PBS Pledge drive concert shows

[Avid Listener]

Does anyone know how PBS decides which concert programs to use on pledge drives? I'm aware of the TJ Lubinsky oldies reunion productions from 'QED in Pittsburgh. Here in Atlanta, they're milking some tribute band concerts like "Brit Floyd". The Moody Blues at Red Rocks seems to be a perennial favorite. And, they seem to find some really obscure European acts and turn them into PBS Pledge Drive "stars", like Celtic Woman, Celtic Thunder, and Andre Rieu. Do the stations individual test these concert programs, and if they work, all the other stations jump on the bandwagon? Or is there some central planning at PBS headquarters where people sift through CDs of European acts that are unknown in the US to find something like the next Celtic Woman?

 

[TheBigA]

PBS doesn't really have a program production department. They buy independently produced shows, like the ones you describe, from outside companies. These shows are pitched to them by production companies, and I'm sure a big part of the pitch has to do with the demographics the music attracts, and how it could lead to more pledges than the traditional PBS programming.

 

[dave73]

For some concert programming that's made exclusively for pledge drives, sometimes it's a PBS station that creates the concert programming. I forgot what jazz group was performing at Star Plaza Theatre in Merrillville Indiana last year, but my local PBS station, WYIN out of Merrillville (licensed to Gary, IN) filmed the concert to be part of a pledge drive program to PBS stations nationwide. Most of the time, WYIN is filming stuff that airs locally on their station, but they have slowly been adding programming that will be of interest to PBS stations nationwide.

 

[TheBigA]

For some concert programming that's made exclusively for pledge drives, sometimes it's a PBS station that creates the concert programming.

Exactly. A lot of the oldies specials have been done in co-operation with WQED in Pittsburgh.

 

[Avid Listener]

Exactly. A lot of the oldies specials have been done in co-operation with WQED in Pittsburgh.

Those were the TJ Lubinsky oldies reunion concerts I mentioned in my launch post. What I was most curious about was how they decided which European artists who were previously almost unknown in the US to give the "big break" to in the US. For example, Celtic Woman wasn't the only European act that had a good following in Europe that was an almost unknown in the US. Why did they get picked and not someone else? Or Andre Rieu? There were other Europeans with acts similar to his. Why did he get picked? Why did they carry Brit Floyd or Austrailian Pink Floyd, and not some other tribute band?

 

[Unregistered]

Awful PBS Pledge Drive Programming

I am 69 years old. Does that mean that I want wallow in nestalgia and listen to Doowop by long since over the hill bands. I AM NOT STUCK IN THE 60's. How many times are the going to air "Alone in the Wilderness", or give us the self help gurus? I hardly watch PBS during the fund raiser. I would rather see reruns of some of the popular programs.