The channel 2 auction has gone online!

[blackgold]

"Home, home on the Prairies
where the Channel 2 Auction Plays!
Where seldom is heard
a discouraging word,
and the bids keep on coming all day!"

I haven't seen the Channel 2 Auction on the air in years. Looks like it's gone online, for the most part. I used to stay up all hours watching that auction in the 70s and 80s. Looks like another public TV tradition has bit the dust.

 

[CTListener]

"Home, home on the Prairies
where the Channel 2 Auction Plays!
Where seldom is heard
a discouraging word,
and the bids keep on coming all day!"

I haven't seen the Channel 2 Auction on the air in years. Looks like it's gone online, for the most part. I used to stay up all hours watching that auction in the 70s and 80s. Looks like another public TV tradition has bit the dust.

Ahhh, the childhood memories! David Ives and his "Bid Bid Bid" apron! The singing 868-3800 jingle (dropped when the phone number was switched to 492-1111). The Quickie Board! Guest auctioneers who weren't from the area referring to "Stuffton" and "Hav-er-hill."! Identifying the winning bidders by name and hometown! There are still TV auctions out there -- NHPTV, for one -- but Channel 2's is the original, and no one had more fun with the concept.

 

[justgladtobehere]

Kind of related. I find the new fundraising method of Channel 2 obnoxious. During fundraising the station broadcasts all these shows that appeal to baby boomers in the most craven way. Here is a bunch of crap that reminds you of your youth (doo wop groups, Motown groups, Pink Floyd cover bands, etc.) and a bunch of (quack?) doctors that prey on your fears of getting old.

So the station wants people to pledge during these terrible shows to support all the other stuff it does so well and broadcasts regularly. Somehow the regular shows aren't worthy of being broadcast during the fundraising period? What's the point? And the number of times during the year that WGBH does this seems to be increasing exponentially.

Either stand by the stuff that you produce and broadcast regularly or just play this baby boomer crap all the time if that is what brings in the dollars.

 

[CTListener]

Kind of related. I find the new fundraising method of Channel 2 obnoxious. During fundraising the station broadcasts all these shows that appeal to baby boomers in the most craven way. Here is a bunch of crap that reminds you of your youth (doo wop groups, Motown groups, Pink Floyd cover bands, etc.) and a bunch of (quack?) doctors that prey on your fears of getting old.

So the station wants people to pledge during these terrible shows to support all the other stuff it does so well and broadcasts regularly. Somehow the regular shows aren't worthy of being broadcast during the fundraising period? What's the point? And the number of times during the year that WGBH does this seems to be increasing exponentially.

Either stand by the stuff that you produce and broadcast regularly or just play this baby boomer crap all the time if that is what brings in the dollars.

I'd say the strategy is more crass than craven -- look 'em up -- but as a baby boomer, I've noticed the focus on my generation during fundraising time for years. But if the boomers are the primary component of the "viewers like you" who contribute to PBS, then you've got to give them something special once or twice a year to get them to dig a little deeper into their pockets. A week of "Antiques Roadshow" or "Nature" or "Downton Abbey" marathons just isn't going to do that as effectively as a new documentary/concert featuring Paul Simon or Stevie Wonder. "Playing this baby boomer crap all the time" would diminish any "wow" factor those specials have and turn PBS into a near-geriatric version of those specialty music-video channels that MTV, VH1 and CMT have in the nether reaches of the cable universe.

I'm sure that if the ratings showed that PBS had significant 18-34 viewership, or even 25-44, the fund drive specials would look much different. In 10-20 years, I'll bet they'll be showing Prince and Pat Benatar and Huey Lewis concert/docs for the aged Gen X during the drives, and the younger generations will be complaining about how crass that is.

 

[justgladtobehere]

Yes, crass was thee word I was looking for.

I am just bothered by the fact that WGBH begs for dollars using crappy programming that plays to one demographic when it ignores all the good programming that WGBH shows. It's a slight to the latter and a tacit admission that the good stuff isn't what people want.

And the fundraisers aren't once or twice a year. It's at least three time a years, possibly up to six, that WGBH plays them. Also, they appear to me to be quite repetitive. It isn't broadcasting new documentaries and concerts. It seems like there are a few doctors shows, a doo wop show, and Pink Floyd cover band concerts.

 

[JustinT]

Either stand by the stuff that you produce and broadcast regularly or just play this baby boomer crap all the time if that is what brings in the dollars.

At the same time... I watched KETC/St. Louis last week interrupt its weekly hour-long public affairs program for pledge drive breaks. It was incredibly tacky.