WBEZ JOURNALIST ODETTE YOUSEF WINS “STUDS TERKEL AWARD” • NEW BBC SHOW OFFERS “QUIET, RELAXING SOUNDS” • KCFR OWNS RADIO NEWS IN DENVER

Odette Yousef

Odette Yousef, reporter and community leader at WBEZ, is one of five Chicago area journalists who will be honored at the 2018 Studs Terkel Awards Thursday, September 20 at Row 24. Information and tickets are available here. 

The Studs Terkel Awards are an annual Chicago media event sponsored by Public Narrative [link], a nonprofit media organization based at Columbia College. 

According to Susy Schultz, president of Public Narrative:

“These five winners are not only amazing storytellers but all elevate the stories, the beauty and the power of Chicago’s greatest asset — its people. I wish Studs were here today. Not only because we need him to inspire us, but because he would be proud of this group.”

In addition to Yousef, other 2018 Studs Terkel Awards winners are Dahleen Glanton, columnist for the Chicago Tribune; Kathy Chaney, assistant audience engagement editor of the Sun-Times; and Michael Spencer Green, photojournalist for the Associated Press. 

In addition, poet Kevin Coval, head of Young Chicago Authors, will receive the Studs Terkel Uplifting Voices Award.  

Yousef is a perfect choice for the award. She embodies Turkel’s love of the people of Chicago. Her reporting style is personal – She covers issues through the lens of first-hand experiences.

Studs Terkel in WFMT-FM

During her decade of reporting for WBEZ, Yousef has specialized in issues involving immigration, race and class, particularly in Chicago's far North Side. In 2016, she was part of a team of WBEZ journalists who won a national Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Continuing Coverage, for their reporting on ties between local officials in Puerto Rico and unlicensed therapy groups in Chicago.

Even if you are not in Chicago, chances are you’ve heard Yousef’s work. Her stories have appeared on All Things Considered, Marketplace, PRI’s The World and The Takeaway.

NEW BBC PROGRAM FEATURES “QUIET MINDFULNESS”

Alan Davey

BBC Radio 3, the national Classical music channel in the UK, needs some help in the ratings. 

So, station director Alan Davey, has a cure: Quiet Mindfulness, a 30-minute show that features relaxation sounds such as church bells, kettles cooking and the sound of cattle being blessed by a priest. Seriously!

Davey’s hope is to attract younger listeners to Radio 3 by giving them ‘a chance for quiet mindfulness’. He told the London Daily Mail [link] that people seem to be craving this kind of ambiance:

“For a long time people have been encouraged to consume things in short chunks. I think there is an increasing longing among younger audiences for longer things that take the time they take. It is like an analogue experience in a digital world, but conversely done digitally.”

According to the most recent Rajar Ratings (chart on the left) Radio 3 trails all other national channels with a 1.4% AQH share. BBC Radio 2 leads the ratings with an Oldies format that has a 13.4 AQH share. BBC Radio 4, a NPR-ish mix of news and music had a 12.6 AQH share.

NIELSEN AUGUST 2018 PPM RATINGS: DENVER-BOULDER, BOSTON & AUSTIN

We are pleased to turn the spotlight on a truly great performance in the August 2018 Nielsen Audio PPM ratings by KCFR.

KCFR is the flagship news station of Colorado Public Radio (CPR). KCFR’s 6.3% AQH in August may be a record highest ever for the station. 

This kind of market dominance is certainly a topic of conversation in Denver’s media community.

KCFR is likely a result of CPR’s recent expansion of news staff and capabilities. 

Not only does KCFR have a much larger AQH share than legendary News/Talk KOA AM/FM, KCFR has more AQH listeners than commercial Triple A KBCO and Alt Rock KTCL.

Congratulations for the fine folks of CPR News on a terrific performance.

In Boston WBUR is now leading heritage news voice WBZ AM/FM with a 5.7% AGH share. If a person hypothetically combined the listening of WBUR and WGBH, it would be far larger than WBZ.

WGBH was down a bit in the August 2018 book.

We hope readers are enjoying our new chart for Nielsen PPM ratings. We are now providing contextual data from commercial stations that have an affinity with public radio stations. Please let us know how we are doing with Nielsen data – publicradio at hotmail.com.

There is no other news or talk station in Austin that even comes close to KUT.  Even in a down month like August, KUT has the lock on radio/audio news.

In case you haven’t heard, KGSR is re-branding itself as the Austin City Limits (ACL) station. ACL is a beloved music venue and nationally known home of a PBS television show with the same name.

We usually chuckle about the fate of KLBJ-AM, once owned by the Johnson family.  Lyndon Baines Johnson would probably be rolling over in his grave if he knew that his families station is now the radio home of Rush Limbaugh who probably hates every bit of LBJ's Great Society.

We say: Make the Great Society great again!