Yesterday while driving around, I had the radio tuned to KPCC, one of our local public radio stations. Between programs, they had a pre-fundraising blurb: donate now, before our regular fund drive begins, and not only do you still get a free-gift tchotcke, you'll be entered into a drawing to win a $1,000 shopping spree at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena! (This is an old-fashioned shopping spree, too -- no "we'll give you a gift certificate and you can visit our website"; they open the store for you alone for one hour, and whatever you can pick up during that time, you get.)
We'd been talking about making a donation to public radio for a while now, but this was the straw that broke the camel's back. Now we're entertaining unrealistic fantasies about how we'll spend our thousand dollars.
So, all of you should give money to public radio -- but if you want to give to KPCC, wait until after March 9th, so as not to dilute our chances in the contest!
[KPCC is another item for the 'you can't go home again' file: I was wondering why it sounds so different from how I remembered it, and after a little Googling, found that it was essentially purchased from Pasadena City College by public-radio powerhouse Minnesota Public Radio in 2001 and switched to MPR's standard mostly-talk-and-news format. So all of the locally-produced, eclectic programs -- like the hour of old-time radio, the show that played nothing but German music, or that other show that played nothing but pipe-organ music -- have all disappeared or scattered to other, smaller stations.]
Posted by Kevin at February 18, 2005 11:18 AM