The Fundraiser Anxiety Dream

I had that dream again. It's the fundraiser dream. We're on the air making great case arguments, followed by inspiring closes.

Nobody is calling. Nobody is pledging on-line. In a moment of clarity, I understand the audience has gone elsewhere. The CUME is down 50 percent. Time spent listening among the core has dropped from 10 hours a week to four hours a week.

I shared my concern, and got ignored. "I was too focused on the numbers."

I pointed out we couldn't be considered a community service if we aren't serving anybody. The response was cool. I don't know how it turned out. My mind moved on. The dream ended.

Then I thought, "I'm glad I don't have to do that anymore."

Is It Possible to be All Things to All People?

 

Not on the Radio

Bonnie Gillespie Quote: “When you try to be everything to everyone, you accomplish being nothing to anyone.”

It's a lesson learned a long time ago in public radio. The phenomenal growth of the system in the 90's and early 2000's was because we knew our audience and we served them with programming strategies aimed at that specific audience.

If we want to diversify our audience, we have to think about who that audience might be. And it is likely, people from that demographic will be running the show.

Thinking in terms of programming for one big diverse audience is foolishness. There are many audiences left unserved, and to serve them will take consistency in appeal of the programming.

Remember Afropop Worldwide? The original effort was to seek a more diverse audience for public radio. Did it work? Not really. Afropop brings African pop music to a mostly white audience. The idea that a one hour program is going to serve an African American audience is wishful thinking. It can't even come close to covering the cultural diversity of Africa. One hour a week is not going to make difference.

John Sutton's recent essay in Current has it right. Choose your demographic, and serve that demographic with consistent appeal and programs that resonates with your targeted core audience. (Why Public Radio's Efforts to Reach New Audiences Aren't Moving the Needle)

Public radio's audience is driven by two programs, Morning Edition and All Things Considered. To reach another audience means another programming stream.

This does not have to be a one or the other proposition. Stations have found work arounds before by finding different streams for different formats. The same could be done in this instance. Would something like the differing formats of the streaming services be a viable option?

So, why are we learning this again?

Sinecure

An Easy Job

1. A position requiring little or no work but giving the holder status or financial benefit.

When I told my counselor what I wanted to do and what my major was going to be, he could hardly hold back. He called Mass Communications a gut course. He said students who couldn't cut anything else chose that. I spent the next 40+ years learning about the public radio audience and creating content for that audience.

I joined in this effort a few years after it's genesis. After the launch of All Things Considered, but before the launch of Morning Edition. It soon became clear, to become a true community service, our focus had to be on the audience.

With the help of those who were already involved in developing this service, I learned about what motivated that audience to spend more time listening and learning what might motivate that audience to give. It was the basis that led to phenomenal growth in audience numbers and audience engagement.

A Community Effort

We started with thousands of listeners. We shepherded the system to millions of listeners worldwide.

It was a lot more work than either of us imagined, but I knew back then it was so much more than a gut course for college slackers who need to declare something, anything.

What we did, what we discovered, worked. I think of it as the launching pad for what's to come.

Two Years of Obstruction

Aleksandr Barsukov

But in times of crisis, the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe. 
- King T’Challa, Black Panther (2018)

Obstructionists Control Congress

There's a real possibility of obstructionist behavior from Republicans. We went through eight years of this during the Obama administration. With Republicans now in control of congress, we face two more years of political posturing.

Obstructionism is the practice of deliberately delaying or preventing a process or change, especially in politics.

German Lopez wrote in the New York Times this morning:

Republicans are positioned to trot out an old strategy: When a Democrat has been in the White House over the past few decades, congressional Republicans have embraced calls for reducing government spending, arguing that the debt and deficits were out of control. In the 2010s, Republicans used these threats to block spending bills and make it harder for Barack Obama to carry out his presidential agenda — at times risking government shutdowns and economic calamity.

It is a political play. When Donald Trump was in the White House, Republican lawmakers approved budgets and tax measures that raised the debt and deficits to new highs.

But the approach is nonetheless poised for a comeback once House Republicans can use the threat of shutdowns and economic consequences to restrain President Biden. Trump, who announced his run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination last night, has pushed the party’s lawmakers to use these tactics to get concessions from Democrats.

Obstructionists Are Passive Aggressive

 Passive-aggressive people act passive but express aggression covertly. They're basically obstructionists who try to block whatever it is you want. 

There are strategies for dealing with passive aggressive people. Mindtools.com came up with eight strategies: 

1. Identify the Behavior.
2. Create a Safe Environment.
3. Use Language Carefully.
4. Stay Calm.
5. Identify the Cause.
6. Provide Training.
7. Set Clear Standards and Consequences.
8. Open up Channels of Communication.

Will any of these work on Republicans. Not without leverage. That leverage comes in two forms, accountability and the vote. Accountability is part of what public radio and public media listeners expect from us. The next two years represent an opportunity for us to meet the expectations of our listeners.

Is your station worthy?

Applying Audience Research to Your Fund Drive

I used to do it all the time. 

I was always looking for ways to connect my on-air appeals to my listeners. Since there was a listener focus to the research, I shared it with the talent at the station and the development staff in the hope they would do the same. Did they always share that information on the air. No, not always.

I still listen to fund drives locally. Some of the talent  makes the effort to connect, but some do not. I still hear a lot of "we need," "our budget." "our reporters." The focus is on the station, not the audience. Ask yourself, how is what you're doing benefiting your audience? Then try to answer that in your communications with your audience.

Coming up with pitches that focus on listener need can be difficult, but with some work, not impossible. It just takes some work ahead of the drive.

I was reading David Giovannoni's artcle in Current from March of this year, "For their listeners, NPR News stations are the last thing worth listening to on the radio." Right there, the title pops out and screams relevancy for the listener. The gist of the article is, Public Media Listeners are back and they are more loyal than ever. More nugget come from David's commentary at the end of the article. 

The headline isn’t that listeners to NPR News stations are back. It’s that listeners are finding the programming on NPR News stations more important in their lives than ever, and by extension, more worthy of support.

They're listening less in the car and at work, but now they have returned to at home listening.

Listeners use of competitors has dropped 30% from the same period a year ago.

If loyalty to terrestrial broadcast sources can thrive in this most competitive environment, would it not be equally sturdy on other platforms? Wouldn’t the last thing worth listening to on the radio be the first thing worth finding on any new platform?

The intensifying loyalty of listeners — their desertion of competing stations and ever-increasing dependence on, even devotion to NPR News stations — cannot be denied.

Your loyal listeners, the ones that listen to you more than any other station, are the listeners that are most likely to give. Understanding what makes them loyal should inform what you say during your fund raisers. 

Feeling motivated? Give it a try. 

• Hit your key points consistently. 
• Make your point and move on. 
• Don't ramble.
• No hand wringing

Please, don't say that! (1.0)

 

Avoid saying:

Good bye!

I heard it this weekend on a commercial radio station. A weekend announcer told his listeners this was it for him today. And next weekend tune in at another time and day for his new shift. 

• First, nobody cares! except for his grandmother. Then, maybe she doesn't care either.
• Second, you told anybody listening to tune out or turn off the radio. Why would you do that?
• Third, there was no forward promotion. Remember that? Increasing time spent listening? It raises the station share, making it more appealing to advertisers, contributors and underwriters.
• Fourth, it's a total misunderstanding about how radio works. The listeners chose the station because of the content, not you. Loyalty depends on consistent appeal from the station's programming.

Listening barriers

There are plenty of examples in public radio of personalities saying goodbye. That's because content people always thought in terms of 'their' show. Garrison Keillor always said goodbye twice over the last three minutes. For the longest time, the producers and editors at All Things Considered as being a show with a beginning, middle and end, while the listeners actually tuned in when they could.  That's the problem with most weekend programming, churning the audience with hello's and goodbyes. 

You better make the most of your breaks. It's your only opportunity to create tune in, recurrence and increased occasions.

Good luck, and goodbye. Oh dang, I just did it to myself!

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.

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.