Thank you all for the extra mile of hours, the loyal sponsors, and the kind volunteers. - Marjorie Gulliksen
Our Spring 2015 on-air fundraising campaign ended on Wednesday morning. Thanks to everyone who made pledges of support. I’ll get to some comments from the campaign in just a moment. But first, this from Don Eggert:
I happened to hear one of Claude Howell's commentaries from back in the day [last] week on WHQR. I sure do miss them. It would be nice if you could make them a weekly feature (perhaps during the midday). Many of your newer listeners missed them. They are enjoyable, entertaining, interesting and educational. Thanks for you consideration.
One donor wrote last Friday during the campaign:
As a WHQR member for 21 years and a [past] member/officer of [the Community Advisory Board], I have listened to a fair share of Pledge Campaigns. However, I feel my "duty" to criticize (for the first time), the manner in which some of your "hawking" team members are operating. Please try to calm some of your staffers down during their pledge-time sessions when they become so obviously high-pitched, frantic, fast-jabbering, AND long-winded. Sometimes the whole unpleasant, high-pressuring attitude becomes contagious. I always turn the radio off, and will not ever pledge when feeling so "bothered" and harassed. Also, when "the girls" get tired, they get very silly and begin to engage in mumbling jabber like a bunch of restless monkeys, and then those also on the air feel they have to laugh, chortle, [and] contribute. It is chaotic, unpleasant, and again, NOT conducive to pledging. I believe, somewhere in the past, that pledge talk seemed somewhat rehearsed - certainly professional and trained. Perhaps staffers were reminded, via a written memo or pep talk, to act more serious and to the point. Those long, tedious days were planned; sometimes they were even entertaining and informative - at least to the point of "hanging-in-there" until news came back on. --Anonymously, and still a devoted follower of WHQR.
I’ve quoted this message in full, and I’ll note that two other people sent similar messages. I want to emphasize to these listeners that we do take their reactions seriously, and I acknowledge that there were times when announcers, including myself, did get too exuberant and/or unfocused. But there are a couple of contexts here that I feel should be pointed out. The first context is the value of 1,150 contributors who did respond to our appeal with enthusiasm.
The second is our fervent desire to keep on-air fundraising days to a minimum. I wasn’t here to experience the drives Anonymous is referring to when she says with approval that they were long, tedious and planned. I for one am very glad that we no longer have tedious drives that last 11 days.
The answer for all these concerns would be for pledgers to call early so that we could take even fewer days to finish. But we, and almost all stations across the country, see similar phenomena, so we’re talking about human nature here.
[AUDIO CLIP]
This is Marjorie Gulliksen. Again, a polite and focused pledge drive with a variety of staff personalities and voices. Thank you all for the extra mile of hours, the loyal sponsors, and the kind volunteers.
Sandy and Ken Holland wrote:
We love both 91.3 and 96.7 and I especially would be lost in the mornings without Morning Edition.
Kate Goodrich wrote:
As a news junkie who likes classical music, I love having the two separate stations.
Anna Van Cura wrote:
Even my dog loves to listen to you guys!
We’d love to hear from you on Friday Feedback. You can always leave a message via email to feedback@WHQR.org. Our Feedback Phone is 910-292-9477. And thanks for your feedback.