Originally Posted by
tjl
Last night was a special presentation, a fundraising event for the national kick-off. When the show replays, it's in a two hour window with much shorter pledge breaks. But, shorter breaks don't prove effective in my experience. Like radio - - people come in and out of tv viewing every 3 to 5 to 8 to 10 minutes, then channel surf toother channels on the dial- - so doing one short break in the middle and at the end, often leads to most of the audience sampling, then leaving for channel surfing - resulting in low fundraising. They just don't watch and give that way. And of the 500 channels out there - - most of the greatest moments were on national television and attracted a lot of national media for our music - - poeple now will learn of the great b-sides, album cuts and more from the material on air and online - - this one was about trying to bring in and expose the special to the masses -- - something that has not happened in 32 years on tv, free for all to see.
But, let us remember - - without the pledge breaks, the show wouldn't be on at all - - the stations need the support to keep broadcasting 365 days a year for all they do. The original broadcast had commercial interruption every 5-6 minutes, the main version that will play only has 4 pledge breaks, the added extra material we added at the end was to give more context than just a show/break/show break. The audience tuning in and out needs repetition to get them going to the phones and the cd set with the dvd set was the main motivator. And once pledged, those hours of dvd and cd content come entirely uninterrupted.
Please keep in mind, my goal is to bring much more Motown out of the vaults - - but to get there [[and I mean in a big way) in and out of pledge - - that the show has to work first as a fundraiser for stations. This was not a PBS offer - it's syndicated as a pledge special for stations to ask for support.
I hope this helps explain some things, even if we don't always agree - - it's the same reason we hear "My Girl" instead of "You're Not An Ordinary Girl" on mainstream commercial radio - - people go for familiarity. With this special, I wanted people to go deeper and learn more through the cd sets - - something the masses don't seek as we do....and if successful to create some more custom cd's for the future. Believe me, I'm with you - - but how we get there and the path to get there the way I have with Doo Wop, Ed Sullivan and other classic shows - - is to prove there's an audience out there willing to support what they can basically get over the air for free, or other places on dvd.
Hope this helps -- I take your feedback very seriously.
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