Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Maine public radio cuts back its music.

Maine public radio cuts back its music for more talk | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram

This is never easy for public radio stations. After all, we invite listeners to invest in the programs.

Major changes always result in heat and some defections in the short run. Having 4,000 members threaten defection made a lot of staff members sit up and notice when we changed formats.

My past experience with change has yielded surprises. Replacing the opera with coverage of the shuttle disaster resulted in dozens of heated complaints. Coverage of the Pope's death in place of the opera resulted in even more complaints. We temporarily changed programming to offer coverage of the 9/11 disaster. One listener was so incensed by the change he threatened to blow up the station. (We called the police.)

In one case statistics suggested almost no audience and poor loyalty for a stand-alone weekend program. It was easy to understand why. The program had nothing to do with the rest of the schedule. I took the program off the air. The response was really light. There were literally a handful of negative comments. In fact, there was hardly a ripple. Within a few weeks after leaving the station, the program was back on the air. One of the members of that small ripple was able to dangle a check from a foundation in front of senior management. They went for it.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Car Talk on SiriusXM Satellite

Car Talk on SiriusXM


You can drive home with Car Talk but, you need to subscribe to SiriusXM Satellite Radio. According to the Sacramento Bee and other news sources, Car Talk and SiriusXM have reached an agreement.  Sirius will run NPR's Car Talk back to back episodes from 3:00pm to 6:00pm. ET starting November 23rd. Sirius will run a Car Talk Marathon Thanksgiving Day.

Car Talk announced over the summer they would stop producing new episodes. They are continuing to run the best of the show for public radio. The repeats began in October. There has been a lot of discussion in the public radio system about what to do with the time slot occupied by Car Talk. Some stations have decided to continue to run the show as before. Others have moved it. The deal with Sirius will spread out listening further. The program is also available on-line. It has been for many years and, Sirius runs episodes on their NPR channel.

Over time listening will erode for Car Talk which has been one of public radio's most popular programs. It is unclear what effect the daily airing on Sirius will have on public radio's audience. The Sirius airing runs up against All Things Considered starting at 4:00pm. ET. For Sirius subscribers who also use public radio, there will be some further sharing of audience. 

Something to think about; the sharing will erode station loyalty further. Station loyalty is one of the key factors in listener support.

Friday, November 16, 2012

KMHD Best Jazz Station

KMHD, Portland went from the brink of chaos in 2009 to jazz station of the year. Jazz Week Magazine gave the award to KMHD in August. Tom D'Antoni interviews PD Matt Fleeger who is credited with turning the station around after he was hired by Oregon Public Broadcasting. The interview and video appear in OregonMusicNews.com.




Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Broader Implications Updated


On November 19th the Pew Research Center reported that more people are following news about the Fiscal Cliff over the Petraeus scandal.

More Following 'Fiscal Cliff' Debate Than Petraeus Investigation



The Pew Research Center is reporting that there is broad concern about the fiscal cliff. They also have found that confidence is low that a deal will be reached.

Broad Concern about 'Fiscal Cliff' Consequences

Public Is Skeptical Deal Will Be Reached

When it comes to choices...what should we cover? As a a programmer I was concerned with serving my audience and what they expected from us? I always came down on the side of broader implications. My understanding of the research of the public radio audience is that they expect us to cover the issues that affect all of us in the long run. Coverage of  the fiscal cliff may be more complicated and less sexy than the lead story about the Petraeus/CIA scandal...but in the end the Fiscal Cliff will affect more us more deeply than the tawdry scandal involving the General and his biographer.

I'm not trying to preach...I'm just reminding all of us to keep our eye on the ball. It does matter what we cover and how we cover it...no matter the story and no matter platform. The true public service is embedded in the fiscal story and the ability of our political leaders to breach the divide.

On November 19th the Pew Research Center reported that more people are following news about the Fiscal Cliff over the Petraeus scandal.

More Following 'Fiscal Cliff' Debate Than Petraeus Investigation



Friday, November 9, 2012

PPM may bring jazz back


The Pittsburgh Post Gazette is reporting that Pittsburgh Public Media (PPM) is moving ahead with plans to acquire WVBC-FM. WVBC-FM is currently owned by Bethany College. If PPM can raise the funds   necessary by February First and, the FCC approves the sale, the station will carry Jazz full time.

PPM acknowledges that WVBC-FM does not cover Pittsburgh. PPM Board President Chuck Leavens says they will try to boost the signal so it will reach Pittsburgh.

The programming will be provided by PubMusic. Among the hosts is Scott Hanley the former GM of WDUQ.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Delmarva Public Radio - No Way Out?

Listeners on the Delmarva Peninsula are upset.
Delmarva Public Radio part of our identity
Tom Hehman: Even if SU throws in the towel, we will not

Keep Delmarva in Delmarva Public Radio


As the published letters in the links suggests, listeners are going to miss their local public radio station.

Saving the stations, current local programming won't be easy.

Is it feasible to expect the kind of support it is going to take from listeners to keep WSCL and WSDL from switching formats to national music services? The stations lost money 17 out of the last 21 years. Listener support, foundation support and underwriting continually fell short of fiscal needs. In the past, the university made up the difference. The Salisbury University Foundation responsible for Delmarva Public Radio hired Public Radio Capital (PRC) to assess the station's fiscal viability. The University, coping with a shrinking budget, is looking for places to save.

The suggestion by PRC is that DPR drop news programming and most local classical programming. Public Radio Capital reported that too much of Delmarva Public Radio's audience was being siphoned off by stations in DC and Baltimore. Reduced audience results in diminished support.   The suggestion is to replace the NPR news station with a AAA format. Most of the programming would be syndicated. The classical service would also lose most of its local content and be programmed by a service like Classical 24.

The Numbers Matter
Size isn't everything but, public radio stations need a large enough core audience to draw from to sustain itself. WSCL and WSDL's numbers don't offer alot of hope for listeners to save their stations. In order for residents of Delmarva to save their stations their stations they will need to step forward in numbers that exceed the usual membership benchmarks. The simple benchmark is that ten percent of a station's cume can be expected to contribute. WSCL's cume 12+ was about 18,000 in Fall 2011. WSDL's cume was about 13,000 in the same period.   A rough estimate of potential givers is 3,100. DPR's annual budget is about $1million. According to the station's website about 50% of their budget is covered by memberships. To cover the $500,000 the average pledge needs to be $161. To cover the $220,000 projected deficit the average pledge will need to increase $71.

Simply taking 10% of the cume to make projections doesn't really cover the issue. Specifically, the station needs to look at the size of the core audience and the core's loyalty to the station. Drawing on the core is a much smaller sample to draw on for funding. Simply put, DPR's audience might not be large enough to support itself. Without support from other sources the stations will continue to run deficits as currently programmed.