For smaller public radio stations with smaller audiences, the struggle to survive comes down to sheer numbers. This is holding true for Delmarva Public Radio owned by Salisbury University. In a letter to the Delmarva Daily Times, Charles T. Capute, chairman of the SU Foundation and Janet Dudley-Eshbach, president of SU, explain why they are taking a serious look at the station's situation. The Foundation hired Public Radio Captial to assess the station's situation and make recommendations. Members of the Foundation are now reviewing PRC's report.
In 17 if the past 25 years DPR has run a deficit. Funds from the University have been used to balance the books. One of the questions that needs to be answered is can a station with cume audience less than 20,000 continue to sustain an NPR news and information format? Especially when you consider they are competing for the same audience with WAMU and WESM.
When considering listener support, the size of the P1 audience is much more significant. If 40% of the Cume audience for news is core (P1), the member base is being drawn from 8,000 listeners. Is the size of the P1 audience large enough to support the cost of the news operation?
Delmarva Public Radio runs two formats. WSCL is a mostly classical service on a 33,000 watt station. WSDL is a mostly news service on a smaller, 18,500 watt signal.
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