raccoonradio said:
Yes. Would they survive without listener contributions? Maybe, maybe not but who knows.
It's really very simple: Listener contributions influence their programming. So if their listeners stopped donating to their news programming, they'd shift gears to something else. That's what happened to jazz.
Purchasing radio stations or syndicators are investments towards increasing their donations, their footprint, and their ability to raise money.
You need to spend money to make money. When I ran a public radio station, we couldn't do any fundraising until we were on the air. That cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars. Our first fundraiser netted about $30,000, which was less than 5% of our debt at the time. But within a few years, we came up with programming that attracted more money. That's what WGBH is doing. They spent a few million to buy WCRB, and that's afforded them the ability to diversify their programming offerings, specialize one station for classical and the other for news. That helps them attract financial support.
With PRI they can go to their funders and say they can deliver larger audiences in more places than Boston. Boston is a lovely town, but if they could reach people in other places, that would be better. That's what PRI gets them, and why it's worth a few million to get it. They're betting that they will make that money back through increased donations and grants in a few years. Until then, it's another loss that offsets their income and keeps the place from making a profit. So yes, if you've ever had to go to someone and ask for money, it's not easy. And you want to make your case as desperate as you can. But nobody is going to donate money to an organization that is in danger of disappearing. That would be a waste of money. So while they are on their knees asking for support, these moves make it evident that they aren't in danger of shutting down, and therefore are a good risk for people who like what they're doing to give money.
