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.

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

Public Media Fundraising Model

Significant Programs for a Significant Audience

(How a development function should be built and how integrated communication is necessary to support that function.)

Development, marketing and communications are co-dependent. My qualifications and skills in these areas are based a significant experience in public media. Through research of the intended audience, fundraising-awareness programming strategies were developed that were focused on building the following:

·         Regular, frequent, loyal donors;

·         A strong perception of personal value;

·         And an understanding of the importance of giving.

I believe the concepts (and lessons) learned in these projects are applicable to most community service-based development functions. I have a belief that community service begets community support.

Of course great content, by itself, doesn‘t raise a dime and there is no meter running that automatically brings in revenue without these factors:

·         Reliability and trust of the offered service;

·         The contributor understands his or her personal importance;

·         A connection with the contributor’s personal values

It is only when these essential factors are combined with a disciplined, coordinated development program that users become givers and the virtuous cycle of public service generating public support to fuel still more service—begins to engage.

Content and giving are interlaced. Good marketing efforts are wasted if the content provided by a service does not match the values and lifestyle of the intended audience.

Giving is dependent on the following:

―If a person:

• Has an awareness of the service;
• Uses the service;
• Finds the service to be valuable;
• Believes he or she needs to do his or her share;
• Has money to give and…
• Four of the five factors are driven by the services own performance. (Audience 98)

In public radio we confirmed that:

• Public radio givers can be predicted primarily from patterns of listening.
• Reliance may be measured by purely behavioral variables like loyalty to a service and becoming a core user.
• Personal importance is an internal realization.
• Individuals who not only listen but also sense that public radio has become important in their lives are more likely to become givers.
• Education adds predictive power to our model. Half of public radio givers have earned an advanced degree, an indicator of their socially responsible values and upscale lifestyles.
• Belief that public radio depends on listener support adds some predictive power to our model, but the strong predictors are behavioral reliance upon public radio along with a sense of personal importance. (Public Radio Tracking Study, Turning Listeners into Givers)

These studies highlight how quality fundraising success is really about building a relationship with the intended audience. 

Weekends matter too on Public Radio

As a consultant and somebody searching for opportunities in public media, I've run into a lot of weekend programming that just isn't the same as the weekday programming. What's different? There's a programming shift. Not sure of what I mean? There are two places you can start. A recent blog by Fred Jacobs called "Working for the Weekend" highlights George Bailey's "NPR Weekend Programming" research. Fred came up with six takeaways. They all relate to the last. Do your homework.

1. Great programmers can program anything.
2. Know your audience.
3. Weekends matter. (Have a live presence because things happen)
4. Great programming transcends ratings methodology.
5. Do what George did. (use Metrics and Analytics )
6. Do your programming homework.

Part of my frustration as a listener is the lack of a live presence on the weekend in my market. Two major events happened in New England on the weekend. At the end of August and the end of October there were major storms that knocked out power for days. There was great coverage after the fact but, hardly anything during these events. The public service aspect of these storms was missing because the breaks at my local stations are pre-produced. It was a missed opportunity.

Preparing for the Pitch

I've volunteered to help my local public radio station during their current membership campaign. It's a station I used to manage.

Because I was not a part of the pre-drive preparations, I'm spending a little time preparing. I did some listening to get a sense of what they are focusing on during this drive. It is time well spent. I want to be as engaging and and efficient with my time on-air as possible.

The pitch that's easiest for me is the close. I can recite funding facts. I'm also am pretty good with ease of pledging. I can also talk about how listeners can select their own level while suggesting one for them. Notice that I did not include premiums. Those help establish a level and may help trigger the pledge.

It's the case...the reminder of what public radio offers that is so unique and valuable...that takes a lot more thought. The case is more about why listeners have come to value public radio.

One place I start is the Core Values of Public Radio. That's where I can find bullet points about the value of the service. The Vocabulary of Qualities is my starting point. There's a lot more about the core values of public radio at the PRPD site, Station Resource Group, Walrus Research and the Development Exchange.

Public Radio's content is what drives listening and listener loyalty. Listener loyalty is what drives membership.

Qualities of Mind/Intellect
Love of lifelong learning
Substance
Expand understanding
Connect with the world
On the lookout for unique/excellent content
Curiosity: Asking why not just what
Trust, Credibility, Accuracy, Honesty
Non-manipulative
Non-sensational/No hype
Respect for listener
Purpose
Qualities of the Heart/Spirit
Humor
Idealism
Inspired about public life
Civility/Civil Discourse
Content holds center stage
Guest is the star
Qualities of Craft/Use of the Medium
Uniquely human voice
Conversational
Authentic
Intimate
Deliberate/thoughtful pace
Attention to detail

Implications of the Aging Audience

The Aging Audience/Walrus Research

George Bailey's report shows the challenges ahead for public radio stations programming jazz. The size of the core audience should be of particular concern. The core audience is where stations draw community support.

I have two questions.
Is it the format or is it the way the stations execute the format? Could it be that the jazz format does not generate a large enough core audience that is willing to support the programming? Or...is it that the stations need to work harder at music selection and, the micro formatics of what is said when the announcer opens the mic?

The research does not doom the format. The research only offers insight into the questions station management should be asking and informs solutions to their problems.