Apparently, the latest one is the NPR-logoed reusable grocery bag, supplanting what seemed like an endless parade of tote bags, coffee mugs, and Garrison Keillor cassette tapes. Even though I officially stopped listening to NPR on a regular basis almost five years ago, I recognize each and every one of these stratagems as used by the various NPR stations I have known and loved over the years. I used to be a pretty consistent donator, especially once we settled here in Massachusetts and listening to NPR became an integral part of my daily commuting ritual. Now, I can hardly stand to listen to anything they have to say because the “NPR Style” of production is so smarmy and self-important. I also stopped watching public television for the most part. While PBS is much less obnoxious than NPR, the pledge breaks make me want to tear my eyes out of their sockets. Pledge breaks are the REAL reason for TiVo, my friends, not commercials.
I don’t donate to public broadcasting any more, and, I hate to say it, I more or less agree with the conservatives who say the government shouldn’t subsidize it anymore. I don’t agree with them about their desire to choke it dead or their unrelenting ignoramus act over the “liberal” content, I just feel that public television in particular is an idea that has come and gone, and that there would be ways to support an NPR-like entity commercially without having to bribe people with “Car Talk” CDs and more effing totebags. I suppose that’s nothing shy of heresy among my SNAGgy liberal compadres, but there you have it.
I donate to public radio and public TV semi-regularly (not necessarily every year, but most years), and I have occasionally done so in response to a particularly attractive promotional gimmick. For example, the very first time I gave to the local NPR station was when they were offering Car Talk mugs for donations at a certain level. And I am not too cool to admit that I often will make my donation to public television when they are airing a concert, cooking show, or Masterpiece Theater production that I find particularly enjoyable, such as (don’t smirk) just about anything involving James Taylor, Jacques Pepin, or Jane Austen. But I must confess that just last year I did something I had never done before, which is to pull over to the side of the road during a broadcast, pull out my credit card, and call in to WBUR (Boston’s NPR station) to make a pledge right then and there. Why, you ask? Because the premium they were offering (for the first time in our region, to my knowledge) was, you guessed it, a reusable grocery bag with the WBUR logo on it. And? Supplies were limited, hence the pulling over immediately thing. I am completely serious, and no, I can’t really explain it.
We are also occasional donors to our local public broadcasting stations, mainly radio. I rarely take the premiums but just couldn’t turn down the Guy Noir bobblehead a couple of years ago.