WVTF and Famous Firsts

I don't want to take anything away from WVTF because they have done something remarkable. According to their press release,

The latest radio ratings released by Arbitron, Inc. show NPR member station WVTF Public Radio ranks #1 against all other commercial and non-commercial radio stations serving Charlottesville [Virginia]. WVTF is ranked #1 with a 9.9 share of the area’s radio listening. The #2 station has a 9.3 share (country WCYK-FM), and the #3 station (adult contemporary WQMZ) has an 8.1 share.

Charlottesville is an interesting radio market. It has the standard mix of commercial stations, with a few oddities. It has two AAA format stations, non-commercial WNRN and commercial WCNR. It also has four non-commercial stations serving the area, WVTF, the afore-mentioned WNRN, WMRA, and WTJU.

For WVTF to capture the majority of the public radio audience is no mean feat in itself -- there's lots of competition. But to capture the majority of the total audience, mixing in folks who prefer classical rock, top 40, country, etc. is news, indeed.

As I said, I don't want to take away from WVTF's accomplishment. According to Arbitron, they're the winner. But before we read too much into this, let's look at how that data was collected.

Arbitron stats aren't quite as cut and dried as those for, say, website traffic data.

While Arbitron collects data in some major markets with electronic devices known as Personal People Meters (PPMs), for smaller markets they still rely on people filling out listening diaries. Which is what was used in the 231st-ranked Charlottesville market.

So how reliable is the information from such a diary? Well, it depends on how much get filled in. Arbitron provides some info about their diaries. Mark Ramsey gives a little walk-through of the competing (but very similar) Nielsen radio diary.



One other piece of information: potential diarists are contacted initially by phone to ask if they would like to take part in the Arbitron survey. Which automatically eliminates homes without landlines (about 20% of households), skewing the potential survey pool to an older demographic.

For a public radio station to emerge on top is still a big deal, though. Because as flawed as the Arbitron system is, the numbers are still used by stations and their advertisers/underwriters to determine ad/underwriting rates and whether or not advertising/underwriting on a station makes good business sense.

So even if WVTF doesn't actually have the 15,503 listeners the numbers say they do, it doesn't matter. Because, like Wall Street investors, it's not what the numbers are, it's what you believe they mean.

- Ralph

Day 118 of the WJMA Podwatch.

WTJU and the World Wide Web

For me, one of the takeaways from the recent Public Radio Development and Marketing Conference was the increasing importance of the online audience. Granted, we're still at the "analog dollars/digital pennies" stage, but as the Jacobs Media Study shows, online audiences are growing.

And that's great news for WTJU, the station I volunteer for. Charlottesville, Virginia's blessed with a disproportional number of non-commercial radio stations. There's the powerhouse, WVTF (based in Roanoke) with the traditional NPR news/classical music mix. To a lesser extent, there's also WMRA (from Harrisonburg), with syndicated NPR news/talk. WNRN provides alternative rock, and other musical genres that appeal to the student population and the AAA public radio listener.

WTJU delivers a unique blend of several different formats. Although some of our programming is similar to that offered by the other stations, in my opinion WTJU provides richer, deeper content. Serious listeners can appreciate the difference -- and that's why I'm excited about growing our online audience.

WNRN maintains a tightly controlled playlist that leans toward the more popular and accessible artists of the genres they play. It's a successful strategy -- they've built a large audience over the years. But what about the artists that have something to say but aren't so mainstream? WTJU.

WVTF and WMRA air classical music, but it's designed for easy listening. Soothing melodies, excerpted movements, mainly classical and romantic composers (ca. 1730-1890), etc. It's not uncommon programming for public radio stations, and again, it works. Both stations have an audience. But what if you want to hear music of the renaissance, or something by a living composer, or a Maria Callas aria? WTJU.

And the same's true for jazz, and folk, and even world music.

Are there enough listeners within the WTJU coverage area to support this kind of in-depth eclectic programming? I think so, but it's a finite number. There's only so many people that can live within our listening area, and it's not likely the FCC will let us expand our signal.

But that's not true online. Through the Internet we could potentially reach every single person in the world who's passionate about Milt Jackson, or the Dixie Beeliners, or Steve Reich. And the early signs show we're making a start.

When I'm on the air, I send out updates about my program, always using http://cli.gs/WTJU as the URL for the audio stream. Cli.gs is a service that allows the creation of short, trackable redirects, so I'm able to see who's clicking on the link and from where.

The past two shows have brought in about 100 online listeners (we can currently accommodate 60 at a time). Most are from the U.S., but I've also had online listeners from Canada, France, Belgium, Sweden, Slovinia, and -- just this week -- Japan.

Online is where listeners (even local ones) are moving to, and it's where we have the best chance to grow. Because 200 stations streaming "Morning Edition" sort of cancel each other out (especially when the listener can access it directly from NPR). But a station streaming programming heard no where else? That's really where it's at.

Can't wait to see next week's stats!

- Ralph

Day 98 of the WJMA Podwatch.

Non-NPR Public Radio

Yes, there is such a thing. Around the time I began attending public radio conferences regularly, National Public Radio began their push to solidify their brand. "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered" were already the "tent poles" of most public radio station listening (that is, the two places where audience -- and pledging -- peaked).

NPR started by pushing stations to have their announcers emulate the NPR style of delivery, providing a seamless transition from the national feed to the local news segments and back again. Stations were glad to ride the NPR bandwagon. NPR programs brought in the big pledge dollars, and it was easier to schedule a syndicated program with high production values rather than trying to put together something on their own.

Affiliate stations always assumed that NPR's goals were identical with theirs. But different organizations, like individuals, by definition have different goals. In time the blending of local station with national network became complete. Many people today use the terms "NPR" and "public radio" interchangeably -- NPR's branding mission is now complete.

Folks will talk about NPR's "A Prairie Home Companion" -- a program produced and distributed by American Public Media (not NPR), or talk about a classical music selection Seth Williamson played on NPR (Seth's the local host of mid-day classics at WVTF, and his program is not distributed by NPR).

The first hint of trouble with this close association came when NPR fired popular "Morning Edition" host Bob Edwards. Listeners responded with howls of protests -- ire aimed squarely at the local affiliates. For most of the public, the local station was NPR, and many canceled their pledges in protest. That lost revenue hurt the local stations, which meant they had less money to meet their budget (a good chunk of which were NPR carriage fees -- according to Time Magazine, as much as $1.3 million). As for NPR, no station dropped "Morning Edition," and they collected the same rates from the affiliates they always did while the controversy raged on. In the end, Bob Edwards went to XM, some listeners went away, and NPR continued business as usual.

NPR has been moving more and more content onto satellite radio, into podcasts, and finally onto their own audio server. For this organization that derives revenue from the programs it produces, the moves make sense -- this is where the audience is going, and that's where they need to be.

For the radio stations, though, it's a disaster. If you contribute to your local station to support "Fresh Air," why would you continue to do so once you realize you can get it free as a podcast? Stations with strong local content have very good reasons for their listeners to support them. Those who rely almost exclusively on NPR are in for a tough time.

The recent firing of Ken Stern can be seen as an attempt to put the brakes on NPR's abandonment of its affiliates. But it's a temporary slowing, at best. Listening patterns are changing, and eventually NPR and public radio stations may come to a serious parting of the ways.

Here in Charlottesville, Virginia we have four non-commercial radio stations. Two are NPR affiliates, which means you can often hear the same programs on two different stations. Two run local programming almost exclusively.

Coincidentally, both of these stations (WNRN and WTJU) are currently in the midst of their spring fund drives. While WVTF and WMRA run "Morning Edition," WNRN gives its listeners "Acoustic Sunrise," which airs acoustic folk and Americana music. WTJU has classical programming in the morning, locally (and sometimes eccentrically) hosted. WNRN plays a healthy dose of local music throughout the day, while WTJU airs genres (serious classical and jazz, folk, world, non-Top 40 rock) other stations never touch.

All non-commercial radio station depend on some measure of direct public support. In two cases, a bulk of that support will be turned over to NPR to pay for programming, In the other two, the money stays "in house."

Which station is worthy of your support? Whichever one you listen to on a regular basis. Just remember that when you make your pledge, you're supporting the station, not NPR (at least not directly).

- Ralph

"Radio Nowhere" by John Amos

I was trying to find my way home,
But all I heard was a drone,
Bouncing off a satellite,
Crushing the last lone American night.
This is Radio Nowhere.
Is there anybody alive out there?

--Bruce Springsteen

Well, is there? Will somebody please answer the man’s question: Is anybody alive out there? I’ve been listening, but it seems pretty dead to me. Commercial radio, once such a potent means of communication, has become an utter wasteland.

I spend two hours a day in my truck, which doesn’t have a working CD player. So I listen to a lot of radio. I’ve got ten preset buttons, but only a couple are worth pushing.

Most stations today play pre-programmed “hits.” Few have live deejays. Of the ones that do, advertisements and silly talk predominate. Crude humor abounds. Once we had Wolfman Jack; now we have Imus, Stern, and a host of other shock-jock wannabes.

Stations try to grab listeners with fizzy promises (“more music, less talk”) and catchy slogans (“Generation Radio,” an inane euphemism for the oldies format). What’s missing, of course, is any sort of community connection. I realize the bottom-line drives a station’s programming decisions, but the fact remains: pre-packaged shows, produced in nameless places, are no substitute for the real, live thing.

Most stations today are owned by huge corporations. That’s why they all sound alike. Can’t take a chance on something original, so we’ll just play another worn out old standby, tell another smutty joke. The result: homogenized play-lists and tasteless talk.

It was not always so.

In fact, not that long ago radio was a vibrant part of this community. Orange’s tiny station had talent that much larger markets must have envied. Arch Harrison, Ross Hunter, and Bill Little were classy broadcasters with made-for-radio voices. The station also developed young talent, hiring high school students as broadcast interns, who learned the ropes quickly and soon became radio personalities in their own right. These folks took their work seriously, and they put out a product that people wanted, maybe even needed, to hear.

My grandmother listened religiously to The Swap Shop, a sort of on-air yard sale. She loved hearing people call in to trade clothes, cars, books, and other odd-and-ends. I once heard an old farmer on The Swap Shop attempt to trade a bushel of sweet potatoes for a 1968 Ford Galaxy transmission. I kid you not.

People tuned in on Friday nights to hear Hornet football games. They listened on election night to local politicos discuss the vote tallies. Teenagers called, requesting songs and offering dedications. People set their alarms to hear their neighbors’ birthdays announced. Churches took turns airing Sunday morning services.

None of it was particularly exciting, but it was genuine. Real people, real entertainment, and real information. Of course, it’s no longer cost-effective; but surely something has been lost.
A few oases still exist in today’s radio wasteland. National Public Radio provides a wonderful medley of music, interviews, and in-depth reporting. A Prairie Home Companion is the closest thing we have to the classic shows of the 30’s and 40’s.

Closer to home, several Charlottesville stations are bucking the trend. WNRN advertises itself as “community radio” and plays a wonderful grab-bag of music. 106.1 “The Corner” lives up to its slogan, “Different is Good.” And you never know what gem you’ll hear next on WTJU. These stations mix passionate volunteers with seasoned, professional deejays to create something worth listening to.

And in Orange, Phil Goodwin continues to report daily on local news. He’s a humane and intelligent voice, crying in the wilderness.

The internet is also trying hard to revive the medium. XM and Sirius offer stations devoted to blues, jazz, sports-talk, and just about anything else you could want. Services like Pandora and slacker.com actually allow listeners to build their own stations. Though I like the concept, internet radio seems a bit sterile to me. Good radio should deliver a sense of place, and who can say where the internet originates?

Radio, far more than television, relies on an audience’s imagination. Without pictures, it has only words, voice, and human warmth to reach listeners. This requires a person at the other end of the microphone, not a recording.

Like the newspaper industry, radio is struggling to remain relevant in the modern age. It will only survive by cultivating the human connection. Abandon that, and all you’ve got left is waves, bouncing off a satellite.

- John Amos

©2008 by John Amos
Reprinted by permission

Another Angle for the CNR - Block Programming

The Hook's article about WCNR (and it's impact on WNRN) has sparked a lively debate. The discussion's spilled over into the Cvillenews.com (who were kind enough to site my recent post on the subject).

Something mentioned in their comments needs some clarification, I think. Lonnie said:

My big issue with WTJU is that you basically need a program guide to find what you want to listen to. It has it’s place and I’m glad its there, but it’s way to diverse and eclectic for me. Sometimes it’s nice to just turn on the radio and know it’ll be something you will probably want to hear.

A station with more than one format can be confusing to potential listeners.
WNRN calls out the weakness of WTJU's eclectic format on the WNRN site

Stations like WNRN & WVTF ("public radio") offer variety not found with commercial radio, but enough consistency so that real, defined audiences develop for their programming. Some so-called "college" stations have underwriting programs so that businesses or individuals can express their support for a particular kind of eccentric programming for a couple of hours a week.

While this was true years ago, WTJU has (mostly) moved to block programming -- something that's fairly standard in non-commercial radio. With block programming, the format changes at certain times, creating "blocks" of uniform programming across the week.

Most public radio stations (such as WMRA and WVTF locally) follow the news/classical block programming format. "Morning Edition" in the morning; classical music middays; "All Things Considered" in the late afternoon. Evenings can be more of a grab bag, and weekends usually bring in completely different programming ("This American Life" Prairie Home Companion"), but that's OK. Listening habits are different for nights and weekends.

As long as consistency is maintained throughout the work week, the audience -- which can change from one format to another -- can tune in at the same time as part of their weekday routine and get the programming they expect to hear.

WNRN's oblique criticism of WTJU is little disingenuous as they too use block programming for somewhat eclectic programming. "Acoustic Sunrise" which runs from 5:30-10 Monday through Friday has markedly different music than what's aired throughout the day. And the urban programming of the Beatbox (10PM-Midnight) shares virtually no music with WNRN's morning show (and I suspect little of the same audience).

WTJU used to divide everything into one-hour blocks and fit it all together like a giant puzzle. A decade ago you could have heard an hour of folk music followed by an hour of alt-rock followed by an hour of jazz. The volunteer staff naively believed the listener would memorize the specific time slots their programs were on and tune in accordingly. This ignored the way people listen to the radio, and the station suffered as a result.

Currently, the station uses programming blocks for most of its weekday schedule. Every Monday through Friday, from 6-10 in the morning, we air classical music and from 10-12 jazz.

Of course, the key to block programming is consistency. Weekends can be different, but most folks expect if they turn on a station at a certain time throughout the week, they'll hear the same kind of programming.

Where WTJU current falls down is in the latter part of the week. Ideally, the folk department programming (blues/folk/world) should run from noon-2PM, and rock from 2-4PM every weekday. It starts out that way, but on Friday the rock and folk blocks are reversed -- and that makes for bad radio, as listeners are forced to remember an exception to the rule.

The schedule isn't perfect, but it's far better than it was. And the evenings are finally arranged in blocks (mostly) as well.

But those few weekday anomalies -- legacies from a bygone era -- aren't quite the "particular kind of eccentric programming for a couple of hours a week" some would have us believe.

As with other stations using block programming for their weekdays, the majority of WTJU programming you like will be there at that same time period, Monday through Friday. So, Lonnie, same time tomorrow?

- Ralph

WCNR and the Question of Identity

A recent cover story in the Hook about WCNR "The Corner" touched on the struggle for the hearts and minds of a certain demographic between the station and WNRN (mentioned here in a previous post).

In the article, Mike Friend -- the general manager and founder of WNRN -- shares a new station policy, banning the use of the phrase "the corner" from the station.

"We don't say the word for any reason," says Friend. "It used to be that we said it eight times an hour because a lot of our underwriters were Corner businesses. But we're not going to be in the business of advertising for a multimillion dollar corporation."

I've heard several folks point to this policy as an example of Mike Friend being vindictive and petty. I see it as an example of how well Friend understands radio. Friend knows what many others in radio know -- most listeners have only a vague idea what station they're listening to.Arbitron measures listenership by sending out journals to a representative selection of a market's population. Participants are asked to log their radio listening, and at the end of the survey period returns the journals for tabulation. You can tell when the Arbitron books are sent -- every commercial station ramps up the frequency of their station IDs. Sadly, most people don't really know either the call letters or the frequency of the stations they listen to -- a significant number of books come back with mismatched call letters and frequencies, forcing the evaluator to guess which one the participant meant.

When I worked at WMJA in Orange, I often fielded calls meant for WCUL, WFLS, and other local stations. Listeners would look up "Radio Stations" in the Yellow Pages, and -- not knowing what station they were listening to -- made their best guess as to which one to call.

It still happens to me at WTJU. It's not uncommon for my Wednesday morning classical music program for me to get requests for "Acoustic Sunrise" (WNRN), or have someone breathlessly ask if they're the tenth caller for the "Big Greasy Breakfast" contest (3WV).

And it happens at Plan 9. I've often waited on folks who want some classical piece they heard on public radio. The key to figuring out what it was (seldom do they remember the name) is checking the playlist of the station during the time the piece was heard. What station did you hear it on? WVTF? WMRA? Perhaps even WTJU? They don't know, nor do they remember where it was on the dial ("Um, somewhere on the left side, I think").

A colleague of mine works at a public radio station that shares a market with another public radio station tells me this can sometimes be an advantage. He always knows when the competing station has a fund drive -- his station starts getting phone-in pledges out of the blue. The callers have only a vague idea which station they're calling to pledge support for.

And finally, although WTJU has run a complete opera every Sunday afternoon for years, the program's hosts (and me personally) have talked with several long-time listeners who think they're listening to WVTF!

So Mike Friend's decision to ban "the corner" from WNRN makes perfect sense. Every iteration of the phrase only potentially confuses their listeners. And even though they'll hear the call letters and frequency (WNRN/91.9), if they also hear the phrase "the corner," dollars to donuts when asked sometime later what station they listen to, a significant number of WNRN's listeners will respond "The Corner."

- Ralph

Backing into a CNR

I was working at Plan 9 in Albemarle Square this past Saturday and on two separate occasions, customers came in looking for Rodrigo y Gabriella. They wanted the disc because they heard it on the radio. Nothing unusually there – Charlottesville's blessed with a number of stations that play more than the usual Top 40.

In addition to WVTF and WMRA, the two public radio stations that deliver NPR news, classical music and some jazz, there's also the more eclectic WTJU and WNRN.

Usually, when folks come in asking for a classical piece, it's something they've heard on WVTF. If they're asking for anything else out of the ordinary, it's usually a track they've heard on WNRN – most often, the "Acoustic Sunrise" program.

This time, however, both customers heard the tune on WCNR – a new commercial radio station in town.

I have a lot of respect for Mike Friend, the founder of WNRN. When he was a volunteer at WTJU he offered up a number of ways for the station to grow, all of which were enthusiastically ignored. He took those ideas and started WNRN, which has become a real success story for this area (and several other areas as their coverage continues to grow). WNRN thrived while WTJU continues to just survive.

Mike recognized that no one was programming music for college students. 3WV used to before their album rock playlists became frozen in time. WTJU used to as well until DJs ranged further and further afield – some to distance themselves from "popular" music – and left their audience behind.

WNRN's programming served the twenty-something audience and serves it well. Eventually, someone took notice and WCNR arrived. Make no mistake about it – WCNR is out to eat WNRN's lunch.

And they have a slight advantage – they're a commercial station. WNRN is non-commercial, which means their underwriting is limited by the rules laid down by the FCC.

1) No calls to action – you can't say "come on down," "call now" or other phrases that prompt action.
2) No reference to prices – you can't say "on sale" or "only $5.99" or "free" or anything like that.
3) No superlatives – you can't say "best ribs in town" or "lowest prices on air conditioners," "widest selection" or any other similar descriptors like you can in an ad.
4) No inducements to buy – you can't talk about special sales happening this weekend, or how every Thursday's ladies night.

So for local business (especially restaurants and bars), commercial radio can potentially be more attractive than non-commercial radio from an ad standpoint.

But this isn't a one-sided struggle. WNRN has been around for some time and has built a large and loyal audience. Plus, they already enjoy good relationships with many of the businesses WCNR is trying to woo.

So were the two customers that came into Plan 9 the first crack in the dam, or just two blips on the radar that mean nothing?

I don't have an answer, but it was something that got my attention.

- Ralph