Staying Power
Posted at 6:00 AM on February 17, 2010
by Dale Connelly
(29 Comments)
Radio Heartland has tickets to see John Hammond at the Dakota in Minneapolis at 7 pm on Sunday, February 28th.
Enter the drawing.
Obey the rules.
Good luck.
We'll accept entries until 1pm today. Please use your real name.
Today the February Member Drive begins, and so the day-to-day routine here at Radio Heartland yields to the ceremonial fanfare of the annual fundraising cycle. I will be taking some extra time to mention goals, the website, and our membership number: 1-800-227-2811.
Not to worry. There will be plenty of music.
This is our second February drive. Last year at this time I wondered if there would be enough support to keep us going until spring. It was unclear if a member supported audio stream and HD radio service could offer enough to justify the financial support of listeners. Thanks to you, we cleared that hurdle with room to spare.
Now we face a question about staying power.
New things are inherently interesting. Last February, Radio Heartland was still a shiny object, fresh out of the box. Listening on the computer seemed novel and new. Will those who contributed last year decide to renew their memberships? Will listeners who have been with us for a year but have not contributed choose to get involved this time?
Will more people decide to become sustaining members?
The sustaining member idea is changing the shape of our drives. This time around we will have a three day break - Friday, Saturday and Sunday - thanks to those who became sustainers by signing up for memberships that renew automatically. Sustainers have the power to take us to a very different place compared to the membership drives of forty years ago - back when we would harangue you nonstop for 12 days.
The future is being written with each phone call and online contribution. If you do it, don't forget to mention that you enjoy Radio Heartland. It makes a difference.
In such a changeable world, what has staying power?
Do you do anything, day-to-day, the same way you did it five or ten years ago?
Comments (29)
Dale -- you have just changed my entire world view. I often think that I lead a really boring life: for 20 years I've had the same job, same address, same phone, even the same book club. Pick strawberries at the same place every summer, make the same cookies every holiday.
When I go to the doctor or some place where they keep records, it's almost embarrassing that nothing every changes.
But now I know that it's not that I'm boring... I have STAYING POWER.
Good Morning All,
Of course, one thing that I can mention as a regular part of my life for more than 10years, actually more than 20 years, is the Morning Show and it's new version Radio Heartland. Many thanks for all your boradcasts, Dale.
During this time I have also been involved in trying to sustain agriculture by supporting the Sustaianable Farming Association. I will be welcoming people to the SFA Conference this Saturday at St Olaf College in Northfield. You can find me near the registration desk from 7 to 9 AM wearing my RH goat pin.
5 years ago i remember having a bifg arguement with my daughter thenm 15) about text messaging. she would keep the phone by her bed and receive messages all night from time zones in europe and elsewhere. we were upset with the fact that she was sending so many texts. now her mom sends that many.
i was trying to get in touch with a guy who had agrees to do a job for me on a particular day. he was late and not responding th my phone calls. got the voice message time and again. i got in touch with the guy who put us together and he texted him and got an immeadiate reply......new world.
i still turn on the radio (new show) turn on the bath. drink my tea and read the paper (i do like the real paper vs the e paper) for my one hour acclimation to the day. thanks for being a part of it all these years dale. and i suppose all the rh gang has been there too , i just wasn't aware of you all.
so clyde were you a musician (re yesterdays post) or just a guy who hung with musicians?
happy belated bd in utah!
i really need to start proofreading before i hit the send button.
I like Sherrilee's perspective. I must have some staying power too, then, though to a lesser degree because I don't read or pick strawberries.
What would life be like without RH? Once it seeps into your blood, you're a gonner. Trust me, that's a GOOD thing,
GO MEMBER DRIVE! SUSTAINERS RULE!
Five years ago, daily life was already infiltrated by technology, which wasn't true for my life 10 years ago. I no longer use a phone book, for instance. I look up telephone numbers on my BlackBerry and click the link to call or add to address book. My kids communicate with me and others by text, and I text and instant message with friends. I listen to music almost exclusively on a computer except when I'm in the car. My kids primary play objects are tech devices of one kind or another. Books are a constant still in my home, though. I have not moved on to the Kindle, so reading for pleasure, along with cooking and making traditional film photos, has remained constant for me.
Morning, all!
Nothing shiny and new about me but I am a sustainer!
Radio Heartland is the BEST! Who wouldn't support it?
I like to give just once a year, can I be a Sustainer? It looks like it's just available for monthly payers.
Here in midlife I'm glad I have a "boring" life of Staying Power, I know things could be worse! Hooray for normal life!
'Morning Heartlanders
The guys who traveled the South in the 1960s rediscovering old blues guitarists learned that they came in two styles. Some (like John Hurt) had perfected a way of playing a tune when they were young and played it note-for-note the same ever afterward. Others never ever played the same tune the same way twice.
I'm most comfortable with a blend of stability and variety. Change and surprise are delightful most of the time, but it is nice to anchor your life with a few things that you can count on to stay the same. I make a pasta dish that I always prepare the same way. Why mess around with perfection once you have found it?
It is wise to avoid extremes. I know a couple in New Jersey. He has to do everything the same way, so that if he misses a turn on the road he will drive all the way back to where he started and do it over again so he can do it the "right" way. (If you are reminded of "Monk", you've got it!). She will choose to drive an inefficient route if it is new and interesting because she thrills in novelty. They are headed for a divorce if she can find the courage to press on with it. It would never occur to him that this is possible because he expects each day to resemble the former one as much as possible and so he cannot imagine that she quit loving him years ago.
Thanks for the comments, everyone!
Kim, you CAN be a sustainer and give just once each year. Jacquie Fuller, our membership co-ordinator, says you can set it up by calling the phone number, 1-800-227-2811. If you have problems, e-mail her directly - jfuller@mpr.org
Jim, re your question--I have no, I mean no musical ability at all. So as a part of the party that went to the bar at Calumet Harbors, I was just going along for the fun and then I was there to prove you did not have to sing well to sing as part of the larger group. At our parties we just stood in a circle and sang most of the time, I more quietly, drowned out by the four guys who were very musical (three survived--the fourth died in Viet Nam) playing loudly on guitar and banjo, all three now holders of doctorates in very prestigious jobs.
Hello, Kim. I think you can be a sutainer and do it once a year. Try a phone call to see; very accomodating folks MPR.
Change. Change has been the buckaboo of my last few weeks. So I must make a comment about change in awhile, after my morning bike ride.
Okay, before the bike ride and before I talk about change, I must say I am very disappointed in you all, RHers, not one of you commented on my clever blooger name yesterday. So I'm just Clyde from now on.
Also, all of you: found this quote in "The Artist's Magazine" and immediately thought of this community: "Wise is the person who is content with the spectacle of the world." Jose Saramago (a Portugues writer I have never heard of).
Why I became a sustainer member: it's like how I tithe to church. If I make a monthly $10 bank card withdrawl, it's done first. If I have to write a larger check a couple of times a year, then other bills overwhlwem the payment. Thus our medical bills drove a $60 check every six months off the budget. I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but had to say it.
Greetings! For me, I have a foundation of a few things that have stayed the same for 5-10 years -- marriage, house, growing kids, etc. But jobs, interests, hobbies, evolving beliefs, cooking, dietary habits, etc., all go through changes. I have a few habits and rituals, but not many.
My husband enjoys watching favorite movies over and over and over (he's like you, Steve -- Jim also enjoys sad, romantic movies). I will watch a great movie a couple times, at most. I enjoy variety in most things, but at times a repetitive task can free the mind to fly elsewhere.
In the last year I have been out of work, found new work, and am now training in a new co-worker who is taking over for the gal I started with (who is already on to different work). Daughter started kindergarten, and Husband's work situation has changed as well. Enough with the big changes for awhile, I think.
Five years ago I had an infant, so a lot has changed since then. Ten years ago is another matter altogether. Glad there are things like Dale and the various iterations of the Morning Show to provide some things with longevity in my world - been listening since high school and that was many moons ago.
(And Clyde, I hope you go back to the fun post names - I missed a lot of yesterday's fun, including your names...)
Clyde - I finally looked at all posts from yesterday and I see you used a naughty word in French! Clever of you ...
I remember one of the early episodes of "Star Trek - Next Generation", Captain Picard uttered "merde" when he encountered a difficult situation one time. I gasped that he cursed on prime time TV!
I'm a real creature of habit-One difference in my habits though, is that I knead bread using my mixer rather than by hand. It sure saves a lot of energy and muscle strain. I, too, am a sustaining member, and I don't even live within range of MPR to pick it up on the radio! I also contribute to North Dakota Public Radio.
Merde is not as naughty a word in France as its translation is in English. The German equivalent is even less naughty. What I was going for, and it was a stretch, was "fest avec merde" as party pooper.
okay, still the same after many years is my impatience with unnecessary technological mishaps---
dang it, my clever email disappeared cuz i hit Post without entering name and email---Mike/Dale, could you get your techies to change things so the clever email (rather than the blank post box) is what we fools get returned to when we forget to put in our monikers?
i'll just say for now i have a lasting attraction to novelty and leave it at that.
by the way, exciting news from the neighborhood---i just discovered i have a goat for a neighbor here at my new place!!!! ah, la plus ca change, la plus c'est le meme chose!
p.s. Thanks for the b-day, songs, Dale, and the b-day wishes, gang---made me feel loved!
Change—How many Lutherans does it take to change a light bulb?
CHANGE!!!
I used to do adult forums in ELCA Lutheran churches on mindsets, or learning styles, between the generations. So I would then ask, what does a 65-year-old Lutheran want in worship and what does a 25-year-old want. They would answer quite well, seeing the young do not want routine, want more visuality, want more participatory style, more uptempo music, etc. Then they would say if those things happened they would leave. Which is the dilemma of the ELCA and many such churches, all exacerbated by their recent vote to ordain gay and lesbian pastors.
So I would ask if they want their church to survive. But they would still say they would not stay. And of course they would take their offerings with them, and they are the big sustaining givers. This is the problem of churches, a true survival problem. I pointed out what MPR had done with The Current and how successful it was. I had a woman tell me she quit giving money to MPR because she did not approve of that music. But of course she had never heard it. And she was soon going to quit going to concerts because some people clapped between movements. I told her that such events were positive because it showed new people were coming, which classic music needs to survive. Her response was that if they would not bother to first lean then they should not come. Nearly the whole group was clearly agreeing with her.
We joined a small German ancestry church 2 years ago. They are now up in arms because the pastor switched them from Service Setting One to Setting Two fir the first time in over 20 years. Any ELCA person out there knows how very small a change this is. But they went on what amounted to a sit-down strike during the third Sunday using it. Then we held the annual meeting right afterwards in which they demanded going back to setting one and were trying to figure out how they could attract new people.
Change has a funny way of sneaking up on you. When I first saw the post topic I thought, "Change? Me?" Same house (19 years) same job (ditto), same spouse (32 years), yada, yada.
And then I start to think. Over that time we've raised a son who's gone away to college, graduated, and now lives half a continent away. My parents just a few years ago were spending summers with us. Both are now gone. Six years ago for a good portion of the year we had five people plus a dog. Now it's just the two of us, sans canine. The job's not really the same. Yes, it has the same title and the same office, but pretty much everything else is different. I've been with two performing groups for 9 and 27 years, respectively. Have they changed? Yep, even the one with exactly the same membership.
There's a wonderful line in Lord of the Rings where Gandalf says of another character: "I am a rolling stone and he is a gatherer of moss." Compared to some I have known, I'm a moss-gatherer. But little moves, if there are enough of them, have a way of keeping the moss from becoming too entangling.
It is fun to reflect on this change/continuity theme. Dale could probably write a book on the topic because some people can't start the day without hearing "Little Potato" again and other listeners are sitting by the radio with a baseball bat, prepared to smash the thing into rubble if dares to play "Old Love" one more time.
I think people need continuity and predictability when they are weak and in pain . . . in other words, just waking up. Ritual and stability are comforting when keeping eyes open is a challenge. Some folks wouldn't dream of attempting speech before downing the first cup of coffee, and yet they might be agents of change by noon.
Luckily one of the things that has stayed is that Dale (and Mike et al.) and JASPER still likes to do this radio thing... And we still live in the same HOUSE as 10 years ago, a minor miracle.
I'm a lot like the wife in Steve's story, always desiring something new (even if it's just moving the furniture), while Husband is more rooted. Luckily we're not as far apart as that NJ couple, tho'. In fact, that's the other perpetual goodness, we're together and coming up on 30 years this May.
Writing from Tyrone, Georgia this a.m. where there is WAY cooler weather than usual, and we hope change comes today to warm things. But we're some place NEW, with family that has staying power, so I'm happy.
(Kay - When that happens to me, I'm able to hit a "back" button and get to the previous screen where my post was.)
Kay, when I make your error, if I hit my browser back button, my post is still there.
Steve--Ricky Nelson's "Garden Party" is about what thereof thou speakest.
Thi is a pretty big day of change for me. SS deposits my first retirment payment in my bank. Just in time for our next round of medical bills. Not complaining; happy it came in time.
Clyde - that's really sad about the chruchgoers. I remember when I was in college learning all these "new" teaching techniques, my dad (a veteran in the school system) told me it would be 25 years before they became accepted by most faculty, etc. It's like a pendulum, which slows just before turning back the other way. I think our government is going through this too.
Barbara--if you did the drive through TN through Chatanooga and on to Atlanta, do not tell me if you stopped at any of the Civil War sites along the way or I will be blazing green with envy.
Some day . . .
I Want It My Way (or Life in the Twenty-First Century)
And now this you must hear
Because of changes I am hurtin’
My friend, I'll say it clear
I'll state my case of which I'm certain
I've lived a life not quite full
There’s something important to say
So all, all must listen to this
I want it my way
Disappointments I've had a few
But details I will not mention
There is something I must do
And see it through without exemption
I want all for me, of course
I don’t notice others along the byway
So all, all must listen to this
I want it my way
Yes there were times I hope you knew
When I ranted and raved ‘til I was blue
But through it all there was no doubt
I learned nothing, nothing at all
I still do expect it my way
I've cajoled, I've warned and bribed
I've not had my fill, I know I am losing
I see no others by my side
I find it all so unamusing
To think I should compromise
And may I say not in a shy way
Oh no, oh no, not me
I demand it my way
For what is a man but what he has not
To believe he is right no matter what
To get his way when someone impedes
And ignore others and their needs
The record shows I closed my eyes
And fought for my way
Yes I demand my way
Clyde, got a pianist so we can record you singing this? Excellent!
Thank you, ghostly Mike for the Compliment. But . . .
we might want to record someone else singing but we do not want to record me.
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