Why do people give to public radio?
by remnil
Ah, October! With the tenth month of the year comes not only the onset of fall, but also Guilt Week, aka the fall membership drive for National Public Radio.
Public radio is an interesting beast because its finances are unlike not only for-profit businesses, but also other 501(c)(3)s. Through some magical combination of guilt and altruism, public radio stations manage to get lots of people to willingly donate money to something they could get for free. Not only that, but listeners pay based on how much they value the station. Businesses would kill to be able to charge customers like that.
So I propose a discussion topic in honor of Guilt Week: why are so many public radio listeners willing to donate often considerable amounts without coercion? Is it out of the goodness of their hearts? Because they fear their fabulous local station will disappear if they don't? Other reasons? What say those of you who donate to public radio? Why do you give?
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