Radio’s Revenue Falls Even as Audience Grows

NY Times-November 26, 2008-Advertising

Radio’s Revenue Falls Even as Audience Grows
By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

CAN radio save itself?
Listeners are diverted by iPods and Internet and satellite radio. Companies are loaded with debt. Advertisers are heading to television or the Web — and the advertisers that have continued to advertise on radio, like auto dealers and retailers, are being hit by the economic crisis and pulling back.
And even though the audience for broadcast radio is actually growing, stations cannot seem to increase their revenue.
Radio advertising was down 10 percent last month from October 2007, according to the Radio Advertising Bureau, the 18th consecutive month of declines.
And the third-quarter numbers are dismal. CBS Radio reported a revenue drop of 12 percent. Citadel Broadcasting’s revenue dropped by 10.9 percent. CC Media Holdings, which owns Clear Channel Communications, said radio revenue was down 7 percent. Cox Radio revenue fell 6.2 percent; Emmis Communications’ radio revenue decreased 1.5 percent; and Radio One revenue was down 2 percent.
Problems in the radio industry have been piling up for years, said Marci L. Ryvicker, an analyst at Wachovia Capital Markets. In the 1990s, radio companies consolidated, then began increasing the ad time available. “They started to fight for share, instead of being proactive and thinking of new ways to generate revenue,” Ms. Ryvicker said.
Then, when advertisers decreased their spending around 2001, radio stations were stuck with too much time and too few advertisers. “There was too much inventory out there, and rates kept going down, down, down,” Ms. Ryvicker said.
Recent years have not changed the fortunes of radio. Many companies borrowed money to buy back their stock, leaving them saddled with debt.
And the industries that supported radio advertising — finance, retail and autos — have all been particularly hard-hit by the current economy. Radio advertising declined 8 percent in the second quarter of this year from a year earlier, according to TNS Media Intelligence. That was worse than any other category except newspapers.
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From an advertiser’s perspective, the consolidation of radio companies has resulted in sound-alike stations, said Jim Poh, vice president and a director of analytics and media planning at Crispin Porter & Bogusky, which handles radio ads for clients like Burger King and Domino’s.
“The group ownerships in various markets tended to blunt the edges of the formats, so that each of the stations could play across more demographic groups, and that way could share more of the revenue from various advertisers,” Mr. Poh said. “The downfall of that is the medium isn’t as relevant, the stations aren’t as relevant to people as they were.”
There are some signs of hope, though. The radio audience is increasing: radio now reaches more than 235 million listeners in a week, versus 232 million last year, according to a study by Arbitron. But those people are listening to the radio less: fewer than 19 hours a week, versus about 20.4 in 2005.
Stations in small markets are doing relatively well. Stations in the 10 biggest markets had revenue drop about 12 to 15 percent this year. Stations in the smallest markets, though, have been about flat, Leland Westerfield, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets, said. “The ad agency-placed business that predominates in larger cities has been subject to a greater level of pricing pressure,” Mr. Westerfield said.
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Radio executives are hoping that HD Radio will catch on with consumers.
“We’re beginning to see revenue-generation opportunities for radio broadcasters” on HD stations, said Robert J. Struble, the chief executive of iBiquity Digital, which develops and licenses the technology.
HD Radio lets stations transmit on digital signals, which allow each FM station to broadcast on two to eight channels, theoretically making the medium competitive with satellite radio.
But consumers have to buy a special radio to hear the digital stations, and only about 500,000 units were sold through September, iBiquity said. The radios have been available since 2004.
Consumers listen to the radio most frequently in the car and in the office, and so far, have little reason to pay for an upgraded radio in those places.
And automakers, which have other problems, are not embracing the technology; so far, only Volvo is offering HD Radio as a standard feature in its new cars (it is standard in all but one of its 2009 models).
“HD radio is pretty much going to be nonexistent, because they can’t figure out how to get the auto guys to include that as an option, and the auto guys that do include HD don’t let the consumers know about it,” Ms. Ryvicker of Wachovia Capital Markets said. “It’s been a horribly marketed product that’s not going to save the radio industry.”
Mr. Struble objected to that characterization. “For a number of years, we were very focused on getting stations to convert,” he said, adding that about 1,900 stations now broadcast on a digital signal. “The attention has now turned to the consumer side.”
He said there was “a lot of momentum” with the auto industry.
Still, with only 500,000 radios in use, a lot of the technologies available for HD Radio, like one that allows listeners to “tag” a song and buy it later from iTunes, are going unused.
Radio companies are taking other small steps into the future — several have created free iPhone applications, for example, which are popular. Still, it’s a scramble, analysts said.
“I think things will get better if the economy recovers,” Ms. Ryvicker said, “but I can’t imagine this sector going from negative double-digits in Q4 to positive anytime soon.”

A perfect public radio storm

Jean Marbella
February 22, 2008
It didn't take long - only to the ninth speaker of the night - for the first obscure reference to come up: something about French soldiers shooting the nose off a sphinx during an Egyptian campaign. Somewhere around the 13th speaker came one of what would be many pointed observations that the "Y" in WYPR stands for "your," and yet none of the yours trulys in attendance were consulted.This is what happens when you anger the articulate and irk the ironic.If ever there was a perfect public radio storm, the firing of Marc Steiner is it. Here's the guy who not only hosted the signature show on WYPR, but played a role in rescuing the public radio station from its financial problems six years ago. That he would be forced out by the people he had turned to for help in saving YPR is exactly the kind of injustice that would outrage your typical public radio listener - and no surprise, it did just that.

About 300 Steiner supporters filled the auditorium at the Baltimore Museum of Art on Wednesday night for a meeting called to discuss his firing. It was quite a scene, what with the fired host and the managers who fired him, as well as many of the on-air personalities, reporters and producers, all in one crowded room. Would two hours and two microphones be enough? Were the BMA treasures in danger from rampaging Y-pers?I suppose this is where the inevitable disclaimer goes: I was on an Inside Maryland Politics segment with Steiner once, and, of course, Sun columnist Dan Rodricks has been hired as the new host of the noon-to-2 p.m. slot that Steiner used to man.But mostly, I'm just another listener. At a time when stations in many other cities largely broadcast one syndicated national show after another, I've always thought Baltimore was lucky to have so many of its "own" programs, across the AM and FM bands.Station officials have noted Steiner's low ratings and his Baltimore-centric topics as reasons for letting him go; Steiner and his supporters say there's more to it, mentioning everything from personality clashes to a discomfort among some managers to have Steiner as the dominant face of YPR.But, like it or not, he was the station in many people's eyes, or rather, ears. Once the decision was made to dump him, surely it could have been handled more graciously. Don't these things always play out this way - it's not just the decision, but also the unceremonious way it was handled?Now the station has a full-blown issue on its hands, with dues-paying members threatening not to re-up and the station delaying a pledge drive until, presumably, the anger simmers down. If they're concerned about ratings, this surely can't help, not with competing shows such as Ed Norris' on WHFS doing so well.Wednesday's meeting drew a remarkably passionate crowd, one that wanted to assert public ownership of public radio, and yet also an oddly festive one. If nothing else, the station's listeners seemed happy to be, well, listened to.The woman holding up the "30 seconds" and the "stop" signs to keep speakers to their 2 1/2 -minute allotment got quite the workout.But mostly, people seemed grateful to be among the like-minded, the fellow grievers over the loss of Steiner."I knew there was a community I belonged to," Doug Colbert, a University of Maryland law professor, marveled as he looked at the standing-room-only crowd.It was an audience thick with the predictable NPR set, college professors and public school teachers and civil rights lawyers and professional activists and such, so much so that everyone seemed palpably relieved when a bus driver from Bel Air stepped to the microphone. See? We're not all precious, latte-sipping, Birkenstock-wearing NPRsters!'As the speakers continued into the night, somewhere around No. 48, Richard Chisolm, the mood seemed to lift a bit. Chisolm drew much applause for calling on the crowd to "make room" for the station managers to reverse their decision."I have an incredibly positive feeling I didn't expect to have," he said. "This is going to work."Maybe, but Tony Brandon, the YPR president and general manager who has emerged as public radio enemy No. 1 among Steiner's supporters, doesn't seem inclined to budge. Brandon sat in the front of the auditorium, his back to the crowd, and didn't speak during the meeting.Afterward, he didn't have much to say when asked about the show of support for Steiner and the threats to stop supporting the station."You know, this is not a forum that gives us usable research," he said, adding that the station has 160,000 listeners, of whom 300 showed up for the meeting.No, it's not Obama-level love - and already there are the similar protestations of how a cult of personality is developing around Steiner - and yet 300 Baltimore-area residents coming out on a snowy night is pretty impressive, as is the fact that they remain riled up three weeks after the dismissal.But with promos already heralding Rodricks' debut on Monday, it doesn't seem as though the hope and change this crowd rallied around will come to any action, at least in the short term.Doreen Bolger, the BMA executive director and member of the YPR Citizens Advisory Board that held the meeting, said board members will meet among themselves to decide what to do. She expects that the board will issue a report to Brandon and the other members of the station's board of directors, although everyone acknowledges that the board's role is advisory and not binding on Brandon in any way.So Wednesday night might have been it - a chance to be heard, which, as callers to radio talk shows know, is pretty much all they usually get.

mailto:get.jean.marbella@baltsun.com

Related links:
Steiner fans sound off to panel from WYPR
WYPR delays pledge drive start for Steiner show replacement
Listeners protest WYPR's firing of talk show host
Marc Steiner ponders what's next
Public radio station cancels Steiner show

www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.marbella22xfeb22,0,5101581.column

WGMS Ditches Its Old Format But Helps Orchestrate Its Revival On WETA

By Paul FarhiWashington Post Staff WriterTuesday, January 23, 2007;

Washington radio station WGMS dropped the music of Mozart and Tchaikovsky yesterday after nearly six decades and replaced its classical format with tunes by Cheap Trick, Elton John and the Bee Gees in a two-part shake-up.
Last night, WETA dropped its news and talk programming and became a classical station again in a coordinated move with Bonneville International Corp., which owns WGMS (103.9 and 104.1 FM). WETA (90.9 FM) was a classical station for 35 years until dropping the format in February 2005.
Bonneville said it struck the unusual agreement with noncommercial WETA to prevent classical music from disappearing from local airwaves.
Such an alliance between for-profit and a nonprofit radio stations is almost unheard of. But the deal, hammered out over the past several weeks, creates something for both sides, executives from the stations said.
WETA, which will be the only classical station in town, is counting on that exclusivity to help attract more pledge dollars and members. (The closest conventional station playing classical music is Baltimore's WBJC.)
Bonneville, meanwhile, leaves the declining classical-radio field for programming that lures a younger audience and, presumably, a greater share of local advertising dollars.
But Bonneville is entering a highly competitive segment of the radio market. Its new station replacing WGMS, called "George 104" (WXGG-FM), will program music from 1970s and '80s artists such as James Taylor, Foreigner and AC/DC, with a smattering of more recent recordings. WBIG (100.3 FM) and WARW (94.7 FM) have similar formats.
Bonneville said it will air George 104 without commercials for its first 104 days to try to establish the station among listeners.
"It made sense for these two organizations to come together," said Joel Oxley, Bonneville's top local executive. "Both sides agreed it made sense for their stations and their listeners. This saves classical music in this market and arguably puts it in a better place than it is now."
Coordinating the format changes with WETA was an important public relations consideration for Bonneville, CEO Bruce T. Reese said in an interview yesterday. When news broke last month that the company was considering abandoning classical music and selling WGMS to Redskins owner Dan Snyder, the company received hundreds of angry letters and e-mails -- including correspondence from "one highly placed member of Congress," said Reese. In view of that outcry, he said, Bonneville did not want to change WGMS's format if that meant leaving Washington without a classical station. (Negotiations with Snyder eventually fell apart when an agreement could not be reached over the selling price.)
WETA and WGMS executives began talking about the alliance three weeks ago, when WETA's general manager, Dan DeVany, approached Oxley. The two sides agreed on several steps:
· Bonneville will give WETA the right to use WGMS's familiar call letters, which once stood for "Washington's Good Music Station." WETA's Hagerstown booster station, WETH, will be renamed WGMS, pending approval from federal regulators (Arlington-based WETA will continue to be known by its current call letters).
· Bonneville will donate WGMS's library of 18,000 classical CDs to WETA, which already has 25,000.
· The two stations will cross-promote each other for about six months. WETA, for example, will air announcements for Bonneville's all-news WTOP (103.5 FM, 820 AM), as well as for WTWP (107.7 FM, 1500 AM), the news and talk station produced in conjunction with The Washington Post's newsroom. George 104 began airing announcements that WETA had become "the new home of classical music" in Washington.
Longtime WGMS program director Jim Allison will leave the station to take the same job at WETA, replacing Maxie Jackson.
WGMS, which has been airing classical music since the station's inception in 1947, played its last classical selection yesterday afternoon. Over the mournful strains of Bach's "St. Matthew Passion," Allison announced, "It is indeed with tears of grief that we leave the Washington airwaves." The station then segued into its new identity, playing Sheryl Crow's "A Change Would Do You Good."
The demise of WGMS was painful to one of its most enduring personalities, former morning host Dennis Owens. "I feel like the Titanic set sail and I got off at Liverpool," said Owens, who was heard on WGMS from 1966 to 2005. Owens, who now lives in semi-retirement in Naples, Fla., added, "I've talked to many people today and the collective hurt is hard to describe. People are literally in tears."
WETA CEO Sharon P. Rockefeller said yesterday that her station was happy with its news programming but that "we couldn't have anticipated all the external changes in the radio environment" that made a switch back to classical advantageous. Among other things, Bonneville's decision to start WTWP last year created another competitor for the audience that WETA was chasing with its mix of NPR and BBC talk shows.
DeVany said yesterday that WETA would lay off eight staff members as a result of dropping news programming. Among the casualties is Rebecca Roberts, who hosted the daily current-affairs show "The Intersection." Roberts is the daughter of NPR and ABC commentator Cokie Roberts and pundit/columnist Steve Roberts. (Also leaving is Mary Cliff, who has been with the station for more than three decades. Cliff was the host of the station's long-running weekend folk music show, "Traditions," which will end shortly.)
WGMS will lay off 10 people, including such familiar hosts as Diana Hollander, who has battled epilepsy while remaining on the air. Both stations said they would interview the other's former staffers for any openings.
WETA's morning broadcasts of news programming from National Public Radio will continue. WETA will also carry the audio portion of "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer" at 7 p.m. and Metropolitan Opera broadcasts on weekends.
Although many commercial stations across the country have abandoned classical music, Oxley said it remains "a viable format." WGMS ranked 11th among local stations in the most recent quarterly audience survey by Arbitron.
Classical music, though, appeals primarily to older listeners, who are less valued by advertisers -- a key consideration in Bonneville's deliberations over WGMS.
"You're not going to get the same revenue [with classical] compared to a station that is more widely targeted and possibly younger" in its audience profile, Oxley said.
Both sides said classical music might be a better fit for WETA, which has a much stronger signal that WGMS. Many of WGMS's listeners, particularly those in Northwest Washington, McLean and lower Montgomery County, have complained about reception problems since Bonneville moved the station from 103.5 FM to 103.9 and 104.1 last year to make room for WTWP.
WETA has the most powerful FM signal in Washington; it is the only station in the area authorized to broadcast at 75,000 watts. What's more, as a public station, it does not broadcast commercials, which frequently interrupted long classical pieces on WGMS.
The agreement between Bonneville and WETA does not involve the exchange of money, both sides said.

Visiting DC? Then Check Out Arbitron’s Lobby

Visiting DC? Then Check Out Arbitron’s Lobby-Radio Inc.

Arbitron’s Technology and Research Center in Columbia, Maryland, is showcasing HD Radio in the lobby. Employees and visitors can listen to the digital sound of 52 HD Radio stations from the Washington and Baltimore areas, including 13 with multicast formats. Images of the HD Radio in the Arbitron lobby and a full station list can be found on the photos and resources section of Arbitron's Newsroom, http://www.onlinepressroom.net/arbitron/

WNYC’s Planned Move Will Finish Its Breakup With the City

July 17, 2006-NY Times

By GLENN COLLINS
It’s time, at last, to bid farewell to the carpets paisleyed with primordial coffee stains. To say sayonara to the unpredictable floods that have engulfed corner offices. And to liberate long-suffering talk-show guests from the limbo of a security line choked with wedding parties schlepping to the Marriage License Bureau.
After broadcasting since 1924 from the marble-and-mosaic corridors of the Municipal Building at 1 Centre Street in Manhattan, WNYC is going from drab to fab. WNYC, which has the largest audience of any public radio station in the United States, will finally sever its umbilical cord to the bureaucracy that gave it life and sheltered it so persistently. Escaping its 51,400 square feet of tired but rent-free space scattered on eight floors of the Municipal Building, the station will make a $45 million move northwest to two and a half floors of a 12-story former printing building at 160 Varick Street.
The new offices, between Vandam and Charlton Streets, will have 12-foot ceilings and 71,900 square feet of space. The number of recording studios and booths will double, to 31. And there will be a dramatic new 140-seat, street-level studio for live broadcasts, concerts and public forums.
“There is a little sadness in leaving after the decades of history here, but it’s time to move out of the house,” said Laura R. Walker, the station’s president and chief executive since 1995.
Critics outside the station question whether the pricey move will pose an intolerable fund-raising burden, jeopardizing the station’s independence, forcing it to rely more on corporate underwriters and skewing its audience toward a well-heeled elite.
Ralph Engelman, chairman of the journalism department at the Brooklyn campus of Long Island University and a former board chairman of WBAI, a public radio station that competes with WNYC, said of the move, “I wonder to what extent that would require more underwriting, and listeners with more upscale demographics to sell the station to underwriters?”
But to Ms. Walker, WNYC had no choice. “We needed more space, and we wanted to have our own identity,” she said, asserting that the move will increase its reach and its appeal to diverse audiences. Renovation is scheduled to start this fall for a move planned for next spring or summer.
The staff of 165 will definitely not be picketing to remain in the Municipal Building, a 99-year-old landmark that, as Leonard Lopate, the station’s indefatigable interviewer, said, “seems to be falling apart.”
Of the move, Brian Lehrer, the midmorning talk-show host, said, “Personally, I have no mixed feelings about it,” ruefully recalling years of trekking down a flight of stairs from his 25th-floor studio just to use the fax machine.
On Varick Street, 18 journalists will no longer be jammed into a shoebox of a newsroom; indeed, capacious new offices will permit a staff of 40.
Guests will wait in an actual green room, not out in the hall at the water cooler. And with less cumbersome security requirements than at the Municipal Building, should he agree to revisit, Carson Kressley of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” would probably not be late for a radio interview — as he was a while back — because of panic that his large, spiked belt contained explosives.
“In a place where the phones work and the toilets flush,” Ms. Walker said cheerfully, “we can focus better on making radio.”
The city long treated the station as a stepchild and at times sought its exile. Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia threatened to sell WNYC to supplement the city’s Depression budget, and Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani actually did during his privatization campaign in the 1990’s. Mayor Edward I. Koch, in what critics saw as the most egregious misuse of programming power, demanded in the 1970’s that the station broadcast the “John Hour,” a listing of the names of men convicted of patronizing prostitutes. (It was broadcast once, then was canceled after a lusty outcry.)
“City officials saw the station as a place to get free publicity,” said Mr. Lopate, who joined WNYC in 1985.
The station won its independence nine years ago when the WNYC Foundation, financed by listeners and major donors, paid $20 million for its broadcasting licenses. “After the sale there was none of that,” Mr. Lehrer said of rampant political intrusions.
Alan G. Weiler, a real estate lawyer who is chairman of the WNYC board’s facilities committee, said the station had examined nearly 60 spaces in three boroughs. “We decided we had to move in Lower Manhattan” as a show of support, he said, noting that the station was unable to occupy its own offices for three weeks after Sept. 11, 2001.
Mr. Weiler declined to reveal the cost of the 20-year lease, with its 10-year renewal option.
Given its proximity to the Holland Tunnel, the 3,400-square-foot street-level performance hall will have to be buffered in soundproof glass to hush the honking of passing drivers.
Executives said the station is considering setting up a WNYC news zipper outside the building. “I think of the drivers as a captive audience,” Mr. Weiler said.
According to Arbitron, the radio ratings service, the station — comprising WNYC 93.9 FM and WNYC AM 820 — has the largest Manhattan audience in radio, though it ranks 13th citywide in competition with salsa, hip-hop and light FM. It has 99,378 members, up from 78,866 in 2001, and reaches more than a million unique listeners each week.
WNYC pays a $3 million membership fee per year to National Public Radio, which finds national underwriters for the programs it produces, like “All Things Considered,” and keeps the proceeds from the corporate announcements that run on local stations.
But WNYC produces 100 hours a week of its own programming, including the shows of Mr. Lehrer and Mr. Lopate, as well as “Studio 360,” “On the Media,” “Radio Lab” and “Soundcheck.”
WNYC has already embraced podcasting, has 600,000 listeners on the Internet and also puts its shows on satellite radio for “a little money, not huge,” said Ms. Walker, who declined to specify the amount.
In addition to the $45 million for construction, rent and operating costs on Varick Street, WNYC will be raising money for a one-time fund of $12.5 million to cover the cost of creating 40 more hours of new programming and three new shows. The total cost of $57.5 million for both the move and programming is nearly three times the $20 million the station had to raise over seven years to buy its licenses. So far it has pledges of $25 million from foundations, government agencies and private donors.
The price has not gone uncriticized. “As it takes this next step in its history, is it going to be serving all New Yorkers or serving a largely elite audience?” asked Professor Engelman.
Like many public stations, WNYC presents an average of two minutes each hour of what public broadcasters call enhanced corporate underwriting — advertisements that are announced, but not presented as produced commercials — which contributes $8.5 million to its $29.7 million annual operating budget. “I don’t see a difference between enhanced underwriting and real commercials,” said Amy Goodman, a co-host of the “Democracy Now!” show syndicated on 450 stations, including WBAI.
She added: “Commercialization threatens public radio. You don’t want to see public stations turning to corporations instead of reaching out into diversity and into the city.”
Beyond that, “commercials create the possibility of conflicts of interest,” Professor Engelman said, “since underwriters have leverage about what goes on the air.”
But to Mr. Lehrer, the WNYC firewall against corporate interference “is incredibly high.” He added, “No funder has ever had a conversation with me, and I have never heard about any pressure being exerted.”
Curtis Sliwa, the Guardian Angel and WABC morning-drive co-host, said that to thrive WNYC “should try to attract a diverse mass audience to expand its donor base.” Mr. Sliwa had a WNYC talk show for seven months in 1994 “after I was forced upon them by Rudy Giuliani,” he said.
He added: “If you have a blue collar or no collar, and you listen to WNYC, you’re going to turn the dial because you know they aren’t talking to you; they speak the language of the suites, not the language of the streets.”
Mr. Sliwa holds that WNYC is limited by its politics as well. “They wanted liberal, progressive radio,” he said, recalling his tenure, “and I was like the Antichrist of public radio, a conservative voice.”
Nicki Newman Tanner, WNYC’s board chairwoman for the past two years, said the station and its programming strive to be “diverse in gender, ethnically and racially, given our responsibility to reflect New York as completely as we can.” Her 37-person WNYC board has 14 women, 4 African-Americans, 2 Hispanics, an Asian and a South Asian.
Mr. Sliwa criticized, too, the salaries of the station’s top executives, including that of Ms. Walker, 48, WNYC’s president. Her compensation and benefits of $313,701, according to 2004 public filings, are the equivalent of 7,842 regular $40 station memberships.
“That is way too much,” Mr. Sliwa said. “I would take some of her $300,000 and give it to the behind-the-scenes people, the producers and stringers, who do their jobs as a labor of love and are living from paycheck to paycheck.”
But Ms. Tanner said that to flourish, the station needed to hire “the best and the brightest in a competitive environment,” referring to broadcasting-executive compensation.
Salary, though, hasn’t been a priority for many at the station. Oscar Brand, the 86-year-old host of the Saturday night “Folksong Festival” — which made its debut on Dec. 10, 1945 — said he had never had a contract during 60 continuous years, and had never been paid. He is proud, he added, that in the McCarthy era his show featured songs by blacklisted singers like Pete Seeger.
When Mr. Brand was blacklisted himself in the 1950’s, “the station never looked at my programs in advance,” he recalled, and WNYC management “never even spoke to me about being blacklisted. It’s that kind of place.”

It’s time, at last, to bid farewell to the carpets paisleyed with primordial coffee stains. To say sayonara to the unpredictable floods that have engulfed corner offices. And to liberate long-suffering talk-show guests from the limbo of a security line choked with wedding parties schlepping to the Marriage License Bureau.
After broadcasting since 1924 from the marble-and-mosaic corridors of the Municipal Building at 1 Centre Street in Manhattan, WNYC is going from drab to fab. WNYC, which has the largest audience of any public radio station in the United States, will finally sever its umbilical cord to the bureaucracy that gave it life and sheltered it so persistently. Escaping its 51,400 square feet of tired but rent-free space scattered on eight floors of the Municipal Building, the station will make a $45 million move northwest to two and a half floors of a 12-story former printing building at 160 Varick Street.
The new offices, between Vandam and Charlton Streets, will have 12-foot ceilings and 71,900 square feet of space. The number of recording studios and booths will double, to 31. And there will be a dramatic new 140-seat, street-level studio for live broadcasts, concerts and public forums.
“There is a little sadness in leaving after the decades of history here, but it’s time to move out of the house,” said Laura R. Walker, the station’s president and chief executive since 1995.
Critics outside the station question whether the pricey move will pose an intolerable fund-raising burden, jeopardizing the station’s independence, forcing it to rely more on corporate underwriters and skewing its audience toward a well-heeled elite.
Ralph Engelman, chairman of the journalism department at the Brooklyn campus of Long Island University and a former board chairman of WBAI, a public radio station that competes with WNYC, said of the move, “I wonder to what extent that would require more underwriting, and listeners with more upscale demographics to sell the station to underwriters?”
But to Ms. Walker, WNYC had no choice. “We needed more space, and we wanted to have our own identity,” she said, asserting that the move will increase its reach and its appeal to diverse audiences. Renovation is scheduled to start this fall for a move planned for next spring or summer.
The staff of 165 will definitely not be picketing to remain in the Municipal Building, a 99-year-old landmark that, as Leonard Lopate, the station’s indefatigable interviewer, said, “seems to be falling apart.”
Of the move, Brian Lehrer, the midmorning talk-show host, said, “Personally, I have no mixed feelings about it,” ruefully recalling years of trekking down a flight of stairs from his 25th-floor studio just to use the fax machine.
On Varick Street, 18 journalists will no longer be jammed into a shoebox of a newsroom; indeed, capacious new offices will permit a staff of 40.
Guests will wait in an actual green room, not out in the hall at the water cooler. And with less cumbersome security requirements than at the Municipal Building, should he agree to revisit, Carson Kressley of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” would probably not be late for a radio interview — as he was a while back — because of panic that his large, spiked belt contained explosives.
“In a place where the phones work and the toilets flush,” Ms. Walker said cheerfully, “we can focus better on making radio.”
The city long treated the station as a stepchild and at times sought its exile. Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia threatened to sell WNYC to supplement the city’s Depression budget, and Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani actually did during his privatization campaign in the 1990’s. Mayor Edward I. Koch, in what critics saw as the most egregious misuse of programming power, demanded in the 1970’s that the station broadcast the “John Hour,” a listing of the names of men convicted of patronizing prostitutes. (It was broadcast once, then was canceled after a lusty outcry.)
“City officials saw the station as a place to get free publicity,” said Mr. Lopate, who joined WNYC in 1985.
The station won its independence nine years ago when the WNYC Foundation, financed by listeners and major donors, paid $20 million for its broadcasting licenses. “After the sale there was none of that,” Mr. Lehrer said of rampant political intrusions.
Alan G. Weiler, a real estate lawyer who is chairman of the WNYC board’s facilities committee, said the station had examined nearly 60 spaces in three boroughs. “We decided we had to move in Lower Manhattan” as a show of support, he said, noting that the station was unable to occupy its own offices for three weeks after Sept. 11, 2001.
Mr. Weiler declined to reveal the cost of the 20-year lease, with its 10-year renewal option.
Given its proximity to the Holland Tunnel, the 3,400-square-foot street-level performance hall will have to be buffered in soundproof glass to hush the honking of passing drivers.
Executives said the station is considering setting up a WNYC news zipper outside the building. “I think of the drivers as a captive audience,” Mr. Weiler said.
According to Arbitron, the radio ratings service, the station — comprising WNYC 93.9 FM and WNYC AM 820 — has the largest Manhattan audience in radio, though it ranks 13th citywide in competition with salsa, hip-hop and light FM. It has 99,378 members, up from 78,866 in 2001, and reaches more than a million unique listeners each week.
WNYC pays a $3 million membership fee per year to National Public Radio, which finds national underwriters for the programs it produces, like “All Things Considered,” and keeps the proceeds from the corporate announcements that run on local stations.
But WNYC produces 100 hours a week of its own programming, including the shows of Mr. Lehrer and Mr. Lopate, as well as “Studio 360,” “On the Media,” “Radio Lab” and “Soundcheck.”
WNYC has already embraced podcasting, has 600,000 listeners on the Internet and also puts its shows on satellite radio for “a little money, not huge,” said Ms. Walker, who declined to specify the amount.
In addition to the $45 million for construction, rent and operating costs on Varick Street, WNYC will be raising money for a one-time fund of $12.5 million to cover the cost of creating 40 more hours of new programming and three new shows. The total cost of $57.5 million for both the move and programming is nearly three times the $20 million the station had to raise over seven years to buy its licenses. So far it has pledges of $25 million from foundations, government agencies and private donors.
The price has not gone uncriticized. “As it takes this next step in its history, is it going to be serving all New Yorkers or serving a largely elite audience?” asked Professor Engelman.
Like many public stations, WNYC presents an average of two minutes each hour of what public broadcasters call enhanced corporate underwriting — advertisements that are announced, but not presented as produced commercials — which contributes $8.5 million to its $29.7 million annual operating budget. “I don’t see a difference between enhanced underwriting and real commercials,” said Amy Goodman, a co-host of the “Democracy Now!” show syndicated on 450 stations, including WBAI.
She added: “Commercialization threatens public radio. You don’t want to see public stations turning to corporations instead of reaching out into diversity and into the city.”
Beyond that, “commercials create the possibility of conflicts of interest,” Professor Engelman said, “since underwriters have leverage about what goes on the air.”
But to Mr. Lehrer, the WNYC firewall against corporate interference “is incredibly high.” He added, “No funder has ever had a conversation with me, and I have never heard about any pressure being exerted.”
Curtis Sliwa, the Guardian Angel and WABC morning-drive co-host, said that to thrive WNYC “should try to attract a diverse mass audience to expand its donor base.” Mr. Sliwa had a WNYC talk show for seven months in 1994 “after I was forced upon them by Rudy Giuliani,” he said.
He added: “If you have a blue collar or no collar, and you listen to WNYC, you’re going to turn the dial because you know they aren’t talking to you; they speak the language of the suites, not the language of the streets.”
Mr. Sliwa holds that WNYC is limited by its politics as well. “They wanted liberal, progressive radio,” he said, recalling his tenure, “and I was like the Antichrist of public radio, a conservative voice.”
Nicki Newman Tanner, WNYC’s board chairwoman for the past two years, said the station and its programming strive to be “diverse in gender, ethnically and racially, given our responsibility to reflect New York as completely as we can.” Her 37-person WNYC board has 14 women, 4 African-Americans, 2 Hispanics, an Asian and a South Asian.
Mr. Sliwa criticized, too, the salaries of the station’s top executives, including that of Ms. Walker, 48, WNYC’s president. Her compensation and benefits of $313,701, according to 2004 public filings, are the equivalent of 7,842 regular $40 station memberships.
“That is way too much,” Mr. Sliwa said. “I would take some of her $300,000 and give it to the behind-the-scenes people, the producers and stringers, who do their jobs as a labor of love and are living from paycheck to paycheck.”
But Ms. Tanner said that to flourish, the station needed to hire “the best and the brightest in a competitive environment,” referring to broadcasting-executive compensation.
Salary, though, hasn’t been a priority for many at the station. Oscar Brand, the 86-year-old host of the Saturday night “Folksong Festival” — which made its debut on Dec. 10, 1945 — said he had never had a contract during 60 continuous years, and had never been paid. He is proud, he added, that in the McCarthy era his show featured songs by blacklisted singers like Pete Seeger.
When Mr. Brand was blacklisted himself in the 1950’s, “the station never looked at my programs in advance,” he recalled, and WNYC management “never even spoke to me about being blacklisted. It’s that kind of place.”
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

ABC News has almost become a farm team for NPR

By SARAH MCBRIDE
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
January 20, 2006

When Ted Koppel appeared on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" in 2002, he plugged National Public Radio to so much studio applause that host Jon Stewart cracked, "Somebody got themselves a tote bag."
At the time, Mr. Koppel was simply another NPR admirer. Now, the former "Nightline" anchor is getting more than just swag -- he's got a new part-time job with NPR, joining the growing ranks of television news stars who are seeking refuge at the Washington, D.C., public broadcaster.
While some of the NPR recruits, like Mr. Koppel and CBS newsmen Walter Cronkite and Daniel Schorr, have joined the organization at the end of their long broadcast TV runs, other television news talent is defecting to NPR mid-career. ABC News, for example, has almost become a farm team for NPR. Last week, NPR announced it had hired Michel Martin, an ABC News correspondent, to jump-start a new program targeting African-American listeners. Last month, it reeled in Robert Krulwich, another ABC News correspondent, to join its science squad. The new hires will be greeted by a familiar face: ABC News correspondent Michele Norris signed on to NPR in 2002.

Koppel Goes Public

From Radio Inc 1/13/06

Koppel Goes PublicTed Koppel, who recently ended his long run as the original anchor of ABC’s Nightline, has decided to move to the audio-only side and will join NPR. Starting in June, Koppel will provide commentary for NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered as well as Day to Day, NPR’s new midday newsmagazine. He also will serve as an analyst during breaking news and special events and contribute to the NPR website and the network's podcasts. "I have been an unabashed fan of NPR for many years and have stolen untold excellent ideas from its programming," Koppel said. "It's time to give something back."

Bank buys naming rights to Wisconsin radio newsroom

Critics say the practice calls into question journalistic integrity.
By Martin MillerTimes Staff WriterDecember 15, 2005

In a move that has drawn fire from some journalism organizations, a Wisconsin radio station has agreed to join the ranks of everything from college football bowl games to public school scoreboards by selling the naming rights of its newsroom to a business.Beginning Jan. 1, the WIBA-FM newsroom in Madison, Wis., will become known as the Amcore Bank News Center. The station is one of more than 1,200 owned by the nation's largest radio broadcaster, San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications. The Society of Professional Journalists is urging Clear Channel to stop the practice immediately, arguing that it calls into question the integrity of a news operation. "The only thing a news organization has is its credibility," David Carlson, president of SPJ, one of the nation's largest journalism organization, said in a statement. "When that's lost, listeners, viewers and readers will not be far behind."Corporate sponsorship is not new in journalism. About a half-century ago, major news outlets such as NBC news routinely carried the names and logos of businesses with their newscasts.Phone calls to WIBA-FM and to Clear Channel headquarters were not returned.However, a Clear Channel executive in Madison told reporters there that the new name would not influence news coverage. "This simply means they get a 'name branding' with the description of the news center on air," Jeff Tyler, vice president of Clear Channel Radio-Madison, told the Wisconsin State Journal."What listeners will hear on air is something like, 'Now from the Amcore Bank News Center, here's WIBA's Jennifer Miller.' "

NPR’s Chanukah stories wend their way from radio to print

Friday December 9, 2005
by dan pinestaff writer
At National Public Radio, they call it a “driveway moment.” That’s when a story is so compelling, listeners remain in their cars, parked in the driveway, spellbound until the end.
For 14 years, Jewish NPR fans have considered the annual holiday special “Hanukkah Lights” a golden “driveway moment” opportunity.
Whether personal memoir, fairy tale or modern fiction, the stories read on “Hanukkah Lights” brings out the best in contemporary Jewish writers.
Now, 16 stories from the show have been collected and released in a fully-illustrated holiday gift book called “Hanukkah Lights: Stories of the Season.” Writers like Anne Roiphe, Peter S. Beagle, Harlan Ellison, Kinky Friedman and Elie Weisel contributed. NPR icon Susan Stamberg, along with “Hanukkah Lights” co-host Murray Horowitz, both wrote introductory essays as well.
Though most Chanukah books are geared towards children, this one targets adults, says David Brown, an editor with Melcher Media, the book’s publisher.
“These are all great writers. I was happy with how solid and varied the stories were,” Brown says from his New York office.
Some are about family, some are reinterpretations of the Chanukah story, like science fiction writer Harlan Ellison’s time traveler’s tale. Gloria DeVidas Kirchheimer describes a childhood encounter with her Ladino-speaking grandmother, while Myra Goldberg recalls being one of the only Jewish kids in her elementary school and being asked to sing Chanukah songs for the holiday pageant.
Given that the stories premiered as spoken-word pieces read aloud on the radio, it was a no-brainer to include a bonus CD of writers reading their work. The voices of Ariel Dorfman, Daniel Mark Epstein, Kinky Friedman and Leslea Newman are featured. Leave it to the mercurial Friedman to inject OPEC and the Electric Matzoball disco in his short story.
A lifelong NPR fan, San Mateo native Brown loved working on the project. Brown grew up going to Temple Beth Jacob in Redwood City (his parents Al and Diane Brown are still members). He remembers fondly the temple’s annual Chanukah parties, though he says for his family, the holiday was more a homebound affair.
“Most of the eight nights it was the four of us,” he recalls. “My sister and I would fight over who got to light the candles.”
Brown went on to earn a degree in English from U.C. Berkeley and relocate to New York in 1993. His career as an editor includes stints at the New Yorker, the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Metropolis Magazine and others. He also wrote “Inventing Modern America,” a 2001 book that profiled 35 American inventors.
His “Hanukkah Lights” assignment took a year to complete but, as he says, “My job was pretty simple: Make the selection, bring in the illustrator and make a good-looking book.”
With a total of more than 40 stories written for the NPR series over the years, Brown thinks a follow-up volume of “Hanukkah Lights” is a distinct possibility.
Says Brown: “There isn’t much like it on the market.”
“Hanukkah Lights: Stories of the Season” (128 pages, Melcher Media, $19.95).

WDET listeners say they'll miss the music

Others happy to have old shows, more news from NPR
BY BRIAN McCOLLUM Detroit FREE PRESS POP MUSIC WRITER
December 14, 2005
Tuesday brought big changes to public radio station WDET-FM (101.9). As part of a major schedule overhaul, general manager Michael Coleman replaced several of the station's signature music shows with syndicated programming from National Public Radio.
Listener reactions Tuesday were often intense and covered a wide range of opinion. But one common thread was clear: Detroit is passionate about public radio.
Here's what some had to say:
"It's really a tough loss. I'll bet the fund-raising goes down next time. I just can't believe the idea that the music lovers don't contribute a lot to this station. But maybe this is a good thing in disguise, because I'm going to have to do some research and look for some alternatives."
-- Bob Dombrowski, Grosse Ile
"I believe NPR offers the highest quality, most objective news programming in the world. I have been a committed listener of WDET for over a decade. When the format shifted in September 2004, I didn't stop contributing to public radio. I just shifted my dollars to 91.7, the Ann Arbor NPR affiliate (WUOM-FM). ... While Detroit music is important and shouldn't be ignored, I consider NPR programming essential to being an informed person. Therefore, I support the changes to the station."
-- Chris LaDuke, Detroit
"NPR remains an elitist outfit which only covers stories which reflect Western cultural themes, unless of course there is some nasty and graphic global nightmare in a Third World country. NPR's staff and programming does not reflect the diversity of the country. NPR's hosts are usually white with a token spiking of African-American insights. Asian and Hispanic Americans' contributions remain invisible. ...
"The promise of more news and NPR's middle-of-the-road syndicated programming is a prescription for afternoon naps and channel surfing.
"Hopefully, the new management at WDET will wake up from its blind loyalty to survey-driven programming and restore its alternative-theme local programming. Those who have supported WDET for years deserve what they pay for, not the predictable and boring syndicated programming of NPR."
-- Greg Thrasher, Birmingham
"It was great music all day. You already get enough politics if you listen to the news in the morning. ... This was cool because you had people (on the air) who seemed like family, part of the local woodwork. I guess we'll have to make the best of it."
-- Dave Collins, Berkley
"I'm happy for the change. I missed many of the regular talk programs that were dumped after the last format change. ... I have always liked WDET and was disgruntled after all the changes (in 2004), and I found myself tuning in less and less. ...
"Even though I don't really care for 'Folks Like Us' or 'The Arkansas Traveler,' I'm sure that there are as many people happy about their return as I was about 'Fresh Air' and 'Car Talk.' Kudos to Michael Coleman and his courage to return WDET to the way it was. Expect a pledge from across the river in the spring."
-- Andrew Foot, Windsor

Radio is at the center of a perfect storm of technological threats

By Derek Caney
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The radio industry could find itself at the kids' table in the media banquet hall, as new technology threatens the business, advertising executives said this week at the Reuters Media and Advertising Summit.
Satellite radio, digital music players and the Internet are slowly encroaching on traditional radio's stronghold on local entertainment and advertising. Plus, radio ads themselves are less memorable and creative, these executives said.
"Radio is at the center of a perfect storm of technological threats," said David Verklin, chief executive of media buying agency Carat Americas. "It has to reinvent itself."
He noted that Apple Computer Inc.'s (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) iPod and other music players like it have given listeners the ability to listen to what they want when they want.
Satellite radio services such as XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (XMSR.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (SIRI.O: Quote, Profile, Research) are offering more channels, many commercial free, for a monthly subscription.
Finally, the third threat he saw was over-commercialization. "To some listeners, radio is a little bit of content in a sea of ads."
Radio revenue growth has been slowing since 2003, according to the Radio Advertising Bureau. Prior to 2001, the industry logged four consecutive years of double-digit revenue growth.
To address these concerns, Clear Channel Communications Inc. (CCU.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the top U.S. radio company, said last month that 95 percent of its 1,200 stations would be upgraded to digital by 2007. If successful, the company could offer free programing rivaling that of the satellite radio industry.
"Why would you pay for something you get for free?" asked John Hogan, CEO of Clear Channel's radio business, echoing a mantra throughout the radio industry.
Television executives said similar things in the 1970s, when cable TV was a fledgling business. Cable and satellite TV services now serve about 81 percent of U.S. homes.
And satellite radio is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on programing exclusive to its medium, the biggest chunk of which is Sirius' five-year $500 million package to lure shock jock Howard Stern away from Viacom Inc.'s (VIAb.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Infinity radio unit.
"There is a genuine question whether people are going to want to pay $12 a month for (Howard Stern)," said Les Moonves, co-chief operating officer of Viacom.
One of the key problems radio faces, ad executives said, is the dearth of creative commercials. "Radio is seen as the poorest cousin of all the creative canvases," said David Droga, outgoing chief creative officer of Publicis Groupe's (PUBP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) Publicis Worldwide, who is building his own creative shop.
"But to me, radio is a fantastic canvas," Droga said. "It's theater of the mind." Still, he said good radio ads are "few and far between."
Clear Channel, for its part, is betting that by cutting advertising on its stations, it will increase its listenership and raise the value of the remaining ad inventory.
The strategy, which Clear Channel dubs "less is more," drove radio revenue down for the last three consecutive quarters, but Hogan remains positive.
"We think the early returns are extraordinarily promising," he said. "We knew there would be a financial cost to this."
Indeed, while Clear Channel's shares have fallen 1.4 percent in the last year, it has outperformed the S&P Media Index, which has fallen 11 percent.
But even as it shores up its own business model, Internet firms such as Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research) are striking at the radio industry's lifeblood -- local advertising -- by offering services like restaurant recommendations, movie times and other features.
"There's over $100 billion of local advertising dollars that are spent on newspapers, radio, television stations, and yellow pages," said David Sanderson, head of consulting firm Bain & Co.'s media practice. "Where will those dollars migrate in the future?"
One possible destination is Clear Channel, which this year hired an AOL executive to craft an online strategy.
Sanderson added, "These business models will go through dramatic change in 10 years."

Media will be extinct soon, public radio host says

Journalist Bob Garfield explains how technology affects the industry

Sean Bueter Staff Reporter
November 30, 2005
The media is in a period of rapid change, and according to at least one journalist, it’s headed for an apocalypse.
Author and National Public Radio host Bob Garfield gave a presentation at the L.A. Pittenger Student Center Tuesday night on the media and their inner workings as they address the problems of the future.
Garfield, a veteran journalist and commentator, co-hosts “On The Media” for NPR and is author of the book “The Chaos Scenario.”
Almost 300 people packed Cardinal Hall to hear Garfield’s presentation, which focused on the effects that new technology and new media outlets have on what he called “the old media model.” Garfield said he believed it would take time for the industry to change from the current model, but that change seems inevitable.
Garfield’s idea of a “chaos scenario” says that the media as it exists is headed for extinction due to a fragmented audience and a significant loss of advertising dollars. He said he believed that the corporate media giants currently in operation will give way to less expensive outlets. As advertisers look for new outlets to spend their money, small specialized operations will become the dominant forces in media, he said.
Garfield said there is already evidence of this new media in the expanding realm of citizen journalism.
“The collapse of the old media model will unleash vast forces, and much of it will be coming at you,” he said, “but there’s nothing especially orderly about the media’s new world order.”
While Garfield said profits were important in media’s evolution, he said he thought audience interest was the driving force behind the change.
Paul Ranieri, director of Ball State’s Freshman Connections program, said he was pleased with Garfield’s presentation, the final for the program this year.
“He touched on a lot of issues,” Ranieri said. “He gave everyone a lot to think about tonight.”

NPR Podcasts Approach 5 Million; Net Adds 16 Titles

Nov. 09, 2005 By Tony Sanders

The 800-pound podcaster, National Public Radio, has doubled its slate of individual podcast offerings from 17 to 33, and included three new, podcast-only titles. The 16 new titles were first made available on the Web earlier this week, on Monday.The three original-to-podcasting titles are: “On Gambling with Mike Pesca,” a weekly examination of gaming culture, trends and psychology from the NPR News reporter; Groove Salad’s “Taste of the Week,” a selection of music from San Francisco’s eclectic online music service SomaFM, and “Youthcast,” public radio productions from up-and-coming young producers from PRX/Public Radio Exchange.In related news, NPR reported that the two-month old launch of its podcast service had reached five million downloads as of Nov. 7. Only one week earlier, NPR was reporting that it had approached “nearly four million” downloads to date.Billboard Radio Monitor profiled the new NPR service in late October. At that point, through Oct. 15, NPR said it had provided 3.2 million downloads of its own podcast content.The newly-released figure suggests that nearly 800,000 podcasts had been downloaded over a two-week period (ended Oct. 31), with another 1,000,000 downloaded in the shorter period of the following week.

CPB Accelerates Station Conversions to HD Radio

9/27/05 The Business Monthly

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and iBiquity Digital Corp. have announced an agreement that will accelerate the conversion of more than 800 AM and FM CPB-funded stations to iBiquity’s digital HD radio broadcasting.
Under the agreement, CPB will purchase a group license that will allow more than 400 CPB-funded public radio stations to acquire iBiquity’s digital HD radio technology. This group license will also cover costs associated with the technology’s advanced services, such as multicasting and datacasting.
“This historic agreement will give the overwhelming majority of public broadcasters the resources they need to pursue digital HD radio broadcasting and leverage the full range of capabilities made possible by the system,” said Patricia Harrison, CPB president and CEO.

Bob Edwards Again To Be Heard On Broadcast Public Radio

9/22 - From FishbowlDC:
Word out of DC's XM Satellite Radio is that 18 months after he was unceremoniously dropped from NPR, Bob Edwards (right) will be available on public radio again. PRI will start carrying a weekly version of Edwards' greatest hits from his XM show. The DC-based Edwards, who during 25 years at NPR became one of the best known voices on radio, has been hidden from public view at XM since his show launched on the network's public radio channel. The two-hour "Bob Edwards Weekend" will include snippets and interviews from his daily XM show. "We are thrilled to offer Bob to our public radio affiliates," says PRI's Alisa Miller in a press release. "His probing style, acerbic wit, and delightful humor are unparalleled, and listeners will enjoy hearing some of the best guests, profiles, and other features he presents each week".....

NPR executive Drake to step down Sept. 30

Former Sun editor Marimow to become acting vice president for news at network
By Stephen Kiehl - Sun Reporter - Originally published September 21, 2005

The top news executive at National Public Radio, who led the network to numerous awards and oversaw a large jump in listenership, announced his resignation yesterday.
Bruce Drake, vice president for news for the past five years, said he would step down Sept. 30. Former Sun Editor William K. Marimow, now managing editor for national news at NPR, will become the acting vice president.
Drake, 57, did not give a reason for his resignation after 14 years at NPR and declined to be interviewed yesterday. In a memo to his staff, he praised its coverage of major news events, from the 9/11 terrorist attacks to the war in Iraq to Hurricane Katrina.
"I truly stand in awe of what you have all accomplished," Drake wrote. "Each time one of these stories has challenged us, you out-do what you have done before. Each time, the power and eloquence of your storytelling goes up a notch."
During Drake's tenure as vice president for news, NPR won nine Peabody Awards and six Alfred I. duPont Awards for excellence in broadcast journalism. And in the past six years, NPR has doubled its weekly listenership, to 26 million.
Before joining NPR, Drake had spent 20 years at the New York Daily News in positions ranging from police reporter to White House correspondent. He is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University, where he was editor of the student paper.
"Bruce is the kind of editor who has really been in the trenches, so he knows, in terms of stories, what's possible, what's probable, what's highly unlikely and what's impossible," Marimow said.
"Bruce really nurtured an environment where good journalists could do good journalism."
stephen.kiehl@baltsun.com

WBEZ Says "No Thanks" to Air America

Dialing: No thanks Chicago Sun Times 8.5.05

*WBEZ-FM (91.5), the so-called noncommercial station that relies heavily on donations to fund its public radio program lineup, turned down a $10,000 underwriting offer from the parent company of progressive talk WCPT-AM (850), the local outlet for Air America Radio.
"Our policy is not to accept underwriting from direct competitors -- namely other radio stations in the market," said Colleen Jungbluth, marketing director for WBEZ.

AP Radio & NPR Sign New, Multi-year Deal

From Radio Ink 7/27/05
National Public Radio and Associated Press Radio have renewed their multi-year content licensing agreement and extended their relationship to include NPR’s expansion into new information platforms. The announcement was made by Bruce Drake, VP for News, NPR and Thom Callahan, GM, Associated Press Radio. Under this new agreement, NPR will continue to use AP content to supplement its newsgathering efforts. "National Public Radio is one of the most respected sources of programming and information to the world and we are very proud to serve them in the expanded capacity made possible by this long-term agreement,” said Callahan. “AP has played a role with NPR from our early days to our current role as a news leader, and we’re pleased to continue this relationship,” added Drake.

As Congress debates funding, it's full steam ahead for NPR

July 16, 2005
latimes.com

As Congress debates funding, it's full steam ahead for NPR
Network officials are optimistic about a restored budget and new technologies.By Martin Miller, Times Staff Writer
Even as Congress debates funding for National Public Radio, the network's top officials said this week they are pressing ahead with plans to strengthen the franchise's technology and news-gathering abilities.Within the coming months, the network expects to launch new multi-casts, further enhance its burgeoning satellite and podcasting capabilities, while also continuing an ongoing three-year, $15-million expansion of its news division. NPR's audience has doubled over the last seven years and now reaches an estimated 26.1 million listeners every week.

The new technologies "are going to change the way people listen to radio," said Ken Stern, NPR's executive vice president, who, along with Kevin Klose, the network's president, was in Los Angeles this week for planning conferences. The executives met with local journalists Thursday night. NPR officials said they are paying special attention to podcasting and will be looking for new ways to promote it. Viewed as the "TiVo-ization" of radio for its ability to let listeners with portable devices hear programming on their own schedule, podcasting has been a particularly big hit on NPR member station KCRW of Santa Monica. Earlier this summer when Apple Computer Inc. offered an updated version of its music software, iTunes, that featured KCRW programming, their downloads skyrocketed from about 3,500 a day to 100,000. Ideas for future growth were derailed last month when the House Appropriations Committee voted to slash funding by some $200 million to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, from which NPR receives about 2% of its annual budget of approximately $118 million. The proposed cutbacks would have been especially hard on public radio stations that serve rural areas, said NPR officials.Along with the proposed cutbacks came accusations from CPB Chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson that public television and radio exhibit a liberal bias. But NPR officials rejected that charge and reaffirmed their commitment to fair and balanced news coverage."Some like to polarize us into red and blue states," said Klose. "We don't accept that proposition at NPR."Subsequent votes within both houses of Congress have made drastic cuts appear far less likely. This week, a key Senate subcommittee approved restoring funding to near its original level — an action that represents about $111 million more than was approved last month by the House. The two congressional bodies are expected to work out the funding differences between the two measures by late summer or early fall, but NPR officials are optimistic they will keep all, or almost all, of their funding. Their confidence is due in part to an outpouring of popular support for the network that followed the proposed cuts."The speed and power of the reaction was staggering," said Stern, who like Klose is based in Washington, D.C. "It wasn't tens of thousands or hundreds of thousand, but millions." Meanwhile, by the end of the summer, NPR hopes to launch five programmed music formats through multicasting. The relatively new digital technology allows a station to transmit multiple channels over a single bandwidth. The move will add about 600 new hours of programming for the network.As for now, NPR has only two talk-based shows on Sirius Satellite Radio, but network executives clearly want to expand that role. NPR contracted with Sirius more than five years ago.

WLTW/New York Remains America's Top Biller

Adam Jacobson-Radio and Records 5/19/05

BIA Financial Network has released its listing of America's Top 10 revenue-generating stations, and in a "disappointing year for radio in terms of growth," Clear Channel AC WLTW (106.7 Lite FM)/New York comes in as the nation's No. 1 biller in 2004, with revenue of $70.2 million. Lite FM repeats in the top spot after climbing from No. 4 in 2002.
Repeating at No. 2 is Infinity's News WINS/New York, with $60.6 million in revenue during 2004. Rounding out the top 5 are Infinity Alternative KROQ/Los Angeles ($60.3 million), climbing from No. 4; Clear Channel News/Talker KFI/Los Angeles ($60.1 million), which leaps from No. 8 after finishing at No. 34 in 2000; and Emmis CHR/Rhythmic KPWR (Power 106)/L.A. ($58 million), up from No. 6 — KPWR was ranked No. 11 in 2000.
The five-year trend for some stations is striking. At No. 6 for the second-straight year is Infinity News WCBS-AM/New York, with $55.7 million. The seventh-biggest biller in 2004 is Clear Channel CHR/Pop KIIS/Los Angeles, with $54.3 million. KIIS finished at No. 3 in 2003 and was No. 1 in 2000.
Meanwhile at No. 8 is Infinity's Sports WFAN/New York, with $52.5 million. WFAN dips from No. 7 in 2003 and was ranked No. 2 in 2000. The No. 9 and No. 10 slots see no change, with Infinity Rocker WXRK/New York and Clear Channel AC KOST/Los Angeles once again in those positions, respectively.
"It is not surprising to see little change in the top revenue stations given the lackluster year radio experienced in 2004," BIAfn VP Mark Fratrik said. "It is also striking to see how little the list of the top stations has changed over the last several years, with only three stations moving into the top 10 since 2000. With the total industry revenues increasing at below 3% in 2004, it is difficult for a station to make enough of a big leap to overtake the top stations in the industry." On average, the top 10 stations saw a 1.6% increase in their revenue in 2004.
BIAfn recently released these revenue estimates in their Investing in Radio Ownership Report, and the company will release updated figures later this month in its second edition of the 2005 Investing in Radio Market Report publication series.

Radio Changes Its Tune To Recapture Listeners

By Gary Strauss, USA TODAY

As more consumers turn a deaf ear to traditional radio, stations increasingly are switching formats.
The Internet, iPods, computer games, podcasting, commercial-free satellite radio and staid programming have combined to slice average weekly listening time 9% since 1998, prompting many "terrestrial" commercial stations to jettison even relatively strong formats, such as rock, in several big markets.
Country, talk, adult contemporary and religious formats still dominate. But with satellite radio growth exploding, format flips are accelerating as stations "become more earnest addressing the erosion in listenership," says Sean Ross of Edison Media Research. Hot concepts:
Listen to this
About 80% of the USA's 13,838 "terrestrial" radio stations are commercial stations.
Favorite formats:
News/talk: 2,179 stationsCountry: 2,066 stationsReligious: 2,014 stationsAdult contemporary: 1,556 stationsAdult standards: 1,196 stationsOldies: 1,060 stationsRock: 869 stations
Source: Arbitron
•Jack. Aka Bob, Alice and other first-name monikers, the format focuses on '70s, '80s and '90s hits, sprinkled with current tunes. Target audience: twenty-somethings to baby boomers. A hit in Canada since 2002, Jack could be in 100 U.S. markets this year.
Jack is often backed by "throw away your iPod" marketing hype because it employs playlists of 1,200 or more songs — triple most oldies-style music stations and a bit closer to iPod capacity. "Jack's a reaction to stations that are tightly formatted and predictable," Inside Radio editor Tom Taylor says.
Baltimore station WSQR jettisoned its 17-year-old oldies format for Jack on May 4. "With Jack, people don't know what to expect, and we hope that's what they'll gravitate to," says programming director Dave LaBrozzi.
•Hurban. Spanish-language formats are hot. Hurban, a fusion of Spanish hip-hop and English-language R&B, targeting young second- and third-generation Hispanics, is even hotter. Strong in Southern markets, Hurban "is a concept coming up bigger every week," Billboard Radio Monitor editor Paul Heine says.
•Progressive talk. Talk radio has long been dominated by syndicated conservatives such as Rush Limbaugh. But liberal formats, led by Air America, have sprung up in 75 markets. "It appeals to those left out of the current conversation in talk radio," Heine says.
Some formats, such as contemporary Christian music, are bolstering ratings at 15 Salem Communications stations, says chief operating officer Joe D. Davis. Other stations are simply tweaking playlists. New York's WXRK-FM (K-Rock), home to Howard Stern until his 2006 ascent to satellite radio, modified its non-talk rock format to classic rock to keep core 25-to-54-year-olds, says industry consultant Robert Unmacht.
Operators also are avoiding listener static by slashing commercials, following Clear Channel. The USA's No. 1 operator with 1,200 stations has initiated a "Less Is More" campaign. "We had some stations with 15 to 16 minutes of ads an hour," Clear Channel programming executive Doc Wynter says. "Now, it's no more than 10 minutes."

Podcasting Killed the Radio Star

By Xeni Jardin

02:00 AM Apr. 27, 2005 PT

Podcasting will soon break out of the "pod" and onto the public airwaves.
The world's first all-podcast radio station will be launched on May 16 by Infinity Broadcasting, the radio division of Viacom.

Infinity plans to convert San Francisco's 1550 KYCY, an AM station, to listener-submitted content. The station, previously devoted to a talk-radio format, will be renamed KYOURadio.
Infinity, one of the country's largest radio operators with more than 183 stations around the country, will invite do-it-yourselfers to upload digital audio files for broadcast consideration by way of the KYOURadio.com website.
"I'm excited," said Infinity Broadcasting CEO Joel Hollander. "We're creating a new way to let a lot of people participate personally in radio -- sharing their feelings on music, news, politics, whatever matters to them.
"I also think this is going to be a really interesting way to develop new talent," he added.
The station's producers will screen submitted content to ensure it meets quality standards and does not violate FCC broadcast guidelines. Approved podcasts will be simultaneously broadcast over the AM airwaves and streamed online at KYOURadio.com.
In addition to the newfound reach promised by radio broadcast, podcasters may be free to include in their podcasts some music from major record labels, Infinity said.
The company said it plans to cover the cost of music-licensing fees, which are prohibitively high for most individuals.
In part because of licensing requirements, which usually cover only broadcast and streaming, the company has no plans to provide downloadable program archives.
Infinity's Hollander said the decision to launch the "open-source radio" experiment came partly because the San Francisco station's current format has not been a great financial success.
"This switch won't be a big gamble for us monetarily, but it's a potential home run," said Hollander. "You have to make bets on new forms of technology -- some work, some don't. We're making a bet that this might become the way people want to communicate."
Podcasting, a term that combines references to broadcasting and to Apple's iPod, is a method of online audio distribution that has become increasingly popular of late. Digital sound files are uploaded to a website, and listeners subscribe to automatically load files onto a portable player as they're made available.
Podcasts consist of any imaginable form of audio content, from spoken-word programs by bloggers to shows made by professional radio organizations.
The company's podcast-to-broadcast announcement coincides with a flurry of similar, user-contributed projects, including former Vice President Al Gore's Current TV cable channel; the Open Media Network launched this week by Netscape pioneers Mike Homer and Marc Andreessen; and the grass-roots media archive Ourmedia.org.
Hollander said Infinity does not plan to assert ownership claims on content submitted by podcasters, who will remain free to publish their podcasts on the internet -- or anywhere else they choose.
"They can give it to us and give it to somebody else, because we're not taking anything away from them," Hollander said. "We're just helping them reach a broader audience with our bandwidth."
Hollander said Infinity has no immediate plans to launch similar podcast stations in other cities, or on other radio frequencies.
Unlike most commercial radio stations, KYOURadio will not follow a predictable programming schedule -- at least not initially. Over time, Hollander expects programming schedules will evolve in response to listener feedback.
The station may shun schedules, but it's not ditching advertising. Both the AM broadcast and the online stream will include ads.
Infinity said it may also launch a new advertising program before the end of 2005 that will allow marketers to place audio ads in podcasts elsewhere on the internet. The system would use podcast metatags to match a podcast's audio content to corresponding ads, much like Google's keyword-driven AdSense text ads.
Other related possibilities under review include selling podcasters access to radio spectrum, so that individuals or groups can become independent radio broadcasters.
Earlier this month, Infinity announced plans to offer "visual radio," a service allowing listeners to tune in to FM radio over their mobile phones while receiving artist data and interactive services. Currently offered in Finland only, the system was developed by Nokia and will be hosted by Hewlett-Packard.

Infinity Broadcasting To Provide RAB Sales Training For Up To 600 Salespeople

Infinity Broadcasting has announced it will provide sales training from the Radio Advertising Bureau for up to 600 of its salespeople. The RAB will deliver its three-day Academy Extension Program in Infinity markets across the country, beginning with a session for 50 salespeople in Pittsburgh next week. The plan allows for either the RAB Foundation Course, for salespeople with less than 18 months experience, or the Advanced Course, for more seasoned professionals, to be presented based on the specific needs within each market. "Sales techniques and selling methods are continually being developed as market needs evolve," said Joel Hollander, chairman and chief executive officer, Infinity. "Our job is to equip our sales force with the most up-to-date tools which can be utilized to help our clients achieve success. The RAB's reputation for real-world sales training is well-known in the industry and we're pleased to work with them on this very important initiative." "Infinity's decision to provide this kind of intense training to its sales force is a commitment to their advertisers," noted Gary Fries, president and chief executive officer, RAB. "RAB training is focused on the importance of providing solutions by understanding the client's needs and devising a plan that uses radio to engage listeners. There is no question that Infinity Broadcasting has made an investment in its future."

Podcasting: Making Waves

Sam Whitmore, 04.21.05, 6:00 AM ET

Just when we grasped what blogging was all about, along came podcasting, which in some ways is even more disruptive and exciting as blogging. Being a podcaster myself, I've seen firsthand the business and legal chaos podcasts have created. As you'll see (and hear) in this column, perhaps they might soon create some political chaos too. Simply put, podcasting is the act of recording and transmitting digital audio over the Internet to one's computer or MP3 player. The "pod" in podcasting refers to Apple's (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) iPod, but any MP3 player can play podcasts. Using a streaming-media player, you also can listen to podcasts right off the Web. Most listeners do. Researchers from the Pew Internet & American Life Project this month claimed that "more than 22 million American adults own iPods or MP3 players and more than one in four of them have downloaded podcasts." That seems high to me, and many agree, but Pew stands firm. No matter. Podcasting is here to stay. Paris Hilton will podcast this month to promote her new movie House of Wax. Air America, National Public Radio and Clear Channel Communications (nyse: CCU - news - people ) all podcast their programs, or say they soon will. A new SciFi Channel podcast featuring Battlestar Galactica Executive Producer Ronald D. Moore gives a running commentary on each episode. Viewers can download the audio and listen along while they watch. Forbes.com, too, podcasts. Click here to listen to excerpts from its weekly radio show. Meanwhile, podcast entrepreneurs jockey to make money and consolidate power. Boku Communications co-founder Adam Curry, a former personality with Viacom's (nyse: VIAb - news - people ) MTV, wants to coax podcasters into creating shows using Boku's professional-quality audio production tools, which they'll find at podshow.com. To the extent he can empower podcasters, Curry hopes that advertisers will be inspired to shift advertising dollars toward Boku and its roster of audio talent. Says Curry, "Madison Avenue realizes there's an entire generation out there that doesn't listen to the radio." Already there's disruption within the podcasting community itself. Most podcasting pioneers deplore commercialization--just as the dot-edu and dot-org communities bad-mouthed dot-com Web sites a decade ago. Podcast populists, for example, promote obscure musicians by playing independent music not licensed by the Recording Industry Association of America. Others, such as me, use copyrighted music. Is this legal? Good question. A week after launching my own podcast, Closet Deadhead, I traveled to New York and presented checks to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and Broadcast Music for composing rights to the Grateful Dead's music. ASCAP told me I needed two other kinds of licenses: performance licenses from the record companies and a manufacturing license, which grants me the right to create a digital copy of a given performance. So I investigated. Warner Music's Charles Comparato told me this month that his company's podcasting policy "is still evolving." Contradicting ASCAP, J.C. Lindstrom from the Harry Fox Agency--licensers of manufacturing rights--told me, "We don't have a policy for podcasting at this time." Both Comparato and Lindstrom advised me to keep podcasting. I also contacted the Grateful Dead organization, which owns performance rights to Grateful Dead licensed recordings made since 1973. Chief Executive Cameron Sears says his team is crafting its own podcasting policy and will get back to me. Podcast integrity is a bigger issue than licensing. And here's why. When you create a podcast, you create a digital file that listeners can save to their computers. Most listeners delete podcasts shortly after they download and listen to them. But once a digital audio file is saved, it can be reproduced as is--or manipulated. With my first podcast from former vice-presidential candidate John Edwards, I used my digital editing software to make Edwards appear to say something ludicrous and potentially damaging to the Democratic Party. (Please note: Edwards said nothing of the sort. Click here to hear what he did say.) My purpose here is to demonstrate how effectively an amateur can misrepresent the words of a powerful person. As of this writing, there's no legal language on the Edwards site prohibiting me from slicing and dicing. If I can do it, imagine what the malicious in both parties can do. Existing licensing structures need to change and new ones created where none exist. Perhaps a "No Derivative Works" Creative Commons license might be appropriate: authors let others copy, distribute, display and perform only verbatim copies of their work, not derivative works based upon it. So by all means, track the blogs and watch all those crusty old newspapers and magazines writhe in agony, wondering whether to join in or turn their backs. Just don't forget to put on your earphones and enjoy the new show, too. Click here for a primer on podcasting technology. Sam Whitmore is editor of Sam Whitmore's Media Survey, a Web-based tech-media analysis service. He writes a monthly media column for Forbes.com

Infinity Plans 'Visual Radio' Broadcasts To Cell Phones

by Gavin O'Malley, Tuesday, Apr 19, 2005 8:30 AM EST

FACED WITH MOUNTING COMPETITION FROM MP3, satellite radio and Webcasts, Infinity Broadcasting said it plans to broadcast radio programs to mobile devices in the United States by mid-2006. The radio broadcasting giant, a unit of Viacom, said it's working with Hewlett-Packard and Nokia to release the service, called "Visual Radio," which will not only transmit music to cell phones, but also will send album art, concert dates, plus buy-this-album or ring-tone features.
Infinity, which has about 180 primary stations in the Top 40 markets, is considering exactly which stations will be available to "Visual Radio" listeners, said David Goodman, president of marketing for Infinity. Each station will be responsible for creating its own visual content that will be served over the service.
The "Visual Radio" system - a free service - works by allowing broadcasters to create and publish interactive visual content to accompany their existing FM broadcasts. Consumers will need "Visual Radio"-enabled handsets, which Hewlett-Packard and Nokia are developing. Users will be able to listen to radio via the FM receiver in the phone, while the visual channels will be delivered over a GPRS mobile network.
Infinity, a unit of Viacom Inc., along with rival Clear Channel are intent on creating new advertising and revenue sources by revamping their traditional radio business with new distribution outlets. Last week, Clear Channel announced its own plans to offer clips of its programming via mobile device by the end of 2005.
Both Infinity and Clear Channel have announced plans to move content online, and eventually digitize their terrestrial radio transmissions.

A Blast From The Past: WEAM's Brief Return

By Paul Farhi-Washington Post 4/9/05

With a typical hyper-cheerful jingle -- "Who's got the Beatles? We've got the Beatles!" -- wonderful WEAM, Washington's fast-talking powerhouse from the long-gone golden age of Top-40 radio, was back on the air yesterday.
Okay, so it was only for a few hours and it was only a simulation of Top-40, circa 1966, but you got the idea from the very first mention of "the WEAM Team." In the decidedly 21st-century studios of XM Satellite Radio in Northeast Washington, Terry "Motormouth" Young reached back into the stacks of wax to re-create the sound and feel of WEAM, AM 1390 on your radio dial, on his weekly tribute to 1960s radio on XM's Channel 6.
You didn't have to live in Washington in the 1960s to know what WEAM -- and its rivals WPGC and WINX -- were all about. Every city had a WEAM. It was to Washington what WMCA and WABC were to New York, what KFWB and KHJ were to Southern California, what WLS was to Chicago.
The stations played only a few popular hits (the playlists were often considerably tighter than 40 songs) and featured insanely energetic DJs whose voices were the height of radio artificiality (anyone can imitate a 1960s Top-40 jock: just talk really fast and pretend you're about to puke). Long before Walkmans and iPods, stations like WEAM rode to glory with the help of cheap and widely available portable transistor radios, which made it possible for the first time to listen almost anywhere.
Young, who is 52 and a lifelong professional DJ, recalls the era, and the station, fondly. "I remember coming up to Washington [from Richmond] with my dad in the sixth grade and hearing it for the first time. It was so exciting. I thought WEAM was on fire! The DJs, the energy. And the music was great. I wish I had taped them."
Instead, he pulled together vintage tapes of WEAM's DJs from collectors and station jingles from a company that archives them. He also did some research to find out what a Top-40 station in Washington (actually, WEAM was based in Arlington) would be talking about in the mid-1960s.
And so, for a few hours that won't be reaired or archived online, XM subscribers across the country heard the voice of DJ Russ Wheeler announcing that it was "61 WEAM degrees" outside. Young, in the guise of a WEAM DJ, talked up Milt Grant's upcoming dance-party TV show on Channel 5, plugged a sale at Woodies (Levi's for $4!) and mentioned that the latest hits were available at Waxie Maxie's and Swiller's Records. As for entertainment, he suggested young listeners check out "the submarine races at Rock Creek Park and the Tidal Basin."
"The jocks," observed Young, a bit sadly, "were cool in those days. They were allowed to have a personality. Nowadays, all [DJs] do is plug the station's contest and its morning show. Then they get a paycheck and go home."
Top 40 was, of course, about the music, too. Even though the playlists were extremely restrictive, they were in many ways more diverse than those of the average music station today. Unlike contemporary radio, there were no "niches" on Top-40. Over the course of an hour yesterday, Young played the Beatles, Aretha Franklin, the Troggs, the Swinging Medallions, the Monkees, and Martha and the Vandellas.
DJs got some latitude in choosing records -- again, heresy in an age when playlists are market-tested and computer-controlled. As if to illustrate the point, Young took a call from a listener ("Eric from Brunswick, Maryland") who requested Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction." Young politely thanked him, hung up, and snapped, "I hate that song!" And he didn't play it.
By the early 1970s, WEAM and its kind had fallen from the top rung of the ratings. Their major weakness was technological; the great Top-40 stations were on the AM band, which meant that they offered listeners all the sonic fidelity of a couple of soup cans on a string.
Certainly, Top-40's young audiences got older and tastes changed, but album-oriented music and FM radio ultimately killed the AM star.
The Federal Communications Commission's rule in the late 1960s that owners of AM and FM stations produce original programming on the FM side ended the common practice of AM-FM simulcasting. This spurred the development of FM radio as an original programming medium and as a music medium. By the early 1970s, auto manufacturers were including FM radios as standard equipment in cars. AM Top-40 didn't stand a chance.
Still, as Terry Young proved for a little while yesterday, it was fun, fun, fun while it lasted.

Why Corporate Support (Underwriting) on Public Radio Is Such A Good Idea

By Kevin Donohue
President, KFD Media
www.kfdmedia.com
The Business Monthly-April 2005, pp 22

Underwriting on Public Radio represents a unique opportunity for both the for-profit business and nonprofit organization to enhance their corporate images while demonstrating a commitment to the community. Public Radio underwriters connect with specific target markets while aligning themselves with excellent, popular and trusted programming such as Car Talk, Morning Edition, Prairie Home Companion and Fresh Air. Here’s a few good reasons why this is so.
Public Radio Has Grown: Over the last 20 years public radio’s audience has grown to reach almost 30 million listeners per week. In the last ten years, in the era of governmental deregulation of broadcasting and consolidation of ownership of media, public radio and TV offers a refreshing alternative to the often mind numbing assault of commercials, nonsensical jingles, annoying morning zoo DJ’s and obscene shock jocks. Public radio listeners and (PTV viewers) are a unique and desirable group who are just not being served thru the traditional commercial media.
Public Radio Offers A Clutter-Free Environment and Top of Mind Awareness For Your Message: Underwriting announcements are not commercials. They are acknowledgements of support from entities for Public Radio & TV. Because your message is integrated into Public Radio & TV’s regular programming, there is very little tune-out factor. Public Radio listeners regard underwriting announcements as a statement of character from a company that supports public radio-just like they do with their listener support.
The Public Radio Audience Is Made Up of the “Three B”s; Baby Boomers with Brains and Lots of Bucks: Public Radio audiences comprises the affluent, influential, highly educated (57% are college grads), well-traveled, intellectually curious people who are intensely loyal to public radio. They also listen almost eight hours a week to unique programming (NPR News, Classical, Jazz, Alternative) not found on the commercial band. That means weekly there are thousands of opportunities for public radio listeners to hear your message. Retailers please note, this group also has over 10 Billion dollars in annual spending power. A group not being reached by traditional commercial media!
Public Radio and TV Complements Your Current Marketing Plan: About 70% of public radio/TV listeners/viewers say a business' support of public radio positively influences their decision to purchase that company's products and services. As an integral part of your media mix, Public Radio/TV is a highly targeted and cost-effective complement to your promotional plan.
Public Radio and TV Enhances Your Corporate Image: Every underwriting announcement on Public Radio and TV reaches into the homes, automobiles and offices of consumer, civic and business decision-makers. An association with Public Radio/TV identifies your company as a civic and community-minded organization with an interest in the public good that goes beyond simply selling a produce or service.
KFD Media helps local companies and non-profits harness the power of public radio and TV. They will work with your company to plan an effective underwriting strategy and explore intelligent partnering opportunities. Kevin Donohue, President of KFD Media, was most recently underwriting manager at WYPR-NPR in Baltimore for 10 years. He has a total of 32 years of broadcast experience in commercial radio and TV and public radio. Kevin can be reached at 410-884-4220.