Fund drives

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A larger pool of donors giving smaller gifts helpedtop WBUR-FM’s (90.9) most recentg pledge drive over what the radio stationn took in the same time last year a significant feat given the troubledc economy and financial challenges hitting other entities. The current economifc crisis may have helpedthe highly-ratexd station by providing a seemingly bottomless well of storiee that listeners of WBUR — the main NPR news stationj in the region — craved. Paul LaCamera, genera manager of the station, said such news an increasing focus on local conteng combined witha “sophisticated” revenue-earning operation, drove a greatef number of listeners to give.
“Public radiop is the place where people get these stories in its mostsubstantivwe form,” he said. Pledges were up in the firstg halfof WBUR’s fiscal year, which begins July 1. The station’e pledge drive earlier this monthcollectedx $815,000, a 12 percent increase over the $728,0000 it took in the same time the previoue year, LaCamera said. WBUR’x October pledge drive earned morethan $1 a first in the station’s historyg and an uptick over the $985,000 it collected the same time the previouw year.
Those pledges along with a steadyg market of corporate sponsorship have buoyexd WBUR even as other NPR and indeedNPR itself, have been making cuts as economic volatility weighn heavily on public radio finances. Abou 7,770 people participated in the pledge drivethis month, said statio n manager Corey Lewis, compared with the 6,3123 that participated during the same time last year. But the average gift dropped toabout $105 per donor from about Lewis said. Larry Rosin, presidenft of Somerville, N.J.-based , called it the “Obamas effect,” referring to how President-elect Barack Obama’s campaignh collected massive amounts ofsmallee donations.
In fact, the shakg economic climate can actually cause loya l listeners to bemore generous, he “The fact that a lot of peoples are hurting right now and scared has seemefd to open up some pocketbooks,” Rosibn said. Such an effecr doesn’t always pay off. The mostly student-run radiop station of (88.9), which is not an NPR affiliate, saw an increased in donors and decrease in averags gift sizes during its November membership driv e resulting inabout $106,000 in pledges, which is a 15 percentt decrease compared with the previous year.
Michael Harrison, publisher of radio industry magazine Talkers, said the reasob for WBUR’s success is no “They do effective pledge drives. Some just do it by Whereas othersdo better, more compelling programming,” he But others in the NPR universe have not farede as well as WBUR. Earlief this month NPR, which is basefd in Washington D.C., said it woule cut 64 jobs and leave another 21 vacanftpositions unfilled. The nonprofit, whicg has a workforce of 889, will also cancel two programsait produces. NPR, which had been expectinvg a budget deficitof $2 million in fiscal 2009, now projects a deficiy of about $24 million as corporate underwriting revenue has fallen off.
, the Boston-basede public radio and television broadcaster, told the last week it woulxd cut about 12 jobs and thatthe , which represents unionizefd workers at the agreed to wage concessions in the new fiscal WGBH has implemented a hiring freeze and management agreed in September to a salarh freeze. WGBH spokeswoman Lucy Sholley said the cuts are due to a drop off in corporatd underwriting and inthe organization’s Other NPR affiliate stations, from Chicago to North Carolina, have been making cuts due to decreased in revenue. By contrast, WBUR’s corporate underwriting revenue has beenrunningt “dead flat” with where it was the previous LaCamera said.
The station took in aboutr $10.4 million underwriting in fiscal 2008, he said. Since LaCamera took the top helm at WBUR in late the station has added staffv and attempted to decrease the amount of debt the station owedto , which supports the station. He’s been able to reduced the debt toabout $10 million from $18 he said. Additionally, the station has createdf its own endowment fund withinbBoston University’s endowment that today is worth abouy $2 million. The goal is to use investmentt return from the fund to pay theapproximatelh $1.
5 million annual licensing fee WBUR pays to NPR, but LaCameraz said he doesn’t expect that to happen untilo the fund’s size reaches somewherw between $30 million and $35 LaCamera, who is the former general managerr of ’s (NYSE: HTV) WCVB-TV (Ch.5), was hires to help dig WBUR out of severalk years of budget deficits, said Scott Fybush, editor of industry onlinee newsletter NorthEast Radio Watch. “What LaCamera was broughtt in to do, and what he seem s to do really well from the was bring back somefinancial stability.” WBUR has implemented a hiringf freeze and reduced all automatic salary increasess scheduled for Jan.
1, LaCamera said, adding that anyonee making morethan $150,000 a year will receive no salaryt increase this year. LaCamera added that there are no jobcuts “Right now we have a singular goal,” he said, “which is to replicatee 2007 and 2008” financial