Marketplace Wealth and Poverty Desk on Public Radio

A discussion on the Real Life Survival Guide about how we handle personal finance led me to an interesting and much more serious place.




Introducing the Marketplace Wealth and Poverty Desk | Marketplace from American Public Media

Marketplace from APM is introducing the Wealth and Poverty Desk to highlight stories about the concentration of wealth in the United States and the widening gap between those who have that wealth and the rest of us.

The Marketplace Morning Report ran a story on February 27th that tried to explain wealth. Thomas Shapiro of the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis explains in the report that wealth is surplus security. According to the story one in four Americans do not have surplus security.

Does this matter?

Late last year Pro Publica reported the gap between richest and poorest is far greater than it used to be. In the Fall of 2011, Max Fisher of the Atlantic reported that the United States ranks among the worst in the world when it comes to income inequality. We're right there with Cameroon, Madagascar, Rwanda, Uganda, Ecuador, Mexico, Côte d'Ivoire, Sri Lanka, Nepal and, Serbia. Some of these countries are embroiled in destabilizing conflicts. The wide gap between rich and poor is a source for political instability.


The focus on accumulating wealth runs deep. Yesterday there were two reports in the Hartford Courant about greed and where it leads. In one story a Youth Leader at the Boys and Girls Clubs admitted stealing $470k from the Waterbury club. In the other, a former CEO of Latex International made a guilty plea to stealing $1.7 million from his company to support his lifestyle. That company's HR Director plead guilty back in December of stealing the same amount. There was also a report on how vandals are cashing in by stealing copper and brass.


A Final Thought
How much would it cost to change things? More than billion people in the world live on less than one dollar a day. It is estimated that it would cost about 20 billion dollars to provide food, basic health and nutrition for those who are going without. In 2002 Americans spend $20 billion a year on frozen desserts. 
http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/ice-cream2.htm

Creating A Public Radio Program Buzz

  From the Top is taking its roadshow to Utah Public Radio. The program was recently added to their line-up.      

Getting involved with remotes of national programming helped launch WNPR's change in programming focus. WNPR was able to generate community and listener excitement around StoryCorps, Wait, Wait and A Prairie Home Companion.
Here's some of the positive results we had at WNPR:

• Listeners loved it.
• Press coverage about the station increased.
• The appearances created development opportunities.
• Staff became involved. All of this was a positive experience for them.

 UPR is experiencing some of that glow. The Salt Lake Tribune has press coverage today. There will be more coverage as the event draws closer. UPR also has the news posted on their Website and Facebook Page.




From the Top airs on UPR Friday afternoons at 2:00 and Sunday nights at 9:00.  

Keillor to Raise Funds for Obama

Garrison Keillor announces that he is raising funds for President Obama. The Pioneer Press and Minnesota Public Radio are reporting the fundraiser will be in Keillor's St. Paul home this week.

Garrison Keillor will host fundraiser for Obama

What are your feelings on this? If it was your station, would you allow one of your hosts to take a political stand, or would you prefer they stay neutral. FCC guidelines do not allow public radio stations to advocate on issues of public interest. Garrison Keillor is not advocating on the air. The fundraiser is something he doing as a private citizen. But, others in the media (and public media) have been let go because they advocated as a private citizen. Should the same rules apply here?

WDSC Leaves PBS

WDSC is dropping its affiliation with PBS. The Daytona State College station will focus on teaching students with a new degree program. The Daytona News Journal reports state and federal budget cuts resulted in the college ending its membership with the Public Broadcasting Service, which made up 25 percent of its programming. It not clear from the article what programming will be aired by WDSC.


WDSC is not the only Public TV station in Florida to change direction. In April of 2011 it was announced that WMFE, Orlando was up for sale. The FCC has not yet approved the sale of the license to Daystar, a religious broadcaster. 


Daytona Beach and Orlando are being served by WBCC-TV out of Cocoa, Florida. 


 

Full Funding for CPB

All Access Group is reporting the budget for CPB is at full funding in the new federal budget. The President's fiscal year 2013 budget includes full funding. CPB is asking congress for $445 million. The funding will be up for debate.


This comes as many states are cutting back.


Current's Mike Janssen reports, pubcasting networks continue to deal with the uncertainties of state funding in economically and politically precarious times, closing offices, facing possible cuts and bracing for the consequences.

Positive Audience Trends for Public Radio

JC Patrick shared some positive audience numbers on the PRADO list today.


Subject: [PRADO] Article on Research Director Public Radio Benchmarks

From today’s commercial radio enewsletters -  this one from All Access:

§  RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC. recently published a series of ratings benchmarks
for radio stations in PPM markets. The original study examined over 1,700
radio stations in the 45 non-embedded PPM markets, and segmented them into
various format groups.

As a follow-up, RESEARCH DIRECTOR has now produced benchmarks for
non-commercial News/Talk and Classical stations. The same time period was
utilized (average of the OCTOBER 2010 through SEPTEMBER 2011 surveys). The
non-commercial News/Talk format group's performance was also compared to its
commercial All News and News/Talk counterparts.

Among the key findings:

* The average non-commercial Classical station has a P6+ total week time
spent listening of 3:19. This is higher than 15 of the 18 commercial format
groups analyzed.

* Non-commercial News/Talk stations do a great job recycling between drive
times. Of the typical non-commercial News/Talk radio station’s AM Drive cume
audience, 64% also tune in during PM drive. When compared to the average
station (all formats, commercial and non-commercial), that is 16% above the
norm.

* Non-commercial News/Talk stations also perform significantly better than
their commercial counterparts when it comes to weekday-to-weekend recycling.
Of the typical non-commercial News/Talk radio station's weekday cume
audience, 42% also tune in on the weekend. Compare that to 28% for
commercial News/Talk and 36% for commercial All News.

RESEARCH DIRECTOR Managing Partner MARC GREENSPAN said, "These benchmarks
are designed to help public radio stations assess their rating position and
determine ways they can grow."

Pres. CHARLIE SISLEN added, "With tighter budgets, it’s difficult to attract
new listeners, and therefore grow cume. Alternatively, stations can focus on
taking their existing cume and getting them to listen longer."

RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC.'s report, "How Is My Station Really Doing? Public
Radio Edition" is available here
<http://www.ResearchDirectorInc.com/newsvault.asp> . The complete PPM
Benchmark study for all formats, originally published in DECEMBER 2011, is
also available there.





J.C. Patrick

Marketing and Fundraising Consultant

Things Public Radio Listeners Say

Okay...the title is actually Sh*t Public Radio Listeners say.
The two characters, Sarah LaDuke and Ian Pickus, both work at WAMC in Albany.
Too bad they weren't driving a Prius.

Sh*t Public Radio Listeners Say


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKsaInuMSzI&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Public Broadcasting Cut Back in Kansas

A bid to restore funds for public broadcasting in Kansas has been rejected.

Governor Sam Brownback cut funding 70% in his budget. A House budget subcommittee restored $800,000. That has been rejected.

For some Republicans Public Radio is the target.

Panel rejects funding for public broadcasting | CJOnline.com

Early Results for KCET Not Good

Funding is down at KCET. Way Down!  Contributions and grants at KCET have dropped over $22 million since they ended their affiliation with PBS. They're hoping new programming will result in increases soon.
There's more in this article by Scott Collins of the LA Times.

Updating Media Skills

Something really interesting happened last week with the Planned Parenthood - Komen controversy. The response on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter using shared information (curating) changed the result.

I'm taking some courses on marketing and new media. I've only just begun. I know enough to, perhaps, do more damage than good. The courses have got me thinking about the ways public media can use social media.

In Public Radio (public media) we've been looking for ways to attract a younger and larger audience. We've been looking for the right combination of programming (format) to attract that audience. The answer might not be on the air. Or, maybe it already is. The quality content of public radio (public media) put on the right platforms can grow the audience. NPR is already doing this. I'm speaking of content created locally. This is content already being created. Thoughtful selection and sharing the content through social networks will expose the content further. This is only a theory. But, it's easy to do and inexpensive. Because of that it has a lot of potential.

The starting point is to put the content being creating on the platforms used by the public radio audience and measure the results. See if you can take advantage of the curatorial power of social media to expand the audience.

Another Tour Winner Loses Title

here was a time when I thought I was pretty good at bike racing. I was faster than most in the sprints but, not world class. It was in the distance races that I became aware of the difference. My body could not hold up to the grueling effort it took to compete for more than 50 miles.  I think because I was young, I thought I could do anything. I even identified with "Breaking Away."

 Because of that early interest in bike racing, I follow the Tour de France each year. My interest was rekindled when Greg Lamond won the race. He was first American and non-European to win the race.
Lamond retired from racing when he discovered he could no longer compete because of the doping going on in the sport. He decided he could not do that.

It was announced today that Alberto Contador is banned for two years after finding the Spanish cyclist guilty of doping, a decision that will strip the 2010 Tour de France champion of his title. American Floyd Landis lost the title in 2006 after testing positive for testosterone. In turn, Landis accused Lance Armstrong of doping. The investigation against Armstrong has just been abandoned. 


I still think about racing and the adrenalin rush in the sprints. I even take my 1978 Super Course out sometimes. The bike really flies. 


My sons challenged me to a race. There were plenty of comments about my age. I them the Reservoir. A one lap race. Just a few miles.  I left them behind on the hill climb. The race never got to the sprint. (don't tell them my bike is a lot lighter than theirs) I can still move pretty fast for a geezer. 


I feel a little sad that my youthful idealism is tarnished by the drug scandals. I hope Dave in "Breaking Away" never lost his idealism.


There's more on the ban at NPR.

Marketplace, KQED explain how fabricated commentary got on the air | Poynter.

KQED's Perspectives series leads to an embarrassing and humbling experience for KQED and Marketplace.

As a PD and GM I put a lot of trust in our News Director and reporters to check sources...to get it right. There were always listeners contacting us to question the validity of stories. Not getting it right is embarrassing. Listeners depend on us. They trust us.

Here's a quick sketch of what happened. More detail is available through Poynter with a link below.

Marketplace and KQED are trying to bring a diversity of voices to the air through KQED's Perspectives and Marketplace's commentary. The piece aired is by Leo Webb. In the piece he says he is a former Army sniper with 17 kills, and a former minor league pitcher.

Neither KQED nor Marketplace were able to confirm those details after suspicion was raised by comments on both of their sites and by at least two blogs. Both KQED and Marketplace admit they did not do a good job checking Webb's story. Marketplace Executive Producer Deborah Clark and KQED's Scott Walton told Poynter.org's Craig Silverman that they should have done a better job of vetting Leo Webb.

Both organizations are doing the right thing by owning up to their mistake and moving on.

Marketplace, KQED explain how fabricated commentary got on the air | Poynter.

The story was retracted by Marketplace.

Retraction

There's an app for that - WGBH Magazine and Guide

WGBH has a a new iPad app for its Magazine and Program listings. According to the press release (you can see the whole release here) WGBH is using Adobe DPS, the preeminent solution for Adobe InDesign®-based tablet publishing, to produce the iPad edition of Explore!, the organization’s monthly magazine for members and public media’s first program guide designed especially for tablets.
The app will deliver live updates, interactive features, videos and behind the scenes videos.

This adds new dimensions to the guide experience. My previous experience with print guides has been to question the value of the guide to the listener and viewer and, to question the cost of the guide. Perhaps this can change the equation. Unique and up to date material should be a value added experience for the user.