The following are comments from a post-Telethon survey of WRUW staff members. The question was “What would you do differently next time?”
Below is a summary of the responses:
- Take heed of the advice of your fellow staff members, and get prepared!
- Do more to pull the heartstrings of my long-time listeners, using more old favorites (“hits”?) musically.
- Prepare more comprehensive notes.
- Use all of the scripts I’d written out ahead of time.
- I would focus a little more on benefits to the listener and reasons to give. I would also make a point to thank each donor to my show at least once, if not again at the end of the show.
- push premiums more .
- I would use more pressuring techniques to get people to donate. Emphasis on supporting the music one hears on my show in particular, in addition to everything on the station.
- I think would make an attempt to sound more confident. I felt like I spent so much time convincing people that they should donate that it came across sounding desperate.
- Shorter pitches. All the pitches went over 5 minutes and I rambled.
- Maybe try sticking to my own structure a little more.
- Space my pitches more evenly throughout the two-hour show time, perhaps planning out the entire show sequence ahead of time. I generally improvise a lot.
- My notes would have been a bit better.
- I would push how much people save on tickets by winning them on my show and encourage them to donate ‘a night out’. I would play more premiums.
- Have a more solid plan.
- Be a little more concise with my pitches; they tended to go long.
- More often – break down the cost out of pocket to a donor per week (e.g. $60 is a little more than $1 per week).
- Talk less, or divert my monologue more.
- Come up with some more hilarious stuff to add during my pitches.
- Use new outlines. I went from scripts and outlines from last year (which were already a rewrite of the 2003). I need new material.
- beg more.
- prep more and work on a better sales pitch. i knew all the premiums well. i think i realy couldnt have done MUCH better seein my time slot/genre.
- I would try to use a bit more of a highlight/ mix approach to really feature some of the premium selections and also I would like to feature one “big ticket” item to hopefully ellicit a very generous pledge.
- Nothing really, the show raised the most it has ever raised and people liked our show-specific premiums.
- Inject more humor into my pitches. Be less nervous.
- Try to draw more of a connection between the listeners and their role in wruw and the radio shows. for example, i’d try to make it sound more like they are part of the wruw/v/c/gradio team by donating.
- Try to relax a bit more, giving less scripted sounding pitches. Also, give lots of small pitches instead of a few long ones.
- Try to come up with more banter with my co-host than sound as if Im reading off a list.
- Rotate though what the station gives listeners a bit more. I also would have remembered to hammer on the 15000 watts when a pledge from Medina came in (duh).
- I would have more thoughtful pitches. I would write things out more, etc. even if I know that I am not anticipating on doing any pitches.
- I’d like to have a two hour program like most everyone else!
- Have more scripts/outlines.
- Talk slower and emphasize how their donations benefit the station. Also, I didn’t talk long enough.
- It definitely works to sound very energetic and announce the phone # to give your pledge more often than the times you actually “beg”… (ie in between songs.. not every single song though).
- Be BETTER prepared.
- Prepare more ahead of time, get more comfortable with the CD premiums, create more well developed scripts, and SAVE THEM FOR NEXT YEAR.
- I would draw the line more clearly between when my co-host and I were going to talk. There were a few times where I wasn’t done saying something and he would interject and take the thought in a different direction.
- I would push specific premiums more, remind people how far I am from my goal–these two techniques are what got me my extra boost of money in the last few minutes.
- I was very pleased with my delivery this year. When I listened to the download I wanted to call and pledge to myself. However, I always have to remind myself that all telethons have the first day as their slowest and lowest.
- Plan out the exact times I was going to talk so I could know when to stop for that certain pitch, maybe say the telephone number less.
- I had an original pitch that I chose not to use. I think that I should have so I would have sounded a bit different from all the other programmers.
- I currently use an opening script and detailed notes. Using this combination allows me some flexibility to flow witht he audience. Next year I might add additional scripted material.
- Talk longer!!I thought my listeners would get bugged at a long pitch because my theme was “We put the Music first”but I messed up:they were waiting for the music to STOP and me to start talking so they could pledge and not interrupt their listening experience.Thus by keeping it short and sweet I was actually preventing them from having a chance to pledge….
- Mention the phone number more frequently throughout each pitch.
- Speak with more energy, especially at the beginning. It took me a little bit to warm up.
- Well, being warmed up and awake well before my show would help a lot, but with my show at 5 AM it’s pretty tough.
- Emphasize that pledging to a show can increase CD funding for specific genres.
- Have my own premiums.
- I find having an outside guest or two (a local DJ or band member) helps immensely because there is suddenly a third-party “testimonial” for the station and the “begging” becomes a conversation about the need to support the station.
- Having a co-host, it was a challenge to do telethon pitches because at any moment, the other person could lead off into another aspect that I may not have planned on speaking about during that break, and vice versa. I think that factor made our pitches seem less dry and less like they were read from a piece of paper, though I noticed that we were a bit redundant at times. I think that for next year, it would help if we somewhat practice together before the show.
- Not much….I had an extremely successful telethon, and I felt I sounded great and was very well prepared.
- I will do my next Telethon completely nude to create a sense of awe and wonder.
- I might shorten my pitches a little. It seems like more and shorter might work better.
- Request an addition person on phones for 6:30-7:00 am. DoerOne was SWAMPED. Luckily the person who was scheduled for 7-9 am came in early and jumped right into the fray.