Maine Public Broadcasting has come up with a new way to raise money: Stop asking.
The near-silent approach has netted Maine public radio more than $150,000 in four days.
“We’re not driving the audience away like we used to,” said Charles Beck, radio service vice president
For years, the seven-station radio network pleaded on-air in its fund-raising campaigns. The tedious appeals interrupted news and music twice an hour for up to 10 minutes each. Listeners often got so annoyed that they didn’t donate money and changed the station, to boot.
Last Friday, at the beginning of a weeklong effort to raise $200,000, the radio network ran a single “Power Hour” with donation information. It kept all other appeals to a few minutes between broadcasts.
Listeners immediately flooded the station with pledges and praise for the new format. That first day, the network raised $62,000, or 31 percent of its goal.
As of Tuesday, Maine public radio had raised more than $150,000. Station executives expected to stop the weeklong campaign today, two days early.
“We let listeners know the sooner we get to our goal, the sooner we can end,” said interim President Barry McCrum, who called the new tactic “user friendly.”
The public network runs three major fund-raising campaigns a year. It decided to try a new approach after listeners complained about the interruptions.
“We found we were on-air trying to raise more and more, longer and longer,” Beck said. “It almost became too much and it was discouraging listeners.”
Although the new tactic has proven successful for radio, executives say it would be impractical for TV. They will look for another innovative way to raise money for the Maine Public Broadcasting Network’s five TV stations, McCrum said.
But executives plan to try the near-silent approach again for radio.
“We’re all about the audience,” Beck said.
MPBN gets about half of its $12 million budget from listeners and viewers. The next TV campaign will be held in December. The next radio campaign will be held in April.
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