Wired News presents an interesting quandry for the local Public Radio market.  Podcasting is reaching new levels in the NPR world, but in doing so, it’s turning listeners away from the fund drives that have fueled local station’s funding for years.

Wired News: Podcasting Roils NPR Fund Raising

On the upside, the medium is expanding NPR’s overall audience and boosting some shows previously unavailable in many markets. . . Yet, at the same time, it can turn ears away from local stations — possibly for good — which could be a problem for affiliates that rely heavily upon member donations to pay the dues to air some of the same programming listeners can now get free as MP3s.

I would submit that what is really in play here is the annoying pledge drives.

I love public broadcasting, both on the radio and on TV, but I have not yet podcasted any of thier stuff. . . or anybody’s stuff, to be honest. To me, it takes all the fun out of listening to the radio, but then again, I suppose I’m lame and not nearly trendy enough. Now, all that may change if I can avoid listening to pledge drives wherein people I don’t know personally try to guilt me into giving to PBS, sounding for all the world like a nagging mother:

“You never call, you never write! Your program director is getting worried sick, over here! Look at all we’ve done for you, and you can’t at least give us a couple of dollars? Oh, sure. I know we’re not as ‘cool’ as your friends, but when you want election results and you can’t get them from ABC, don’t come crying to us . . ”

And so on. . .

Seriously, there is a real problem for local stations that don’t produce shows that can be podcast for national attention, because they’re missing out on revenue that St. Paul and New York stations are reaping. Clearly, there are some in the NPR community that aren’t really getting it, either. For example, Ruth Seymore of KCRW in Santa Monica:

She also insists podcasting levels the playing field between big and small stations: “Suppose down there in Las Vegas, they created a smart show about gambling and they put humor in it and it was really interesting and entertaining. And say this thing becomes hot because everybody’s interested in gambling these days. . . .

Screech! Hold on, since when is Las Vegas a small market? And yes, they could produce a show about gambling, but what exactly would Rochester, NY produce that would attract a national audience, as an example?

We may hope that the folks at NPR are more wise to the situation, because of course without the local stations, NPR will quickly fade into irrelevance. Particularly with so many Conservative politicians eager to yank thier funding. What is needed is a new paradigm that will both foster the podcasting market they’re developing and also addresses the financial imbalance that it is currently creating. For one, someone needs to develop some method of fundraising for local stations that doesn’t involve harping on thier audience. Whatever other flaws may exist, the pledge drive thing is an anachronism from a by-gone era where PBS was the sole proprietor of educational television. Now, it is entirely too easy to change the channel.

So what would a new paradigm look like? As one possiblity, local stations could band together and demand some sort of hardship royalty from the pod casting, or perhaps (and I have no idea of the financial structure of NPR and affiliates) the stations can claim some partial ownership of NPR either for themselves or on behalf of thier current members.

Just spitballing, here.