Colorado
Public Radio (CPR) News is on a roll. CPR’s
recent investments in news capacity are paying off with record-high ratings and
increased impact within key sectors of the state. And, as a rock DJ once said, The hits just keep on coming!
Earlier
this week CPR announced it has received a $300,000 gift from an anonymous donor
that is earmarked for an Investigative reporting team. The gift means that CPR
News can add an investigative reporter to lead the new unit. Soon CPR News will
add three full-time investigative reporters, a data specialist and an
investigative editor to the team.
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| Kevin Dale |
Kevin
Dale, CPR News Executive Editor, said in a press release:
“Investigative reporting
is the product of giving skilled journalists the time they need to dig into
important subjects."
"We need more journalists asking hard questions, digging
through data and holding government and public officials accountable to the
communities they serve.”
It
also further advances CPR goal of being Colorado’s “news of record.” The
state’s leading newspaper, The Denver Post, has fallen on tough times because of a
change in owners and a challenging media environment.
Listeners
are noticing the excitement at CPR.
In the Fall 2018 Nielsen PPM ratings,
flagship CPR News station KCFR had an AQH share of 6.7%, believed to be the
highest share CPR News has achieved.
It is also a major increase in AQH share compared to the PPM ratings for Fall 2016.
That was the Trump Bump election.
Elsewhere in the Denver-Boulder market CPR’s Classical music channel also in creased it's AQH share compared to Fall 2016.
Fort
Collins-Greeley based AAA music station KJAC The Colorado Sound increased both
its AQH share and estimated weekly listeners.
Not
that long ago CPR News announced it was building its out-state capacity by
hiring reporters to be based in Colorado Springs and Grand Junction.
You might say things are swimmingly good
everywhere in Colorado for CPR News…
…except
in Colorado Springs.
It
is not for lack of trying.
CPR News upgraded their overage of the Springs when they
debuted, with great fanfare, a new full-power FM repeater at 102.1 FM.
It
signed on June 23, 2017.
As you can see on the coverage map on the right, CPR’s
Springs voice covers the city like a blanket.
But,
even with the new local station, the ratings for CPR News in the Springs went
down. On the left is a three-year comparison of AQH shares and estimated weekly
listeners for KRCC and CPR News.
In
the Nielsen Diary ratings, the contest between KRCC and CPR News isn’t
even close. CPR News hasn’t put a dent in KRCC’s ratings.
On
the left is a chart showing the Fall 2018 ratings for noncom stations in
Colorado Springs. Even though KRCC’s AQH share dipped a bit compared to Fall
2016, CPR News is hardly a factor in the market.
Credit former KRCC GM/PD Tammy Terwelp
(now GM at Aspen Public Radio) and the crew at KRCC for making KRCC essential
listening in Southern Colorado.
In an interview with Spark News last year Terwelp shared her strategy:
“I am a little
surprised by KCFR being down, but they haven’t been on long here and their dial
position being far away from the traditional end for public radio. I’m sure the
new President of CPR will put more thought into what they are going to do with
a signal in our market given the population here.”
“CPR being in KRCC’s
market now does force us to really think about how we can be different and
reach new audiences sooner.”
“We are the “home
team” here in Southern Colorado and have been for decades. I’d never use that
fact to sit idle while a station with so many more resources than us puts a
stake in our ground; but I will use that as the foundation for our growth.”
FEAR AND LOATHING IN
COMMERCIAL TALK RADIO
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Screen-shot of Ben Shapiro taping
his podcast
|
Earlier
this week we featured the results of the first iHeartRadio podcast awards. We
challenged the veracity of the awards for several reasons.
One was iHeart’s
choice of conservative talker Ben Shapiro’s show as the Best News Podcast over
actual news programs such as The Daily.
Now
Ben Shapiro is showing his true colors. Last Friday (1/17) he lost two of his
podcast’s advertisers due his odd anti-abortion rant the previous day. In his
rambling commentary, Shapiro explored the philosophical dilemma of Would you kill “baby Hitler,” if you could?
Shapiro
tried to embellish his credibility with the uber-right by saying “No he
wouldn’t abort “baby Hitler.”
Of
course such a discussion in absurd and a complete waste of time, but Shapiro was
so strangely intense it caused us to worry about him. To put it layperson’s
terms, Shapiro seems to be overwhelmed by his newly found fame. We just hope he
doesn’t end up like Vicki Archer at the BBC. (Google her name to find out
more.)
We’d
like to know what your thoughts are on Shapiro.
Check out this YouTube video about the “baby Hitler” incident on Glenn
Beck’s program:
I am going to stand up and comment on what Ben Shapiro said. Taken out of context as always by the progressive mob.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that someone used the argument that if you know that someone would do great evil and had the ability to time travel, what if you go back into time and make sure that Hitler's mother had an abortion or kill Hitler as a baby if already born. It was another justification to make the argument to "keep abortion legal." Ben compared this thinking to the science fiction movie (and failed TV series) Minority Report (started out as a short story in 1956).
The goal would be to move Hitler as a child to a healthier environment or he must be taken out...do it when he is older preferable when he is a legal adult.
This is no different than the boys from Covington Catholic High school and them taking in the sounds of Nathan Phillips, and don't forget the Black Israelites in the mix before Phillips stepped into the picture.
I should note that Shaprio is Jewish himself and does practice his faith in an Orthodox Jewish body. He along with Dennis Prager, Michael Medved, and Mark Levin are Jews who happen to be Conservatives and not going along with the popular culture (New York or Hollywood) Jews like Norman Lear who really don't practice the Jewish faith but rather embrace a progressive worldview.