$176,446 Pledged to KOCE During Annual Drive
KOCE Channel 50, Orange County’s public television station, concluded its longest annual on-air fund drive Sunday with a 29% rise in money pledged, the biggest increase in four years.
A total of $176,446 was pledged during the March 1-17 Spring Membership Festival, according to channel spokeswoman Judith Schaefer. The amount represents 2,568 pledges, a 14% jump over last year, Schaefer said. Of the total pledges, she continued, 1,590 represent new contributors.
The $176,446 was the second-largest total pledged during one of KOCE’s March campaigns since 1987, the earliest period for which records are available. In 1987, $186,819 was pledged by 2,534 callers, of whom 1,602 were new, Schaefer said.
She could not explain the notable drop of about $69,000 between 1987 and 1988 (when $117,580 was pledged), other than to guess that it was due in part to a general national economic slump.
Schaefer attributed the rise this year to such popular recent Public Broadcasting Service programs as “The Civil War”; to a strong national advertising and promotion campaign launched last fall by PBS, and to PBS programs provided to KOCE for its fund drive.
Specials on such entertainers as Lawrence Welk, Frank Sinatra and Johnny Mathis were featured.
Last year, $136,257 was pledged.
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