Eyes of PBS stations on Channel 10 experiment

Freedom. Finally. Kinda.

Whoa, there -- not freedom from critiquing Vegas newscasts. That would require full-on emancipation. Or a biblical deliverance. Or a busted DVR.

Embrace the liberation, however, when the next Smackeroos SOS goes up from Vegas PBS -- i.e., KLVX-TV, Channel 10 -- via the winter membership drive (Nov. 26-Dec. 12), which has morphed into an intriguing new model.

"We are the only station in the U.S. trying this," says Tom Axtell, KLVX's GM, about an economy-triggered experiment that's less taxing to viewer patience and more friendly to viewer pocketbooks. "Quite a few of my colleagues are fascinated by this approach."

Dubbed "Do Your Part," it's a math-based spin on the old formula. Banished are those interminable 10-minute plead-a-thons, sliced to hosted three-minute segments, the normal program-break length year-round. Fundraising now is mostly host-free and lower-key: "Do Your Part" graphics pop up periodically during a broadcast, flashing the per-viewer contribution required to keep that show on the air if every single viewer tossed that same amount in the PBS pot.

Show-by-show donation requests are calculated by assessing the station's costs for acquiring and broadcasting genre programming such as children's, cultural and news/information, then dividing it by the number of viewers for a particular program, based on Nielsen stats.

Credit the Great Recession for the altered approach. "We don't want to sound like all we want is $120 or $300 gifts," Axtell says. "We wanted to make it clear to our viewers that you can support public television for $20 or $30 a year. If the 600,000 people a week who watch us (collectively, from sign-on to sign-off) would do that, we'd have a terrific budget."

Merchandise junkies may be bummed as the peddling of show-related items -- donor bribes, let's be frank -- are largely relegated to the Vegas PBS website and off the tube. "There are people who make $240 gifts because they want that great doo-wop DVD," Axtell notes, "but we find they don't renew for two or three years until there's another music special they like. ... Here, people can feel good about sending in $30 because that might be the cost per person of 'Nova.' "

Boffo notion. Nothing guarantees participation -- deadbeat viewers will always freeload off pay-the-freight viewers, however modest the money asked for -- but "Do Your Part" maximizes the odds by minimizing the financial fright in a terrifying fiscal era. Egalitarian in spirit, it returns fundraising to the '70s/'80s era of appealing to average viewers with smaller wallets, before the high-end merchandising promotions of the '90s jacked up the stakes, and viewers with a cool grand to give made them feel like paupers and their dollars seem like pennies.

Six affiliated stations submitted proposals to PBS on experimental fundraising methods this year, but only KLVX simplifies and democratizes the finances of programming for viewers to this degree, even if corporate and federal funding complicate it behind boardroom doors.

Adds Axtell: "There's lots of people who are going to be looking at our overnight results to see how it's working."

Advice, members:

Do your part. Part with some dues.

Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0256.