signed up 1 day ago or 1 year. It's a little trick in public radio fundraising where there is an invisible/non-existent subscriber deadline, which they try to trick you into re-upping. It says your up for a year, but they are all over you before then. WBEZ didn't create this (WTTW is awful for this), but WBEZ does it well.

Sorry you are disappointed with their fundraising bullshit. I wish there was a line to stand in to get your money back?

And on top of that, they cancelled Schadenfreude? Geesh, commie radio station.
 
I hate those pledge drives. I gave money once via their online form and I filled in a fake phone number and they tracked down my phone number and called me anyway. How rude is that.
 
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