Public Radio Partnerships: Strength in Numbers

If I had just one wish for Public Broadcasting it would be more collaboration and less competition within the system. We would be so much better at serving our audience if we just found ways to work together.

Unified Vision

When I first came to New England, I was working with several stations on a project that looked at better serving our audiences locally and collaborating regionally. The premise of the regional collaboration was to better serve the public radio audience up and down the I-91 corridor with a high quality service meeting the needs of the region. Despite honest efforts, it never came to pass as stations focused on their own issues without drawing on the experience of others.

The collaborative spirit was replaced by competition and distrust. 

There have been some hopeful efforts recently funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Three notable collaborations include stations along Ohio River Valley, A News Initiative in Indiana and Alaskan energy issues. The hope is these collaboratives will motivate others to do the same.

Earlier Efforts

I was involved in previous efforts. Most notably, the Environmental Initiate at WNPR, a collaborative with solid funding that involved several stations in the Northeast. Once the grant ran down, the stations were unable to sustain the regional effort. Shared funding was suggested based on listener hours, but nothing re-lit the collaboration. I also assisted in the Kentucky Public Radio Network collaborative. KPRN is still going strong and involves several of the stations working together in the Ohio River Valley project.

These partnerships are like any intense relationship. They take work and compromise to keep them together. The pay-off is higher caliber content that has a stronger appeal to the public media audience. They also have the advantage of pooled funding and shared costs.

Podcasts - The New VHS?

I struggled with the conclusion of this blog. I am not against podcasts or progress or new platforms. It's more about collecting and saving content that I may get to later. For me...later never seems to happen.

Digital Clutter

I was sorting through some of our stuff. Actually, I was looking for things to toss and I came across some VHS tapes. None of them have been watched. It looks as if I will never watch them for two reasons.

1. I no longer have a player
2. I'm no longer interested.

I'll save one tape. I contains video of my son when he was two. The rest is just trash.

I recently read articles about the generational divide for public radio and NPR. So...are podcasts the saving grace? The line that stood out was that there is no way to measure if all those downloaded podcasts are actually being listened to. Time Spent Listening for radio can be measured, but there's no way to determined of listeners are actually listening the content on podcasts. 

This is an important issue when it comes to building audience and loyalty. Marketing and development becomes more effective when positive outcomes from a listeners perspective can be demonstrated to the potential funder or contributor. Money follows audience.

I'm curious. How many podcasts are just taking up space on your device? How many do you actually listen to? Is there a way this could be measured? Opened emails can be measured with an email service. Analytics can show information about time spent on a blog site and website. Even the number of clicks on a page can be measured. Once a podcast is downloaded, what happens to the podcast is not traceable. Wouldn't it be nice if we could track actual usage for podcasts?

No Critical Mass?

But, are the numbers big enough to really matter? Serial is considered a breakout hit for podcasts. There were over 40 million downloads. It is estimated that each episode was downloaded 3.4 million times. Unfortunately, most podcasts don't come anywhere close to those numbers. Compare that with the weekly cume of the public radio station I listen to most. WNPR has over 200,000 listeners weekly. The weekly cume for public radio is 30 million. That's an unduplicated cume. I'm not sure, but the unduplicated weekly cume for Serial was 3.4 million. Cume is not the critical number when it comes to funding...the core audience is. Perhaps, if we could figure out the podcast's core?

I think the question is moot. Podcast's may be suited for the younger demographics of public radio's potential audience, but they may not be suitable for broadcast. Radio works best when it has a consistent audience appeal. You can tune in anytime and get what you want. It does not work well as a venue for appointment listening. Podcasts are all about appointments (so were VHS tapes).  The best part is the technology allows the user to make the appointment. We can make certain aspects of public radio programming available for on-demand listening and use social media to try to create a viral buzz, but as with most podcasts, don't expect the response and buzz that was created by Serial.

Vetting and Why I Listen to Public Radio

A Matter of Core Values

So often I offer critiques of public radio. That's because I worked in public radio for over three decades. How about some long overdue praise? The other day I was listening to a short report about vetting immigrants and it became clear why I listen.

Some background

I started listening in 1978. I was looking for something different...something with depth...something stimulating. I was driving through Michigan on my way home from visiting a friend. I was scanning the radio dial when I happened on NPR's All Things Considered which was being broadcast by the station in Ann Arbor (Now Michigan Radio). The reports were like nothing else I had heard on the radio. The depth and variety of viewpoints engaged me. That half-hour flew by. So did the next the next 20 minutes until I drove out of range. The station was airing a documentary about the Pullman workers in the Jim Crow era. I wanted more.

I sought out public radio. What I found was a mix of content. Some of it great...some of it not so great. The moments of greatness far outweighed the disappointments. The in-depth news and music programming were a perfect match for lifestyle and values.What really struck me was the emphasis on civil discourse and fairness.

Later that year I started volunteering at WUWM and a few months later started working as their music director.

Many Years Later

Despite the fact that I no longer work full time in public radio...it is still a trusted source for news and information. It's the place I go to when I want to know more about complex issues. I use other sources. I check on-line news aggregators. I read newspapers in print and on-line. I stay away from cable news.

After the terrorist attacks in Paris, and after the reaction of the Governors and Republican presidential candidates to essentially shut down our borders to Syrian refugees, I wanted to find out more about the vetting process. The Republicans and some Democrats wanted to make sure our government was fully vetting refugees before admitting them to the United States. The implication was the process was loose. The scenario of thousands of radicals streaming across our southern border was being shouted by politicians and pundits on cable news. There seemed to be nothing civil or fair about their coverage.

I've gotten to the point I can't stay with cable news very long. I'm not the only one who noticed the shrill nature of coverage on the cable networks with all sorts of fear mongering and punditry posing as news coverage.

Trust

I went to a sources I've found I can reliably trust to give me the full story in fair manner. I went to NPR, Public Radio and the BBC. Here's an example...

4 Things To Know About The Vetting Process For Syrian Refugees

I found that the refugees were already being vetted. The process for admission for a refugee can take two years. The refugees aren't just being dropped off in communities. There are nine groups helping with resettlement. According to the NPR report, "Six of them are faith-based. They help refugees find homes, furniture, school supplies and jobs." Finally, some officials worry there may be gaps in the system.

That's a far cry from this...

Islamophobic Media Coverage Is Out Of Control

I come to public radio because I want to be informed. I want information that can help me connect the dots. I want coverage that I can trust. 

How Much is Too Much?

The audience described in this blog isn't really the target for public radio and public media. Tweens and teens only hear NPR in passing if their parents listen. Perhaps in the car? Their media consumption habits may be the leading edge...the shape of things to come. In the very near future public media will be facing challenges for eyes and ears that will require a major shift in thinking way beyond the challenges that face us today.

Is there too much content?

Too Much TV

CBS is reporting that some experts believe there is too much TV available right now. 

Can the large number of programs sustain itself? The focus of the report is on sustainability. If the audience is being sliced and diced into thinner and thinner slices, are the numbers going to become so small that the weight of cost for traditional broadcast media will not be able to support the content.

Are we becoming addicted to the contact not the content?

A recent report from suggests that young people are spending nine hours a day looking at screens. The Office of National Statistics in Great Britain reports that children are spending three hours a day of social media. That amount of time may be harmful. Social interactions and the ability to communicate may be impaired as a result. The emphasis is on the number of clicks, likes and shares, These are all surface values. There is no depth.

The Telegraph reports...

Screen time - including watching television, spending time on the computer and playing video games - has been associated in previous research with higher levels of emotional distress, anxiety and depression. 

The report found there was a “clear association” between longer time spent on social websites and the incidence of mental health problems.

Couple this with the report on CNN about how teens are spending upwards of nine hours a day on their devices and you can see a problem emerging. The problem is much broader than finding ways to support public radio and public media. James Steyer, chief executive officer and founder of Common Sense Media, in an interview with CNN...

The implications of this digital transformation are huge for tweens and teens, educators, policymakers and parents. For one, living and communicating via mobile devices gets in the way of empathy, said Steyer. Texting is so much less empathetic than having a conversation in person and looking somebody in the eye and having physical or at least a verbal presence with them, he said. Add in the issues of digital addiction and the attention and distraction implications that come with mobile devices, and "empathy is really, really under siege," he said.

The strength  of our content is the ability to tell engaging stories. How do we engage when the audience isn't even listening?

Think Audience

NPR's Older Appeal

Recent research released by NPR suggest they have two audiences. There is the stalwart over 54 crowd...loyal to the programming. Then there's the less loyal under 54 crowd more enamored with social media. According to an article in Current,

"The gap between older and younger listeners of NPR stations is widening. Stations are losing listeners 12–44 years of age. NPR projects that by 2020, its stations’ audience of 44-year-olds and younger will be around 30 percent, half that demographic’s audience share in 1985." 

The 44 year old audience in 1985 would be 64 now which explains, in part, the bulge in the NPR audience among the boomers. The research seems to suggest the younger audience is spending a lot less time with public radio. Does anybody really think we can change the way they use media? I hope not.

Where are they?

Probably on their mobile devices. If they're like my millennial sons, they're connected to three devices at once. They are toggling their brains between content. It's whatever catches their attention for the moment and then they move on. Time spent listening is divided. attention spans are short. They are not interested in gathering news in the way our traditional audience does. They think it's boring! As the article in Current points out, the frustration is, this kind of listening (and watching) can't be reliably measured yet.

Because this group listens less to radio doesn't mean we stop making great radio. As Jeff Hanson said in the Current article, “The radio audience is still funding most of what we do.”  And the audience is still much larger than any single podcast or groups of podcasts.

Since most of our funding still comes from the much larger radio audience, the most effective way to fund new initiatives, digital or radio, is through the practice of great radio. If, as the article suggests, Public Radio is under performing in its medium, we need to examine what we're doing, and correct it fast.

Eric Nuzum challenged public radio's program directors to think audience not formats.

It depends on the platform. Radio is all about consistency of appeal and programs that have a high affinity. Digital media? It all depends on what the individual is looking for. The individual is formatting their own listening and viewing preferences. The sweet spot for public radio lies in ability to offer content that appeals to the younger cohort on the platforms they prefer.
I'm probably one of those old-timers Eric Nuzum talked about at the PRPD conference. We were cohorts when we both served on the board of the Public Radio Program Directors Association, He might have rolled his eyes every time I started talking about programming at conferences. I worked with some of the first generation of public radio researchers. I learned from people like Bailey, Church and Giovannoni. I was able to apply findings from Audience 88 and participated in Audience 98. To those producers and programmers who think public radio is all about doing anything they want and find reinforcement in their decisions based on phone response I was part of the unwashed...the philistines. We were about content and programs that are put together in a cohesive manner to be appealing to a targeted audience.

And yet, we grew a loyal audience and a large membership base. Support from corporations and foundations followed. With success came more talented people providing more content our listeners cared about.

What If Nobody Listens?

My motivations came from some early failures. I worked in public radio for over 30 years (this is where you start rolling your eyes). Early on I had dreams about, "What if nobody is listening" which is kind of like my other dream, "What if nobody pledges."  During my career there were instances where nobody listened, and there were instances where nobody pledged. If nobody is listening and nobody pledges...there's usually a reason. If you do not have a handle on your audience preferences you will have no clue as to what is working and what is not.

Everything Matters

Ask yourself this, "How can your content be a community service is nobody is listening?" Who exactly are you serving? It is best to take a look at the effectiveness of your entire schedule by taking a step back. In your research data look at the entire day and look at longer periods of time. Audience averages that reflects listening over six months or a year. That way you'll be able to limit statistical bounce.

The View From 30,000 Feet

I recently worked with a station that's struggling. In their research analysis they were focusing on growth in individual hours while overall their audience was slowly eroding. They failed to see the big picture of how their midday, evening and weekend programming fit with their program tents poles. There were broad expanses of programming with poor appeal to their core audience. There was no way Morning Edition or All Things Considered could overcome poor programming choices. Everything you do...all of your content matters from the listener's perspective.

Shiny Object Syndrome

At one of the stations I worked for, upper management decided it would be a good idea to program opera year 'round. Their decision was based on a successful European tour featuring several operas. The tour served about 25 major donors. After cost, we cleared a few thousand dollars. It was a classic case of Shiny Object Syndrome. The decision was based on making some quick bucks. The decision ignored the listening choices of the station's audience. Opera was already driving away audience by the boatload. Adding more opera only made it worse. Average audience numbers during that time slot dropped. Total loyalty crashed to below 10%. Core loyalty was almost non-existent.

It could be argued I was focused too narrowly on the hours dedicated to the opera. Surely, a few hours wouldn't matter. After 18 months time spent listening to the station dropped by about an hour. Among the core audience TSL dropped by almost two hours a week. Total core loyalty dropped about five points. Even more distressing, the number of core listeners was dropping. Changes to this situation were made only after being able to demonstrate the adverse effects an ill-advised programming decision was having on listener sensitive income. We were falling tens of thousand of dollars behind our membership goals. To be sure, there were other issues with our programming choices. Those were addressed at the same time.

Where to Start? 

I used to look at the loyalty charts provided by Audigraphics...first. They give a quick look at what is working and what is not throughout the week. Then figure out what can be fixed and what cannot. Listen to the station. Run airchecks.  Sit down with your talent to assess their performance. Understand that everybody needs an editor. Everybody needs to be on-board with the idea that this service is for the audience, not the content producers and providers. No matter the platform, the content has to have a strong appeal for the audience. Need more? Go back to Deb Blakeley's and Israel Smith's report "Thinking Audience." Become brilliant on the basics. The art of good radio and great content requires your attention.

I agree with Eric Nuzum. You have plenty of room to try things. It is likely there are programs...even program streams....within your schedule that are not resonating with your audience. Those resources can be better used elsewhere. As program director, the tools are there to fix the programming on your radio station. By doing that you can create opportunities to create content no matter the generational cohort or the platform.

There's plenty of experience in the system. Ask!

Think Audience!

I Listen to Pledge

Maybe I should Stop

I admit it. I'm an armchair program director. Others who have held that position in the past admit to the same malaise. I listen and I can't help myself. Maybe it is because it seems like content directors (PD's) in the public radio system seem to want to keep learning the same lessons we (the old timers) did long ago.  There I was listening and analyzing the pitching and the content.

Three Minutes...Three Mistakes

Pledge has been raging on for over a week. Maybe I'm just cranky. Today I listened to the talent acknowledge a pledge from a regular guest on the show that was being pledged. She said the gauntlet was down for other guest talent of this show's regular segment to pledge. What's wrong with that? She just let the other 12,000 listeners off the hook. She pitched exclusively to a half-dozen people. Since radio is a companion...personal...the best pitch appeals to the individual, not to groups or to insiders.

Then I heard the other talent talk about what a commitment the station was making with three local productions daily. The station invests heavily in local production. That was it. Is the pitch self-evident? No! She needed to answer why. Why is it important to be local? What is the benefit to the listener? How is the station better serving the audience with local productions? I never found out. It is important to understand that local for the sake of being local is not important to the listener. It is the quality of the content and whether or not that content meets the listener's expectations.

Wasted Promotions

After the pledge break, the station promoted a one hour program airing on Sunday night. It was Monday afternoon. I can't for the life of me remember what was being promoted, but that is the point. The most effective promotional strategy is forward promotion/vertical promotion/horizontal promotion.  Forward promotion is for content coming up in the next 20 minutes. It encourages time spent listening. It should be been placed just before the break. Vertical promotion is something that is focused on content coming up later in the day. This was in midday so, perhaps, a promotion for All Things Considered would have been best. Horizontal promotion is for programming content in the same day-part in the next day. Vertical and horizontal promotions create more occasions. At the very least, promotions are most effective if they inform the listeners of something happening on the air within the next 24 to 36 hours.  The promotion aired by the station used a diagonal strategy...and this is considered the least effective of all the promotional strategies. This particular station does this a lot.

It's Radio - Not Rocket Science

I feel fortunate. I learned these strategies by listening to those already in the system. I participated with others in what it takes to gain and maintain and audience through PRPD ARA (Audience Resource Analysis), Walrus Research, RRC, Station Resource Group, and other people and organizations.  The information is out there. You don't need to reinvent the wheel. Ask.

To Paraphrase, Old PD's never die, they keep looking for opportunities to increase occasions and duration. Even during pledge.

It's basic radio - Think Audience

Super Moon/Blood Moon

What's So Super?

There's no cape. It doesn't really have any super powers, but it is a really rare occasion when a Super Moon meets a full eclipse. We haven't had one since 1982. We've got one this Sunday night! There won't be another for over 15 years.

Not the Apocalypse

Some observers are viewing the date with fear -- calling the eclipse a "blood moon." According to some Christians fixated on end times, this eclipse is the final in a series of four at the end of  the Lunar Tetrad.

 For astronomers and stargazers, the event is to be welcomed with celebration. It should be quite a sight.

Celebrating the Moon

We celebrate the moon in art, fiction and music.  I started pondering music and the moon earlier today after hearing numerous reports about the celestial event Sunday night. Here's what I came up with...

If you believe this is the end...what about Bad Moon Rising by Credence Clearwater Revival ? One of the garage bands I played with performed this.

The Beatles recorded Mister Moonlight. Mister Moonlight is a cover of the tune written by Roy Lee Johnson, and like a lot of tunes about moonlight it's about finding romance. Here's the version by Dr. Feelgood.

I first heard Pink Moon in a Volkswagen commercial. The music made it seem like owning a VW convertible might be a lot of fun. Given the trouble they're having with falsified emissions data, VW might want to bring back Nick Drake's tune. I first heard Nick Drake at Ripon College. Walking through the union one afternoon, there he was playing his guitar and singing. It was a great way to spend 45 minutes between classes.

We used Steve Fobert's "Moon Man - I'm Waiting on You" for pledge. There's a line in a song about a real good contact high and a chorus, "call, fax, email. I'm waiting on you."

Moon Man Link

Van Morrison's Moondance is especially relevant with it's autumnal reference. We danced to Moondance at our October Wedding 28 years ago.

Cat Stevens called Moon Shadow the ultimate optimist song. Indeed!

A tangential connection is Werewolves of London. I used to hear this a lot at Hooligan's on Milwaukee's East Side. Bar patrons would sing along with the howling part of the song. I used to go there after studying to have a Guinness and a cigar while taking in the atmosphere of Hooligan's. If it is the Apocalypse...a Guinness and a good cigar might be a good way to greet the end.

Put these tunes together and a few others and you have a lunar music special on any AAA station. Listening to the music may be an alternative to witnessing the event. It is supposed to be mostly cloudy Sunday night.

All of these songs have a personal connection, but that's what makes music so important.

Podcast Fans - Lovers of Audio

But the headline said...

The headline posted on Inside Radio made me pause. Were people who love podcasts really listening to podcasts six hours a day?  After I read the article I was reassured because if this was true, there would be no future for public radio.

Podcast Fans Love Audio—Six Hours Daily

What the data from Edison Research’s quarterly “Share of Ear” report shows is that podcast lovers listen to a lot of audio. Edison uses a broad definition of audio including radio, satellite, streaming, music videos on YouTube and a consumer’s personal music. 

These are younger, well educated listeners using mobile devices. They spend most of their time listening to podcasts...about  33%. Radio is second with 20% of their time.  They spend over six hours a week listening to audio. The average American spends about fours a week.

Sound Familiar?

Public Radio's audience also consumes a lot of audio. The benchmark in the early 2000's was over six hours a week. The core audience at a station with strong audience appeal was around 12 hours a week.

Other findings, reported by Inside Radio on Friday, include: The shorter the podcast, the more likely listeners will listen to the full podcast. Half of all podcast time spent occurs on mobile devices, followed by computers. And middays and nights are podcasting “primetime.”

What's In It For Public Radio?

A reality check. According tot he research, 5% of all Americans are into podcasts. 95% are not!

 Most of Public Radio's resources need to be centered on drivetime. The content that continues to appeal in drivetime is the news and information public radio produces.  Drivetime is still radio's most important day part. Drivetime should continue to appeal to public radio's biggest audience.

The podcast crowd listens to public radio. We need to make sure we're on the platforms used by this audience. Podcasting is the best way for our content to reach these highly educated consumers of audio. Podcast lovers choose middays and nights to listen to content on their favorite platform. The top ten chart published by iTunes testifies to the appeal of public radio's content to this market segment.

• 1Hidden Brain
• 2This American Life
• 3TED Radio Hour
• 4Serial
• 5Radiolab
• 6Stuff You Should Know
• 7Undisclosed: The State Vs. Adnan Syed
• 8Fresh Air
• 9Guys We F****d
• 10Freakonomics Radio

Is it a question of resources? Local stations need to look at partnerships that will get them into the podcasting game.

Classical Music Moving in Houston

KUHA 91.7 FM Moving To HD Radio

Houston Public Media (HPM) announced that classical programming is moving to HD2. The announcement says the programming will be moving from KUHA 91.7 to 88.7 HD 2. Classical Music will also be available at HPM's website, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and TV 8.5...a digital TV channel.

Digging Further

All Access and Houston Public Media is reporting that KUHA is for sale. Houston Public Media bought KUHA from Rice University in 2010 for over $9 million. Economic trouble became evident when HPM laid off eight full time staff at the station in 2013. The move cuts expenses further and will unload some debt for HPM.

American Public Media recently cut its losses by selling off the three stations that made up Classical South Florida. In these instances, classical music was unable to sustain itself. The debt load was to heavy to be carried through voluntary support.

Classical music is losing ground. In both cases the music will be available digitally, but free over the air broadcasts are going away. The move to HD 2 and TV 8.5 in Houston is free. They will be hard to find. HD Radio has not reached deep market penetration. Finding HDTV 8.5 is viable for at home listening...not in the car.

Sesame Street - We've Strayed A Long Way

New episodes of Sesame Street will be aired on HBO first. 

I guess it's good news for the Sesame Street Workshop. They're getting an infusion of revenue to double the new episodes per season. The new episodes will eventually air on Public Television.

The Workshop has been running deficits for a while. It seems voluntary public support wasn't enough to sustain the program.

After the five year deal, will public television still be in the loop? Will HBO still fund Sesame Street or cut it loose?

After reading the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967...it seems we've strayed a long way. Are we headed in the direction of those who can pay will have access to quality programming? What about the rest of us? Has the marketplace decided educational programming for our young only goes to those 'who can afford it?

The Congress hereby finds and declares that —

1. it is in the public interest to encourage the growth and development of public radio and television broadcasting, including the use of such media for instructional, educational, and cultural purposes;
2. it is in the public interest to encourage the growth and development of nonbroadcast telecommunications technologies for the delivery of public telecommunications services;
3. expansion and development of public telecommunications and of diversity of its programming depend on freedom, imagination, and initiative on both local and national levels;
4. the encouragement and support of public telecommunications, while matters of importance for private and local development, are also of appropriate and important concern to the Federal Government;
5. it furthers the general welfare to encourage public telecommunications services which will be responsive to the interests of people both in particular localities and throughout the United States, which will constitute an expression of diversity and excellence, and which will constitute a source of alternative telecommunications services for all the citizens of the Nation;
6. it is in the public interest to encourage the development of programming that involves creative risks and that addresses the needs of unserved and underserved audiences, particularly children and minorities;
7. it is necessary and appropriate for the Federal Government to complement, assist, and support a national policy that will most effectively make public telecommunications services available to all citizens of the United States;
8. public television and radio stations and public telecommunications services constitute valuable local community resources for utilizing electronic media to address national concerns and solve local problems through community programs and outreach programs;
9. it is in the public interest for the Federal Government to ensure that all citizens of the United States have access to public telecommunications services through all appropriate available telecommunications distribution technologies; and
10. a private corporation should be created to facilitate the development of public telecommunications and to afford maximum protection from extraneous interference and control.

At Wits End

All Things Millennial?

I don't have much to say about the cancelling of Wits. It was touted as A Prairie Home Companion for a younger crowd.

I listened...sometimes. It was on Saturday night. That's not exactly prime listening time for radio. Even in its heyday, A Prairie Home Companion lost over half its audience in the last half hour on the stations where I worked.

Wits had its moments, but not enough to draw me in every week. I only listened if I happened to be in the car.


Wits was an attempt to find a new hit to replace Public Radio's aging stars like Wait, Wait, Car Talk and APHC. Those programs were anomalies. Most attempts to create the new shining star have failed, especially one hour programs. It is hard for a program to gain audience...unlike programming. Listeners have trouble finding a single program. Landing on, and listening to, a program stream with a consistent appeal is much more conducive to habitual listening. Being able to listen to programming that consistently meets a listeners expectations on a regular basis can lead to greater loyalty and a large enough audiences to support the programming.

There's a difference

Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition and Marketplace are programs that work well together and resemble programming. Wait, Wait, Car Talk and APHC appeal to the same core audience. It just seemed like Wits, with it's out of the way scheduling, was trying to change the way people listen to radio. That's an uphill battle. We had a music director at one of the stations I worked for who vowed he was going to change the way people used radio. All he managed to do was drive the audience away.

I was at a PRPD retreat in 2002 when a network exec stopped by to give us an update on the status of public radio programming. He told us there were a handful of programs that were breaking even or better. There were over 350 programs being offered at the time. The odds of success weren't good...even when times were good.

Location Matters

All of the public radio hits mentioned above air when people use radio...except for APHC. The programs are all well produced and appeal to the lifestyle and values of the public radio audience. They also air during times when listening to radio reaches its peak. They air during morning and afternoon drive, or during the midday bulge on the weekend. A Prairie Home Companion is the exception. We aired APHC twice on WNPR. We carried the live broadcast on Saturday evening. We repeated the program Sunday at noon. It was not long before the Sunday broadcast outperformed the Saturday broadcast. The reason...The potential for an audience was greater on Sunday at noon because more people use radio at that time.

There is no shame or blame. The effort to create something new and vital should be encouraged. We should endeavor to create new audiences and, more importantly, reengage the audience we already have with new ideas and perspectives.

Eliminating Seams

Saying Goodbye Less Than Seamless

I was listening to the last minutes of Science Friday Today. At least I thought it was the last few minutes. Ira Flatow was saying goodbye. He was reading the credits. He told me to have a good weekend. The PRI button played. The show was over! Well, maybe not.

He told me to tune away.

So, I did. I got out of the car and did my errand. I got back in my car. I turned on the radio and there was the second half of Science Friday. I thought you were gone. You said goodbye. What gives?

I remember learning in my PD classes we were supposed to promote time spent listening by not creating barriers to listening. Telling listeners goodbye is a big sin. When you do this you're telling listeners to go away. You're creating seam. You're creating an excuse to tune out.

I would hope the network people would know about something as basic as the avoidance
of seams. Yet, I hear it all the time. The halfway point of Weekend Edition has a long goodbye. Garrison Keillor spends a good two minutes saying goodbye. They say goodbye every night on All Things Considered.

Why?

As a PD responsible for keeping listeners listening and engaged...you're doing your best to send them away. It is supposed to be about the listener. We're supposed to think audience. The audience tunes in and out all the time. They do not listen to programs from top to bottom. Instead of saying goodbye, how about an opportunity to forward promote?

Why is this important for public broadcasting? Building audience and promoting time spent listening creates loyalty which allows stations the opportunity to grow funding and build partnerships within the community. It's basic. It should be a part of best practices.

Gaming the Ratings?

Voltaire claims to smooth out the rating bumps.

Does it work? Is the magic box, Voltaire, junk science, or voodoo technology? Nielsen has looked into the processor. Nielsen's testing was done in a lab. Now the Media Rating Council (MRC) is looking into the technology using real world testing by working with stations that use the processor.

There are plenty of complaints in public radio circles about the wild swings in ratings under the PPM system. Part of the problem of PPM is the short sample time which will lead to volatility in the ratings. I prefer to look at ratings over periods of time to help eliminate bounce. Six month trends seem more stable.

Voltaire claims to improve sound processing to enhance PPM's ability to measure a station's encoding.

The tests by MRC will continue through August.

Classical Sell Off

Classical gives way to Christian Format

APM is selling off it's on-air presence in South Florida. With it goes the classical music programmed on the stations (Classical South Florida). The changes reflect a broader change for APM Group with staff laid-off throughout the system. The three stations in South Florida have been sold to Educational Media Foundation for about $21 million. EMF programs Contemporary Christian music

The Board Up In Arms

Members of the  Board feel betrayed. According to an article published by Inside Radio and Current, seven board members resigned since the deal was first approved in late June. According to Current, AMPG signed the deal without consulting the board when EMF gave APM one day to decide.

Due to Circumstances...

There are influences outside the realm of control that adversely affected Classiccal South Florida.
The way listeners use radio has changed dramatically in the past three years. Time Spent Listening is down. So is the Average Quarter Hour Audience. That means listener loyalty has taken a hit. Lower loyalties means diminishing returns on Listener Sensitive Income. Cume and Cume Rating have also dropped for many public radio stations because of the Advent of PPM.

Winter 2015
             AQH      AQH Share   Wkly Cume        TSL
WKCP 4,000      1.2                116,100               4:15

Winter 2014
             AQH      AQH Share   Wkly Cume        TSL
WKCP 3,300      1.0                137,500               3:00

Winter 2013
             AQH      AQH Share   Wkly Cume        TSL
WKCP 3,100      0.9                159,200              2:30

Winter 2012
             AQH      AQH Share   Wkly Cume        TSL
WKCP 2,700     0.8                150,300              2:30

Winter 2011
             AQH      AQH Share   Wkly Cume        TSL
WKCP 5,800     1.5                219,100              3:30

Winter 2010
             AQH      AQH Share   Wkly Cume        TSL
WKCP 6,100     1.9                 226,700              3:30
(All data from Radio Research Consortium, Nielsen and Arbitron Person 6+ Maimi, Ft Lauderdale, Hollywood)

There has been a trend downward in most statistical categories over the past five years, The Winter 2015 quarter saw a bounce upwards. I'm not sure of the benchmarks APM is using to measure success, but revenue consistently is falling below the break even point, A major factor contributing to the shortfall is our flagging economy. CSF was launched just as the Great Recession began to unfold. Uncertainty in the economy, suffering portfolios, unemployment and underemployment are all factors affecting Listener Sensitive Income. A robust recovery from the recession may have made it possible for APMG to carry its debt load.

Classical South Florida has been posting deficits since 2008. APMG took on $30 million in debt to set up the network. By accepting $21,1 million from EMF, APMG is selling the three stations at a loss.

Digital News Users Not Buying

Reuters has bad news about subscriptions for on-line news. Michael Rosenwald, reporting for Columbia Journalism Review that only 11% of on-line digital news consumers actually pay for the services. Most digital consumers resent digital advertising and 47% block the ads with apps.

Other findings

• Ad blocking app and low subscription rates are bad news for legacy news sources and disruptive aggregators like Buzzfeed and Huffington Post.
• This is an international trend.
• Mobile devices are replacing tablets for news.
• Smaller screens limit advertising.
• Facebook is the go to Social Media source over Twitter.
• Publishers are migrating toward sponsored content.
• Sponsored content is meeting resistance. (40% ) 

Uncomfortable Questions

If people are unwilling to pay for news content on-line and if they're blocking ads, who's going to pay for the service? And, if the current funding model cannot sustain the providers, are these news sources going the same way as newspapers?

Hot Topic

Firewall issues abound for sponsored content. Journalistic standards call for a clear separation between sponsors and the content. Can sponsored content be trusted as news even with full disclosure of who is paying for the content? There's backlash already. According to 40% of the respondents to the Reuter's survey say they felt disappointment when they discovered the content they thought was news was actually sponsored content. To these users the articles certainly do not meet journalistic standards. Should it be considered advertising?

Sponsored content may not be as overt as commercials from the 40's and 50's, but there should be a certain amount of skepticism. Check out his ad for RJ Reynolds from the early days of Television...

It's All Local

I heard a public radio fundraiser talk about their investment in local programming and how most stations don't usually invest that much in resources. My thought...It only matters if the content matters.

A Personal Medium

More than once I've heard that radio is a personal medium. It's true. I choose to listen because the content matches my lifestyle and values.  The closer the content comes to this match, the more engaged I become. By extension, everything that comes out of speakers and headphones is local. And, this includes content on new platforms including social media.

Local or National?

It does not matter. As a listener the content and how the content is presented matters. So, when the person fundraising tells me that his or her NPR station invests a lot of time and resources on local content, I really don't care. He or she might care because he or she works there and has a lot invested in the success of the content. It's an inside argument that does not relate to my experience as a listener.

My Choice

As a listener, I decide what is important. It is my core values that are being served. And, if the content provided matches those values on a consistent basis, I am more likely to support the provider. It could be Morning Edition, On-Point, Colin McEnroe or Wait, Wait, it's all local to me.

CPR Tears Down the Walls

Capital Public Radio is tearing down the wall between music and news. There will still be an all news stream on KXJZ and an all music stream on KXPR.

According to an article in the Sacramento Business Journal there will be greater sharing of content with the creation of a content department headed by Joe Barr. Barr says that in the end there will be greater coverage of music and the arts on their news shows.  There's more. Click on the link below.

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What business reorganization means for Capital Public Radio

Dashboards Driving Distraction

Dashboards and Distractions

People are beginning to complain about the clutter presented by the newly connected cars. All sorts of distractions are built into the dashboards of the newer model cars. We may be able to access the web with WiFi...but the clutter is causing a distraction. Some consumers are complaining.

• Could the future mean more accidents? 
• Isn't it a lot simpler to just have a few presets with your favorites?
• Do we really need to be connected all the time?

Honda is trying to simplify as complaints mount.   

Designing Dashboards With Fewer Distractions

According to the article in the NY Time, the Honda system will operate with a series of hand gestures, but won't that still involve taking you eyes off the road for just a moment? Hands -free systems are just as dangerous according to a study by the AAA and the University of Utah.

Earlier testing in 2013 by the same university found that even when drivers were watching the road, they could still be sufficiently distracted by hands-free systems to miss a pedestrian walking out in front of their vehicle.

Try Something Old

Radio may still have life in our cars, and they offer a lot of information and entertainment at a really low cost. At any rate, a lot less than the cost of running WiFi in your car, and a lot safer.

Marijuana Radio in Denver

Pot-Branded Station Lights Up Denver

Talk about core loyalty!

Smokin' 94.1 is all about the pot smoker's lifestyle

Will this work? Will they be able to build a large enough audience to entice advertisers?

Significant Programming for a Significant Audience

Many successful public radio stations thrive on core loyalty. If you're not sure what that is...There's a publication that was the product of Audience 98 called "Public Service - Public Support." The report is long, but it is worth reading. All of the findings can be distilled into two key concepts.

Public service begets public support. 

Public support focuses public service. 

Successful stations actively pursued significant programming for a significant audience. The public radio audience was further defined as being highly educated and engaged Baby Boomers.  Because the programming appealed to a the values and lifestyle of the targeted audience, those listeners spent more time with the station and became loyal. The growth in listenership was astounding.

Targeted Lifestyle

The new pro pot station in Denver, Smokin' 94.1 promised to be a musical lifestyle format. The music will be classic rock. A similar format idea was part of radio in the late Sixties and early Seventies. These stations featured Album Oriented Rock before the music was codified into a format and corporatized. Many of the stations self identified as being underground and programmed to those who were part of the counter-culture. The stations failed to generate enough advertising to support themselves. There were only so many head-shops, record stores, concert venues and sub sandwich shops in the market.

A quick look at their website revealed nothing about advertisers. A good match might be donut shops, salty snacks and places that can satisfy the munchies.

They're playing hits, but other musical choices might include Quicksilver Messenger Service's, Fresh Air and Bob Marley's Kaya.

Radio Warned About Hackers

As we adapt the leading edge of digital technology, have we become more susceptible to cyber attack? Some local stations have been taken off the air. The air signal isn't the only thing hackers can play havoc with.

Inside radio posted two articles about the dangers of being hacked.

Alarm sounded for stations to step-up cyberattack preparations.

Some operators are already solidifying cyber defenses.

Rear Admiral (ret.) David Simpson, chief of the FCC Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau says it no a matter of if, but when. For now the FCC wants to see stations to voluntarily have a back-up plan in place. He says the FCC is considering mandates. SONY and a French TV network were taken down by hackers earlier this year. ISIS attacked the French network.

So many stations are now going to the Cloud. The fear is the security of those cloud based systems. Local stations have valuable information hackers want like credit card numbers and other personal information. There are also concerns about EAS System. It was hacked setting off false alarms.

Cable News Coverage Can Distort (Update)

Are we missing the point in Baltimore? 

That would seem to be the case based on early coverage on cable news. So much of the coverage was based on speculation...looking for somebody to blame. The use of video wallpaper (The Burning CVS) shown for days distorts what is really going on. Politico's Jack Shafer points out that running the continuous loop of a burning store or burning car distorts coverage. The riot is real news, and it's good for ratings, but there is so much more depth to this story.

Poverty in Baltimore affects one in four, according to Census figures. 

More than 37 percent of Baltimore's children were living in poverty in 2011, up from 28 percent in 2007, according to Census Bureau estimates. The city's childhood poverty rate is unchanged from 2010.Sep 20, 2012

Unemployment in the poorer sections of Baltimore is around 19%.  Forbes published an article by Dan Diamond about why Baltimore burned, and it's really about the two Baltimores. There's a stunning graphic in the article that shows the difference between the two.

The issues surrounding poverty in Baltimore go back a long way. An article published by the Washington Post and Post tv found the roots of Baltimore's ills dating back to the 1950's when high paying jobs started leaving the city.

The riots are en expression of frustration. Martin Luther King, Jr. called riots the language of the unheard. King was not condoning riots, but he understood why they happen.

It Could Happen Anywhere

The poor conditions found in Baltimore exists in many urban centers in the United States. That means the potential for riots are embedded in communities across the country. For example, The median household income in Hartford is around $29,000. The median household income in Connecticut is around $69,000. It's a huge disparity in the richest state in the country. These statistics are based on figures published by the US Census Bureau in 2013. You can look for figures for your community at their website. I found Hartford's statistics on their Quickfacts page.

Some Go Deeper

Forbes, the Washington Post, NPR and others are taking a deeper look at the causes to the riots in Baltimore. It is easy to see it is about more than just race. It's about grinding poverty and the feelings of powerlessness that go along with poverty.

The Power of the Podium

Local public radio stations can take on the opportunity this presents to be involved in a meaningful way with their community. We have a bully pulpit and we can make a difference while serving the our listeners and the needs of the communities we cover. This issue calls for sustained coverage long after the cable networks have moved on to the next plane crash or back to Hilary Clinton's email or Benghazi.