NSPR turns 50 in 2019 |
Two
well-established northern California public radio broadcasters are exploring
ways to work together to expand local journalism and tell more Northern
California stories.
Capital
Public Radio (CapRadio) and North State Public Radio (NSPR) in Chico have hired
Public Media Company to explore ways the two shops can save money and increase
news content.
The partners seek to share the cost of programming, engineering, management and
other services.
If the partners like what they are seeing, a Public Service
Operating Agreement (PSOA) will formalize the plan.
Phil Wilke |
Though
both stations will be sharing resources, Phillip Wilke, General Manager of NSPR
said the PSOA is not merger of the two organizations.
Wilke told Spark News in an e-interview:
“We will not -- repeat
NOT -- be a CapRadio simulcast. Part of the PSOA negotiations is that we will
be keep autonomy in programming decisions. I don't anticipate changes to our
programming, except that we plan to ADD journalists for more robust news
coverage.”
CapRadio
[link] and NSPR [link] have a number of things in common. Both operate their own
mini-networks. Both licensees are part of the California State University
system. Chico is about an hour north of Sacramento.
However,
the two shops have some differences.
CapRadio
operates two full-time programming channels – NPR News/Talk KXJZ and Classical music
KXPR.
CapRadio’s annual budget is more than $13 million.
Approximately 2.5
million people live in CapRadio’s service area.
KXJZ’s
newsroom has more than a dozen full-time staffers. The station produces Insight With Beth Ruyak, a daily
one-hour news and talk program.
NSPR
operates a single program stream, a dual format of NPR News and Classical music.
NSPR’s annual budget is around $1.6 million. Roughly 500,000 people live in
Chico and Redding, the two major cities in NSPR’s service area.
NSPR
has around half a dozen people creating news programming including full and
part timers.
WILL KHSU BE PART OF THE
PARTNERSHIP?
According
to Wilke, KHSU in Arcata was included in early discussions but there are too
many unresolved issues for them to commit at this time. You may recall that
KHSU was in the news this spring when the university fired the entire staff on
April 11, 2019 (see our coverage here).
The
President of Humboldt State University (HSU) left shortly after the mass
termination and left future decisions to the next President. A new President of
HSU has been hired. He is Tom Jackson, the former President of Black Hills
State University. It will take time for Jackson to establish HSU’s new
leadership team and deal with the future of KHSU.
Wilke
confirmed that KCHO has occasionally provided its on-air programming
KHSU. Wilkie described the situation:
"North State State Public
Radio is providing our simulcast stream [to KHSU] only in a pinch. Since
mid-April, CapRadio engineers have set up a protocol to broadcast only
syndicated national programming with no local content, except legal IDs. We've
provided our simulcast when that dedicated stream has had technical problems
or, as was the case in early July, was hit by a ransomware attack."
Arcata
is over 150 miles from Chico and even farther from Sacramento, complication
their participation in the partnership.
NIELSEN AUDIO SPRING 2019
RATINGS FOR AKRON, ALBUQUERQUE & SPOKANE
WKSU
remains the top noncommercial news station in the Akron-Kent area just south of
Cleveland. They also have a considerable number of listeners in the Cleveland
metro.
One
noncom station that is not listed is Alt Rock/AAA hybrid WAPS, a really fine
station led by our pal Brad Savage.
As
we have written before about Albuquerque, there are two part-time NPR News
stations serving the market.
In a perfect world, either KANW and KUNM would
shift to all News/Talk and own the market.
But this hasn’t happened because both stations have unusual local
concerns that prevent them making a logical move.
This
is likely Classical KHFM’s first appearance as a noncommercial station. It was
a commercial Classical station for many years. The owner, Rogers Brandon, the CEO of American
General Media, created a non profit organization to keep Classical music on the air in
Albuquerque. Bravo!
Would
someone please tell us what is going on at Spokane Public Radio. There three
local stations – KPBX, KSFC and KPBZ, all seem to be having problems.
The other reason why Rogers Brandon created a non-profit for KHFM was that he would be able to to keep KHFM not only Classical but he could keep the station under his control as he and his company acquired three radio stations from Univision Radio. KHFM is still located in the AGM building in Albq.
ReplyDeleteUnder this deal made American General Media had to spin off three stations that AGM owned and that included KHFM. Any other corporate owner or (a smaller private for profit owner) would likely blow up the Classical Music format for a mass appeal format that could make money. Transferring KHFM to a non-profit even one oversee by Brandon seemed to be legal and I guess the FCC want to see a Classical FM live in the Albq market.