Keillor to Raise Funds for Obama

Garrison Keillor announces that he is raising funds for President Obama. The Pioneer Press and Minnesota Public Radio are reporting the fundraiser will be in Keillor's St. Paul home this week.

Garrison Keillor will host fundraiser for Obama

What are your feelings on this? If it was your station, would you allow one of your hosts to take a political stand, or would you prefer they stay neutral. FCC guidelines do not allow public radio stations to advocate on issues of public interest. Garrison Keillor is not advocating on the air. The fundraiser is something he doing as a private citizen. But, others in the media (and public media) have been let go because they advocated as a private citizen. Should the same rules apply here?

New funding process frustrates small stations

MinnPost - New funding process frustrates small public radio stations

Some are saying the change in the way the State of Minnesota funds public radio is politically motivated. "The only reason it was done that way was just because a bunch of Republicans didn't want to give money to MPR," charges Rep. Ryan Winkler, DFL-Golden Valley. 

An article in the Minnesota Post reports that the opposite has happened. The smaller stations, members of AMPERS and independent of Minnesota Public Radio, ended up with smaller grants and MPR has ended up with more.

Bids For WLIU Due This Week.

Long Island University is taking bids Wednesday for their radio station WLIU. There's a local group in the running to make a successful bid. The unknown factor is that there might be a religious broadcaster with deep pockets that might outbid Peconic Public Broadcasting.

Robert Altholz, Long Island University's treasurer and vice president for finance, told the AP he has a fiduciary responsibility to accept the highest bid. Those trying to save WLIU as a local public radio station are hoping community goodwill will also be a factor. LIU says it is spending $1million a year on the station. They say they can no longer afford to do that.

Read the rest Frank Eltman's article from the AP.

'Prairie Home Companion' Host Garrison Keillor Suffered Stroke.

Sometimes I wonder about the fragile state of Public Radio’s hit shows. A Prairie Home Companion still matters to public Radio’s core audience. When I worked for WNPR fundraising around the program was often hit or miss. That didn’t mean the audience did not appreciate the program. The weekly audience was usually around 40,000 persons. The average audience was usually over 12,000. Core loyalty was usually over 70%. A Prairie Home Companion was a destination for the core audience. The core is the group of listeners most likely to give to public radio.

So what’s the big deal if Garrison decides in two years he wants to retire? Or, what if the Tom and Ray decide, because of failing health, to hang it up? It means that the audience that is most likely to contribute will be spending less time with their public radio station. The less time these listeners spend with their station, the less likely it is they will give.

The new compelling programming that draws in the core and creates new audience is in short supply. The latest public radio hit is Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me! WWDTM is at least ten years old. It took a few years before it developed into the show it is now.

Garrison says he'll be back in just a couple of weeks. For now public radio does not have to face this issue.

What happens if public radio loses a hit like A Prairie Home Companion? Is there something in development that can replace it? I hope so. Like A Prairie Home Companion and Car Talk the go to place for the core might have to develop locally first.



You can read more about Garrison’s stroke in the Huffington Post.

Al Franken Draws US From Memory

A video from Minnesota Public Radio shows Al Franken drawing a map of the U.S. from memory. I’m guessing it did not cost MPR thousands of dollars to shoot edit and post this. It might cost that much if public TV were to produce it.