Hawaii Public Radio started its spring pledge drive last Wednesday, the 2nd of April. They hoped to be done in eight days, finishing this Wednesday. Well, trying to get $1,032,000 in that period of time proved undoable this year, so they went overtime and got it done in ten days, finishing tonight around 6:00 PM. It should be said that up until a year or so ago ten days was the time budgeted for these drives, and they were for slightly less money, too. NPR and PRI and the other content distributors have this policy of raising prices for the programs they provide depending on the number of listeners reported, so as your station grows, so do your costs for content. This means HPR has had to request more money on every drive as they’ve expanded listenership by installing new transmitters on other islands.

Cutting the number of days by two even as the dollar amount asked increased was a bold stroke, and it worked the first two or three times they tried it, but not this time. I don’t consider that a major failure. I think this was the first time they’ve asked for more than a million bucks.

Oh, before anyone asks, yes, I pay $12.50 per month to help out.