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From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.tv.drwho,net.flame
Subject: Re: Lost episodes and Crassness at pledge time
Message-ID: <6647@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 18-Dec-84 16:41:53 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.6647
Posted: Tue Dec 18 16:41:53 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 21-Dec-84 00:31:37 EST
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Yes, public stations behave abominably at pledge time; the amazing thing
is that their behavior is actually counter-productive.

a) There is NO advantage to the subscriber or pledger in regard to the
continued pledge breaks and begging -- even if you subscribe, you still
have to endure this nonsense. If they would have some methodology where
those who pledge get a secret code which could be sent back over a two-way
cable system and, instead of seeing a pledge break, those viewers see
something interesting instead (a pastoral scene, nude dancers cavorting,
the real program continuing, whatever), there would be some real
incentive! (Yes, I know this isn't possible now, but that's just
engineering...) As it is, those who have paid are just as inconvenienced
as those who haven't. A hell of a way to run a business...
(And we need a way for this to work on a broadcast signal, not just a
cable feed, too! Any inventive genius out there with some ideas?)

b) The station management actually insults the members during pledge
drives by replacing the standard programming, which the members like enough
to pay for, by "specials" and one-time or out-of-schedule programs.
For example, let's say you like "This Old House", "Sneak Previews", and
Dr. Who, and you like them enough to pay a pledge to the station carrying them.
What do they do during pledge drives? They DROP the first two programs
and don't even show them! And they delay the start of Dr. Who and interrupt
it (delaying it's already-too-late time slot even further!). [I pull the
first two examples from my local station's past behavior; they actually
must have learned something this time, as they left "This Old House" on
this last pledge drive! "Sneak Previews" was, as usual, wiped out...]
(Or, as was discussed in previous postings, the station will do something
seemingly beneficial to Dr. Who fans, like a "festival" in which they
show five Dr. Who episodes in a week. However, they show them at a
too-late time on weekday nights, making watching them inconvenient
or impossible for their intended audience, and then they do not re-show
those episodes in the regular time-slot. Thus, regular viewers receive
a slap-in-the-face. This is conducive to donations? Hardly!)

c) The national program producers damage their programs to shorten them
during pledge weeks, thereby making the programming less valuable and
less inspiring of donations at the very time they are asking for such
donations! The prime example of this is "Wall Street Week" -- the best
part of this program is the "viewers' questions". So what do they delete
every pledge period, and at every other opportunity? The viewers' questions,
of course! Talk about stupidity...

All in all, I would prefer to have straightforward and honest commercials.
I wouldn't mind having the programs interrupted for them, either. I need
to take a leak now and then, anyhow. And I always flick between channels
during commercials, which lets me catch up on other programming, or just
read with the audio muted. This pledge whining nonsense is the pits.

Will Martin

USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin     or   ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA