TUNED IN TO LISTENERS.

Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-Guard

It's barely two hours into KRVM's 10-day spring radiothon, and already volunteer host Ed Kashin is feeling the love.

"The phones are all lit up. I love it," Kashin says gleefully. "You know, this is a fun time."

That might sound a little surprising to the average public radio listener, for whom the fund-raising drives fall somewhere between a necessary evil and an insufferable annoyance. But inside the friendly network of volunteers and part-time staffers who are the bone and sinew of public radio, the seasonal radiothons are more like a cross between a pep rally and a family reunion, a time when praise is measured in pledges.

"There's something about when people are making a pledge," says Kashin, known to listeners as Ed K, as a Grateful Dead tune fills the cramped and cluttered KRVM studio. "It's not just the money. It's that it's important enough for them to take some time out of their life and do something. It's the whole volunteer thing. You're in effect volunteering."

In that sense, thousands of Lane County residents volunteer each year for the five public radio stations that reach the area over the air, four of which do on-air fund raising. With so many stations serving such a relatively modest audience, the semiannual pitching has become a familiar ritual on the local airwaves.

But even though radiothons are as predictable as the seasons, each station gives its effort a different flavor. Some are intense and short, some laid back and some change with the audience throughout the course of the day.

The simple truth is that no one has ever really figured out what it takes to get someone to voluntarily pay for something that they can have for free, at least as long as someone else is willing to pay.

"If you figure that one out, be sure and let me know," joked Steve Barton, station manager at KLCC-FM.

Not even National Public Radio has come up with the silver bullet, the "killer app," that can reliably break open the wallet of a public radio listener. So each station just has to wing it.

Barton said KLCC goes for the lighter touch.

"Our impression is that if you're heavy and if you're down and if you're trying to make people feel guilty, it's usually not very effective," he said. "But if you can get two people in there who are having fun, who are laughing a little bit, who are being a little interesting in what they're doing, not only will it be less likely to drive people away, it also keeps their attention and tends to motivate them a little more."

Bobbie Cirel, underwriting representative for KRVM, said not knowing what it is that finally convinces a listener to call in a pledge makes on-air fund raising a little like pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey.

"If there were one thing we could say that would make everybody call in and pledge their support, we would say that one thing," she said.

"But there are as many reasons to support public radio as there are listeners out there, so we try to think about as many of those reasons as possible. You never quite know what it is you might say that will stir someone to move to the phone and make the call."

Back in the studio, Kashin is working through an 11-hour shift as the maestro of the station's radiothon kickoff, a Grateful Fool's Day marathon featuring Grateful Dead and related music. He admits he's as mystified as anyone about why any particular listener chooses any particular moment to make a call, but when they do, it's like the stars all line up for him.

"It's playing one particular song at one particular time that tickles one particular brain cell," he said. "If I tickle a brain cell just right, I think I've done my job. I just feel so good about having gotten somebody something good. All is right in the universe if one person is happy."

At KLCC, Barton said the station tries to limit pledge breaks to no more than five minutes at a time. But people seem to rarely respond after hearing just one pitch, so the trick is to get in enough spiels to win them over without having so many they get peeved and change stations.

That's easier said than done. In the end, on-air hosts have to have a bit of a thick skin and keep their spirits up even when the phones refuse to ring.

"There are so many things that are out of our control when we're making that pitch that if it's not effective, you can't take it personally," Barton said. "And the next time you come on to pitch, you need to be up and feel good about yourself, and it's hard sometimes."

Cirel noted KRVM is not part of the National Public Radio system and doesn't have access to all of the research, recorded celebrity endorsements and support programs those stations enjoy. That means KRVM flies a little more by the seat of its pants.

The station takes a somewhat more laid-back approach on the air, with slightly shorter pledge breaks than bigger stations such as KLCC or Oregon Public Broadcasting, whose AM signal reaches Lane County. And without the news programming that draws in many NPR listeners, KRVM depends solely on its music programs to inspire pledgers.

"We're directing all of our volunteer DJs to do the best shows they will do all year and make it the best music they can pull together," Cirel said. "Because we're not a news station, we've always as much as we can let the music speak for us. So we want our DJs to play the very best of the best that they play" during radiothons.

KWAX-FM, the region's only classical music station, also is a music-only station with a dedicated audience. The station raises about $330,000 a year in listener pledges and is the only area station that limits on-air pitching to daytime hours on weekdays only.

General manager Paul Bjornstad said the station always meets its goal in less than two weeks without giving away so much as a pen or a mug. And that's in spite of the fact that for most other public radio stations, the hours when KWAX is doing its pitching is almost always the slowest time of the day for donations.

"Interestingly enough, for classical music, those are our peak listening hours," Bjornstad said, noting that KWAX is popular background music in businesses and professional offices as well as for people put on hold.

"We don't do any fund raising in the evenings, nothing on the weekend to speak of," he said. "The way we have set it up is to leave evenings, weekends and overnight free of fund raising, kind of as a place where those people who've already made a donation to go to get away from the fund raising."

Both KWAX and KRVM fund virtually all of their operations from listener pledges, with small amounts also generated by businesses that donate in return for having their names mentioned on the air. KWAX also receives a small amount from the University of Oregon, which owns the station, and banks that for future capital and equipment needs.

KLCC gets about 35 percent of its total budget from listener pledges, 35 percent from Lane Community College and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the rest from business underwriting and grants.

KRVM plans to end its $70,000 spring radiothon Monday, regardless of how much it has raised. KLCC began its $260,000 spring radiothon on Thursday, and KWAX will launch its $165,000 fund drive on Wednesday.

KRVM this year joined its two larger cousins in adopting the fixed-date radiothon, in which the pitching ends on a specified day whether the goal has been reached or not. That's become a popular move because it not only reassures listeners that radiothons won't go on forever, it helps motivate the foot-draggers among them.

"The thought there is that if you don't set an end time, there's no urgency," Barton said. "And our experience has been that when you get down to the end and people realize we've got a ways to go to make our goal, they respond."

Back at KRVM, Ed K is at the microphone urging his listeners to "do your part, make that phone call, make that pledge." He's been at it for more than three hours now, and already he's repeated the call-in numbers about a hundred times.

Kashin said he doesn't have any problem asking people for money to support the station; he looks around at the "rustic" studio and said it's not like they're extravagant.

"I'm nervous but not embarrassed," he says. "It's definitely a worthy cause."

MAKING A PITCH

Public radio stations that reach Lane County:

KLCC-FM: Primary frequency: 89.7; pledge drives: April and October; 2005 pledge goal: $520,000

KWAX-FM: Primary frequency: 91.1; pledge drives: April/October; 2005 pledge goal: $330,000

KRVM-FM: Primary frequency: 91.9; pledge drives: spring/fall; 2005 pledge goal: $130,000

CAPTION(S):

During the morning of his marathon fund-raising show, KRVM radio DJ Ed Kashin, known as "Ed K," frets over which Grateful Dead music to play. Ed Kashin challenges listeners to make pledges during his daylong stint at the KRVM microphone. The day brought $6,000. Kashin answers a call in the broadcast booth while fellow DJ Jivin' Johnny Ethredge brings in names of contributors to be thanked on the air. Paul Carter / The Register-Guard Weary, but happy with the results, Kashin finishes his fund-raising show after 11 hours on the air playing music and asking listeners for money. Paul Carter / The Register-Guard KRVM General Manager Carl Sundberg posts the first pledge total of the radiothon with a sign taped to the wall of the tiny broadcast studio. "You never quite know what it is you might say that will stir someone to move to the phone and make the call." BOBBIE CIREL, UNDERWRITING REPRESENTATIVE FOR KRVM