A series of posts at the blog Ask Steve, starting with this one has led to a discussion over at Oregon Media Insiders about changing the funding model for OPB. Folks at OPB are responding, including frequent pledge drive host Colin Fogarty and John Bell of the OPB Membership Department. I recall a post here at pdxradio, long lost to server problems, that discussed how OPB, being the highest-rated radio station in town, should be able to make enough money on its 10-second spots to not need pledge drives. There was more insight to it than that, though, and I'm hoping the original author might stumble upon this and post again...

Also, Bell is offering to publish OPB's show-by-show ratings. I wonder if we could get him to publish demos (which still matter in public radio as far as underwriters are concerned) and historical ratings? I'd love to see how things have changed post-9/11.

Wow, he just agreed to publish both ratings and (non-)ad rates. Very cool.