I wish that blogger had categories. Centinel, for instance, has this great feature where he explores what he heard on NPR on the way to work. He's been blogging for a year now and I would love to go back and catch all of his posts. He reminds me of the intuitive nature regarding what I like about NPR and also the mindset that can be a bit of a turnoff.

I used to listen to public radio a while back because they were one of the only stations to play untested regional and local acts. I also listened to their newscasts off-and-on. Eventually they started playing less of variety of local music, it seemed to me, and it seemed like every time I turned around they were having a pledge drive.

On weekends in Salt Lake City while Camille was doing a rotation down there, I watched non-profit television while she was showering or getting ready for work or otherwise occupied. It had some interesting television that you're unlikely to really find elsewhere. But they, too, were having a fundraising drive. It's the cost of not having advertisers, I suppose. But it's a particularly irritating cost to me.

Commercial entertainment has a reasonably well-outlined end-user agreement. You agree to watch or listen and to occasionally forget or become too lazy to turn the channel during commercial breaks. In return, the advertisers give the station money so that they can continue to entertain you provided that enough people are watching to justify the continuation of the program or station providing the entertainment. Sure, I get annoyed with all the commercial break as well as the nature of the commercials themselves.

There's also direct-to-audience entertainment. The EUA is a bit different here in that you pay a base fee in order to avoid commercials altogether. Premium cable (HBO, Showtime, etc.) work in this model, as does satellite radio, pay-per-view, film rental, and film/music purchase. When I get a bit more money freed up I'd like to utilize more of these modes of entertainment, but absent that I can still turn to commercial entertainment.

Public entertainment, however, basically works on the honor-and-shame system. They work on the honor system insofar as no one has to pay for it in order to get it. However, the MO turns to shame every drive. I don't blame them one iota for needing money (we live in a quasi-capitalist country, after all), but it's all so vague. It's sort of like that friend that does you favors and says that you can pay him back later or whenever you can. In some ways I would prefer a tit-for-tat method, whereby I know what I'm going to be paying and when. Unless I'm close to someone, I generally don't like favors that aren't completely necessary. Partially it's because I don't know what they're going to need. Partially it's because I don't want to forget the favors that people do for me and end up seriously in their debt. That latter part is especially true of friends. It's odd in that I don't generally hold others to a particular favor-for-favor standard, but I fear that they will me. I couldn't blame them if they did, but that starts making things more complicated.

With public radio (which I will mostly use as an example here because I've partaken in that a lot more than public television), there is no ledger. I find that off-putting. Every now and again they have a drive, of course, and I'm free to donate at that time. If they had a basic voluntary membership program I might not have such a problem with it. I would have to evaluate it like I would evaluate any other expenditure (and I would try to even though membership would be voluntary), but at least then I could pay my dues and be done with it.

Except that even if I pay my dues, they will continue to ask for more money. They may be talking to me, but I will feel like they are whenever they're listening. They said that they only had the drives a couple times a year, but it seemed like it was quarterly drives lasting three months a piece. And then even to the extent that they have membership programs (where you get a card, some coupons, a mug and a bumper sticker), they often have increasingly elaborate ones so there's always more ways to give to move up the philantropist echelon - and there's always more ways to feel guilty when you can't give.

A long time ago I regularly read the Jewish World Review. Moreso than any other source, it introduced me to a kind of conservatism that I had not really been introduced to before. It had the obnoxious kinds, to be sure, but also really thoughtful conservative and libertarian commentary. I owe a lot of my political and social philosophy to the ideas introduced to me by that site. But after a while it seemed like every time I went on there they were desperately asking for more money. I have no doubt that they were in a money crunch, but eventually the guilt I felt about not being able or willing to help out was more than my enjoyment of the site. I haven't been over there in some time.

I can't blame them for needing money, and if they didn't ask for it they would never get it. But I often find myself preferring the subscription model and/or those that provide commentary and such as a labor of love. And I'll take advertisements. Whatever, so long as we're square by the time I am finished reading, watching, or hearing what they have to say.