PBS pledge week got you down? You re not alone, not even at PBS

By Robert P. Laurence Union-Tribune Television Critic January 10, 2002

PASADENA -- Get your dander up every time your favorite PBS programs disappear during pledge week?

You' ve got a friend in a high place.

She' s Pat Mitchell, president and CEO of PBS, and she' s launched a project intended to do something about the shlock (she' s too polite to use that word) that so many public TV stations air when they' re campaigning for contributions from viewers.

In an interview following her session with TV critics meeting here to preview spring programming, Mitchell said she sympathizes both with viewers who are deprived of their favorite shows during pledge time, and with those who enjoy the financial tipsters, pop concerts and self-improvement preachers who take over the air during those weeks in programs that often seem like little more than infomercials.

"As a loyal viewer, I don' t like to see my programs go away," Mitchell said. "And if I come to see (financial adviser) Suze Orman, and when I don' t see anybody like her a month from now, I' m not going to be thrilled about that, either.

"We have put ourselves in a bind here. Programming that brings in new members and money is often programming that doesn' t create sustainable members who come back year after year."

On the other hand, she said, recent attempts to induce giving with regular PBS shows such as "Nova" or "Masterpiece Theatre" have proved futile: "Those programs have deep, loyal followings, and those people are probably already members."

However, she added, repeats of "The Power of Myth," Bill Moyers' conversations with philosopher Joseph Campbell, were the most successful money-raising programs aired during last month' s pledge drives. San Diego' s KPBS/Channel 15 aired the Moyers program Dec. 15, when it took in about $16,000, which a station spokesman described as "pretty solid." Together with past showings, the show has netted the station a total of $94,000.

The problem PBS faces is that the hucksters such as Orman and Wayne Dyer, and the concerts by artists like Belgian crooner Helmut Lotti, bring in new members, but those subscribers often don' t renew the following year. Meanwhile, longstanding PBS members, deprived of their favorite shows during pledge periods, may give up in disgust and stop contributing.

"Stations are hearing that more and more," Mitchell said. "There are loyal supporters who wish a certain kind of pledge programming wasn't there."

"She expresses a sentiment we all feel," said Doug Myrland, general manager of Channel 15, contacted at his office. Stations need to find a balance between pledge shows that attract new contributors and those that appeal to continuing members, and "so far we haven' t done it."

Regular contributors are often in the position, he said, of a longtime magazine subscriber who is not eligible for the premiums offered as come-ons for new subscribers. They may be asking, "What am I, chopped liver?"

PBS stations typically see an annual membership attrition of up to one-third,Myrland said. "There has to be a mechanism in place to replace those members. What' s worked so far is programs that are incongruent with regular programming ...I agree with Pat Mitchell. But the problem is very complex."

To attack the issue, Mitchell said, the national PBS organization has begun the Membership Reinvention Project. "We' re trying to make pledge programming look more and more like what we offer (the rest of the year). But that doesn' t mean local stations can' t make their own choices about what they mix in with what they offer.

"I can be in a city, and I can see four British sitcoms I wouldn' t put on my air if I were running the station. We can' t possibly know every single thing, nor should we. That' s not our job. PBS' job is not to police or monitor our stations."

Local stations work independently of the national PBS organization in picking pledge programs, said Mitchell. (She had never heard of Lotti, who is something of a staple in local station fund drives.)

"We' re looking at the whole thing, trying to figure out the mix of programming, trying to figure out is there a replacement for pledge altogether," Mitchell said. "Could we just get out of the on-air pitching business?"

A couple of PBS stations, she added, have been successful with online pledge drives, and state public TV networks in Kentucky and North Carolina, with strong financial support from their state governments, conduct campaigns for only one week a year.

But is there any way for the national PBS organization to ask local stations to meet standards of quality in their pledge programming, and stay away from infomercials?

"It' s a goal," Mitchell said. "It may be a pipe dream."

"We are looking at trying to figure out -- you can' t stop cold turkey, you can' t just cut off the supply -- but how can we transition out of what we' re doing now?

"But it' s not our job to police it. It' s only our job to try to provide better options and help all of us as a system to figure out a better way."

Also, PBS announced that a new weekly news series, "Now With Bill Moyers" will begin at 9 p.m. Jan. 18 (when it will air on Channel 15). The program will feature several reporters from National Public Radio, including Juan Williams, former host of NPR' s "Talk of the Nation" daytime talk show.