WGBH Changes Leads to Dissent

The negative blow-back that WGBH is getting from listeners about the recent program changes is to be expected. In a way we in public media enable a sense of ownership over the programming through our membership campaigns. We ask listeners to become activists when we ask for their support, and they become invested. Despite the fact that ratings, loyalty figures and support dollars may be below what is needed to sustain programming, there those who did invest who will feel alienated by the changes.

Take a look at the article from the Boston Herald By Daniel Gerwetz and then drop down to the comments. Recent changes at KUT in Austin and WDET in Detroit have led to similar protests.
You can make changes for all the right reasons, but for some listeners those reasons won't matter. They're felling a sense of loss and betrayal. Management and the major stakeholders need to be prepared and be able to weather the storm.

To be sure there are other issues surrounding the changes made by WGBH. Not the least of which is the question; is there room for two public radio news and information stations in the Boston market. WBUR is well established as the NPR news station. WBUR's ratings are four times that of WGBH according to the Herald article. WCRB's ratings were three times that of WGBH. That made their NPR news service and classical music service second choice among both audiences. Being second choice directly affects the stations ability to raise listener sensitive income. In a down economy difficulty raising listener support is not a comfortable position to be in.

Grow the Audience - Using the Basics

Using the Basics to Regain Audience
WNPR changed formats in the summer of 2006. Within the first six months the audience started to show strength. Loyalty figures were up. The weekly Cume was up and the average audience started to rebound. We also saw a jump in underwriting support. Then in late 2007 we started to see evidence of a leveling off in audience figures and then a decline in 2008.

Time For Change
Changing the program strategy at WNPR resulted in audience growth. The changes made in the summer of 2006 resulted in about a 20% increase in total audience and about an eight percent growth in average audience. The early growth was the result of the newness of the format in Connecticut. Up to the summer of 2006 nobody else was offering most of Connecticut the NPR news and information format. WNPR was the first to do so.

The changes were dynamic and dramatic. Accomplishing the changes were challenging in the face of healthy skepticism from senior staff, certain stake-holder in development and, the Board of Trustees. They questioned the need for change when the bottom line at WNPR was still relatively healthy.

There were signs of weakness in the longstanding hybrid format of NPR News, Classical Music and entertainment programs like  A Prairie Home Companion, Car Talk and Wait, Wait! This formula had worked well since 1989. Why change? Loyalty figures were slipping, WNPR's dominance over other public media outlets was eroding. Membership was flat and trending slightly downward. Underwriting booked exclusively for WNPR was weak. Most of the underwriting on WNPR was sold as part of a package that included CPTV and Connecticut Magazine. WNPR had over 20,000 contributors, but the majority was radio and TV combined. Major donors for radio were almost non-existent. We had less than 100.

The Glass Ceiling
Research consultants told us in 2004 and 2005 that we were reaching the glass ceiling. The potential for growth had plateaued. Predictions were for a gradual decrease in audience and member support in five years. Among the issues facing WNPR was the lack of unique programming. The picture wasn't entirely bleak and desolate. Working in our favor was a very strong news department, and a well established daily talk show produced in our New Haven Studios, The Faith Middleton Show. The rest of the program schedule was duplicated by two very strong public radio stations WFCR and WSHU. Added to that WNPR had very little geography that was exclusive. Almost everything we did was duplicated by these two stations.

Declining Market Position
The decline came much quicker than anticipated. WNPR's main transmitter failed during an ice storm in late December 2004. Replacement parts were not available and had to be custom made. 90.5FM was at half power for six months. Making the situation worse was an engineering mistake in the design of the structure supporting WNPR's satellite dishes. Connecticut Public Broadcasting moved to a new facility in the summer of 2004. The dishes were placed on top of the new building. Because the supports were under-engineered, the dishes would blow around knocking them slightly out of alignment. The results were garbled signals from our national programming sources. It took many months to sort out the structural issues. During this period we were beginning to see declines in average audience, share and time spent listening. The catastrophic failure of our main transmitter pushed WNPR over the edge. WNPR lost 70,000 listeners and membership support declined 12%. After the transmitter was repaired the audience did not come back. The audience found the programming they wanted just as satisfying on our competitions' stations.

Justifying Change
The changes we made in 2006 came after some intensive research into the listening habits of our membership. The research was conducted by Arthur Cohen and Whole Station Solutions, and Peter Dominowski and Market Trends Research who did most of the call-outs and helped us design our survey. The results of the survey did not result in a certainty that we should change our programming focus. That was because, in large part, we surveyed members who were classical imperatives, classical/news imperatives and news/classical imperatives. We wanted to know the impact of the decision to change programming focus. The evidence suggested this was the right direction to take for WNPR's future. Many of the stakeholders still needed convincing, and even a year after the changes there were still doubts that we had made the right decision. The doubts rose mostly around the response of the membership.

The growth in audience came quickly but, there was rift in our membership universe. Members of the Board and senior management were anxious because positive results were not immediate. Fortunately, the growth in underwriting more than offset the declines in member support. Membership bounced back in the second year.

An Audience Slump
In late 2007 and early 2008 we started to notice a decline in audience. Total audience, average audience and share declined. Our share fell from above 3.0% to about 2.6%. We were not sure what was happening. We still had market exclusivity for NPR News and Information. Morning Edition and WNPR's daily news program, Where We Live, continued to show audience growth and strength. The declines were clearly evident middays during All Things Considered and weekends.

The Decision for Gradual Change
Instead of pulling the trigger on wholesale program change, I decided to focus on micro-formatics. I listened to and analyzed what was being said in our midday, PM and weekend breaks. At issue was the lack of structure within those breaks. We were not taking full advantage of the opportunity for quarter hour maintenance. Our promotional schedule was filled with diagonal promotion strategies. We were spending a lot of time promoting to programs that did not have much impact on our audience.

Vertical and Horizontal Promotion
With the help of the PRPD handbook and because of my own experience in programming, we got better at the basics. We used a lot more teasing. Since midday programming did not allow for a lot teasing about what was coming up in the next 20 minutes, we chose to focus on the next program or the program after that. Teases were placed first in the break. Produced promotions focused on the programs that drove our core audience. Those programs were Morning Edition, Where We Live, the Faith Middleton Show, All Things Considered, Marketplace, and the weekend hits. And, whenever possible we employed horizontal promotion. We made an effort to highlight what was coming up the next day at the same time.

Positive Gains
WNPR gained back audience. There were gains in the weekly audience (Cume), average audience (AQH), and share in Hartford, New Haven and New London. According to Arbitron and The Radio Research Consortium, WNPR's Hartford Cume rose 19.6%. The AQH grew 17.1%. WNPR's Share in the Hartford Metro grew 17.8%. Audience figures compare summer '08 and summer '09 and are Monday through Sunday from 6am to Midnight for persons 12+.

Not all of the growth can be attributed to micro-formatics. Staying the course with the program schedule gave the audience time to find and grow loyal to WNPR's offerings. But, paying attention to the basics certainly helped.

A special thanks to John Dankosky and the rest of the staff at WNPR for helping accomplish the changes made at WNPR and their patience and, their support of WNPR's break and promotional strategies.

Implications of the Aging Audience

The Aging Audience/Walrus Research

George Bailey's report shows the challenges ahead for public radio stations programming jazz. The size of the core audience should be of particular concern. The core audience is where stations draw community support.

I have two questions.
Is it the format or is it the way the stations execute the format? Could it be that the jazz format does not generate a large enough core audience that is willing to support the programming? Or...is it that the stations need to work harder at music selection and, the micro formatics of what is said when the announcer opens the mic?

The research does not doom the format. The research only offers insight into the questions station management should be asking and informs solutions to their problems.

Public TV in Bay Area In Trouble

KCSM's future depends on a $1 million fundraising goal by January 1. So far the station has raised $6000. If the independent PTV station owned by San Mateo County Community College District fails to raise $1 million, they say they will need to sell the station. The article in the Oakland Tribune reports that there are no plans to sell the radio station. The article says, "Compared with its televised counterpart, the radio station is faring a tad better financially, especially after a fundraiser during the summer for KCSM Jazz 91.The fundraiser for the only station in the Bay Area with a 24-hour jazz format netted nearly $14,000." Is that a typo? The amount seems very low.

You can Help. The article offered a link if you would like to contribute.
http://kcsm.org/interact/savetv/

KSTX Focus On Hunger

This is a great example of how community service programming can have a meaningful impact on the community. Texas Public Radio continues the Town Hall series with a solutions-based conversation on hunger issues affecting the surrounding community.

KSTX is building bridges between itself and the community. Through efforts like this the station is becoming a key player as a cultural institution in San Antonio. KSTX is playing a larger role. It is not afraid to step outside its walls and to reach beyond its website. Check out the KSTX webpage devoted to this subject and the links they provide to inform the conversation around this issue.

WGBH bringing TV shows to radio

WGBH-FM becomes Boston's next public radio news and information station. They'll begin as Boston's third service behind WBUR and WBZ. WGBH plans to sprinkle their schedule with made for TV fair from WGBH-TV including the NewsHour. In an article published in the Boston Globe WGBH spokesperson Jeanne Hopkins explains, “We want to do something that is additive, that complements what is already in town and do it in another way.’’ WGBH talks about adapting this programming for radio, but does not talk about the disparity in age cohorts. Is this meant to drive new audiences to WGBH-TV or grow the audience for WGBH-FM?

NPR's Carl Kasell: Wait wait … I'm semi-retiring

Carl is NPR's rock star. We're all in awe of his abilities. His voice and steadying influence will be missed. When Wait Wait came to Hartford, the loudest and longest cheer was for Carl.
You can find out more in the Chicago Tribune.

WMFE Switches Formats

I heard a few days ago about the impending change to news and information at WMFE-FM. It's exciting news for those who have not had NPR style news consistently in Central Florida. The change will be felt deeply by classical music fans who will be forced to subscribe to a satellite service or get classical music from the web. The music is being offered on WMFE's HD2 signal. There are not many sets and the low power of the HD signal will not satisfy too many listeners. I'm not sure how the HD2 broadcast is going to sustain itself.

News coverage of the change has been scant. The word may not have gotten to the station's classical core audience yet. The station sent a mailing to its members yesterday. There will be more heat around this change after the classical audience becomes aware of the change. When we made the change at Connecticut Public Radio. most of our listeners could still get classical music from other radio stations in our coverage area. We still got over 2000 protests from our membership about the change. A quick search of the Orlando market did not reveal any other stations carrying classical music.

More at Floridatoday.com

WLIU Looking For A Home

WLIU is looking for a new home after the successful bid by a community group to purchase the station from Long Island University. They also finished their first fund drive as a community based station. The $90,000 they raised isn't anywhere near the $2.4 million needed to pay Long Island University. But, by far, it's the most they've ever raised during an on-air appeal.
There's more information about the station at 27 East News.

Pfizer Shuts Down New London Research Center

Did you notice that Pfizer is shutting down the New London R&D Center? I guess all those houses torn down in the New London eminent domain case were lost for nothing.
You can hear more about the story on WNPR's website.
"Pfizer built the New London headquarters building in 2001, for an investment of more than $300m. And the city of New London agreed to acquire the nearby neighborhood of Fort Trumbull by eminent domain in order to build a complementary development – the ill-fated plan that lead to the Supreme Court case of Kelo versus New London." Pfizer says there will be no layoffs in Connecticut. The jobs at the New London site will be moved to Groton. Meanwhile KWMU reports that Pfizer is laying off 600 in St. Louis.

Community Service/Community Support

There is a direct correlation between programming and fundraising. The success of a public radio station is dependent on the relationship of its programming and editorial decisions with its audience. Programming creates an audience. If the audience finds that the programming resonates with their beliefs and lifestyle they will spend more time listening to that station. A relationship is developed that results in audience support.

To effectively produce local programming, the producers and reporters should be able to incorporate the Core Values of public radio programming and understand the implications of the Sense of Place research. According to Sense of Place research, “we found that public radio listeners who are drawn to news and information programming are the same from market to market. When they tune to public radio they are seeking depth, intelligence, authenticity, civility and a global perspective.”

For instance, public radio listeners want more from local news than the typical reading of headlines. They would rather have fewer stories, in relative depth, even within a cutaway newscast. At WNPR we always tried to put our stories in a wider perspective. Public radio listeners are working with their minds as they listen to local news and information. They are thinking about connections, other angles and a wider, even global perspective. An effective tool we often used was benchmarking. We looked at how the issues we covered were bring handled in other communities, especially if those communities were finding workable solutions.

Because our resources were limited, we used our editorial judgment to cover the stories that would have the biggest impact on our community. We wanted to make sure our resources were used to the greatest advantage for our audience and fur us. We often focused on educational issues, the environment, transportation, health and the issues brought about by the economy. We deliberately covered stories that would have the greatest impact on our community.

The Manager’s responsibilities do not end with the selection programming. The relationships developed between the station and its contributors need to be nurtured in order for the relationships to grow. From the members bigger relationships can grow. They can become major donors, contributors to the capital campaign or make donations to the endowment. These connections can be networked into underwriters and grants from foundations. The General Manager must become a fund-raiser to help forward these relationships. The General Manager is the face of the station and should be willing to meet with donors and underwriters with the station’s development director.

Cher to Donate Portion of Tickets Sales to Nevada Public Radio

It would be intersting to find out if Cher is actually actively fundraising or if KNPR bought the house and then priced the tickets to include a membership. Public TV does this with concerts featuring groups like the Moody Blues and artists like Yanni. At times the price of the ticket will include a meet and greet with the star. It would also be intersting to find out what the classical audience thinks about this benefit. It would seem Cher is somewhat outside the core values of the classical music audience. Still...it's a good idea and may generate some new memberships.
Cher at The Colosseum

Framing Health Care Debate As Battle Of Sexes

Here's another reminder that health care reform is about affordable health care. It is not about illegal aliens, or death panels, or the communist plot to fluoridate the water, or who can shout the loudest.This story from NPR covers the disparity in the cost of health insurance between men and women.Recently I've been asked to participate in a dialog about the rise in racism and how to make more people aware of how destructive and dangerous racism is in our society. Hand-in-hand with racism is discrimination.Are the dramatically higher premiums for women's healthcare insurance a case of discrimination? The term used by the insurance companies is called "gender indexing" according to Liz Halloran's story on NPR. Gender indexing is used by insurance companies to set premiums. Halloran explains, "Historically, it has disproportionately affected women who buy plans in the individual insurance market, and, to a lesser degree, those who participate in some group plans." Perhaps this is not direct discrimination, but it may be indirect discrimination according to a definition at Equality Diversity Services a company committed to providing training in the workplace and developing a change in organization culture in the UK. According to their definition, "This includes practices which might look fair but which have discriminatory side effects. It applies when an apparently neutral provision, criterion or practice disadvantages members of a specified group relative to others." Charging 86% more for Women's health insurance would seem to put younger women at a disadvantage.

New Music Software Predicts The Hits

I found the Morning Edition feature about Music Intelligence Solutions to be both fascinating and scary. Pop music can often be formulaic. Adding another layer, a layer of surefire software induced formulas for success, could make the music unbearably dull.
Will the software sacrifice artistic expression for hook filled production values?
But then it’s easy for me to say. I’ve never had a hit.

NPR Still Hurting

Inland NewsToday reports that NPR is going to lose another 8.5 million dollars in the current fiscal year. Station program dues, the endowment, grants and underwriting are not enough to make ends meet. Read more at InLand News Today.

What's next? Drop more marginal programs? Cut staff further? Raise program dues? A national membership drive? On-line pledges at npr.org? Maybe all of that.

(Sources: Sacramento Bee and INT)

More but Selective Music for the New WQXR

Here's a first look at what the playlist will be like at WQXR. Based on my experience, WNYC is headed in the right direction . Everything that is put on the air matters, and the selection of what music to air when is as critical as what the announcers say in the breaks. Because classical music fans are passionate about the music and feel invested in the music, there's going to be a lot of heat around WNYC's (WQXR's) choices.
I'm wondering what they mean by a younger audience. A median age of 55 would be a lot younger than the median age of most classical music stations (65 to 70).
This articles was in the New York Times on September 30th.

News Coverage Declines

The idea of running a newspaper as a non-profit like public radio came up again. Mercury News Columnist Mike Cassidy included that idea in his latest column.

Over 20 years in public radio taught me that raising funds at a public radio station is not as easy as it sounds. Public radio's success or failure depends on its content.

Raising money for public radio goes something like this. The content creates the audience. If the content resonates with the values and beliefs of the audience they are more likely to support the content. If the audience perceives the content to be valuable and unique they are even more likely to support the content (programming).

The programming also has to attract a large enough core audience to sustain the programming. The idea is to create significant programming for a significant audience. In public radio, if the core audience tunes in about nine times a week and, they spend about ten hours a week listening to a station, they are the listeners most likely to become contributors. Very few web users spend that much time on any one site. The relationship that creates support is much more complex than this, but these are the basics.

The scary part of the demise of newspapers is who becomes the watchdog? Who will have the resources it takes to do investigative journalism?

Readers of Mike Cassidy's column had a lot of other ideas that followed a few themes.
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_13432751

Bids For WLIU Due This Week.

Long Island University is taking bids Wednesday for their radio station WLIU. There's a local group in the running to make a successful bid. The unknown factor is that there might be a religious broadcaster with deep pockets that might outbid Peconic Public Broadcasting.

Robert Altholz, Long Island University's treasurer and vice president for finance, told the AP he has a fiduciary responsibility to accept the highest bid. Those trying to save WLIU as a local public radio station are hoping community goodwill will also be a factor. LIU says it is spending $1million a year on the station. They say they can no longer afford to do that.

Read the rest Frank Eltman's article from the AP.

There are two unsettling aspects to this story. First, Long Island University will sell WLIU to the highest bidder. The community groups that want to buy the station could easily be outbid. Second, it is not clear that the station staff will be paid during the extension period. “In the meantime, Mr. Smith has something else to worry about. The State University at Stony Brook has granted a reprieve that would allow the station to stay on the Stony Brook Southampton campus, formerly occupied by L.I.U.’s Southampton College, until Dec. 3, but the private college’s original Oct. 3 cutoff date still stands, as far as the station’s employees’ paychecks are concerned.”
You can read more in Kate Maier’s article in The East Hampton Star.

'Prairie Home Companion' Host Garrison Keillor Suffered Stroke.

Sometimes I wonder about the fragile state of Public Radio’s hit shows. A Prairie Home Companion still matters to public Radio’s core audience. When I worked for WNPR fundraising around the program was often hit or miss. That didn’t mean the audience did not appreciate the program. The weekly audience was usually around 40,000 persons. The average audience was usually over 12,000. Core loyalty was usually over 70%. A Prairie Home Companion was a destination for the core audience. The core is the group of listeners most likely to give to public radio.

So what’s the big deal if Garrison decides in two years he wants to retire? Or, what if the Tom and Ray decide, because of failing health, to hang it up? It means that the audience that is most likely to contribute will be spending less time with their public radio station. The less time these listeners spend with their station, the less likely it is they will give.

The new compelling programming that draws in the core and creates new audience is in short supply. The latest public radio hit is Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me! WWDTM is at least ten years old. It took a few years before it developed into the show it is now.

Garrison says he'll be back in just a couple of weeks. For now public radio does not have to face this issue.

What happens if public radio loses a hit like A Prairie Home Companion? Is there something in development that can replace it? I hope so. Like A Prairie Home Companion and Car Talk the go to place for the core might have to develop locally first.



You can read more about Garrison’s stroke in the Huffington Post.

Al Franken Draws US From Memory

A video from Minnesota Public Radio shows Al Franken drawing a map of the U.S. from memory. I’m guessing it did not cost MPR thousands of dollars to shoot edit and post this. It might cost that much if public TV were to produce it.

Support For WLIU Prompts Involvement From Local Politicians

Hamptons.com is reporting that two Long Island Politicians are becoming involved in the effort to save WLIU. A few weeks ago Stoney Brook Southampton announced they would be selling the station. According to the article Assemblyman Fred Thiele (R-Sag Harbor) and State Senator Ken LaValle (R-1) will be holding a press conference with general manager Wally Smith on Wednesday, Sept. 9 at 11 a.m. to highlight the growing support for keeping the community radio station alive.

There's been interest in buying the station from public broadcasters from off the island and from religious broadcasters.



The Long Island Business News reports that religious broadcaster are buying up public radio stations at a quick pace. "From January 2008 to June 2009, 28 public radio stations have been sold, 13 to religious groups."



Two of the religious groups buying up stations are Family Radio and Education Media Foundation. Family Media has been in operation since 1959. Education Media Foundation owns and operates at least 245 radio stations.