You'll Lose Thousands of Listeners

WAMU recently replaced longstanding big band jazz program, "Hot Jazz." There's the usual reaction with angry calls...even a petition.

‘You will lose a lot of listeners’: Petition fights cancellation of WAMU’s ‘Hot Jazz Saturday Night’

Replacing programs on public radio has never been easy. I've done it. I feel your pain. I feel the listener's pain too. I've logged countless hours listening to complaints about program decisions. I didn't argue. I empathized. I thanked them for their support. I didn't change my mind. I didn't relent.

There's loyalty that builds among the core, but there's core as defined by the listener and core as defined by the program source. It's he larger core, the audience loyal to the radio station that I hoped to serve.

The Small But Loyal Audience

The small cadre of listeners loyal to a single program are always sure the programmers decision are wrong, misguided and foolish. They may say something like, "I've talked with all my friends, and they're really upset." I pointed out to one caller, "That's why they're your friends. You have common interests." That didn't mollify the caller. Despite the negative reaction from disgruntled listeners and flaming letters to the editor, my experience in all of these changes has been audience growth, not loss.

The point is, a station's audience divided up by small but loyal audiences has a much more difficult time generating listener support in numbers significant enough to be self sustaining.

A Bigger Picture

Core for the radio station is among the loyal listeners who tune in several times a week for a variety of programs. These are the people who support public radio over the long haul. They are the listeners who are most likely to be members. In the case of WAMU, that's 80,000 contributors out of a weekly cume of 730,000 listeners.

All Is Not Lost

Use the momentum of the petition to look for another platform. There are public and commercial radio stations other than WAMU that might be interested. Commercial radio stations (AM Stations) are clamoring for content on the weekend. There's also Internet Radio. Could this be the beginning of a big band music station. Then there are the possibilities presented by social media. Find you niche audience and super serve them with Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Podcasts and YouTube. There are many ways to get your content to your audience. Think beyond the box of your Philco radio.