The Money Trail of Tears

I have been unable to locate any information regarding MPR's November membership drive and whether or not they reached their fundraising goals. As I reported last week ....(Boy, that sounds official, doesn't it? Next thing you know I'll be throwing it over to the zany weather man with the loud sport coat and bad hairpiece - and that would be you Elder, so get ready). As I reported last week, the MPR hosts were breathlessly repeating they were "way behind" in their efforts and needed a big push in the final days to meet their goals. I guess it's not newsworthy if they succeeded or not, so no one in the media is reporting on it. And since my rather heated and public feud with Cathy Wurzer regarding her overuse of the term "antidisestablishmentarianism," no one over at MPR is returning my calls anymore.

But based on an MPR press release from November 14, it seems either their fundraising goals for this year must be astronomically high or perhaps their desperate, emotional appeals to the listeners are just cynically savvy marketing and manipulation. MPR reports “modestly positive operating results” for the fiscal year ending this past June:

Minnesota Public Radio's Operating Fund grew by a modest $49,000 in fiscal year 2002, thanks to increased support from members and disciplined expense control.

Operating revenue was $41.1 million in FY 2002 (ending June 30) - up 6 percent from FY 2001, according to audited figures.

The number of Minnesota Public Radio members remained relatively constant at 86,000 in FY 2002. However, their contributions - the biggest operating revenue source - grew by 16 percent to $9.8 million.

There has also been some debate on other Web sites regarding the nature and degree of government subsidy for MPR's programming. According to the press release, 10% of their operating revenue comes from "the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other government support", which according to my Texas Instruments TU-35 PLUS (the "PLUS" means it does multiplication as well as addition), this results in a cool 4.11 million bones. Yes, that's a mere tear drop quantity compared to the vast ocean of money the Federal government redistributes to all of its other favored recipients (many of which would be approp'iately driven from the marketplace otherwise). But I'm sure this amount isn’t insignificant to MPR's competitors on the local radio dial, who now are forced to start off every fiscal year $4 million behind in their efforts to create a viable, competitive product and attract listeners.