Friday, August 11, 2017

UPDATE ON WBAI/PACIFICA DEVOLUTION • BIG BUDGET CUTS IN FAIRBANKS


There is yet another twist in the legal battle between the Empire State Building and Pacifica’s WBAI.  According to a report from Tom Taylor’s NOW newsletter [link], Pacifica filed a Minor Change request with the FCC to move WBAI’s transmitter off of Empire State. WBAI wants permission to move its transmitter to the 48-story Conde Nast building at 4 Times Square.

4 Times Square
The request was authored pro bono by engineering consultant Don Mussell, a long time Pacifica supporter. 4 Times Square has a large “antenna farm” on the top of the building that New York City TV and FM stations use as a backup to main transmitters on Empire State and the new World Trade Center.

The reason Pacifica is seeking the new transmitter site is that the station has not been paying its rent for space atop Empire State since 2014. 

The owner of Empire State has filed a lawsuit demanding payment of $2.1 million from Pacifica. On Friday, June 30th, Empire State filed a Motion for Summary Judgment in New York State Supreme Court against Pacifica. The Motion demands immediate payment. 


Of course, if Pacifica is forced to liquidate WBAI, the new transmitter site will become a moot issue. The Court’s decision on the Motion could come soon. Observers feel that Pacifica will likely lose the Court case and may be forced to sell some of its assets, including the FCC license for WBAI. This could sink Pacifica’s entire national organization.

REMEMBERING WHEN WBAI MATTERED



According to an Arbitron ratings report from Spring 2007, WBAI had over 200,000 estimated weekly listeners. It has been a long time since WBAI has subscribed to the Nielsen Audio ratings. Unofficial estimates say WBAI now has few than 10,000 weekly listeners.


BIG BUDGET CUTS AT KUAC, FAIRBANKS

Legislators in Alaska have approved measures to make drastic cuts in appropriations for the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. The university responded by cutting 56% of the funds for KUAC FM and TV.

As of September 1, 2017, KUAC will terminate it's membership with the Alaska Public Radio Network, or APRN. Service will also be discontinued at many of KUAC’s translator stations in remote interior areas of the state.

KEN SAYS: Public media is an important lifeline in rural Alaska. Many areas are off-the-grid for online services. Public broadcasting once had bipartisan support in Alaska.  Republican Senator Ted Stevens was a leading supporter of CPB.


Thursday, August 10, 2017

PRX & NEW YORK TIMES PODCASTS SHOW BIG GAINS IN RANKINGS • NPR NEWS STATIONS UP BY DOUBLE DIGITS IN ALBANY & GRAND RAPIDS


In the monthly Podtac rankings of podcast producers both PRX/Radiotopia and the New York Times had impressive gains over the past month. PRX added an estimated 1.6 million Unique Monthly Listeners in the July data compared to June, up 34%. The estimated number of Unique Monthly Listeners to Times podcast was up over 24%.

 
The three biggest podcast publishers – NPR, WNYC & the This American Life cluster – stayed about the same. CBS dropped out of the top ten.

ALBANY & GRAND RAPIDS NIELSEN RATINGS



In the Spring Nielsen Audio Diary markets, big NPR News stations continue to perform well. In Albany, WAMC increased its estimated number of weekly listeners 15% in Spring 2017 compared with Spring 2016. 

Several other NPR News stations put signals into the geographically large Albany-Schenectady-Troy Nielsen Audio metro area.


I learned about a very interesting type of community station in the Albany ratings: WBTN-AM in Bennington, Vermont [link]. I am calling their format “Hyper Local” because you will hear about anything or anyone in Bennington on WBTN. 

WBTN’s local approach is embodied in the station’s mission statement:

WBTN’s programming and emphasis are to serve the community by being a channel for local voices to inform, educate, and entertain our listener community both on the air and over the internet.  WBTN provides live, local, immediate and relevant news and programming to our community.  It collaborates with community members to develop and broadcast locally produced content.  It acts as a platform for organizations and community-wide agencies to take their message to the public.


However, there is one exception to the local mix on the schedule: From 5am to 6am each morning WBTN airs a nationally syndicated show called America This Morning, hosted by Gordon Deal.  

This Morning is a straight-ahead headline news program that is syndicated to commercial talk stations.



click to enlarge
WBTN must have worked out a sweetheart deal to carry this commercially sponsored program. 

The program asks affiliates to carry 12-minutes of inventory per hour. As you can see on This Morning’s program clock on the right, it is clearly intended for commercial stations.   

Maybe this works for WBTN but it seems out of character to me.




Other than Detroit, Grand Rapids is WUOM’s – a/k/a Michigan Radio – most important market. 

Though it originates very little local program, WUOM’s repeater WVGR, dominates NPR News listening in the GR area. 

Two news challengers are beginning to rise as potential competitors to Michigan Radio. WMUK from Kalamazoo and Grand Valley State’s WVGU-FM both had impressive gains in estimated weekly listeners.


Grand Rapids is also served by WPRR – Reality Radio – a community station with a definite point-of-view. WPRR [link] makes no attempt to be “fair and balanced” with it’s strident pro-union and social justice programs. 

On WPRR, Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! Sounds like a program for political moderates.






Wednesday, August 9, 2017

WEEKLY NPR NEWS LISTENERS DROP IN SYRACUSE • WJPZ’S “MORNING ZOO” EMBARRASSES SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY


We have been reporting for the past week about the Nielsen Audio Spring ratings results for markets using the old Diary methodology. In almost all of the markets we have discussed NPR News stations have show growth in estimated weekly listeners. This is not the case in Syracuse.



Five stations in the Syracuse metro offer full-time or part-time news and information programming. Three of the five lost weekly listeners in Spring 2017 compared with Spring 2016.  Only one station gained estimated weekly listeners, Syracuse University’s WAER was up 600 listeners in the past year.

Syracuse’s NPR News market leader, WRVO, saw estimated weekly listeners drop over 10%. WSKG from Binghamton lost 27% of their estimated weekly listeners compared to a year ago. WEOS. From Geneva lost 9%.

WAER has been discussed on this blog several times. It consistently performs far below its potential. The station has a dual format of news and Jazz music plus an eclectic mix of weekend shows. 

Until recently WAER called itself Jazz 88 and news programming seemed to be an after-thought. Recently the station dropped Jazz from daytime hours and added syndicated news shows. But this mixture has yet to jell.

I don’t enjoy writing negative reviews of any stations, but WAER comes from the same institution that is home to the prestigious Newhouse School of Public Communications, which touts itself (according to their website) as having the media industry’s most powerful alumni community. So, expectations for WAER are high.

According to financial records on WAER’s website, in 2016 the station had annual revenue of around $1.8 million. Only 30% of the revenue comes from listener-sensitive sources such as underwriting and pledging. WAER’s largest source of revenue is a direct appropriation from Syracuse University, roughly 37%.

WAER is one of two radio stations operated by SU. The other one, WJPZ, needs help too.

MEET WJPZ – Z89THE PARTY STATION



Z89 [link] is a student-staffed, faculty-drive top 40 station operated by the Newhouse School. 

It calls itself The Party Station but the party seems to be getting smaller.  

 WJPZ lost over 39% of its estimated weekly listeners in Spring 2017 compared with Spring 2016.

Why does WJPZ suck, let’s look at the fundamentals:



Z89 IS TRYING TO HARD TO BE “HIP”

SYRACUSE PROMO POSTER FOR Z89
This is how Z89 describes itself:

Z89 plays Syracuse's hit music 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with absolutely no commercials! So if you're a fan of boring old men trying to sell you things you don't want, I guess we're not meant to be...

See what I mean.

• THE MUSIC IS ORDINARY MAINSTREAM POP

According to the Z89 website, core artists heard on station are:

Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake, Will.I.Am, Mackelmore, Taylor Swift, One Direction, Calvin Harris, Jay-Z, fun, and too many others to name! We have it all!

Sounds like the soundtrack for an oldies party.

PROMO IMAGE FOR Z89 MORNING ZOO SKIT
Z89 HAS A TRULY AWFUL MORNING ZOO SHOW

Morning Zoo programs were popular on Top 40 stations three decades ago. Z89’s morning show sounds like it was inspired byBeavis & Butthead.


Consider this skit that actually aired on Z89 the morning of January 27, 2017 (verbatim as described on the Z89 website):

Today on the Friday Z Morning Zoo, our four hosts played a brand new game, cleverly titled “What Would You Punch?”

It’s the brainchild of our own Josh Feinblatt. He thinks about punching things a lot, so he turned it into a new segment. It’s sort of concerning but we’re rolling with it because we love him.


Friday’s Assistant Producer, Kate, came up with the questions. She offered two options, and the hosts had to choose to punch one or the other. Here’s how they answered:

THE Z89 MORNING ZOO CREW
Question 1: What would you punch? The world’s fluffiest pillow, or a memory foam mattress?

Josh, Shrut Loops, and Matt answered the pillow, while Ariel opted to punch the memory foam mattress.

Question 2: What would you punch? Grandma or Grandpa?

After the series of horrified gasps, all four hosts, again, agreed to punch Grandpa. Ariel said that her grandfather fought in the war, and that “he could take it.”

Question 3: What would you punch? A homeless orphan or a child with cancer?

After much debate, Ariel, Matt, and Shrut Loops decided to punch the homeless orphan. Josh took a different approach, opting instead to punch the child with cancer because “they’re probably in a hospital and there are medical services near by.”

The folks who run the prestigious Newhouse School of Public Communications must be so proud!

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

MAINE PUBLIC SET TO GIVE A BIG BOOST TO CLASSICAL CHANNEL


About two years ago Maine Public Broadcasting began the effort to establish a second radio service that will offer full-time Classical music. In addition to expanding Classical service, the move allows Maine Public to focus its existing stations on mostly news and information.

MAINE PUBLIC CLASSICAL CURRENT STATIONS
Currently Maine Public Classical is available over-the-air to listeners in Portland, Bangor, Waterville and Fryeburg (near the New Hampshire border). 

This arrangement cobbles together a group of signals that are adequate but the Classical channel was available only in the state's two largest cities Portland and Bangor. Approximately 600,000 people could hear the Classical channel.  Maine has a population of over 1.3 million people.

That will change this fall when a new powerful signal – 96.7 FM licensed Boothbay Harbor – joins Maine Public Classical.

COVERAGE FOR NEW MAINE CLASSICAL STATION
Last week Maine Public announced the purchase of WTQX from commercial operator Blueberry Broadcasting for $550,000. WTQX had a Classic rock format. 

FCC approval is expected in the fall.

Mark Vogelzang, President of Maine Public, described the coverage 96.7 will bring to Maine:


Mark Vogelzang
“This is the sixth station we’ve built or added in the past 18 months. The signal will reach a large part of the coast and interior of Maine.  Around 350,000 people live in the ‘mid-coast’ region that includes Brunswick and Bath on the coast in the south, then north and east through Boothbay and up along to near Rockland and Penobscot Bay on the ocean. The area also draws many visitors during the summer.”

Folks in central Maine have been pining for a full-time Classical station since Woody Tanger sold W-Bach, a commercial Classical station, over a decade ago. The new owners of W-Bach dropped Classical music in March 2017.

When 96.7 FM debuts Classical music in the fall, it will join 104.1 FM in Portland, 106.1 FM in Bangor, 93.7 FM in the “down east” area, 99.7 FM in Waterville, and 91.5 FM in Fryeburg.

Maine Public is currently conducting a capital campaign called Charting a Bold Future. A donor (who did not wish to be named) stepped forward with $100,000 lead gift to facilitate the purchase of 96.7.

MAINE PUBLIC NEWS ZOOMS UP IN SPRING RATINGS


Maine Public’s NPR News stations had perhaps their best “book” in history in Spring 2017.   

According to Nielsen Audio estimates, news stations in Maine’s three rated markets added almost 50,000 new weekly listeners since Spring 2016, an increase of 16%. The current five Maine Public Classical stations had a dramatic increase in estimated weekly listeners in all three rated markets.


In the Portland area, New Hampshire Public Radio also added a considerable number of new weekly listeners, echoing the strong performance by many NPR News stations nationwide. 





Maine Public News was up 22% over Spring 2016 in Bangor.







The new 96.7 FM signal will reach many new listeners in the Augusta area.






Monday, August 7, 2017

TAMMY TERWELP DESERVES A RAISE • KUNC & “THE COLORADO SOUND” INCREASE WEEKLY LISTENERS


Tammy Terwelp
Usually change comes slow in public radio but not in Colorado Springs. 

In January 2017 we reported that Colorado Public Radio’s (CPR) news/talk channel was making big listener inroads on the Southern Colorado Front Range. 

CPR News looked like it had outfoxed KRCC. Then GM Tammy Terwelp made some big changes at KRCC.

First, she focused KRCC’s daily schedule on news and information. Then she crafted an aggressive local news approach. Most of the changes happened in early March, a month before the Spring Nielsen Audio survey period.



Terwelp’s work paid off. KRCC added approximately 40,000 new estimated weekly listeners, up 27% in Colorado Springs and 24% in Pueblo compared with Spring 2016 data.    

According to Nielsen, KRCC now has 145,700 weekly listeners on Southern Colorado’s Front Range. Meanwhile CPR News lost an estimated 29% of its weekly listeners when comparing data from 2016 and 2017.

I-25 is thunder road
We can’t say definitively that KRCC gained listeners from CPR News, but it certainly looks that way. 

This is despite a new full-power CPR News repeater in The Springs. Apparently local works and Terwelp has some serious mojo rising.


UPDATE 8/14/17:
According to Lauren Cameron, SVP of Communications at Colorado Public Radio, CPR's new Colorado Springs signals (102.1 FM and 1490 AM) didn't technically go live until late June (June 23 to be exact.) So, results from the upcoming Fall 2017 Nielsen survey period will be a better reflection of CPR News’ performance in The Springs.

Also in Colorado Springs the repeater of Denver’s Classical KVOD was down a bit. Local Classical KCME hasn’t subscribed to the Nielsen ratings recently but, when they did, they typically had around 50,000 weekly listeners.



In Pueblo, 50 miles south of The Springs on I-25, CPR News’ repeater lost 40% of its estimated weekly listeners in Spring 2017 compared with Spring 2016. 

KTSC – Rev 89 – keeps plugging along. Licensed to Colorado State University – Pueblo, the hot hits station pulls more listeners than college stations in cities ten times Pueblo's size.



We combined the results for the Colorado Springs and Pueblo metros and created an unofficial Southern Colorado Front Range market, which it is in reality. 

This shows the impact of KRCC in the wider area. Terrain is a big factor. Most signals from The Springs (elevation 7,200 feet) have no problem penetrating Pueblo (2,000 feet lower). Several Pueblo commercial FM stations have moved their transmitters to The Springs to take advantage of the height.

KUNC & THE COLORADO SOUND SOLIDIFY POSITIONS IN FORT COLLINS & GREELEY



Despite competitive local CPR repeaters with three formats, the Northern Colorado Front Range cities of Fort Collins and Greeley continue to be dominated by KUNC’s two stations.  

CPR News has always done well here and there was no drop in weekly listeners like there was in Colorado Springs and Pueblo.

When looking at an unofficial combination of Diary and PPM data from the Denver metro KUNC had 133,300 estimated weekly listeners in Spring 2017 and June 2017. KJAC – The Colorado Sound – had 110,300 weekly listeners.

Benji McPhail
If you want to see a really happening station, check out The Colorado Sound’s website [link] and digital media.  

PD Benji McPhail and crew have created a hot local zone with ample listener participation. 

Jessie Ventura, the former Minnesota governor and local resident, sings his praise for The Colorado Sound’s on the social media pages.