Public Radio Testimonials
Travel with Rick Steves has already been a ratings success story — and a dependable money-raiser — for public radio stations across the country. Here are comments from people who should know…
"We've had Travel with Rick Steves on Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. for 5 books now. The average AQH for those 5 books is 18,200 while the 5-book average before Travel with Rick Steves was 14,200. This is at a time when overall station listening growth is slowing, so I'm extremely pleased with the performance of this show! Rick Steves and his production team lead by Tim Tattan are doing a terrific job, and they are getting better all the time."
— Jeffrey W. Hansen, Program Director, KUOW, Seattle
"...Fundraising with Rick Steves was gangbusters. We optimistically set a goal for $1500 for the hour since it was our first drive with the show. It brought in well over $7000..."
— 'Peter J' Maerz, Programming & Operations Manager, WLRN, Miami
"Travel with Rick Steves makes a very good bridge between Weekend Edition and Car Talk. Before, we would start pitching Saturday mornings and not have too much success in the hour before Car Talk. Now we are getting a significant number of calls from 9-10. In our first campaign with the program, we brought in 3.5 times more in pledges than our average for the five previous campaigns. Interesting guests, great customer service, and a lot of people are thanking us for carrying the program. The reaction has been strong and positive."
— James Meyers, Program Director, KVPR, Fresno
" ...Based on average quarter hour listening, Travel with Rick Steves ranks in the top five among all the shows on WILL-AM's schedule. ...Fundraising for Travel With Rick Steves has been extremely successful. It's like using the Pavlovian response. When Rick's on, the listeners know they have to call and get the stuff. When your guest from Belgium got to talking about the languages, the areas, the waffles, ...it really made we want to go there. I'm glad we took a chance on it. I love the show."
— Jay Pearce, Program Director, WILL-AM, Urbana, IL
"During a spring membership drive while I was at KERA, we were reaching the end of the drive and were still short of our goal. I knew we really needed an ace in the hole to make it. On average, we would raise about $20,000 with a two-hour Rick Steves special. So, we decided to run one and it worked! Rick was our 'ace'! In spite of a major telephone system outage, we reached our overall goal before the special was over!"
— Abby Goldstein, Program Director,
New Hampshire Public Radio
"I really enjoy tuning in every Saturday mornig. Of course I programmed it on our station, but I go out of my way to listen to it. We're used to him on public television talking about Europe. But it's neat to hear him discuss destinations all over the world, and to hear him asks his guests questions that I would ask."
— Doug Nadvornick, Program Director, KSFC, Spokane
We provide Travel with Rick Steves to public radio affiliates at no charge. To carry the show — or to learn more about pledge opportunities — contact producer Tim Tattan at 425/608-4234 or tim@ricksteves.com