Tuesday, June 23, 2015

PUBLIC RADIO NEEDS NEW HIT SHOWS BUT PAST FAILURES HAUNT THEIR DEVELOPMENT



Last week Current published an Op-Ed by Michael Arnold, Director of Content at Wisconsin Public Radio titled Public radio needs more weekend hits, and fast [link]. In this excellent article Arnold says [paraphrasing] public radio is over relying on programs created decades ago without investing in new signature weekend programs. He argues when hits like Wait, Wait, Best of Car Talk and A Prairie Home Companion fade away, stations that now count of them for listener support won’t have replacements.

Arnold clearly identifies the problems but doesn’t provide important background context about why this has happened. (Some observers also criticized Arnold’s omission of more recent hits like The Moth, Snap Judgment, Ask Me Another and Reveal.)

However, several program failures a decade ago, including APM’s Weekend America, caused investors, potential sponsors and program producers to become highly skeptical of new big budget projects.

[Disclosure: I was a paid consultant for Weekend America in 2004 and 2005. Since 2011 I have been a consultant for American Routes. From time to time I have worked with other weekly public radio programs.]

WEEKEND AMERICA’S GOAL: BECOME A PUBLIC RADIO SATURDAY TENTPOLE PROGRAM

In the early 2000s Jim Russell and other successful programming creators, cited one-hour, narrow topic, theme oriented weekly programs as a reason listeners tuned away after Car Talk. They recommended public radio invest in a new, wide focus magazine show designed for midday Saturday.

[Scroll down to see of list of 94 weekly programs carried by CPB-funded stations in 2001.]

An early believer was Rick Madden, then head of CPB’s Radio Dic\vision.  Madden was considered by many in the industry to be a smart – even visionary – steward of CPB funding.  The late, beloved Madden embraced the concept that eventually became Weekend America.  In 2001 Madden invested $200,000 for APM to develop the program.

FIRST DRAFT: PUBLIC RADIO WEEKEND

Russell’s team released the first pilot shows in fall 2002 on six beta stations. Public Radio Weekend (“PRW”) had a casual tone, lifestyle topics, news updates and opportunities for stations to insert local coverage.  The hosts were David Brown, then host of Marketplace, now at KUT, Austin and Merrill Markoe, then a writer for Late Night With David Letterman.

The brainstorming phase continued until 2004 when it reemerged as Weekend America.  Broadcasts began in October 2004. Weekend America originated from Marketplace’s studios in LA. The hosts were Bill Radke and Barbara Bogavey.  CPB invested $1,600,000 for the launch of Weekend America.  [I was unable to determine CPB’s total investment in the project.]

WEEKEND AMERICA: BIG BUDGET & BIG FAILURE

Out of respect to my former client I will let others provide the details of why Weekend America failed.

News reports from the time say the cost to produce Weekend America was between $1,500,000 and $2,000,000 a year. CPB’s money was due to eventually run out, so it had to become self-sustaining to continue. 

Weekend America went through several host changes.  In 2008 production was moved to APM in St. Paul to save money.  The economy turned sour. Weekend America was cancelled at the end of 2008.

IMPACT OF WEEKEND AMERICA’S FAILURE

Weekend America wasn’t the only big budget public radio program that failed.  NPR’s Anthem, Bryant Park and Day to Day also worked in the lab but not in the real world. Investment in potential new blockbuster hit programs ceased at that point. Since then, new national programs have followed a strategy Niemen Labs described in 2012 as agile, cheap reversions of already existing material. [link]

I’ve focused on Weekend America because no program I can recall reached so high and fell so far.

There is also a human side that can’t be ignored.  Jim Russell summed it up on Transom.org in 2007 after he left APM:

A good example of how "opportunity" can get out in front of program was the case of Weekend America. The research made it absolutely clear that public radio was experiencing a striking dip in listening in the middle of Saturdays. And also that there were over 100 single-subject, hour long programs being distributed nationally — a pattern of programming that appeared to create a kind of "jerky" unconnected listening experience for the audience. What was needed, we believed, was programming that provided a constant public radio magazine sound, but with a weekend sensibility. And if it could provide stations an easy way to insert local material, all the better. This was the opportunity.
But, where was the show? What was it about? What was its center? What did it do uniquely well? What was its consistent sound? Despite years of planning and piloting, in the early days of Weekend America, it was a huge burden to just get the two-hour live program on the air every week. To their credit, the staff persistently demanded a clearer, deeper definition of the program, but the distractions of producing the show, funding it, marketing it, defending it and keeping partners and stations as happy as possible — all of these delayed the program's full conceptual definition. In retrospect, it is clear that in the early days, the opportunity outpaced the program. The sad irony is that I could "hear" a very particular program in my head, loud and clear as a bell!
But, because I was the Admiral commanding a fleet, I was not on deck frequently enough to do daily proselytizing of the staff, teaching and reminding them of what show they were producing.
WEEKLY PUBLIC RADIO PROGRAM MENU FROM 2OO1

Back in 2001 I introduced research called CARRIAGE METRICS that charted the performance of 94 public radio programs. The methodology was simple.  I choose 100 representative CPB-funded stations and tabulated the programs they carried.  Programs shown in bold are still in distribution.

+CARRIAGE METRICS+™

#2.3    CLEARANCE SHARE

LISTED BY PERCENTAGE OF STATIONS CLEARED
94 WEEKLY PUBLIC RADIO PROGRAMS
100 SAMPLE STATIONS

RANK
PROGRAM
CLEARANCE SHARE

1
CAR TALK
71.0
2
A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION
65.0
3
THIS AMERICAN LIFE
61.0
4
THISTLE & SHAMROCK
44.0
5
LIVING ON EARTH (60) & (30)
43.0
6
WHAD’ YA KNOW?
40.0
7
MUSIC FROM THE HEARTS OF SPACE
38.0
8
WAIT, WAIT…DON’T TELL ME
37.0
9
SAVVY TRAVELER, THE
31.0
10
ST. PAUL SUNDAY
29.0
11
PIANO JAZZ
27.0
12 (tie)
AMERICAN ROUTES
20.0
12 (tie)
LATINO USA
20.0
14 (tie)
PIPEDREAMS
19.0
14 (tie)
SELECTED SHORTS
19.0
16
SOUND MONEY
18.0
17
FROM THE TOP
17.0
18
ONLY A GAME
16.0
19 (tie)
RIVERWALK
15.0
19 (tie)
SCHICKELE MIX
15.0
21 (tie)
FRESH AIR WEEKEND
14.0
21 (tie)
ON THE MEDIA
14.0
21 (tie)
REWIND
14.0
24 (tie)
JAZZ PROFILES WITH NANCY WILSON
13.0
24 (tie)
NEW DIMENSIONS
13.0
24 (tie)
WEEKLY EDITION
13.0
27 (tie)
ALTERNATIVE RADIO
12.0
27 (tie)
HARMONIA
12.0
27 (tie)
JAZZ SET
12.0
27 (tie)
SAYS YOU
12.0
27 (tie)
SATELLITE SISTERS
12.0
27 (tie)
SOUND & SPIRIT
12.0
27 (tie)
SPLENDID TABLE, THE
12.0
34
JAZZ FROM LINCOLN CENTER
11.0
35 (tie)
SUNDAY BAROQUE
10.0
36 (tie)
WITH HEART & VOICE
10.0
37 (tie)
BEYOND COMPUTERS (60) & (30)
10.0
38
E TOWN
9.0
39 (tie)
AFROPOP
8.0
39 (tie)
BEALE STREET CARAVAN
8.0
39 (tie)
CHINWAG THEATRE
8.0
39 (tie)
COUNTERSPIN
8.0
39 (tie)
RECORD SHELF, THE
8.0
44 (tie)
INFINITE MIND
7.0
44 (tie)
PEOPLE’S PHARMACY
7.0
44 (tie)
THIS WAY OUT
7.0
47 (tie)
COMMON GROUND
6.0
47 (tie)
FIRST ART
6.0
47 (tie)
LOOSE LEAF BOOK COMPANY
6.0
47 (tie)
MILLENIUM OF MUSIC
6.0
47 (tie)
MY WORD/ MY MUSIC
6.0
47 (tie)
SUNDAY ROUNDS
6.0
53 (tie)
GRATEFUL DEAD HOUR
5.0
53 (tie)
MAKING CONTACT
5.0
53 (tie)
MOUNTAIN STAGE
5.0
53 (tie)
RADIO NATION
5.0
53 (tie)
SOUNDPRINT (60) & (30)
5.0
53 (tie)
TO THE BEST OUR KNOWLEDGE
5.0
53 (tie)
ZORBA PASTER ON YOUR HEALTH
5.0
60 (tie)
CELTIC CONNECTIONS
4.0
60 (tie)
FASCINATIN’ RHYTHM
4.0
60 (tie)
LE SHOW
4.0
60 (tie)
NEW LETTERS
4.0
60 (tie)
RIVER CITY FOLK
4.0
60 (tie)
TECH NATION
4.0
60 (tie)
WEEKEND RADIO
4.0
60 (tie)
INSIDE EUROPE (60) & (30)
4.0
68 (tie)
A CHEF’S TABLE
3.0
68 (tie)
BILLY TAYLOR/KENNEDY CENTER
3.0
68 (tie)
CALLING ALL PETS
3.0
68 (tie)
CAMBRIDGE FORUM
3.0
68 (tie)
EARTHSONGS
3.0
68 (tie)
JUSTICE TALKING
3.0
68 (tie)
PORTRAITS IN BLUE
3.0
68 (tie)
WEST COAST LIVE
3.0
68 (tie)
WOMEN IN MUSIC
3.0
77 (tie)
PARENT’S JOURNAL
2.0
77 (tie)
PUTAMAYO WORLD MUSIC
2.0
77 (tie)
RIDERS RADIO THEATRE
2.0
77 (tie)
STUDIO 360
2.0
81 (tie)
BOOK GUYS, THE
1.0
81 (tie)
ENVIRONMENT SHOW, THE
1.0
81 (tie)
FIFTY ONE PERCENT (51%)
1.0
81 (tie)
FOLKSTAGE
1.0
81 (tie)
JEFFERSON HOUR
1.0
81 (tie)
LUTHERAN VESPERS
1.0
81 (tie)
ME & MARIO
1.0
81 (tie)
MIDNIGHT SPECIAL, THE
1.0
81 (tie)
NEWSWEEK ON THE AIR
1.0
81 (tie)
POWERPOINT
1.0
81 (tie)
PRIME TIME RADIO
1.0
81 (tie)
REAL COMPUTING
1.0
81 (tie)
WINGS
1.0
81 (tie)
WORLD MUSIC JOURNAL
1.0



1 comment:

  1. FYI Ken, some of those shows you list as not being in distribution anymore are, in fact, still available: I know TechNation, 51% and Inside Europe are, for example. But admittedly keeping track of all these shows could be exceedingly difficult.

    BTW, is "Weekly Edition" representing WESAT/WESUN? Or was that "Weekend Radio"? Either way, I had no idea that carriage of those particular shows was so low. Certainly it seems like all the major stations in the top 100 markets carry WESAT/WESUN...I wonder if, as valuable as this list is, it could stand to be weighted in favor of larger markets, and further weighted based on when it airs relative to more valuable dayparts? Annnnnnd before you know it, you're tumbling down a rabbit hole of statistical weighting! Oh well...

    FWIW, I think lousy timing is overlooked in how important a factor it was in these shows' demises. You can succeed quickly with a single-issue show. You can't do that with a generalist show. But you can ULTIMATELY succeed BETTER with a generalist show...it just takes a lot more time to build up an audience. And the Great Recession wasn't going to give those shows the time. Day2Day really stands out as an example of that in my mind: it was an excellent show but it was going to need a lot of time to establish itself in the midday lineup, and NPR wasn't able to financially give it the time.

    The Takeaway's first incarnation also comes to mind: it was a brilliant idea, if a little too East Coast-centric, and it worked very well at what it was trying to do. And it was starting to get a decent toehold as a good morning outlet for the #2 public radio station in each town, as a good way to compete with the #1 station and them airing Morning Edition. But the market dropped out and the time needed to gradually convince affiliates to pick it up wasn't there anymore.

    Bryant Park Project I'm not sure what was going on there. That always felt like a really expensive way of "throwing it at the wall and seeing what sticks." I think some people felt it was the way to get out ahead of HD Radio and be the prime tentpole for HD2 multicast channels, but then HD Radio never really took off. And even if it did, it was NPR explicitly competing with itself (the Takeaway was trying harder to go after a related-but-different audience, IMO) and that seemed doomed to fail. OTOH, I think looking at the new "podcast generation" of shows, you could argue that BPP was "ahead of its time" in many ways. I just don't think it was ever going to work as a morning drive outlet.

    Going further, a lot of stations got badly shaken up financially and psychologically by the Great Recession and, to be blunt, many of them needed to be shaken up. These stations were relying heavily on the "old standbys" of weekend programming because they had little incentive to change, and a lot of incentive to not change. Nowadays that's a lot less true; stations are realizing that they need to change or die, as the saying goes.

    I wonder if you introduced Weekend America again today if it wouldn't do a lot better than it did back then? Given the similarities between WA and Here & Now, I suppose you could divine some analysis from that...although H&N had the huge advantage of an established program (TOTN) being killed off and H&N explicitly being touted as a replacement. It'd be like NPR saying "we're going to make WESAT/WESUN be a one hour show but here's this new thing that'll fill the other hour plus one more hour."

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