Community Service/Community Support

 

Who or what are you serving?

I was perusing audience shares in my market. I know, kind of geeky.  I noticed a public station I once competed with and then work for was going through a significant loss of audience share in our market. The drop seem precipitous, so I contacted the station's director (CEO). The response was a little defensive. "We're aware of the problem." "The PD is looking at the figures." We use three year trends." I'll give them that last one. I only saw four months of AQH share data. Their share is now around a half point. It once was around 2.5%. 

I was trying to share some cautionary advice about making  hasty changes. The response was odd. "We remain committed to Classical programming in Greater XXXXXX, and northern XX with our hosts." 

Maybe you're thinking, "Sounds right to me." They're on a glorious mission to educate America about classical music. It's the noble cause. What's missing from the response is mention of the audience and service to the community. I've worked with music directors and station managers who thought this way. They said, "What we need is more early music." "What we need more is more harpsichord music." What we need to ban baroque music from the air." "What we need is more Mahler on the air." My question, "Is this what the audience wants?" Their answer, "We're going to change the way the audience thinks about the music and how they use radio!" Really?

The Audience Decides

Your programming serves no purpose if nobody is being served. This station, with their huge signal, should have the classical audience pretty much to themselves. I'm not sure what's happening, but for some reason, they are losing that audience. I'm hoping the dismissive answers were just annoyance at my questions. I'm pretty sure they're working on improving their appeal to their audience. The folks who run this station are really smart people. I also hope that if you find yourself in the same situation, your response will be all about who you are serving, not what you are serving.

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.

Classical in Houston All Digital

Houston Public Media has sold KUHA to a Christian Broadcaster

This Could Be the End

Moving KUHA's Classical programming to the web where it will be lost among hundreds of other digital services and to HD2 will result in low listenership and low loyalty.

I realize this is an opinion...but how many HD radios are out there? It takes a few 100 thousand listeners to generate enough listening to result in enough members to support a public radio station in a major market. Is the Houston market saturated with HD radios?

Houston Public Media bought KUHA from Rice University in 2010 for about $9 million. Houston Public Media's classical service was moved over to KUHA in hopes that it would be able to support itself as a stand alone service. That did not happen as Houston Public Media struggled to service the debt on the loan used to but KUHA.

Now the college radio audience and the classical audience both lose.

You can read more about the sale here...

Houston Public Media Completes Sale Of Classical Station KUHA 91.7 FM To KSBJ

Classical Music Moving in Houston

KUHA 91.7 FM Moving To HD Radio

Houston Public Media (HPM) announced that classical programming is moving to HD2. The announcement says the programming will be moving from KUHA 91.7 to 88.7 HD 2. Classical Music will also be available at HPM's website, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and TV 8.5...a digital TV channel.

Digging Further

All Access and Houston Public Media is reporting that KUHA is for sale. Houston Public Media bought KUHA from Rice University in 2010 for over $9 million. Economic trouble became evident when HPM laid off eight full time staff at the station in 2013. The move cuts expenses further and will unload some debt for HPM.

American Public Media recently cut its losses by selling off the three stations that made up Classical South Florida. In these instances, classical music was unable to sustain itself. The debt load was to heavy to be carried through voluntary support.

Classical music is losing ground. In both cases the music will be available digitally, but free over the air broadcasts are going away. The move to HD 2 and TV 8.5 in Houston is free. They will be hard to find. HD Radio has not reached deep market penetration. Finding HDTV 8.5 is viable for at home listening...not in the car.

Layoffs Continue in Houston

Houston radio station fires its main on-air talent

Bold Predictions Fall Short

The news from Houston is stunning...but not in a good way. Four mainstays KUHT's classical service (KUHA) were let go. Back when KUHT acquired KUHA from Rice University...management predicted Houston Public Media would double its audience. Despite the predictions, layoffs started in 2011 and have continued. The article in Culture Map - Houston says the layoff came shortly after a disastrous on-air drive for KUHT and KUHA. An update to the article states, "A media relations representative claims that the leaked results of the recent fundraising drive are not accurate — and that they did not play a role in the layoffs."
The four let go include Bob Stevenson, Elaine Kennedy, Chris Johnson and Chris Hathaway. Bob Stevenson has been a part of Houston Public Media for decades.

Classical music radio may soon return to St. Louis

It looks like St. Louis may have a full-time classical music station soon. According to an article in the Post Dispatch, The Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis, which provided considerable financial support to the old "Classic99," KFUO-FM, hopes to be on the air with a new FM station in early June, pending FCC approvals. 

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/classical-music-radio-may-soon-return-to-st-louis/article_7bf3a6cc-5d6d-5c83-9d8c-43e035cf44af.html#ixzz1rBGXfeDW

 The same organization bid for KUFO-FM which was owned by the Lutherans -Missouri Synod. A Christian broadcasting company paid around $20 million for KUFO-FM which pretty much shut anybody else out of the bidding process.

Can a non-profit classical station sustain itself? I think the answer is yes. Sustainability is much more difficult public radio stations that mix the classical format with the public radio news format.  Non-profit classical stations are having success in Minnesota, Denver, Tampa and Los Angeles to name a few.

Positioning for PBS

PBS' President sees an opportunity for growth in presenting documentaries and the arts. Paula Kerger's vision is that public television can offer more of what is being abandoned by commercial cable channels.
In an interview with The Salt Lake City Tribune she outlines her ideas for the future of public television.
Kerger says, "So, again, it’s another opportunity if we’re really interested in making sure our country’s stories are being told. I think we need to be there."


Public radio has been doing that by providing services long abandoned by commercial services including in-depth news, intelligent entertainment programming, classical music and other music services. So has public TV. Kerger wants to do more. The difference is that the public television network does not create its own content. The stations are the primary provider of content for PBS.  NPR, PRI and APM provides content for member radio stations, most of public radio's most popular programs.

She's right. There is an opportunity. It will be interesting to see if the opportunity can be affordable and self-sustaining.

Collaborative Marketing for Public Radio

As I read some of what was said at the Public Radio Development Conference about the need for consolidation and collaboration, I thought about a similar effort in public television. Connecticut Public Television, WTTW and a few others created a marketing partnership to garner underwriting funds for stations by pooling efforts.  Market exclusivity was one of the key points. The agreement was competitive. Not only would these station have more marketing clout against local commercial affiliates, but they would also have more clout against public television stations not in the consortium. The consortium failed. They were unable to sign clients interested in underwriting on these stations as a group.

What if the idea was focused on markets? What if public radio stations within a market were to pool resources to garner underwriters?

This idea would work best in markets where there is very little program overlap. Baltimore might be a good example. WBJC offers classical music with an audience share o 2.2%. WEAA offers Jazz and programming aimed to serve minorities with an audience share of 0.6%. WTMD is a AAA station with a share of 0.7 percent. WYPR is Baltimore's NPR station with a share of 3.1%. Individually, station shares are moderate to small. Collectively the audience share is a respectable 6.6%. The top station in the market is WWIN (MAGIC95.9) P6+ in BALTIMORE in JUNE with an 8.9 share.

Of course, this assumes the stations within a market would be willing to collaborate to create more marketing clout.

Philadelphia is another market where the public radio stations could benefit from a combined marketing effort. The combined cume of WHYY, WRTI and WXPN is 6.2% according to Arbitron PPM figures for the Spring Quarter provided by RRC

Some stations already benefit from having more than one signal in a market with a different format on each of the signals. Minnesota Public Radio, Colorado Public Radio, New York Public Radio and WGBH, Boston benefit from cross-format marketing. This is something I proposed at CPBI. If approved, the combined share could have been 6%.

Combining shares:

• MPR                  10.8%
• CPR                    5.6% (CPR is about to add a third format)
• WGBH/WCRB    3.1% 
• WNYC/WQXR    4.2%

How could individual stations share combined underwriting revenue? A simple idea would be to divide up the revenue by listener hours. That could be done for the entire topline or for specific dayparts depending the client's contract.

KUHF Looks to Double Audience

Chron.com is reporting that the University of Houston is seriously considering purchasing KTRU from Rice University. The Trustees at Rice have already approved the deal. The U of H governing board votes on the proposal, Tuesday, August 17.

KUHF is currently running a dual format station with both classical music and NPR news. The purchase of the KTRU will allow KUHF to program NPR news on  KUHF and classical music on KTRU which will become KUHC. KUHF is estimating that their total audience will grow from about 380,000 to 800,000 within three years. The increase in public service programming will benefit the station and the community it serves.

 KTRU currently airs an eclectic mix of music, but as a community service is grossly underachieving. The audience is too small to show up in the Abritron ratings service.

The price of the sale is reported to be $9.5 million. 

Classical Music Ebbing Away?

WEKU format change means a switch in classical music offerings - Business - Kentucky.com

Another Public Radio station has refocused their programming to include more public radio news and information programming. WEKU has added news and information programming mid days from public radio program sources. The reasons include serving more listeners and increased listener income.

WEKU is offering classical music on-line. I'm not sure how many on-line listeners it is going to take to make the service sustainable. So far about a half-dozen classical music listeners have asked WEKU for assistance in streaming classical music. The station will continue to offer classical music over night. Other types of music will be offered on the weekend.

Station manager Roger Duvall says they are seriously looking into acquiring another signal to devote to classical music programming. Duvall says their effort to acquire another stick for classical music programming has quelled some of the criticism.

Classical Music in St. Louis

Late this Spring commercial classical station KFUO became Christian Contemporary. KFUO was the only full time classical music station in the market. KFUO promised to run classical music on their HD2 outlet after the format change. Since hardly anybody owns an HD set...hardly anybody is listening.  Late last week KWMU announced they were adding a few hours of classical music to their programming on Saturday night. That's not enough to satisfy the classical music fan.

Classical music has proven to be popular enough on public radio stations in St. Paul, New York, Boston, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and a few other places to be self-sustaining. These stations primarily broadcast classical music and the fan base in these markets is large enough to support these stations. Is the market large enough in St. Louis? Is there enough demand. I'm guessing the answers are yes.

According to Arbitron the St. Louis metro market has 2,308,100 listeners six and older. If a public radio station were to broadcast classical music on a full time basis, a conservative estimate of the cume rating could easily be 6% or about 139,000 cume listeners a week. If about 10% of the audience were to become members, the station might expect member revenue to be about $1.4 million. It would not be unreasonable to expect underwriting revenue to be around $300,000. Add in a community service grant and some foundation money, the station could easily expect total station revenue of about $2,000,000.

Of course, all of this hinges on the availability of an adequate FM signal in the St. Louis market. And a lot would depend on the debt load created by purchasing an existing signal, but the projected revenue could easily cover the expenses of a classical music station in St. Louis.

I should note that the Lutheran owners of KFUO got a reported $26 million when they sold their station to Joy FM. KFUO(Now KLJY) has a huge signal of 100,000 watts. The antenna is is over 1,000 feet above the terrain which makes for a broadcast radius of about 60 miles. It's an appealing signal for KLJY

St. Louis Public Radio announces classical music schedule | St. Louis Globe-Democrat

St. Louis Public Radio announces classical music schedule | St. Louis Globe-Democrat

KWMU is adding three classical music programs to its Saturday night broadcasts.

This announcement comes after the sale of KFUO to a Christian broadcaster.

KFUO typically generated a share of about 2.0%. That ranked the classical music service 20th in the market. Their ranking may not have been appealing to advertisers, but the audience size may be big enough for a self-sustaining public radio station. If there is a frequency available in the St. Louis area, there's an opportunity to serve an unserved audience.

Classical Music Still Feels at Home on Public Radio

Classical Music Still Feels at Home on Public Radio

Stations that have invested in classical music have seen positive results. In all cases gains seem to have been made by public radio stations that devote the entire day to classical music. This is especially good news for WNYC and WGBH. Both stations worked out deals for frequencies...WQXR and WCRB...devoted to the format.

According to Radio World:

“The increase can likely be attributed to several factors: an increase in the number of stations programming the format; … a steady decline of Classical music stations in the commercial band, driving more audience to public Classical stations; and the inheritance of some audience that public News/Talk had lost,” Arbitron stated. The format’s gender composition also has become more male, up to 49% from 45% four years ago; and though still skewing older, its age composition got younger over a year, with the sub-55 audience growing from 29% to 32%. "


AQH shares of tow or three percent for classical music on commercial stations may not have been enough to be sustainable, but on listener supported stations it might be a great starting point.

WOSU Makes a Bold Move Shift Signals

WWCD, WOSU shift signals

WOSU finally gets a news/talk service on the FM dial. In a deal with the owners of commercial station WWCD, WOSU will be able to broadcast classical music 24/7 at 101.1 FM in the Columbus area. The article in the Columbus Dispatch says WOSU will now simulcast the news from their AM station (820 AM). There are two significant factors.

• The highly educated NPR audience prefers the FM signal over the AM signal. WOSU should see sustained growth for its news and information service.
• The classical audience now has a dedicated service. This tactic is working well for WCRB in Boston and WQXR in New York.

Musing on Format Change

Looking over the release from WUFT about the success of their first drive after the format change to news and information, I was reminded of how some listeners will never come to terms with the change and never forget what I did to their favorite radio station.
This past weekend I was out collecting data and information. One of the people I polled asked what I used to do. I told him I worked for public radio without getting into specifics. He immediately offered that he doesn't give to the station I managed anymore. He was upset that the station dropped classical music in favor of news and information. I pointed out there were still four other stations offering significant amounts of classical music in the market, and that maybe the program change was a combination better serving the community and a good business decision. His reply was, "I bet they've lost a ton of listeners and nobody supports them anymore." I did not respond directly. I said something like it's always difficult for listeners when their favorite radio station makes a change like that. (It was four years ago.)
Then he added, "you know, I stopped giving when they took Robert J. Lurtsema off the air." That was in 1989.
Despite making changes for all the right reasons, and despite longstanding positive results in community service, some listeners will never forgive or forget. Radio is a personal medium. Strong listener loyalty to a particular format can create some very strong feelings. For this former listener, the feeling never subsided. For him time did not heal.

• WUFT and WJUF complete record-breaking spring membership pledge campaign

  Filed under Announcements, InsideUF (Campus), Top Stories on Tuesday, May 4, 2010.
  Gainesville, Fla.–Public radio stations WUFT-FM 89.1 and WJUF-FM 90.1 recently completed one of the most successful listener membership campaigns in the stations’ history. This was the first full membership-pledge campaign since the stations changed format last August to primarily news/talk programming on WUFT/WJUF-FM, while also adding high-definition programming such as classical music on digital sub-channels. WUFT and WJUF-FM are part of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Division of Multimedia Properties (DMP).

  The Spring Fund Drive, from April 21 through May 1, received 1263 pledges of nearly $128,000, which exceeded the goal of $120,000. More than half of the contributions were from new members, with the remainder coming from renewing and returning members. Added to the almost $15,000 pledged during the March 18 one-day sweepstakes drive, the total amount was more than $143,000.

  Randy Wright, DMP executive director, said, “Our staff is thrilled with the support our listeners have shown during the spring membership drive. To over-achieve our goal by such a wide margin, and to welcome so many new supporters to public radio in north central and mid-Florida, is truly gratifying.”

  WUFT-FM 89.1 and WJUF-FM 90.1 broadcast three steams of programming to 19 counties in north central and mid-Florida. The first broadcast steam, in both analog and HD1 digital format, features news/talk programming from National Public Radio (NPR), Public Radio International (PRI) and American Public Media (APM), along with variety and music programs. HD2 features 24/7 classical music and HD3 features 24/7 old time radio programming. HD1 and HD2 are also available at www.wuftfm.org.

  Pledges of support may be made at anytime via the website.

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.

Shifts In Radio Listening Habits

The Personal People Meter…the new method for measuring radio listening habits…is changing the classical music landscape. Two high profile changes came about last year when WCRB and WQXR were sold to public radio stations. Recently KING-FM in Seattle reported they would change to a non-profit status and take donations. According to KING-FM, advertisers were no longer willing to support the station. At least in the numbers needed to sustain the programming.

A New York Times article by Stephaine Clifford from December 2009 (Never Listen to Céline? Radio Meter Begs to Differ) asserted that classical music fans listened to classical music on the radio a lot less than they had been reporting under the old diary method.  My experience in Connecticut would seem to confirm that. When the station I worked for started getting information from Audience Research Analysis (ARA), the Audigraphics information was adjusted to eliminate diary keepers who seemed to be listening to our station 24 hours a day. Eliminating those four or five diary keepers per quarter had a minimal effect on our weekly cume, but it had a great impact on core loyalty figures and station use figures. It was the first evidence I had that diary keepers were willing to put down what they thought should be in their diaries rather than a true reflection of their listening habits.

Do I listen to Celine? The answer is yes, but only if I have to. It depends on who I am with and who has control over the radio. If I’m riding in the car with my sons, I get to listen to a lot of hip-hop and urban contemporary. That is not my preferred format, but if I had a PPM device on my belt, those station would register as part of my listening habits. Under the diary system, because I did not choose hip-hop, I might not have put that station down as part of my listening. Under the PPM system, my listening might be considered collateral damage depending on your point of view.

According to research from The Radio Research Consortium, it turns out most of us listen to about 12 radio stations on a regular basis. That three to four times as many as previously thought under the old diary method. The common wisdom was that most of us shared our listening with three or four stations. In actuality we spend a lot less time with our favorite station than previously thought.

The resulting lower numbers means that advertisers are gravitating to stations that do better on the PPM system. According to the article in the Times, Country, Oldies and News have fared better. Niche formats like Smooth Jazz and Classical have not.

Another Station Changes Format

WETS-FM is changing formats to news and information. The reasons given by Station Manager Wayne Winkler include:

• Fulfill the mission of the university and of WETS-FM
• The best interest of the station, its listeners, and its financial future
• Fewer people are tuning to radio for music
• Offering the community a dependable news source

More information about the change is included in an article published today by TriCities.com

You can read the article here.


There are two big reasons. They are improved community service and financial stability.
And...This does present the opportunity for somebody else to adopt the Classical and Americana formats.

WMFE Switches Formats

I heard a few days ago about the impending change to news and information at WMFE-FM. It's exciting news for those who have not had NPR style news consistently in Central Florida. The change will be felt deeply by classical music fans who will be forced to subscribe to a satellite service or get classical music from the web. The music is being offered on WMFE's HD2 signal. There are not many sets and the low power of the HD signal will not satisfy too many listeners. I'm not sure how the HD2 broadcast is going to sustain itself.

News coverage of the change has been scant. The word may not have gotten to the station's classical core audience yet. The station sent a mailing to its members yesterday. There will be more heat around this change after the classical audience becomes aware of the change. When we made the change at Connecticut Public Radio. most of our listeners could still get classical music from other radio stations in our coverage area. We still got over 2000 protests from our membership about the change. A quick search of the Orlando market did not reveal any other stations carrying classical music.

More at Floridatoday.com

More but Selective Music for the New WQXR

Here's a first look at what the playlist will be like at WQXR. Based on my experience, WNYC is headed in the right direction . Everything that is put on the air matters, and the selection of what music to air when is as critical as what the announcers say in the breaks. Because classical music fans are passionate about the music and feel invested in the music, there's going to be a lot of heat around WNYC's (WQXR's) choices.
I'm wondering what they mean by a younger audience. A median age of 55 would be a lot younger than the median age of most classical music stations (65 to 70).
This articles was in the New York Times on September 30th.