Dear KUOW
Margaret
Like most public radio listeners I look upon the twice-yearly pledge drives as a nuisance. A functional, necessary nuisance, but a nuisance nonetheless. I hate having my daily NPR fix interrupted by the pledge drive and spend much of my time during pledge week shouting at the radio in an attempt to get more people to pledge more money so you can get back to regular programming.
During the last pledge drive, however, I’ve discovered a new love for the constant talk and interruptions.
I work in a veterinary hospital. Usually we have the radio on in our surgical recovery area, both for our sake and because often music is calming to patients recovering from anesthesia. On the Tuesday of the spring pledge drive we had a dog that was howling during her anesthetic recovery. This is normal in some patients, but the consistent and regular howling…..well it starts to get to you after a while.
We discovered that this particular dog would stop howling if we spoke to her. A short conversation would result in a few minutes of very welcome relief. But we couldn’t spare someone from their regular duties to stand in front of the kennel and talk to the dog until she was completely conscious.
So we thought of the pledge drive.
We put the radio in front of the dog’s kennel, turned the volume up a wee bit, and viola!
Auditory anesthesia for the dog, peace and quiet for us. You have our sincerest thanks (and a small addition to my regular spring pledge).
Sincerely,
Margaret
2 Responses to “Dear KUOW”
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April 10th, 2011 at 2:53 pm
Wow, Margaret…Great News! A whole new function for NPR, never before revealed! I wonder if it would work if we put NPR before the howling dogs in Congress? Their wailing is only going to get more disturbing as the 2012 battles, budgetary and election-wise, get into high gear. Those with sensitive ears will hardly be able to stand it.
FYI, I’m going to hep out with the HPR drive next week. I’ll mention this to the station staff, giving full credit, of course. I just KNEW there had be be some use (other than keeping the stations alive) for these ghastly, semi-annual marathons!
PS I think mebbe the national PBS drives are even worse, if that’s possible
April 11th, 2011 at 1:19 pm
OMG, that is priceless! I too hate the pledge drives, but bow to their necessity. Sometimes I can finesse my commutes by listening to KUOW programming until they start hitting the pledge drive, then switch over to KPLU. Lately they seem to have caught on to that, and their content vs. pledge drive timing seems to be coordinated now. Bummer. You know, the technology should either be here or very close to here that donors should be given a secret password that says essentially “I gave already” and allows you to bypass the begging and continue with content. That’s my fantasy.