PBS Fund Raising and Rant!

[Dennis McDonaugh]

Our local PBS station is having their fund raiser this week and they are having a 2 hour long "Quilt Fest" instead of the New Yankee Workshop.

[Terry Hatfield]

Dennis,

Mine too. At least it's that Jerry whatever guy that makes fertilizer out of beer and soap. He's better that quilts I'm sure.:D

Terry

[Gary Hupp]

We have the same situation. Missed two shows. Infomercials have now replaced shows even on PBS. Something abut learning to play the piano.

[Ted Shrader]

Originally posted by Dennis McDonaugh
Our local PBS station is having their fund raiser this week and they are having a 2 hour long "Quilt Fest" instead of the New Yankee Workshop.

That happens here, too. When it does, I call in to pledge, and point out that I would have pledged if they had not taken NYW off during the Beg-A-Thon.

Ted

[Alan Schaffter]

PBS in MD (WMPT) did the same thing except they were going to skip #2 of 2 episodes on the cigar chair and #1 of 2 on Media press!!!! I called them and pointed out that these shows were two parters and should be shown in sequence. They redid the NYW schedule. WETA in DC dropped NYW this season!!!!!!!

[Kevin Gerstenecker]

Yep, PBS affiliate in St. Louis has also booted Norm for the pledge drive. I understand that PBS is privately funded, and we support their programming, but it would be nice to at least run the more popular shows, like NYW, during their scheduled time slot. As far as a PBS station taking Norm off the schedule completely................that is just WRONG! I can't believe they would do that? Norm is a Mainstay of PBS, just like This Old House, and Sesame Street. Oh well, progress is not always progressive now is it?

[Jim Young]

No Norm here in the Detroit area either. There is only one show that I watch on TV and that's norm. After chasing the kids out of the tv room and finding the right station (once a week isn't enough for me to remember the channel) I was duped, no Norm. So instead I went into the shop. Could be worse.

[Rob Sandow]

I hate when they do that. I am, in fact, so mad at Channel 13 (the grand daddy of PBS) that I stopped contributing all together. They have moved TOH and NYW around so much (3 schedule changes this year alone) that I don't even know when to find them anymore. Then every 3 months, they mess with the schedule for 4 weeks to do the beg-a-thon. Each time they send me a "membership renewal notice", I send it back with just a note saying I am no longer supporting them financially because they treat me and my fellow woodworkers so shabbily.

NJN does a better job, but the best is WLIW on Long Island. Unfortunately, my cable service down here doesn't carry it.

Rob

[Ken Salisbury]

<p align="center">
COMPLAIN !, COMPLAIN !, COMPLAIN !, COMPLAIN!

I was going to use a word starting with "b" but it's against the rules

[Dave Hammelef]

Originally posted by Jim Young
No Norm here in the Detroit area either. There is only one show that I watch on TV and that's norm. After chasing the kids out of the tv room and finding the right station (once a week isn't enough for me to remember the channel) I was duped, no Norm. So instead I went into the shop. Could be worse.

Chase the kids out. I round them up and we all watch togeather they love it. But I have just gotten use to pledge weeks. IF you listen at the end of the show they ussually will say NYW will not air again untill ....date due to other programing.


Dave

[Doug Edwards]

Not only was Norm on this week here, we had the Red Green movie, Duct Tape Forever. Must be lucky I guess.

[Woody Leland]

Man! Have I wanted a place to say this for a long while!

You really don't have to read this as it's already been said in the above notes, but I get SO angry at PBS, I refuse to contribute to their pledge drives. They turn a blind eye and deaf ear to me.

At this point, I'm seriously considering getting a satellite dish, just so I can consistently get my PBS shows. Like most of you, NYW & TOH are my favorites, but there are some other good shows on PBS that I would like to see. Last week we were preempted by local basketball tournaments, this week the pledge drive. For the last 3 years, our local PBS has changed the next 2 weeks in this season too. They always tell me they're just responding to the public needs.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _!

(Each of these spaces indicates a letter to a word probably unacceptable on this forum, but nonetheless accurate of my feelings to PBS.)

[Jim DeLaney]

If you're talking about DirecTV or Dish, it won't do you any good. About a year ago, they discontinued providing the national feed for PBS anywhere there are local channels available.

It really ticked me off at the time, because I was really upset with my local stations (KOCE & KC) because it seemed they were on pledge break more often than they were off it. (BTW, they're both ON PB now, and it's only been four weeks since the last one).

I enjoyed the national feed while I had it, but unfortunately, it's no longer offered in my area - not even for an extra fee.

[George@Colonel's Workshop]

Good Afternoon Dennis,

We think alike. Up here we get cooking shows, hours of them. And during the frequent fund drive wails, we get more cooking shows and woodworkers' heartburn.

I watch PBS exclusively anymore when I am out of the shop, and PBS does a great job. I do feel miffed that enough wood working shows ( IMO ) are not aired. Geeze, when I am incapacitated, it would be so nice to watch Scott Phillips, Norm Abrams, Router Workshop etc with regularity. Is this the little rain which must fall into my life, I wonder? I shove in a tape, rack back my lazy boy, pour a home brew, and enjoy recordings.

Maybe life isn't too bad, after all. :<)

[Ed Marks]

Here in NYW-land, the Boston PBS station does a auction where they had one of Norm's cookbooks (oops, plan books) signed by Norm himself for a small pledge of $75. LOML went for it. When it arrived she saw the list price on the back and is still wondering if the signature is worth $50+. To make matters worse, when it showed up in my birthday gift I mentioned I already had that one but we could exchange it .... if looks could kill I'd be dead .....

I don't think I'll ever understand this funding things with "public" television. Thank goodness for TIVO.

[Mike Vermeil]

Here's a different take. Morash & buddies have used publicaly funded TV to create a TV and marketing dynasty out of THO, NYW & the Victory Garden. Using airwaves made available to them in part by our tax dollars, they've made themselves rich. How fair is that?

Maybe everyone should lobby Morash to move his first-run shows to a private network where the executives actually have to pay attention to their viewership in order to stay in business.

Just my 37 1/2 cents.

[Mike Circo]

I have been bugged about this for a long time. The idiots just don't get it! They want money from "viewers like you" yet all these telethons do is alienate the people they wish to gain trust from.

What the current method does is this. 1) I discover that Norm is not on and is replaced by some useless drivel. 2) I immediately curse and turn off the TV.
PBS is now assured they will not get any money from me this pledge drive as I have now stopped viewing.

If instead they would keep the shows I watch regularly on the air, and put "commericials" in between designed to make me feel guilty about watching their "free" shows, they may get a donation from me.

The current state of pledge drives only makes me so angry as to never give them a dime. Hell, if they play the same dumb shows for every pledge drive they are milking the same limited audence rather than broadening their appeal.

I will be writing my PBS station (WTTW) this exact concept.

(rant off)

[Dave Hammelef]

The really interesting thing is that for kids shows in the morning they do the pledge drives they change the lineup but still show kids shows, then in the afternoon they pre-empt the kids show to show some adult program. Never understood it. But I do know they get alot more donations during those shows then when they show the regualar stuff. ALOT of americans eat up the health gurus or self help guys and since the through in there stuff with a donation lots donate. I have been to our local PBS during a telethon when they were airing kids shows and you might get 10 calls in a half hour. They get alot more during the other shows.


Dave

[Dave Anderson]

Originally posted by Jim DeLaney
If you're talking about DirecTV or Dish, it won't do you any good. About a year ago, they discontinued providing the national feed for PBS anywhere there are local channels available...

But, Jim...
Since you live in the "Los Angeles" local market, you actually have 3 or 4 "local" PBS channels from which to choose! KCET, KDOC and more...

That said, I miss the National Feed of PBS as well... NO Pledge Breaks on the National Feed, but no Router Workshop on Local PBS's :mad:

[Bob Oswin]

Why not just consider it as an extra two hours of shop time.

"I'll just pin it with few brads while gulew sets."

Gd&r

Bob

[Lee Schierer]

PBS is literally funded by the members. They get less than 15% of their funding from "our tax dollars" all the rest comes from private and corporate sources. They only get that money incrementally based on the level of local support. If they don't raise much money locally, they don't get as much federal funding. They get no state money at all in PA!

I used to do a lot of volunteer work for the local PBS (WQLN) and was deeply involved in the financial aspects. The costs to carry shows like TOH and NYW are pretty staggering. I don't know about wage scales at other stations, but here locally they are pretty low in the TV market and require lots of hours.

If everyone called or sent in the pledge and got their friends to do it on time every year, there would be no need for the fund drives. They drive me nuts too.

Now here's the good news, you don't have to take my word for it. Since they are "Public" Television you can call and they are required to provide you with a copy of their annual report showing income and expenditures, so you can check it out for yourself.

[Dennis McDonaugh]

Lee, I understand about their need for funds, I'm complaining about the the fact that they interrupted their their normal schedule to schedule two straight stinkin' hours of "quilting" instead of their normal schedule which includes NYW and Hometime among others.

[Bob Oswin]

Originally posted by Lee Schierer
PBS is literally funded by the members. They get less than 15% of their funding from "our tax dollars" all the rest comes from private and corporate sources. They only get that money incrementally based on the level of local support. If they don't raise much money locally, they don't get as much federal funding. They get no state money at all in PA!

.
I Knew that!
I was just hoping that they would play 2 hours of Bob Villa at the Hamptons instead.
Lucky investing by Martha Stewart would have been my second choice.

Bob

:p

[Mike Goodwin]

Maybe there isn't enough support comming in when the woodworking shows are running. If quilting draws a more generous group of donars then it will certianly be run during pledge week.

Are donations to PBS tax deductable?

Mike

[Dennis McDonaugh]

Yup, I think you even get some type of deduction when you buy stuff from their auctions.

[Mike Goodwin]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but if donations are in fact, tax-deductable than I would think that more that 15% of their income comes from tax dollars. Just not in the form of a check from Uncle Sam.

Mike

[David Ripley]

Were lucky here in Sacramento,we get PBS on cable also, and there is`nt any pledge drives or interruptions at all.NYW,TOH, Hometime,Woodwright and the Router Workshop are on every saturday at the same time. David

[Gary Bindel]

Where I live we, NE OH, there are no ww shows on either of the two PBS stations I get. I use to pledge, but don't anymore.

[Lee Schierer]

Originally posted by Dennis McDonaugh
Yup, I think you even get some type of deduction when you buy stuff from their auctions.

Dennis, Check with your tax advisor, but this statement is not correct. The only deductible part would be the amount you paid over the fair market value of the merchandise you bought. If you paid more than full retail then the amount over retail could be deductible for you as a donation if you itemize. I used to answer this 100 times a night on the phones.

[Dennis McDonaugh]

I knew there was some type of caveat. Thanks, Lee.

[Howard Acheson]

According to a friend up in Boston, woodworkers are one of the least financially supportive of PBS. A few years ago they ran eight straight episodes of NYW during their funding drive and had the lowest contributions of any segment they have ever run.

Woodworkers probably would rather spend their money on wood or machines.

[Scott in Douglassville, PA]

Originally posted by Howard Acheson

Woodworkers probably would rather spend their money on wood or machines.

And yet will complain incessantly when their shows are pre-empted...