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March 26[edit]

NPR pledge drives[edit]

I'm wondering how the production of the radio programs for National Public Radio works. Let's take a show like Marketplace for instance. It generally has a running time of 30 minutes when you factor in breaks for station identification and such. But during the pledge drives, there's only maybe 20 minutes of content (maybe less, I haven't timed it) with the rest taken up by the pledge drive. So, what happens at other NPR stations? Is the pledge drive held during the same time period at all NPR stations across the country? If so, then I guess the makers of the shows like Marketplace would know that during the pledge drive weeks that they only need to create 20 minutes of content and not 30. Or are all the shows produced as 30 minute shows and the local NPR affiliate just puts their pledge drive over one of the stories and then expects people to either not realize they're missing part of the show or be able to find it online?

And then what about when the affiliates say that the pledge drive was shortened or took a break for a day because of "sponsors like you" or some such thing? On Monday of this week, my local NPR station took the day off from the pledge drive because of this. So if the pledge drives are synched up across all the affiliates, meaning they all happen the same weeks, do those other affiliates also have these days off? Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 10:10, 26 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

As far as I know, such shows are divided into "segments", and in stations not running the pledge drive at that time simply run the full program, while stations having the drive that day run their local "pledge drive" over such segments. For the news programs, they would likely program some of the "fluffier" segments during those pledge drive times. Some stations have, for example, "pre-pledge-drive" periods where they will allow listeners to "buy back" some time during the upcoming drive week by pledging early, so they play the full programming. Here is an example of a station that allows listeners to "buy out" of the pledge drive time, giving them access to the full programming online for a $45 donation. --Jayron32 13:49, 26 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks!! Dismas|^(talk) 20:11, 27 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Note that something similar is done with PBS TV shows. There many of the kids shows have a little extra bit that can be cut out for pledge drives. Angelina Ballerina has a segment where they show real ballet students, Arthur has a segment with artist Marc Brown showing how he does the cartooning, Curious George has a segment with kids talking about the episode and what they would do in George's place, and Jakers! has the author talking with a bunch of kids about his childhood in Ireland. StuRat (talk) 01:52, 29 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

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