Who's your audience? Do you care?

 

Determining Audience Needs

Discovery

You should be curious about your audience. If you’re really serious about your obligation to the community, you should have a ton of questions. Especially when considering changes. Here are a few:

• Why does your audience seek your content? 

• What are their expectations?

• Demographically, who are these people?  

• Why are they loyal to your station, your content? 

• Where do they listen? 

• When do they listen? 

The most important answers might come down to core values. Core values might lead you to asking the right questions and the answers you need about listener motivation. If your core values match theirs, you are in harmony with their expectations.

The Public Directors Program Directors Association (PRPD), with the help of research partners and CPB, came up with some answers. As the findings were being revealed, I heard grumblings from some that they were so over Core Values. “It’s time to move on to something else.” “Core values are so, yesterday.” That could be true. First ask, have you seen a significant erosion in audience numbers and listener support? Then ask, is it because the audience has shifted or the station has drifted from its core values?  Knowing your audience is important. Making uninformed decisions can easily lead to being cast adrift in a sea of media.

I found advice about core values at Brandfolder. “There will be times in business when you have to make tough choices. But when you have core values that constantly remind you of what’s important to your business and to the people you’re serving, making the right decision becomes an effortless task. To top it off, you can live with those choices knowing that they’re informed by values that are aligned with your brand’s overarching mission and vision.”

“Core brand values matter because they influence how consumers view your brand, which is important considering that consumers are more likely to support a brand whose core values align with their own. The same is true for employees, as well. In fact, multiple studies show that shared core values have a significant impact on employee engagement.” 

“And the clincher? Building your brand around your core values allows you to grow a business that you can be proud of and be passionate about. And because those core values reflect you and your company, it becomes much easier to stay true to yourself. And in an era where consumer trust is at an all-time low, it pays to have a core set of values that helps you maintain brand authenticity.” (Core Brand Values Examples: Why They Are Key to Differentiating Your Brand https://brandfolder.com/blog/core-brand-values-key-differentiators, James Winter, 2021)

 

Four Types of Audience

Before you get lost in the argument, “This is supposed to be for everybody,” You are not going to be able to appeal to everybody.

The 4 Types of Audience

• Friendly. Your purpose: reinforcing their beliefs.

• Apathetic. Your purpose is to first convince them that it matters for them.

• Uninformed. Your requirement is to educate before you can begin to propose a course of action.

• Hostile. Your purpose is to respect them and their viewpoint.   (https://conorneill.com/2018/04/17/the-4-types-of-audience-for-your-speech/)

Your public media audience is made up of the Friendlies, and to a lesser extent, the Apathetics. Who’s in these two groups? Marketingingenutiy.com came up with this profile of the public radio audience. 

GENDER

Research indicates that the number of men and women who listen to NPR is neatly equal

AGE 

Today's public radio listeners come from all age groups. The largest portion of listeners skews 35+, reaching an audience of established listeners and viewers who are leaders in their personal and professional networks. About half are between 25 and 54 years old.

RACE  

Historically, most public radio listeners at NPR News stations were white. But today’s NPR includes Latinx and Black listeners, and their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion continues to draw listeners from various ethnic backgrounds with relevant content that amplifies the voices of people of color.

 

PRX’s Latino USA, hosted by Maria Hinojosa, elevates the voices of historically marginalized communities through authentic storytelling. Snap Judgment, hosted by Glynn Washington delivers a raw, intimate, and musical brand of storytelling that dares listeners to see a sliver of the world through another's eyes.

INCOME  

Public radio listeners typically fall into higher household income (HHI) categories and have for years. This is primarily related to the fact that households that listen to public media tend to have more formal education than non-public media households.  

The median HHI of an NPR News listener is approximately $103,000 per year. More than 80 percent of listeners have an HHI over $50,000 per year, and almost 70 percent of listeners have an HHI over $75,000. This means public radio listeners generally have more spending power than general market radio listeners. They spend money on travel, books, fitness, and they own financial securities, signaling that they have disposable income.

POLITICAL ATTITUDES  

Approximately 75 percent of listeners identify as voting, providing the perfect opportunity for sponsors to  target politically active listeners, regardless of their political attitudes. Similarly, the diversity among political viewpoints provides opportunity for sponsors to connect with people of all political preferences, including liberal, middle-of-the-road and conservative listeners. 

Some demographics are more prevalent among public radio listeners than others, but they all serve as an influential marketing audience for brand storytelling and building your brand reputation.

You Don’t Need to Reinvent the Wheel

The Wheel May Need Some Modifications

You can find the Core Values of Public Radio at the PRPD website. The basics are available to everybody. If you want more depth, you need to join. Here’s a summary of findings.

The project identified three distinct categories that captured what listeners find and value in our programming. We called them:

• Qualities of the Mind and Intellect

• Qualities of the Heart and Spirit

• Qualities of Craft

We found some common ground among the values held by audiences for all of the formats, most notably intelligence and a desire for high standards of craft. But we also found dramatic differences - particularly in the Qualities of Heart and Spirit – with values that morphed as we shifted our focus from news to classical to jazz. The successful application of this research will rest on a clear understanding of how the values are shaded for each format and can sometimes even stand in opposition to one another. In short, there is no single “one size fits all” set of core values.

 

Disrupted

Core values information is almost a generation old. Things have shifted. The way people listen certainly has changed. Podcasts are big now. Spotify too, but please remember these are platforms, not content. You should look for the platforms being used by your audience. You can find out which platforms they are using by asking. How? Survey them. Have their core values shifted? Ask!

1. Survey Them. One of the easiest ways to find out what your audience wants is to survey them. ...

2. Do a Discovery Call. If you're looking for more in-depth feedback and ideas from your target audience, you should consider doing one-on-one discovery calls with a few people. ...

3. Use Social Media.   (https://www.business2community.com/marketing/3-bests-ways-to-find-out-what-your-target-audience-wants-02150935)

More Depth?

I found this at Socially Sorted:

So here are19  Ways to Survey Your Audience.

Oh and I split them up into 3 areas, so you can find the level to jump in at depending on what type of audience you have right now! They are: 

1. Survey Your Audience with a List.    If you have a list of subscribers, then you are off and racing. If you don't, it's ok – there are plenty of options you can still use.

2. Survey Your Audience via Social Media. If you are just getting started (or even if you have a list) you can easily survey your ideal audience using social media. I've listed out plenty of ideas.

3. Survey Your Audience without a Social Media Following (or a List). All is not lost if this is your starting point. In fact, you are probably in a GREAT position as you can do this the right way,  building your list in a targeted way at the same time.  #Winning.

You can get the complete rundown here.

Grow the audience with a Survey

What You Should Ask

The following hints about surveying the audience were developed with podcasts in mind. With a little imagination these tips can easilty be used for broadcast.

Ease in with Demographic Questions

Simple, basic questions about the responder helps them feel like, “this is easy.” This lets them get used to the podcast survey process, before you ask them opinion questions requiring more thought. These general things that give you an idea of what your audience is like. You probably want to know:

• where they live

• what age range they fall into

• what level of education they have

Opinions about format

Here, you can ask them about the way your content is presented. You can ask them if they prefer interviews, solo talking, or panel discussion. Ask how they feel about the episode length. You can also ask if they prefer to listen to each episode all at once, or if they tend to listen to it in chunks. This gives you some valuable insight. If you have recurring segments, ask if there are parts they look forward to.

What's in it for your listener?

Here's where you'll ask why they listen, and what they get out of it. Unlike broadcast radio or television, people don't turn on their device and listen to “whatever's on.” They have to make a choice. Asking why they listen and what it does for them, in different ways, will get answers with different focus.

Ask what they do while listening. Do they commute? Exercise? Cook? Data entry? Close their *eyes and give it full attention?

Discovery

Always ask how your listeners found out about the podcast. Did they find out about the show through social media, word of mouth, or maybe another podcast? Did they find out through paid advertising? Did someone write a tweet or Facebook status recommending your work?

Survey Showtime

Keep your audience survey posted and open long enough to be able to mention it at the end of at least 3 episodes. Make sure it's heard! Mention it on your podcast's social media and web site. Use a short link system like PrettyLink to make a clear link to your survey. It'll look something like yourpodcast.com/survey, and it's easy to repeat in the recording stage.

Now that you've got the survey data, what's next?

It's always nice to get a pat on the back. When you look at the results of the survey, set aside your ego. Pretend it's someone else's show. The survey results can help you create more content in the future, or tie-in products or perks.

Once you've gathered these responses, be sensible. If people mention something specific that you can change (“the theme music goes on for three minutes and that's too long”), then think about changing it.

If it’s not changeable (“women have shrill voices! history is boring!”), then don’t worry about it. Unless, of course, you get a lot of feedback about it. Then, talk with other podcast creators that you trust.

Find out if they hear what your audience mentioned. For example, a comment about “shrill voice” sound might just be an indication of a need for some gain adjustment.

In a recent blog post about surveys and polls, marketing wizard Seth Godin said, “even asking someone a thoughtful question about their satisfaction can increase it.” Podcast surveys aren't just about getting the word out. They're about looking at what you’re doing right, and planning what you can do better, to engage the listeners you have. (The Podcast Host)

Simple Strategies

How to Find Your Target Audience

1. Use Google Analytics to learn more about your customers.

2. Create a reader persona to target blog content.

3. Look at social media analytics.

4. Use Facebook Insights.

5. Check on website performance.

6. Engage with social media audiences. (Google Search)https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/target-audience

Coda

The genesis for this article came while putting together a contact list for the Paul Winter Consort. A considerable number of stations no longer have a content manager or program director. My question is, who’s in charge of the overall sound of the station, and who is making sure the station is actually serving an audience? Or, is the station serving other needs. The problem with a producer-run station, it is easy to run off the rails. It is easy to lose sight of the station’s core values and the core values of the audience. After the audience moves away because they’ve become disappointed with the overall sound of the station and its content, revenue sources begin to dry up.

They're Still Listening...You're appealing to their values!

Knowing Your Audience

PRPD rolled out the Core Values of Public Radio between 2002 and 2005. I thought it was a big deal then, not because I was on the PRPD board for a couple of years, but because the research was able to define why listeners chose to listen and support public radio. 

According to the latest research shared by Jacobs Media in their 2018 Tech Survey at the PRPD conference, Core Values continues to be the top reasons for listening. I'm assuming this is across all platforms.

Core Values are the top six main reasons for listening.

  More credible and objective programming  78%
  To be informed about the news  72%
  Enjoy learning new things  71%
  Deeper news perspective  70%
  Respects my intelligence  68%
  Balanced perspective  65%

Favorite Program made the top ten. So did presentation style.

Some long held beliefs about radio programming, that listeners tune in because its a habit and because it offers companionship and because it's free, are pretty far down this list. 

For wonky research driven, audience first types like me, Core Values crystallized the reasons for the high loyalty of public radio's listeners. It's good news that those values still hold true. 

The results of the Tech Survey confirms that Public Radio continues to serve it's audience.

Music Makes the Workload Easier

This blog isn't about what you and I might think our listeners ought to be hearing. It is about how a portion of our listeners spend their time listening to the music.  I've been through this discussion many times, but in order to serve your audience, you must have your audience in mind. You are here to serve the audience. There is no service of nobody is listening.

Core Values of Music

If you were part of the discovery of the Core Values Project, you might remember the revelation that the classical core used music as a way to help them concentrate on work and other tasks. Classical music has intensive and ambient qualities depending on what the listener brings to the music.

There's plenty of research to support that assumption.

The research was done by the Public Radio Program Directors Association. If you look at Qualities of the Heart and Spirit notice the top two qualities.

• Internal State (peaceful, soothing, relaxing)
• Inspired by Beauty and Majesty (of the music)

Head Clearing Experience

The Station Research Group published listener comments from the focus groups. Among them:

(3. CLASSICAL MUSIC CLEARS THE MIND AND HELPS LISTENERS FOCUS ON THEIR TASK)

• Classical music does alter your brain waves. 
• Has anybody else seen that? it has a physical reaction 
• …Lowers your blood pressure. 
• Yes, you can concentrate better. 
• ...Or whether it’s writing a poem and you just need the feeling. So then you want to listen to feeling. 
• It seems to be enjoyable yet you can achieve what you want to. 
• It just seems to help clear the way and make it easier. 
• It gives me something to focus on; it brings order into chaos. 
• If you listen to Bach, it just orders your mind. For some reason, if I have to do a lot of paperwork I love classical music
• I've heard they’ve done studies like Mozart stimulates your intellect or something.

Music Helps You Concentrate

Chad Grills, CEO of the Mission and publisher of the podcast The Story, wrote and article about 

The Science Backed Ways Music Affects Your Brain and Productivity

Among his findings:

• Music with lyrics works better with mundane tasks.
• Ambient music works better with more challenging tasks.
• Music can help relieve negative emotions like stress, anxiety and depression. 
• It can even decrease instances of confusion and delirium in elderly medical patients recovering from surgery.
• For the most part, research suggests that listening to music can improve your efficiency, creativity and happiness in terms of work-related tasks.

There are even some lines in the article you might want to borrow for your next fund raiser. The benefits of music could be applied to any format and platform.

9/11 Paradigm Shift

Where was I on 9/11? 

I was in Baltimore. I arrived the night before for the Public Radio Program Directors Association (PRPD) Conference. I signed up for a pre-conference session with a management consultant. The all-day session was about getting the most out of on-air talent.

I rose on 9/11 to a clear and sunny day. It was glorious. I opened the curtains and looked out from my hotel room onto the inner harbor. The sun was gleaming off the water.

I noticed a helicopter gunship fixed in place, making circles. Until it got to me. The ship stopped. It seemed clear they were looking at me. I backed away from the window. The gunship resumed it circling. This was about a half-hour before the first plane hit the World Trade Center.

Part of what we focused on at the start of the session was managing in an era of a paradigm shift. The idea was to get our talent to continue to strive relevance in a changing world. In this sense it's a shift in how we think and talk about things. A paradigm shift for my parents was World War II. As this discussion started to unfold, one of the PRPD board members came into our session to tell us a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. The meeting was over.

9/11 was a paradigm shift. My boss lamented the events of that day by saying, "This changes everything." He meant that everything that was expected of Public Radio was about to change. What we covered and how we covered it was going to take on a greater importance. Everything else was going to have less relevance. He was right. I saw a challenge as we struggled to grasp what had happened and what this meant for the future. He felt the loss of the way things used to be. With any paradigm we have no control over the catalyst that brings about the change. We change our perspective to adapt.

The change in what was expected on Public Radio didn't happen overnight, but the audience began to shift for us from a classical imperative to a news imperative. The shift happened faster than we could adjust for it, but by 2005 it was clear to us the changes that happened and what we had to do about those changes.

The relevance in this case was the sociological change brought about by the events of 9/11. Those events changed everything.

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.

Covering Issues and Ideas

Transcending Geography

This article is not about local vs national coverage. It is about getting the most out of what stations can offer locally. Thinking about coverage from the perspective of the listener will help guide the focus of your content. It is an argument I made for years in music programming. It is an argument that often fell on deaf ears. That is, until we found ourselves creating barriers between our programming and the audience we were hoping to serve. Change came about slowly, but I like to think at WNPR we learned our lesson. It bears repeating.

Users of public media transcend local. Research I was a part of at Connecticut Public Broadcasting demonstrated clearly the world perspective public radio listeners have. This worldly view is not just a phenomenon in Connecticut. Broader research conducted for the public radio system through The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), The Public Radio Program Directors Association (PRPD) and others demonstrated the preference of public media users to look at issues from a broader perspective. The Sense of Place Study clearly pointed out that local coverage for the sake of being local was not an effective use of the media's resources.

Covering Issues

At WNPR we decided in 2006 when looking at format change to look at the issues and ideas that defined where we live rather than geography. Part of reason was pragmatic. Connecticut is governed by over 160 town governments. The attitude in Connecticut is that the issues in Hamden have no relationship to the issues in Waterbury. Or, that's in Hartford...not here. The thinking in the system at the time was to center coverage on a region like Chicago, New York or the Twin Cities. Connecticut did not have a regional center. Focusing on one area would make WNPR local and irrelevant to much of the state.. We decided to look at issues and ideas from a much broader perspective.

Others are taking this approach. WAMU recently announced they would realign their news coverage to key issues rather than geography. The key areas of their coverage will be Transportation and Development, Education and Inequality, Race and Ethnicity, Power and Influence, and Arts and Culture.

WUWM in Milwaukee is also covering news from an issues perspective. The news drop down  menu on  their website reveals coverage in the Environment, Economy & Business, Politics & Government, Education, Health & Science, World, Arts & Culture, and Project Milwaukee. Station Manager Dave Edwards mentioned that this approach is working out well for his station.

A Lucrative Decision

The decision at WNPR to focus on issues and ideas proved beneficial to the audience and the station. Increases in audience and loyalty followed. The launch of Where We Live by a very talented staff highlighted and enhanced coverage engaging the stations audience, Opportunities to develop partnerships in the community followed and so do did funding opportunities.

A Collaborative Effort

CPB announced in February a collaboration they are funding for regional coverage among several stations in New England. The geographic coverage will focus on issues and ideas. According to a release from Vermont Public Radio, "The New England News Collaborative (NENC) will produce multimedia coverage focusing on the region's energy usage, climate, transportation infrastructure, and its people and immigration issues. This robust partnership will produce dynamic reporting projects for on-air broadcast, digital and web presentations, and a series of public Town Hall-style meetings centered on issues facing New England and its residents."

WNPR will run the collaboration which will depend on the talents of reporters and producers across the New England states. The stations involved in the project are Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network, WBUR,Maine Public Broadcasting Network, New Hampshire Public Radio, Vermont Public Radio, New England Public Radio, Rhode Island Public Radio, and WSHU Public Radio.

Beyond Seed Money

The ability of the stations to keep the project going after the grant runs its course will depend on how willing they are to play nicely with each other. Certainly, the coverage will present opportunities for growth on all platforms. It will be up to the station to use the content to leverage partnerships and funding opportunities and put that revenue back into the partnership. It can work. 

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

Valuing Civil Discourse

Core Values

Have you noticed how politics has devolved? There seems to be very little that is rationally discussed. Discussions on cable news have become filled with vitriol, shouting and hate. The anger and vitriol of cable news is parroted by millions. Any rational debate is lost in the name calling. As a result politics is all about personal attack. According to Pew Research, political polarization is affecting daily life, and the results are negative. Antipathy is causing gridlock in Washington and in many states. People from both parties view the other party as a threat to the nation's well-being. 27% of Democrats see the Republicans as a threat to the nation's well-being. 36% of Republicans see Democrats as a threat to the nation's well-being. The appetite for bipartisan solutions is diminished.

Most Americans are not uniformly conservative or liberal. They believe their representatives should meet halfway to resolve contentious issues. Yet, the majority in the middle remains on the edges of the political playing field. But, as Pew points out, those joining the political extremes are growing in numbers.

This antipathy does not apply to Public Radio's core audience.
Public Radio did some research to discover its Core Values of Public Radio. Those values were published by the Public Radio Program Directors Association. The goal was to find the values that made the top programs on public radio so appealing to its audience. The ultimate goal was to apply those values to local programming. They are: 

Qualities of the Mind and Intellect

Love of lifelong learning

Substance

Curiosity

Credibility

Accuracy

Honesty

Respect for the listener

Purpose

Qualities of the Heart and Spirit

Humor

Idealism

Inspired about public life and culture

Belief in civility and civil discourse

Generosity

Qualities of Craft

A uniquely human voice

Pacing that's appropriate to the substance of the content

Attention to the smallest details of music, sound, language

Since I share many of those values, I take them to heart. Civil Discourse is one of the most important values when it comes to making decisions during elections. Without it, people are focusing on all the wrong issues. You don't believe me? Just watch.

Hilary Stops at Chipotle

It is revealing when the journalist in the middle tries to insert some real analysis into the discussion, the other members of the panel seem stunned...just for a second...then go back to their snide comments. I come from a public broadcasting background. We focussed our efforts on the Core Values of Public Radio in our reporting and local programming. Something we learned is it may not be impossible to be completely objective as a reporter. It is not impossible to be fair. Public Radio is held to a higher standard by its audience. Local programming needs mirror national programming by reflecting those values.