The News Cycle and Mutual Destruction

The News Cycle Fuels Funding 

In fundraising circles we often discuss the value of the news cycle and the ability to raise funds from listeners. During presidential campaign the public radio audience swells and membership dollars increase.  For public radio's core audience, the news from NPR, PRX,  PRI and APM offer a sanctuary of thought provoking and rational content.

It looks as if the news cycle may not take its usual post election dip. That should be a happy thing for public broadcasting. Then again, maybe not.

 As someone who lived through the Cold War and the threat of the Nuclear Holocaust, Donald Trump's tweets about the nuclear arsenal are not going down well. The need to be informed from a reliable news source will become more important.

Fake News Ups the Ante

Add to the mix the proliferation of fake news. A news story from a fake new site heightened tensions between Pakistan and Israel.  According to an article published by Huffington Post with sources included in the New York Times "Pakistan’s defense minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, wrote a frightening Twitter post in response to a fake news article stating that Israel would attack Pakistan with nuclear weapons." Asif's comments were in response to a fake story posted by awdnews.com quoting the Israeli Defense Minister that "If Pakistan send ground troops into Syria on any pretext, we will destroy this country with a nuclear attack." 

We are are closer to the brink than most people realize. According the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, we are three minutes to midnight, a global catastrophe. In 2012 we were five minutes to midnight.

Public Media will have plenty to report on and a steady, measured and fair treatment of the issues will be greatly appreciated by our core audience. By focusing on the core audience and their values the growth potential will continue to increase.

Duck and Cover

I'm part of that core, and I remember the drills at school, "Duck and Cover," and being reassured that we would be okay if the Menominee River Valley took a direct hit. Then later seeing the civil defense brochure about the circles of destruction and understanding at age nine that we were too close to the epicenter to survive, and understanding that if we did survive, we would likely die from the burns or radiation poisoning.

The theory behind the policy of mutual destruction was that nobody would be foolish enough to push the button. I wasn't reassured then. I am even less assured now. Public Media has a part in all this. No matter the platform, we must continue to meet the expectations of our audience. Public Radio news has grown up to be trusted news source among its audience. When we first started we considered to be boutique in nature...an alternate news source. There's no going back now.

Old Haunts

Checking out old haunts. WUMB was my radio home for an ever so brief moment. Looking at the website....

Nothing much has changed

Looking at the ratings...

Nov 2016    AQH   Share   Daily Cume   Weekly Cume    Cume Rtg      TSL

WUMBFtlr  800        0.2      15,500            49,200                1.1                 1:45

Nothing much has changed

As long as the University supports them they will keep hobbling along. If that support were to fall away, the end would be swift and painful. The audience is just too small to support the station. By comparison, WERS has four times the share and almost four times the cume rating.

There is a critical mass when it comes to fundraising for public radio. The size of the Core Audience is the determining factor and the amount of time they spend with the radio station. Audigraphics made it easy to measure the size of the core, how often they tuned in and the duration of each occasion. Benchmarks for the core were about ten occasions a week with each occasion lasting about an hour. With an Average Quarter Hour Audience of 800 in the Boston Market and the audience turning over 19 times a day (62 times a week) it does not appear that WUMB has the numbers to support itself.

I was hired in 2010 to help turn things around. I didn't get a chance and that was disappointing. The lack of change since then is equally disappointing.  

Warning For the Media...

From the Pope.

In a story heard on NPR, Pope Francis warns against the infatuation with scandal, citing 'Coprophilia.' Coprophilia is an abnormal interest in feces. He used Coprophilia as a metaphor. The Pope said, "Disinformation is probably the greatest damage that the media can do, as opinion is guided in one direction, neglecting the other part of the truth," Francis' message was directed at news media, but it could easily be applied to the manipulation of information by fake news producers.

Purveyors of misinformation alleging sex trade out of restaurant involving Hilary Clinton recently caused an incident at a pizza parlor in Washington DC, brought one of the parents of the Sandy Hook tragedy under attack of threats by people who believe the Sandy Hook shootings to be a hoax, and the continued false allegations that President Obama's mother-in-law will be getting a $160,000 for baby sitting for the Obama's daughters.

The Pope went on to say, "I believe that the media should be very clear, very transparent, and not fall prey — without offence, please — to the sickness of coprophilia, which is always wanting to communicate scandal, to communicate ugly things, even though they may be true." The Pope made his comments in an interview with the Belgian Catholic weekly Tertio.

He added, "And since people have a tendency towards the sickness of coprophagia, it can do great harm." It already has.

There Is Something We Can All Do.

If you are unhappy with the results. If you are distressed by the lack of civility that has led to our deep divide...Doing nothing is not an option.

If change is going to happen...it is in our hands.

And what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
And what'll you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin'
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
And the executioner's face is always well hidden
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
Where black is the color, where none is the number
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'
But I'll know my song well before I start singin'
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Bob Dylan - A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall

Remember the post 9/11 line, "If you see something, say something?" How about, "If you see something, do something?" The Blue Eyed Son in Dylan's song went places and saw things, and heard things. He saw and heard so many things that seemed unjust. From a biblical perspective injustice is what happens when someone uses their power to take from someone else the good things God intended them to have: Their life, their liberty, their dignity, or the fruit of their love or their labor. (Jim Martin/The Just Church) Instead of walking away, he decided he was going to do something about the injustices. To the Blue Eyed Son this was all a call to action.

Deporting the Immigrants - Bad Economics?

Deporting all these immigrants and keeping out those refugees could put a serious dent in our economy.

How an Illegal-Immigrant Crackdown Could Hit US Economic Growth - Wall Street Journal Blog

NY / Region|'Economic Tsunami': Fearing Donald Trump ... - NY Times

Head off Trump-style anti-immigrant politics by using economics to ...  - CBC

Refugees revitalize American cities - Boston Globe

If Trump cuts DACA US loses $433.4 billion in GDP - Fusion

Globalism -- Not Nativism -- Is What Made America's Cities Great - Forbes

The Insane Numbers Behind Trump's Deportation Plan - Money

National Academy of Science: Immigrants benefit US - The Tennessean

Two cities that have seen growth by accepting immigrants? Dayton, Ohio and Ithaca, New York.

So...what's the wisdom of closing the borders and expelling the outsiders? 

Race in America

Post Racist America?

I don't think so!

I see and hear racism a lot. Maybe it's because of how my family embraces diversity. Maybe it's because of how this election has brought a deep divide about hate and bigotry.

I was waiting in line to buy a newspaper this morning. The man in front of me was teasing the woman behind the counter calling her Momma. After he left she confided, "I'm not his Momma. I hate when he calls me that. He works here. They're all like that, you know." 

He was black. She was an older white woman.

There was an implicit bias in what she said. I was on the verge of saying something like, "This man does not represent an entire race. His actions represent himself. Why don't you just ask him nicely to stop?"

I let it pass. Maybe I shouldn't have.

Layoffs - Are they the easy way out?

I was reading about layoffs at a public media company. For this particular company, layoffs are commonplace. They've been a common tool...a regular part of the corporate landscape for nearly 30 years. The human toll created by the constant cycle of hiring and layoffs has mounted over the years. Is this really an effective management tool or is this a sign of poor management? Hiring is done in anticipation of funding from viewers, listeners, corporations and foundations. When the funding doesn't reach anticipated goals, shortfalls result and layoffs follow.

Recently I ran across this article which states, "Layoffs are often a sign of failure by top executives to properly manage a business and forecast needs — and failure of board members to ensure that the right management is in place."


Why Layoffs Are for Lazy Corporate Overseers


Other highlights...

• Compensation insulates most executives from layoff shocks. 
• Layoffs often demolish an employee’s social circle and identity.
• CEO's have come to think of certain employees as deadwood.
• CEOs weren’t concerned with employee hardship, layoffs don’t bother board members much either.
• Boards show a lack of accountability, because rather than ding management for these failures, boards reward management for these missteps.

In reality there is ample evidence to suggest that companies that constantly layoff staff are not really positioning themsleves for a recovery. They are actually in trouble. A recent paper published by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania says that instead of laying off companies should be investing in people and innovation. That's not going to happen if a company hires an innovator and then eight months later lays that person off.

According to the article companies can offer early retirement, slowing down hiring and retraining workers.

For more go to  How Layoffs Hurt Companies.

Are We Focused on the Listener?

Kyle Munson, a columnist with the Des Moines Register, admits I'm a public radio nerd and proud of it. 

Kyle values the sane approach and depth of understanding that Iowa Public Radio and NPR provides in the tumultuous and hateful atmosphere of this political season.  "I crave the sane, illuminating haven of IPR, where not everything must be staged as arch conflict."

 Kyle typifies the core listener as defined by PRPD's Core Values. The measurable cohort that defines the audience is education. No matter the political leanings there is a thirst for knowledge and understanding. A variety of experiences enhances their lives and those experiences are actively sought.

In a competitive marketplace it is seldom possible for public media outlets to be all things to all people. Focusing on a single format and doing a few things well often make more sense. But...there is room for more voices.

Think about this...In the bigger markets there is room for creativity and diversity if all involved share in the effort. The same model could then be applied in all markets. There needs to be a willingness play well with others. If we are focused on the listener and how they use media, we can better understand how to serve them. If we work together, we will succeed.

Using The Public Radio Business Model

After the Fact Funding

Actually, it's a business model that has been used by non-profits, including religious groups, for decades...even centuries.  Giving hinges on, "Does the content or the outcomes match the values and lifestyles of a targeted audience?" 

There used to be this public radio fund drive pitch that asked, what if other businesses came to you after you used their product and services and asked if you would be willing pay whatever you feel the service was worth. Our answer was that pitch would not work in the business world, but somehow it worked for public radio.  Here's that pitch put toward the greater good.

This Store Lets You Pay What You Can For Groceries That Would Otherwise Be Tossed

It’s saving perfectly good food from going to waste

The food and Agricultural organization of the United Nations estimates that 33% of food produced for human consumption in the world gets lost or wasted. That's about 1.3 billion tons a year. Per capita waste is at its worst in Europe and North America.

SAVE FOOD: Global Initiative on Food Loss and Waste Reduction

Podcast Income

Can Podcasts be a source of income for public radio? From a station's perspective...Yes ...as long as expectations aren't too high.

There are three sources of income for public radio. Member Support - Underwriting - Grants. Listener support for podcasts has lagged. Is that changing?

The headline reads...WNYC boosts podcast income with text-to-donate efforts...which is a little misleading. Digging deeper into the article in Current you will find that the amounts are small ($10), and there's no way to mine the data for follow-up information.

Voluntary Support

Does this mean the experiment is a failure? No! It means there is the possibility stations could cover the cost of podcasts, and WNYC is continuing the experiment to find ways to continue the funding discussion with text-to-donate contributors. The willingness of podcast users to voluntarily contribute for the content they consume is a hopeful sign. Obviously, not everybody is willing to pay, but how is that different from the current membership model?

WNPR experimented with a text-to-donate fundrive in 2008. The sames issues arose. The donation amounts were small and the link between the donation and the donor was non-existent. WNPR's text to donate drive differed in that we used the airwaves to generate texts. The pitch breaks were short and the number of breaks were limited. We got about 100 texts and about $1,000.

Self Sustaining?

Given the huge demand for revenue to operate a public radio station, there was no follow-up on the project at WNPR. If the funding source is viewed as an additional revenue stream related to a separate platform, expectations might be more in line with reality. The other challenge is to convert the podcast cohort into public radio supporters. At least text to donate is a beginning. When combined with other sources like grants, advertising and pay walls, some podcasts could pay for themselves.

The Funding Trifecta

The renewal of grants depends on meeting stated expectations. The same could be said for advertising. As long as the podcast delivers an audience, the revenue will continue to come in. The public radio funding model has always been sustained by voluntary contributions. The most stable source of income for public broadcasters has always been its donors. If the other two sources lagged (grants and underwriting), contributions offered stability. The success of podcasts in public media will be measured by their appeal to the audience.

I Met a Man

There are great stories to tell everywhere. There are people doing incredible things in service to each other. Telling stories about communities coming together to support each other, can help us overcome the cynicism and negativity that seems to have taken over our politics and is on display every minute of every day on social media. The three stories below highlight people who are doing what they can to overcome crushing poverty in the richest state in the US.

Profiles From Grace Church, Hartford

I met a man who lost everything after his service to our country. He became homeless. When he was finally able to move into his family's home it had been vandalized. All the wiring and all the pipes had been stripped out of the walls. There's no heat, no water and no power. He lives there in the warmer months. He lives in a shelter in the winter. He considers himself lucky because he has VA benefits and his neighbors take care of his dog and two cats in the winter.

I met a man who spent four months in jail because he tried to help a woman who was the victim of a car jacking. He stood by this woman as the police arrived and lent his support. Because the man nominally fit the description of the carjacker (black, male, slender) he was arrested and thrown in jail. He could not afford bail, so he waited four months for the legal system to finally ask the victim if he was the one who assaulted her. She said no and he was finally released. He is clinically depressed, but has hope because of his part time employment made possible by Grace Church.

I met a woman at Grace Church who volunteers her time cutting the hair of the homeless and others who attend their weekly meal. Three weeks ago her house burned down. She missed one week, but was back after settling into a hotel room. She hopes to be back in her home six months from now.

Grace Church is stepping in where so many have failed.

According to NBC Connecticut in a report released in 2012, at 31.2 percent, Hartford's poverty rate is four times the 7.8 percent poverty rate of the suburbs, which include all 57 towns in Hartford County plus Tolland County and Middlesex County. City Data.com puts the percentage of families in Hartford below the poverty line at 43.4%.

What's Wrong with Trending News?

Why is Journalism Important?

It Matters a Lot Really

NPR reported yesterday there are problems with having algorithms select news content for you. You may recall that Face Book fired its news curators after charges that the curators were biased toward liberal views. Congress got upset. Remember that congress is run by Republicans and they didn't like reports from The Times, The Post and the BBC.  An algorithm is now selecting stories. Instead of real news...something else is up there.

NPR's Aarti Shahani says about a million viewers clicked on a story from a dubious news source that claimed former Fox Commentator Megyn Kelly is a supporter of Hilary Clinton, and that is the reason she got fired by Fox. The story is false, but hundreds of thousands of people clicked on the story and believed it.

Part of the problem is ours. We seek and have friends that think like us and generally agree with our point of view. Social media enforces our opinions by selecting posts for us through algorithms that we 'like' further reinforcing our point of view. 

Trending is not Journalism. Accuracy and fairness in the news are extremely important. Otherwise we will be unable to ferret out the truth. Political candidates will often stretch the truth or omit context. Real  journalist do their job when they dig deeper.

Recently Donald Trump, in an effort to attract black voters, quoted unemployment figures for minority youth that were not even close to accurate. His devout followers believe him. They share his assertions on line with like minded people further cementing their belief in false information.

Trump's numbers are just plain wrong. Of course, Trump wants the facts to fit his narrative that the US is falling apart and only he can fix it. I wanted to know more. The numbers seemed out of whack. I dug deeper.

The actual youth unemployment figures are below as published by the Washington Post.

The economy has changed and become stronger since 2012. According to Pew's research, the economy is no longer the number on issue with voters. Security and safety in the face of growing violence is. Pew says The economy still is important, just not the top concern. Here's part of report published by NPR...

In 2012:

• Jobs. The unemployment rate was a painful 8.1 percent in August, 2012. Many voters feared that as the Affordable Care Act phased in, the job market would get even worse.
• Gas prices. The average price of gas in August, 2012, was $3.69 a gallon, the second highest average on record.
• Federal deficit. As the fiscal year was wrapping up, the annual deficit was $1.1 trillion, or 6.7 percent of GDP.

Since then, a lot has changed in those three areas. Here's how things look...

In 2016:

• Jobs. The unemployment rate has plunged to 4.9 percent.
• Gas prices. Gas prices have tumbled this year, and now average around $2.12 a gallon.
• Federal deficit. For fiscal 2016, the deficit will be $590 billion, or 3.2 percent of GDP.

As the report points out, serious issues remain, not the least of which is the growing income inequality. If you want to know more about the growing anger over income inequality, look at the success of the Trump and Sanders campaigns. And, once you go there, dig deeper to discover the reasons behind the disparity and what might be done to solve this issue.

A serious commitment to finding the truth leads an informed electorate. Search for it. Use it. Support it.

Please Call, Fax, Email

Let Us Know What You're Thinking

In an ideal world the internet offers a free an open forum for thoughtful conversation among informed individuals. At least, that was the hope of the comments section on news sites. The continuing discussion was supposed to add value by expanding understanding of complex issues. That's not really happening. 

Be Careful What you Ask For

NPR is dropping the comments section on its website. What they found through analytics it was the same slice of audience saying the same things over and over. According to the report,

"the numbers showed an even more interesting pattern: Just 4,300 users posted about 145 comments apiece, or 67 percent of all NPR.org comments for the two months. More than half of all comments in May, June and July combined came from a mere 2,600 users. The conclusion: NPR's commenting system — which gets more expensive the more comments that are posted, and in some months has cost NPR twice what was budgeted — is serving a very, very small slice of its overall audience." 

The on-line comments were doing nothing to further the conversation. NPR says the conversation will continue on social media. You can find out more at NPR Website To Get Rid Of Comments

There used to be this debate about the significance of calls and letters in response to programming. I attended a panel on the subject at the Public Radio Conference (PRC) in the mid 80's These programming "experts" were on the panel and asserting that each call was worth five listeners and each letter was worth ten. I wondered where they got this metric. It turns out they just made it up. Each caller and letter writer represented them self and nobody else. The comments were personal opinion. They did not represent a larger trend.

This knowledge helped sustain me through a major programming shift at one of the stations I worked for. When we made the shift to news and information, we got 4,000 complaints from listeners and members. Some at the station saw this as significant. On the surface, it would seem so. If 4,000 were moved to complain, surely that represented an much larger trend. In raw numbers the 4,000 represented about 2% of the audience at that time. I believed the 4,000 represented the opinions of the 4,000. No more.

My thought...Patience...we'll know more soon.

We did know more within a year. The audience numbers increased by 30%. We had a slight dip in membership, but the dollars given rose because the average pledge grew by 50%. Underwriting grew 500%!

A Closed Loop

It's easy too be moved off target and away from a true community service by the withering response of a few. If you know what you're doing and why you're doing it, have faith in your decisions. Those responding may be a closed loop. The same group of people saying the same things. Instead of being inclusive...the respondents become exclusive. It's kind of like an all request music program. The same people asked for the same things week after week. There was nothing fresh or new. The concept became tired and unappealing for the majority of the audience and they eventually tuned away.

That seems to be what was happening in NPR's case.

Another Shoe Drops at KUSP

Current reports that KUSP is now off the air. Short on funds and no buyer leaves the board little choice.

There's more at Current.org.

Despite the low audience numbers and not enough listener support creating their large debt...some are mourning the loss of KUSP.

KUSP’s demise should be a wake-up call for all of us. Bradley Zeve

How KUSP changed Santa Cruz culture for good. Stephen Kessler

When KUSP asked listeners for support...they meant it. There just were not enough listeners.

Really Bad Public Radio

Remember way back when? 

We were encouraged to ditch the checkerboard schedule in public radio? There used to be quizzes about what our stations had on the air at a particular times. Many program directors had difficulty answering the question.

The next step was to run programming in strips so they would be on the same time everyday to take advantage of listening habits. It was the first step toward professional radio formatting and developing a sense of listener focus. The final step was consistency in programming over the entire schedule.

Well...I've been listening to a station that is moving away from a reliable schedule toward checkerboard programming. I guess they want to make it difficult for the listener. Or...they aren't really thinking about their listeners. Or...they love retro public radio and long for the bad old days of the 70's when public radio had few listeners and little public support.

Not having a PD or content director in place can lead to bad decisions. But then...if nobody is paying attention...if nobody is in charge...you might not be able to fix the problem before it is too late. It happens more than anybody cares to admit.

Does It Matter?

I'm afraid so. I have some apps on my phone. So do many other listeners. If I don't get what I want on the station above, I can get it elsewhere. The less time I spend with the station...the less likely I am to support it. A significant drop in listener support should be a wake up call. If management is looking in the right place, they might be able to reverse the trend. Unfortunately, with so much competition from so many platforms, the margin for error is much smaller.

Classical in Houston All Digital

Houston Public Media has sold KUHA to a Christian Broadcaster

This Could Be the End

Moving KUHA's Classical programming to the web where it will be lost among hundreds of other digital services and to HD2 will result in low listenership and low loyalty.

I realize this is an opinion...but how many HD radios are out there? It takes a few 100 thousand listeners to generate enough listening to result in enough members to support a public radio station in a major market. Is the Houston market saturated with HD radios?

Houston Public Media bought KUHA from Rice University in 2010 for about $9 million. Houston Public Media's classical service was moved over to KUHA in hopes that it would be able to support itself as a stand alone service. That did not happen as Houston Public Media struggled to service the debt on the loan used to but KUHA.

Now the college radio audience and the classical audience both lose.

You can read more about the sale here...

Houston Public Media Completes Sale Of Classical Station KUHA 91.7 FM To KSBJ

It's Not There!!!

A Listener's Rant

I went to tune-in to  my local public radio station to listen to a daily news and interview program, but it wasn't there. Because I wasn't able to tune in at the start of the hour...there seemed to be no explanation as to what happened. Not tuning in at the beginning or end of an hour is pretty typical of listeners.

So...I'm left to wonder.

When to comes listener loyalty...that's a bad idea. Loyalty is based on habitual listening habits. When a listener wants Morning Edition, it should be there. When a listener wants to find All Things Considered...it should be where it always is. The same goes for local programming.

Consistency

Consistency leads to listener loyalty. Loyalty is important when it comes to AQH and Share...and membership dollars. Keep messing with the listener and your giving him or her an opportunity to tune away.

The special in it's place was pretty good, but I didn't hear any promos for the program. They're easy to miss. To reach half the audience in a week...optimum effective scheduling is needed. That could be as many as 64 spots in a week. If the special is important enough to bump regular programming, perhaps effective promotion might be in order. At the very least, producers could have created announcements for the breaks with horizontal promotion to the next "Where We Live," or a reassurance that the program would be back.

A daily program that has built an audience should be there well...daily. The best way to build audience and loyalty is by consistently meeting the listener's expectations. It might take a little extra work, but the rewards are worth the effort.

Okay...I'm done.

Podcasting: Who's Downloading

Nielsen recently offered some insight into who is downloading and listening to Podcasts.

• 70% are between 18 and 44
• 44% are college graduates
• $83,700 average household income
• 65% have some sort of investment
• 75% have contributed to a cause in the past year.
• Top activities include swimming, bicycling, and running
• Nutrition, weight loss and appearance are important

The audience profile is very similar to the public radio profile with the exception of the age cohort. The research reinforces the audience data shared before...that is...Public Radio's draw for younger demographics is being drained by newer platforms. That does not mean giving up on one platform in favor of another. That means being on the platforms being used by the intended audience. It also means creating content that meets the expectations of the audience.

The report points out that if you create the podcast...they will come. But...Only if you can figure out how to make the content appealing to your audience. Nobody said this would be easy.

More details can be found in their report "IF YOU CREATE IT, WILL THEY COME? PRODUCING PODCAST CONTENT TO BUILD YOUR LISTENER BASE."

Working Together in Public Radio: Does it matter?

This blog is not written to imply that radio broadcasting is the end all and be all of public media. There are too many platforms creating opportunities to reach the audience to think that one platform is better than the other. Instead it is meant to demonstrate how best to use the broadcast platform based on personal experience and the collective experiences of others. No matter the platform, best practices for that particular platform will help us reach our full potential to reach and engage the public media audience.

Yeah, it does! 

A few decades back when I was taking courses in Mass Communications and radio programming basics we spent a lot of time talking about increasing time spent listening and reducing barriers to listening. The models we worked on were commercial formats.

The question of stationality came up in a couple of job interviews. How would you change the culture here to make us one station? The question came up in a different way recently when I was asked to examine the weaknesses in a particular station's weekday schedule. Their weekdays are filled with a hodgepodge of programs provided by independent producers primarily concerned with their content rather than appealing consistently to an audience. The end result is long stretches of audience data that barely registered above zero.

Why look for examples of success among commercial broadcasters? The thinking was, the best way to attract and keep an audience was consistency of format and super serving the target audience. We discussed music formats and news formats and using rotations and solid forward promotion strategies to keep listeners listening. We also looked at consistency. Inevitably, people will tune away. Once they tuned back in, the successful station delivered the programming the core audience expected to hear.

Eliminating barriers to listeners is the same thing as eliminating seams. It is not be possible to eliminate them all. Some are easier to eliminate than others and, I am not advocating blandness and the safety of banality. But.. Public Radio is filled with examples of seams and barriers. A few examples include...

• Opening and closing themes.
• Billboards.
• Hellos and long goodbyes.
• Self-encased hour long programs
• Announcers who say "I'll be back," "All of you out there."
• Announcers who think in terms of "my show."
• Checkerboard schedules that promote churn.

The Best of Intentions

At my first public radio station we used to run feature news stories during our music programming. The intent was to highlight news content as a sort of cross promotion during the music programming stream. It didn't work. The music imperatives hated the interruptions and tuned out. The news imperatives never tuned in. We were creating huge seams in our programming suppressing time spent listening and audience loyalty. At my second station something similar was happening. We programmed all sorts of modules during music programming. These things had introductory music and closing themes with goodbyes from the host. There were gardening modules, star gazing modules, ecological modules, business modules and more. Instead of being intriguing bits of informative programming, the audience thought of them as interruptions. They tuned out. We created huge seams because we thought the public radio listener wanted this kind of information. We should have asked first.

Not for Lack of Effort

There have been attempts at creating midday and weekend streams that have a consistent appeal with the public radio tent poles...Morning Edition and All Things Considered.  To date, the attempts have been less than successful. Think about what's happened to Weekend America, Talk of the Nation, Performance Today and Modal Music. Meanwhile, we're looking for the next Car Talk and Wait, Wait! The later two worked because they appealed to the same audience that values All Things Considered and Morning Edition. They also work because listeners can tune-in at any point in the program and understand what is going on...just like ATC and ME.

To find out what's working, look at where the core audience gravitates. Look at which programs draw that audience on a consistent basis. Unfortunately for the stations with poor results, there's even longer stretches of no core audience. Without substantial core appeal, the ability to raise funds from listeners is almost nil.

Finding programming that fits well together is only a part of the programming game. So is forward promotion. A focused promotional effort on what to expect in the next ten to 20 minutes promotes time spent listening and can help bridge the natural gaps between programs. Forward promotion, vertical and horizontal promotion are a station's most effective on-air promotional tools. Promotions can also give stations a sense of unity and purpose.

There's loads of research on effective programming strategies for public radio. Some good places to start include the Radio Research Consortium, Public Radio Program Directors Association, Walrus Research, Audience Research Analysis and Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

I've been asked and, at times, castigated, "Why do research? This is public broadcasting. We can do anything...and they will come." Those days are long gone. With new platforms drawing away audience, the stakes are too high not to be paying attention to what your audience wants. If you want to do your own thing, start a podcast. If you want an audience, just be sure you know what you're doing, and how to listen then engage.

KUSP Up For Sale

The KUSP Board Votes to Sell the Station 

(oh drat)
After years of deficits the board has thrown in the towel. A last attempt to change the format and revive the station was deemed a failure after the Spring fund drive netted only a third of the goal needed to keep the operation afloat.

The format change to AAA from news and information was put in place last Fall. Realistically, six months was not enough time for the format to catch on with the audience. KUSP may have waited too long to look for a solution to its fiscal problems.

There's more on the board's decision in Current and the Monterrey County Weekly.  

Shorter Fund Drives Are Back

You just gotta work at it!

An article by Tyler Falk in Current...the newspaper for people in public media...highlights what some public media outlets are doing to cut down on the number of days spent on-air fundraising. It's the return of the shorter drive.

WBUR in Boston recently completed a drive where they raised over $1 million in 26.2 hours. The them for the drive was based around the Boston Marathon. The amount raised was over 100% more than previously raised in a day. They did it with a whole station effort with pre-drive promotion, They utilized digital platforms and  social media including updates with Facebook Live and on-air reports with Luke Burbank. There was even a pre-drive rally with the staff.

Occasionally, I work on fund raising and stewardship campaigns and at one of the seminars I attended last year at the Hartford Seminary on fundraising, Mike Piazza held up NPR stations as a shining example of how to do it. Your station can be, if you're willing to try things and innovate.

Resistance to Fund Raising

Innovation is becoming more important. John Sutton put it this way in the article, "Better listening data...has shown how much fund drives disrupt listenership; and fear that on-air campaigns will drive listeners to other audio content." Sutton said a couple dozen stations are experimenting with shorter fund drives. Sustaining members are one of the factors making this possible.

The pressure to make drive more efficient has been with us all along, and the concept of shorter drives has been with us almost as long. You can't use the same concepts over and over. They will lose effectiveness, but they can be part of a station's fundraising strategies. If you've done shorter drives in the past, pull the concept out of your toolbox, dust it off, update your ideas, and go for it.

The article goes into much more depth about shorter drives. I suggest you read it. You'll also find more example of what is working and who is working on these projects. If you're not sure, ask these people for help.

Radio Still Leads Time with Audio

News of Radio's Death is Greatly Exaggerated

Edison Research is reporting that Americans spend 54% of their audio time with AM and FM radio. This is giood news for Public Radio. Lately there's been a debate that Public Radio is losing it's grip. Podcasting is the hot platform and the disruption will soon eclipse radio broadcasting.

Not So Fast

Podcasting is just another means of reaching the public media audience. According to the research...

• 54% of the timeis spent with AM/FM
• 16% of the time is spent with owned music
• 15% with pureplay streaming audio
• 7% with SiriusXM
• TV music channels such as Music Choice command 5% 
• Podcasts account for 2% of all time spent with audio.

You can read more about time spent with audio by linking to Inside Radio.

To be sure, younger listeners are gravitating to mobile devices, but the amount of time spent with radio suggests Content and Program Directors continue to pay attention to the craft of good radio.
I remember looking at some of the early research done for public radio by Church and Bailey. The research mentioned that public radio listeners were avid consumers of all media. The same is still true today. There's just a lot more platforms and a many more opportunities.

Public Radio Utopia

Location Matters

In real estate...it's all about location, location, location. The same may be true for public radio. There are markets with high concentrations of really smart people where it can all come together for public radio. Stations that air and create content that appeals to the values and lifestyles of their listeners manage to garner a sizable audience. That's a long way from the days of declaring, we have a small but loyal audience.

Public Media Audience is Smart

The most significant cohort for public radio is education. Educated, intelligent people seek out and use the content on public radio and other platforms. The educational cohort was one of the most significant findings of Audience 98. The application of VALS research confirmed that the public radio audience is served by programming that informs and entertains educated listeners. Seven-in- 10 have advanced degrees, and virtually all have graduated from college. Along with a good education comes the opportunity for increased income.

Location does not preclude good programming practices and attention to content creation that consistently appeals to the audience. All elements must come together to create success. The idea that you can put just anything on the air and the audience will come is so '70's.  Audience 98 put it this way...

The appeal of a program is inseparable from those who listen. The program creates the audience, and the characteristics of that audience define the program’s appeal. Programs that serve very similar audiences – i.e., programs with highly congruent appeals – work better in combination. The degree to which the appeals are congruent is called affinity. Programs that serve the same audiences have high affinity. Programs that serve moderately different audiences have only moderate affinity. Programs that serve different audiences have no affinity.

In other words, it is easy to fail. That's why there are under performing stations and content providers in ideal markets. Conversely, with hard work, stations and content providers can overcome less than ideal markets and over perform.

Programming Causes Audience

If the content you create and program consistently appeals to your target audience...the more successful you will become. That is, if the audience is willing to voluntarily support your offerings. Again from Audience 98, "Certain kinds of listeners are attracted to certain kinds of programming. So when we choose what we air, we select who will listen – and also who won’t." I think this holds true no matter the platform. Podcasters should be paying attention. Figure out what the audience wants and go for it! Perhaps, intensive audience research is in order to find out more about the highly educated millennial cohort.

There are  markets with high concentrations of educated people and high performing public radio stations. The top 25 markets with the most educated populations according to Wallet Hub are listed below. The compilation is from 2015. Among these markets are high performing public radio stations. I chose stations with a share in the top 5 among all stations measured in their market. 13 stations are performing exceedingly well when it comes to audience share. 12 are not. There may be mitigating circumstances for under performing stations, but a look at why might prove helpful if your station is in the top 25 of the educational cohort among the 150 metro areas included in the study.

So What?

Think of it this way...stations that perform well with the public radio audience are more likely to generate listener support. That support makes it possible to create content more suited to the platforms used by smart millennial listeners.

Stations in the Top Five

Ann Arbor  WUOM - Michigan Radio  9.8% Share

Washington DC  WAMU  8.0% Share

Madison  WERN  5.8% Share

Boston  WBUR  4.4% Share

Raleigh-Durham  WUNC  7.1% Share

Tallahassee  WFSU  7.9% Share

Portland, Maine  WMAE  8.1% Share

Austin  KUT  5.3% Share

Denver  KCFR-Colorado Public Radio 5.6% Share

Portland, Oregon  KOPB  7.4% Share

Albany  WAMC  4.7% Share

San Francisco  KQED  5.5% Share

Huntsville  WAYH  3.8% Share

Overall Rank	MSA	“Education Level” Rank	“Quality of Education & Attainment Gap” Rank
1	Ann Arbor, MI	1	4
2	Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV	3	19
3	Madison, WI	2	51
4	Provo-Orem, UT	11	6
5	Colorado Springs, CO	4	47
6	Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	6	31
7	Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH	5	63
8	Lansing-East Lansing, MI	15	1
9	Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI	7	59
10	Raleigh, NC	10	49
11	Tallahassee, FL	17	15
12	Durham-Chapel Hill, NC	18	9
13	Portland-South Portland, ME	12	68
14	San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	21	5
15	Austin-Round Rock, TX	21	11
T-16	Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO	9	119
T-16	Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA	13	66
18	Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY	14	92
19	Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD	23	30
20	San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA	16	110
21	Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT	8	149
22	Manchester-Nashua, NH	19	128
23	Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT	20	116
24	Honolulu, HI	30	14
25	Huntsville, AL	25	99