Delmarva friends radio group submits proposal

Delmarva friends radio group submits proposal

The friends group contends the stations are in the state their in because of mismanagement. The Friends of Delmarva Public Radio, Inc. also say the proposal from  the consultant, Public Radio Capital (PRC), would culturally diminish Delmarva. PRC recommended the stations become mostly automated. WSCL would become a classical service with programming provided by an outside service. WSDL would become a AAA service with programming provided by an outside service. The Friends hope to preserve the current services according to an article in The Cape Gazette.

Two major obstacles stand in the way. They are facilities and funding. DPR's facilities are being demolished to make way for a new library at Salisbury University. The Salisbury University Foundation has made it clear they no longer can afford to fund Delmarva Public Radio's deficit.

If the friend's can get a reprieve and find new facilities, they need to find a way to grow the audience, increase listener support, increase foundation support, and increase corporate support. They'll also need to look for ways to decrease expenses. These things don't happen overnight.

What could be done?

• Seek help with your fundraising and your goals and objectives. The Station Resource Group and The Development Exchange have resources to help stations.
• Be Brilliant on the Basics. Check out the article by Deb Blakeley and Israel Smith.  How far from the basics is the local content?
• Focus - Do a few things well.
• Look for alliances to increase the quality of local content. Start with other public media outlets.
• Could Delmarva Public Radio find ways to work with their competition without being consumed?
• NPR's flagship programs are expensive. Alternate information programming is available through the networks and independent content providers. The Public Radio Exchange is a good place to start.
• The two stations can still have local content under the PRC proposal. There is room for local programming within the two services being proposed.

Delmarva Public Radio - No Way Out?

Listeners on the Delmarva Peninsula are upset.
Delmarva Public Radio part of our identity
Tom Hehman: Even if SU throws in the towel, we will not

Keep Delmarva in Delmarva Public Radio

As the published letters in the links suggests, listeners are going to miss their local public radio station.

Saving the stations, current local programming won't be easy.

Is it feasible to expect the kind of support it is going to take from listeners to keep WSCL and WSDL from switching formats to national music services? The stations lost money 17 out of the last 21 years. Listener support, foundation support and underwriting continually fell short of fiscal needs. In the past, the university made up the difference. The Salisbury University Foundation responsible for Delmarva Public Radio hired Public Radio Capital (PRC) to assess the station's fiscal viability. The University, coping with a shrinking budget, is looking for places to save.

The suggestion by PRC is that DPR drop news programming and most local classical programming. Public Radio Capital reported that too much of Delmarva Public Radio's audience was being siphoned off by stations in DC and Baltimore. Reduced audience results in diminished support.   The suggestion is to replace the NPR news station with a AAA format. Most of the programming would be syndicated. The classical service would also lose most of its local content and be programmed by a service like Classical 24.

The Numbers Matter
Size isn't everything but, public radio stations need a large enough core audience to draw from to sustain itself. WSCL and WSDL's numbers don't offer alot of hope for listeners to save their stations. In order for residents of Delmarva to save their stations their stations they will need to step forward in numbers that exceed the usual membership benchmarks. The simple benchmark is that ten percent of a station's cume can be expected to contribute. WSCL's cume 12+ was about 18,000 in Fall 2011. WSDL's cume was about 13,000 in the same period.   A rough estimate of potential givers is 3,100. DPR's annual budget is about $1million. According to the station's website about 50% of their budget is covered by memberships. To cover the $500,000 the average pledge needs to be $161. To cover the $220,000 projected deficit the average pledge will need to increase $71.

Simply taking 10% of the cume to make projections doesn't really cover the issue. Specifically, the station needs to look at the size of the core audience and the core's loyalty to the station. Drawing on the core is a much smaller sample to draw on for funding. Simply put, DPR's audience might not be large enough to support itself. Without support from other sources the stations will continue to run deficits as currently programmed.

Delmarva Public Radio

Public will have input on Public Radio's future

For smaller public radio stations with smaller audiences, the struggle to survive comes down to sheer numbers. This is holding true for Delmarva Public Radio owned by Salisbury University. In a letter to the Delmarva Daily Times, Charles T. Capute, chairman of the SU Foundation and Janet Dudley-Eshbach, president of SU, explain why they are taking a serious look at the station's situation. The Foundation hired Public Radio Captial to assess the station's situation and make recommendations. Members of the Foundation are now reviewing PRC's report.

In 17 if the past 25 years DPR has run a deficit. Funds from the University have been used to balance the books. One of the questions that needs to be answered is can a station with cume audience less than 20,000 continue to sustain an NPR news and information format? Especially when you consider they are competing for the same audience with WAMU and WESM.

When considering listener support, the size of the P1 audience is much more significant. If 40% of the Cume audience for news is core (P1), the member base is being drawn from 8,000 listeners. Is the size of the P1 audience large enough to support the cost of the news operation?

Delmarva Public Radio runs two formats. WSCL is a mostly classical service on a 33,000 watt station. WSDL is a mostly news service on a smaller, 18,500 watt signal.

Public Radio Rediscovers Classical Music

Classical Music’s Comeback, on Public Radio - New York Times

The New York Times has an article about Public Radio and the resurgence of classical Music.
The key to success seems to be single format stations as opposed to hybrid formats (classical music with news and other formats) and market exclusivity. Check out the comments by Marc Hand. A third factor may be market size.  I'm not sure about this but, it may be worth considering when it comes to sheer number of listeners needed to support the station and its programming. The three successful stations mentioned in the article are WQXR, New York, WCRB, Boston and WETA, Washington. Not mentioned in the article are the successes experienced by KUSC, Los Angeles and KSJN, Minneapolis.

Duquesne University aggressively pursuing sale of WDUQ-FM - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Duquesne University aggressively pursuing sale of WDUQ-FM - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

There are a couple of interesting aspects to this article about the sale.

· The article suggests that if the University sells the station, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting would ask for its money back. Duquesne bristled at that suggestion. "But Duquesne President Charles Dougherty insists that having to reimburse 30 years' worth of federal grants will not deter him from selling the station to a nonprofit group that offers the best deal." According to the Pittsburgh-Review a spokesperson for CPB Louise Filkins said, "As stewards of the federal government's investment in public broadcasting, CPB does have an interest in seeing the licensee maintained as a public broadcasting operation. It is too early for CPB to speculate about possible outcomes for the station, but CPB could request any or all of WDUQ's federal funding be reimbursed."

· There is also a huge discrepancy between between the value Pittsburgh Public Media puts on the station ($5 million), and the value Duquesne University puts on the station ($10 million). Pittsburgh Public Media Chairman, Joe Kelly, says his group is making a second offer.

Kelly also says the city cannot afford to lose the station. There are two other public radio stations in the market. WYEP programs the AAA music format. WQED programs classical music. At a time when in-depth news is at risk, the loss of NPR news and information would deeply felt.

Does Pittsburgh need another religious broadcaster? The market seems to be pretty crowded right now. According to radio-locator there are 11 strong frequencies broadcasting religious formats to Pittsburgh.

University entertains three WDUQ bidders - News

University entertains three WDUQ bidders - News
The University is entertaining three bids, but adds that they do not have to accept any of them. If the bids do not meet their expectations, the University said it will wait until the market is better. Pittsburgh Public Media is among the group of three bids being considered.
The university reiterated that owning and financially supporting the station did not fit within its mission. According to University spokesperson Bridget Fare the sale of WDUQ was related to improving the University for students. "President Charles J. Dougherty said the question is whether WDUQ fits Duquesne's mission of serving God through serving students."
The University says it feels no obligation to sell WDUQ to a group that wants to air NPR news programming.

There are two unsettling aspects to this story. First, Long Island University will sell WLIU to the highest bidder. The community groups that want to buy the station could easily be outbid. Second, it is not clear that the station staff will be paid during the extension period. “In the meantime, Mr. Smith has something else to worry about. The State University at Stony Brook has granted a reprieve that would allow the station to stay on the Stony Brook Southampton campus, formerly occupied by L.I.U.’s Southampton College, until Dec. 3, but the private college’s original Oct. 3 cutoff date still stands, as far as the station’s employees’ paychecks are concerned.”
You can read more in Kate Maier’s article in The East Hampton Star.