NPR Semi-annual Annual Fund Drive

Noooooooooooooooo! It’s happening again! It seems like just yesterday that I was pledging to Chicago NPR. I got in the car yesterday, turned on the radio, and immediately comprehended that it was fund drive time by the chatter and phones in the background, over-enthused announcers spouting the benefits of NPR, and the general lack of normalacy.

This morning, as I always do during fund drives, I found a different station to listen to. Next up the dial was WXRT. I must have been paying attention to the road (ha!) because I didn’t notice that I changed the dial. XRT seems to be lampooning the NPR drive by having their announcers “wittily” recreate the usual banter between hosts during the pledge drive. Once I realized that the telephone ring sound effect was being played exactly every three seconds, I caught on. Why would you parody the pledge drive? Trying to feel snobby? I immediately changed the station, because the irritation a pledge drive really does get under my skin.

If I hated the general format of a pledge drive, why would any of their usual listeners find it amusing? Any novelty is outweighed by constant over-eager reiterations of how neat NPR is. I bet this doesn’t do well for ratings …

Then I realized that the reason I loathe the pledge drive is because it DOES interrupt my usual NPR programming. Just like they say. I’m cranky about it because I like it so much. I heart NPR.

Had I not already “given” to NPR six months ago ($100 and the promise of my firstborn got me a sweet bag and a membership card) I would have immediately, today, in the parking lot. It was a religious experience.

(Best comment overheard this morning: “I was raised in a Catholic orphanage…”)