Module 4, Lesson 1 – Breaking the Mold (Summer 2022)

1. For a number of years, because of the small size of our staff, we have cut back live-pitching on M-F to 7-9am and 4-6pm (during ME and ATC; we also pitch several hours on Sat.). We have done this because, again…very few of us to pitch, and because the “payback” during non-drive time was low. We have run pre-recorded pitches (between :29 and 1:29) between these times, and :29’s from 6pm – 7am.
2. I have been thinking, and hearing, more about the idea of “readying” our audience to give by extending that pitch time…so that even if we aren’t getting a big response, we are “prepping” the audience for what’s to come. I think we could see improved results if we had more aggressive pitching from 6-7am and 3-4pm.
3. I completely understand the push-back: everyone is doing their regular job PLUS pitching, and it is exhausting. I also hear pushback that we would be causing audience to tune out prior to our highest listening hours.
4. I think I can find a middle ground here, at least while our staff numbers are so low: We insert pre-recorded pitches in the 6-7am hour of ME during every available break, and we EITHER do the same during Fresh Air/3-4pm OR we live-pitch from 3-6, instead of 4-6. (Alternately, we could extend PM pitching from 4 – 7pm.). This would require a heavier life in the afternoon, but I think we would see a bump in pledges. We can test this this fall during a couple of afternoons to see what results we see.

1. For WEXT, our AAA radio station, we have always pledged in March, June, August, and December because these are the standard PBS pledge months and also the months when our station makes the most revenue.
2. Instead of pledging during these standard months, we could look closely at our listenership for WEXT and choose pledge months where the listenership is highest.
3. Some common pushback we might receive is that, if we were to make this change, we could potentially be pledging for multiple months in a row in different areas of our station. Additionally, it would create more work overall for our radio team if WEXT were to pledge at a different time than WMHT-FM, our classical station.
4. Fundraising potential is highest when listenership is highest, so it makes more sense to pledge based on WEXT’s audience rather than the standard PBS pledge months. Though it could create more work for the radio team, the revenue and benefits of pledging during high listenership months might be worth the effort. Additionally, even though our station could be pledging for multiple months in a row, many viewers do not overlap with WEXT and other areas of the station. This is also a negative that could be outweighed by the revenue potential of making this change.

Historically we haven’t pitched in all shows, especially our evening DJ shows. We’re realizing that individual shows/hosts often have such distinct/unique listeners we want to make sure we have some sort of direct pitch from that host to their listeners to ensure we’re really grabbing as many new members as possible. Even if it’s a pre-recorded show we ask the host to insert a personal pitch before, midway, and in the credits of the show. I didn’t receive pushback exactly but I did have some longtime hosts/DJs who were unfamiliar with pitching but it’s great for opening up our pool of co-pitchers.

A lot of people love KCRW as a whole organization but for many their strongest relationship is with the host or DJ of their favorite show. That direct message is going to be the strongest.

We moved to two on-air drives per year from three a few years ago. Gradually, our two drives began to lengthen as our goal increased, and they can go two weeks long. This fall we are attempting to complete the drive in just over half the usual time (about 8 days).
The last few years we have not had much pushback because we have been trying to reduce the hours we pitch on air to ease things for our audience and pitchers.
I don’t think we want to revert back to three shorter drives a year, I think we want to really hone our on air skills and provide the clearest talking points and scripts for our pitchers so we can continue to produce two drives that are as efficient as possible. We could do more promotion outside of live pitching days, i.e. pre drive and post drive.

Up until the pandemic we pitched in studio, on-air. I’ve been at the station for less than a year but as a long time WFDD listener I know we’ve tried a few different approaches to fund drives: pre recorded, rapid drives etc. But now a lot of us have gotten use to pitching and producing those shifts from their home. So, for now, we’re trying to decide if we go back to in person pitching or continue pitching from home. We’ve been playing around with the possibility of a model it seems some other stations are using; pre recorded pitches during certain times of the day. Since moving to at home pitching during the pandemic I’ve heard that we have more detailed scripts written out by the producers of each shift. I would like to see these go back to bullet points to give the pitchers a focus for each 3 hour shift but not as much word for word structure. Some people enjoy the producer’s detailed scripts and others would prefer to have bullet points. We’re trying to find the middle ground so no one feels over produced or like the pressure to create X amount of scripts for each 3 hour shift. I’m interested to hear how other stations produce on air pitching. The most common pushback we receive is about pitch lengths. For instance we have shortened the morning shift from 6-9am to starting at 7-9am with our on air host covering that first hour alone. I hear that it’s hard for people to keep their morale up during the drives while they aren’t seeing the needle jump during their shift. So hopefully shortening some shifts and adding in prerecorded pitches will help.

At my previous shop, we’ve done a No Pledge Drive Pledge Drive, where we record tons of spots that we would air during a certain period of time to encourage people to give. It was a lot of heavy work in the beginning, but once it started, it allowed us to focus on on other important tasks in fundraising. Today, I’m at a shop that does a traditional pledge drive. There’s a strong importance on Omnichannel giving, meaning we have to make sure everything we talk about is the same on all platforms. This makes things easier when it comes on premium and theme focus. I would love to continue doing a rapid drive, however, given the time and resources available at our station, it wouldn’t be feasible.

During the pandemic, we moved to 100% pre-recorded on-air drives. The staff and our audience, as a whole, really like this new model. The spots are shorter and more concise, we don’t interrupt programming and the only staff live-pitching are our on-air hosts (for radio only). As a result, due to staff turnover, retirements, etc. over the last couple of years, we now have very few staff members comfortable with live pitching.

I’d like to resume some live pitching, especially during drive times and PBS NewsHour. I think there is an authenticity that can’t be replicated with pre-recorded spots. Our staff, including leadership, much prefers pre-recorded, scripted spots because there is more control over the messaging. I think with dedicated training, we could educate enough staff to be effective live pitchers to make the change worth a try.

Consider a method that you’ve always used or an approach you’ve historically taken in your fund drives. (There are no wrong answers!)
We usually fundraise on five different days during EOY– we do Giving Tuesday, a $5 Friday, during our weekend specialty shows one weekend, and on the last day of the year

How could that be done differently or changed to strengthen your drive?
We’ve been talking about making it one solid week, to strengthen the message around giving

What is the common pushback you receive to making such a change?
Just a LOT for people to try to manage during the holidays. The one-off days seem more manageable

Make the case for change or share alternative ideas.
We think that having the repetition for one solid week would generate more income and donors

Consider a method that you’ve always used or an approach you’ve historically taken in your fund drives.
We have different themes/giveaways each day during our week-long drives

How could that be done differently or changed to strengthen your drive?
Sometimes it seems like too many different giveaways, and we need to make sure we’re offering things that aren’t just “extra” but draw people in

What is the common pushback you receive to making such a change?
We’ve always had a lot of extra stuff to offer donors, people like extra stuff

Make the case for change or share alternative ideas.
Having a few quality extras may draw in higher donors who don’t just need free t-shirts

We just completed our Fall Fund Drive. It ran from 9/14-9/23, with pre-recorded pitch breaks on the weekends, also promoting the Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me pint glass as a weekend-only giveaway. That worked pretty well. We only live pitched Wed-Fri on both weeks. There was a glitch on the 19th & 20th, so only a few of my membership drive spots ran, in addition to some unforeseen situations during the drive (the producer had a death in the family during the drive, so I had to take over her duties for the very first time)!

Overall, for everything that occurred, we made over our “adjusted goal” (adjusted due to all the situations). I believe had we live-pitched on the 19th & 20th, we probably would have made the initial goal.

I also need to adjust the pitching personnel. Some pitchers need more work on messaging and urgency.

– We use sweepstakes as an additional reason to keep our audience motivated to donate aside from the love they feel for the station.
– We had to adapt to the financial challenge, otherwise, our goals would be higher.
– People keep making donations but after the pandemic started everything has been more challenging. I think the economy plays a crucial role here.
– We must pivot in order to move forward. Coming up with other fundraising ideas to support our drives is key!