OK, so this is a commercial radio station that has ads (ok, they are only spoken by an announcer, but still). But they also have two two-week pledge drives per annum. Does this prove that liberals are stupid? Could WSCR do pledge drives? Maybe Mitch should look into this.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Yeah, but if these pledge drives makes it so that they don't have do a spot for polecatz, then I'm all for it...

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team Mully & Hanley
team Meatpants

WFMT has a weird fish-nor-fowl existence. It's a commercial frequency owned by a not-for-profit organization (WTTW), so they're allowed to double-dip on donations and advertising. Most markets have their classical music on the non-commercial end of the dial (88s to 92s), so they're of course sustained by donations; we just have ours smack-dab in the middle of the dial instead. I believe the majority of their funding comes from pledges and grants, with commercial revenue just supplementing the big donors. I read somewhere that they take a big cut on spot rates in order not to run pre-recorded spots. I feel like if you're advertising with FMT, you're generally doing it more to be a Good Corporate Citizen than because you really think you can strike gold with a small but affluent market share. I mean, I'm sure condo developments on the Gold Coast are trying to do the latter, but the rest of them, not so much.

Here's a dirty little secret: the only fundamental difference between commercial advertising and public "underwriting" is that underwriting can't include a clear call to action. You can mention your business and the things they sell, but you can't tell people to go there. WFMT can, but they do so in the same tenor as underwriting, with the announcer reading the copy sans bed in his/her inside voice. If you don't think public radio stations have sales teams with the same kits full of graphs and things, you're kidding yourself. Wisconsin Public Radio has a pdf of their sales kit somewhere on their site.


huge lol at Lisa Flynn reading copy for Polekatz. "Mr. Hotshot, Hotshot, Hotshot."

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The funny thing is the announcer reads are SOOO much less annoying that I am much more likely to listen to them. When WSCR goes to break, that station gets changed immediately.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Yeah, it really lends a note of distinction to Joseph A. Bank's phony-baloney suit sales that the pre-recorded spots sorely lack.

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Talk more Stravinsky! Stop talking Stravinsky!

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While Manuel de falla was writing Ritual Fire Dance in 1915 for the ballet El amor brujo he also coached a basketball team comprised of local musicians and artists called the Andalusian Dandies. According to various reports, the ran a ton of stuff.

we must have a few closet classical music fans in our midst.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Not the Dogs?

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Wasn't there an episode of The Simpsons with the Calvary Kids, Pre-Teen Braves, and the [insert town here] Dandies? That's what I had in mind. Maybe I should have gone with an Un Chien Andalou reference.

I do like classical, Hatchetman. I'm a WFMT member.

And the pledge drive is OVAH!!!

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

FINALLY! Enough of this commerce! We can go back to normal! Six reads an hour, every hour, for 10 East Delaware!

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Apparently the pledge drive is NOT OVAH! We are on week THREE!!

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

If it's a two-week drive, then it would run through Wednesday. I think it started on the 1st.

We had some decent classical discussion in the Bears chat. CSO doing Sacre du printemps on Friday!

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I did want to go to that. But cost, baby sitting, logistics, etc. prevent me. If Muti had been conducting I might have pulled the trigger. I haven't seen the Maestro. Dude is always sick or something.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Do they do the Karz4Kidz ad?

Michael McCaskey was on talking about his love of WFMT!

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

That makes me want to not listen.

The last WBEZ pledge drive was very aggressive. I heard more than one host attempt to shame the listeners. One goof even went so far to say he hated people who don't pledge. You demote Alison Cuddy and give her job to this Tony Sarabia pussy and then demand my money? FUCK YOU!

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The Court will accord substantial deference to the government's immigration policies, particularly those that implicate matters of national security.

Opposite of surprised.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

I been heern all dese years abouts how da Bearse don't got da caaash ta pay fer da big fraygents annow I's finds out dat Michael McClaskey guy is trowin' our hard-earned money away on dis namby-pamby Moats-airt station? Dese guys trow nickels aroun like manhole covers till it's time to be chairdable fer all dere Michigan Avnoo types! Hey ya run a football team not da opra!

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This pledge drive still isn't over! I don't have $60 to give you right now! Even if I get a mug!

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This fucking pledge drive is still going on!!

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Let the record show it's not the same pledge drive as the November one.

That said, I've been avoiding it for weeks. Can't stand pledge drives. I know it's a necessary evil to keep WFMT going, which is important because pretty much every classical station in the country relies on them, but it's a painful listen.

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IT'S STILL GOING

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This is bullshit. It goes on for like a month. How do they retain any listeners? I'm only trying b/c it is one of the few things not blocked by my IT.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

I hope someone gave Irish Boy a heads up.

Classical music is good.

We should have more of it. Makes people smarter.