{"id":7700,"date":"2013-04-17T14:36:13","date_gmt":"2013-04-17T18:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=7700"},"modified":"2013-04-17T14:36:13","modified_gmt":"2013-04-17T18:36:13","slug":"after-the-pledge-drive-earning-our-keep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2013\/04\/17\/after-the-pledge-drive-earning-our-keep\/","title":{"rendered":"After the pledge drive, earning our keep"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Radiobob Sauter and Brian Mann singing for their suppers (NCPR file photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

Last week, North Country Public Radio and a few thousand people got together and hit a quarter million dollar goal in five and a half days.<\/p>\n

It was hectic and fun and a little scary sometimes.<\/p>\n

Away from the sound and fury of the spring membership drive, I want to think out loud about what that weird, tote-bag-and-coffee-cup ritual means to me and what I do.<\/p>\n

I am, when you strip away all the silliness of titles and grant application verbiage, a reporter.\u00a0 An old-fashioned, root around and see what’s going on in the world journalist<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I spend days doing stuff that would make a lot of people cringe.\u00a0 I’m barking back at politicians or trying to wheedle information out of reluctant bureaucrats.\u00a0 I’m digging through budget spreadsheets.<\/p>\n

But I also get to leap magically into the lives of some of the most interesting people in the world.\u00a0 I go to amazing places.\u00a0 As long as I come back with true, factual and interesting stories, I pretty much get to write my own ticket.<\/p>\n

And the thing is, you guys let me.<\/p>\n

When you give your hard-earned $40 bucks, or when you pay for an underwriting spot, or when you donate a giveaway gift, it adds up to me getting to launch a year-long series about prisons in America.<\/p>\n

It adds up to me digging into the behind-the-scenes politics at the Trudeau Institute, or exploring the lives of young veterans returning home from Afghanistan and Iraq.<\/p>\n

I get to work deeper, and slower, and more thoroughly because you doled out a $20 gift.<\/p>\n

The old adage in public radio is that we have a crazy business model.\u00a0 We give our work away for free and then ask you, on the honor system, to chip in and help us pay our bills.<\/p>\n

But I stopped thinking it was crazy a long time ago.\u00a0 As newspapers crumble, as commercial TV stations slash their reporting budgets, as magazines implode, NCPR continues to grow and expand.<\/p>\n

I know it sounds corny, but when I’m doing my job, I am constantly aware of who it is who helps to pay my salary.\u00a0 Aware that at the end of the day, I owe the North Country not just gratitude — and I am thankful — but also a huge amount of sweat equity.<\/p>\n

There’s a responsibility on our end to earn our keep, to make sure that you guys never, ever regret making that phone call or hitting that “Give” button on the website.<\/p>\n

I’m sure you’ll all let us know if you think we fall short of that mark.<\/p>\n

Finally I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t remind those of you who didn’t get around to giving yet that it’s an important thing to do and there’s never a bad time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thanks again.<\/p>\n

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