READER COMMENTS

• ITEM ONE: We want to make certain will have all of the facts correct regarding our Monday, November 4^th post Flawed Planning Doomed VuHaus From the Start [link]. We heard from Mike Henry, co-founder and Brand Manager for VuHaus, who told us we didn’t have the complete story.

Mike Henry

Mike Henry: There is no longer a “VuHaus.com”. VuHaus is no longer a public-facing name. Through the stations and our own press and publicity efforts we continue to inform the public about the name change."

"Live Sessions IS VuHaus, so the offerings to stations are the same.  Live Sessions and VuHaus Group (our B2B name) are run by us and the stations, not NPR."

We asked Mike about what "VuHaus Group" now offers stations.

Mike Henry: "Each member station is part of our sponsorship efforts – all of our proposals include station underwriting, digital inventory and/or events. Some of our clients only buy station inventory and Live Sessions is not included.

Each of the member stations are included in collaborative editorial projects, including Slingshot with NPR and other forthcoming projects that do not include NPR. We also work individually and as a group with the member stations for other strategy, consulting, and industry goals.

Live Sessions IS VuHaus

Henry also told us that the revenue sources for VuHaus are “sponsorships and underwriting, philanthropy and station fees.” He did not provide specific numbers for each revenue source. We are contacting Public Media Co and CPB for this information.

From our first post about VuHaus in July 2015 [link], we have wondered whether the company’s over reliance on philanthropy as a major revenue source was a factor in the recent changes. When we pay our rent, we can’t say the money will be coming from “the kindness of strangers.” It is the same for companies and not-for-profit organizations.

• ITEM TWO: Last Wednesday [link] we published the October PPM ratings for KNPR in Las Vegas. We called KNPR’s most recent numbers “anemic.” This brought a response from Dave Becker, PD of KNPR:

Dave Becker:  “October is pretty anemic compared to most of 2019. For all of the financial headaches we’ve uncovered, the rest of KNPR’s year has been utterly surreal.  May’s 5.8 share put us at #3 in the Las Vegas market. So far CY19’s ten-month average share is 4.4, which is good for #5 overall.”

Becker included the chart on the right that shows KNPR’s AQH shares for the past ten years. It shows KNPR’s rise into the top radio stations in Las Vegas.

• ITEM THREE: Regarding our reference to Nielsen Audio’s PPM ratings for “October” an anonymous Spark News reader sent this question:

Anonymous: How is it possible for Nielsen to say these are October ratings when the data was derived from September 12 - October 9 listening?

The short answer is that Nielsen owns the data and they can call it whatever they want. Nielsen lives in world that has 13 months – the 12 you know and a month called “Holiday.” 

Most of Nielsen’s clients are commercial stations, ad agencies and professional time-buyers. These clients want to know how well stations that play Christmas Music 24/7 perform from Halloween through the end of the year.

• ITEM FOUR: We received a message from am anonymous Spark News reader about our October 11^th post [link] about the changing job demands for station engineers and tech workers:

Anonymous: “Unfortunately, engineering is considered by management as a cost center, but expected to do everything and be available 24/7/365.”

Toilet clogged up? Call engineering!

Lights out in the atrium-- engineering will fix it!

“One station tried to make engineering responsible for doing janitorial for offices and studios.  Have you been to a Society of Broadcast Engineers meeting? It looks like scene from Grumpy Old Men.”

It sounds like our anonymous reader has cleaned a few toilets at work. It is a dirty job but someone has to do it.

FULLTIME NPR NEWS/TALK STATIONS ARE HOLDING RATINGS GAINS SINCE 2016 ELECTION

In an exclusive analysis of Nielsen Audio PPM data, Spark News found that the majority of full-time NPR News/Talk stations are keeping, or even expanding, their reach since the ratings gains around the 2016 election.

Spark News compiled ratings data from the months of October in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. We looked at 20 NPR News/Talk stations for our analysis.

The most impressive gains were in Average-Quarter-Hour (“AQH”) shares. 

Fourteen of the 20 stations (70%) had a larger AQH share in October 2019 than they did in October 2016.

Four of the Top 20 stations (20%) had a lower AQH share in October 2019/ than they had in October 2016. 

Two stations (10%) stayed the same.

A big surprise foe us is how well most NPR News/Talk stations are holding their estimated weekly listeners (“Cume”) since 2016. 

But a few of the stations in Top 20 lost large numbers of weekly listeners.

Thirteen of the Top 20  stations (65%) had more estimated weekly listeners in October 2019 than they did in October 2016. At 7 stations (35%) the weekly Cume was lower than in 2016.

The best performers in AQH share included KOPB (up 2.2 share points), KCFR and KPBS (both up 1.6 share points), KJZZ (up 1.4 share points) and WHYY (up 1.3 share points).

The station with the biggest loss in AQH share is WAMU. They are down by 1.5 share points.

The station with the largest gain in estimated weekly listeners was KPBS, up 39% in October 2019.

 WHYY was up 22%).

KOPB was up 16%. 

KERA and WBEZ  were up 15%.

The stations with the big drops in estimated weekly listeners were WAMU, down 25% and WABE, down 24%.

Overall, the 20 stations combined increased their weekly listeners by 7.3%.

EDISON RESEARCH & NPR DEBUT ‘SPOKEN WORD’ AUDIO REPORT • TEN MARKETS WHERE ‘SPOKEN WORD’ IS STRONG • MORE OCTOBER PPM RATINGS

Ken Nordine

“Spoken Word” is term that has several meanings. At its core, Spoken Word is a vocal performance rather than words on a page.

The term is used to describe an on-stage poetry performance, the message of rap and hip-hop tunes, and an oral history interview on C-SPAN or NPR news and as an art form like the late Ken Nordine’s creation Word Jazz.Nordine described Word Jazz this way:

 “Word Jazz is like morphing word-pictures into something that looks like it was done under the influence of LSD.”

See our January 2019 tribute to Ken Nordine here.

In a less trippy, more conventional use, Spoken Word is used to describe radio programs and podcasts that use little or no music and relies on talking voices for most of the content. 

On radio, most often news, talk and sports programming are classified as Spoken Word.

Next week, Edison Research and NPR are sponsoring a webinar where the findings of The Spoken Word Audio Report will be presented. The webinar is happening on Tuesday, November 12 from 2pm to 3pm ET. It is free. More information and registration can be found here.

The presenters are Meg Goldthwaite, Chief Marketing Officer at NPR and Megan Lazovick, VP of Edison Research.

SPOKEN WORD PROGRAMMING ON RADIO

The popularity of Spoken Word programming on radio is different from market to market. Last September, Mike Kinosian, Managing Editor of TALKERS [link], compiled a list of PPM markets where Spoken Word performs the best.

Kinosian added the AQH shares for commercial and public stations with news, talk and sports formats from the August 2019 Nielsen PPM ratings to get a Spoken Word AQH in each of the 48 Nielsen Audio PPM markets.

TOP MARKETS FOR ‘SPOKEN WORD’ RADIO PROGRAMMING

1. Washington, DC Spoken Word AQH share 24.9

2t. Boston 23.2

2t. Minneapolis-St, Paul 23.2

4. Long Island 18.1

5t. San Francisco 18.0

5t. Milwaukee

7. Raleigh-Durham 17.5

8. Philadelphia 17.4

9. Cincinnati 17.1

10t. Kansas City 17.0

10t. San Jose 17.0

OCTOBER 2019 NONCOM PPM RATINGS: KOPB RACKS UP BIG NUMBERS

KOPB is a great station and Portland is an NPR kind of city.

KOPB’s 9.1 AQH share makes it the number two NPR News/Talk station in the nation.

Classical KQAC is having significant growth in listeners and listening.

NPR News/Talk KUER has a solid market lead in AQH share but Classical KBYU is the top noncom station in estimated weekly listeners.

These are tough days for KNPR. In addition to financial difficulties, KNPR is dealing with anemic Nielsen PPM ratings.

KCRW HOSTS ‘ON AIR FEST’ • NIELSEN PPM RATINGS FOR BALTIMORE, RALEIGH-DURHAM & PROVIDENCE

KCRW is partnering with On Air Fest [link], for a two-day audio culture event called On Air LA Annex this coming Thursday (11/7) and Friday (11/8). 

The event is being held at KCRW’s new Annenberg Performance Studio in Santa Monica.

On Air LA Annex [link] will bring together radio producers, podcasters, artists, storytellers and fans of great audio. The event is the first On Air Fest on the west coast. For the past three years, On Air Fest has attracted sold-out crowds at Williamsburg, Brooklyn’s Wythe Hotel.

• On Thursday evening On Air LA Annex presents Art of the Podcast: Dispatches From the Vanguard of Audio Storytelling.

The multi-media presentation features performances and conversations featuring Nate DiMeo creator of PRX’s Memory Palace [link]; Lea Thau, former Director of The Moth and now producer of Strangers [link]; James Kin, producer of Moonface [link]; Ben Adair, owner of Western Sound [link], an LA-based podcast production company; and KPCC film critic Amy Nicholson.

Josh Kun

• On Friday evening On Air LA Annex presents Music and Storytelling: Artists at the Crossroads.

The program focuses on the synergy between the story narrative and the song lyrics and musical content.

Guests include Kaitlin Prest (The Heart), Hrishikesh Hirway (Song Exploder), Justin Richmond (Broken Record), Arshia Haq (Discostan, Lost Notes), Anne Litt from KCRW and a performance from Josh Kun and musicians San Cha and Cesar Castro.

Tickets for both nights range from $35 to $60 per person and available here.

OCTOBER NIELSEN AUDIO PPM RATINGS

In Baltimore, NPR News/Talk WYPR keeps getting stronger.  Each month since August WYPR has added new estimated weekly listeners and increased its AQH share. 

Perhaps WYPR’s success is effecting listening to DC’s WAMU.

WUNC “owns” the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill market. It remains the top radio news source drawing more listening and weekly listeners than heritage commercial news/talk stations.

Its too bad WUNC doesn't have an FM translator for their HD2 channel.

In Providence, Boston’s WGBH leads hometown WELH a/k/a The Public’s Radio, formerly known as Rhode Island Public Radio, in both AQH share and estimated weekly listeners.

WGBH’s recent surge in the Boston PPM ratings seems to be repeating itself in Providence.

‘FLAWED PLANNING DOOMED VUHAUS FROM THE START • ED SUBKIS SHARES HIS BACK PAGES

Erik Langner

You’ve probably heard the news that VuHaus has folded. It is gone because too few people were watching its videos and the site never became financially sustainable.

Portions of VuHaus, such as live music performances, will continue on the NPR Music site under a “Live Sessions” tab. 

But it is also time to ask what lessons were learned.

VuHaus began with a flurry in 2015. CPB provided more than $1 million. More than a dozen stations paid $10,000 a year to participate. But, the cash evaporated because no new revenue sources were found.

Part of the problem was timing. Sites such as YouTube became the primary place to see and hear new music and performances. Then, even key VuHaus stations migrated to other platforms that had the potential to reach more consumers.

HOPING FOR THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS

When we covered the launch of VuHaus in July 2015 [link], we discovered a flaw in the plan. Public Media Company (now “PublicMedia.co”), the organizer and fiduciary of VuHaus, was hoping for major gifts gifts to make the project feasible.Erik Langner, then the Public Media Company’s Managing Director, said at the time:

“Moving forward, we envision continued philanthropic support.”

This part of the plan was “squishy” and we asked Langer for more specific information.

SPARK NEWS: You have been quoted saying that VuHaus will depend, in part, on philanthropy for operating revenue after CPB funding tappers off. Can provide more info about any prospective donors? 

LANGNER: “Yes, major gifts are part of our strategy. VuHaus is a unique national nonprofit focused on music recovery and emerging artists.  We hope this will resonate. We are still determining the particulars on this.”

Though VuHaus did resonate with some people, there were too few to generate significant revenue and the anticipated donor dollars never materialized.

ED SUBKIS COLLECTION SHOWS PUBLIC RADIO IN THE 1970s

Ed Subkis

When Ed Subkis was completing his Master’s degree at Ohio University in 1975, he was fascinated with noncommercial community stations.

Subkis went on to become the GM of WCQS in Asheville from 1992 until 2007. Then he managed KHSU in Arcata/Eureka from 2008 until he retired in 2017. When Subkis was GM of KHSU there was peace with the University, with the community and the paid staff and volunteers.

A couple of months ago Subkis contacted Spark News for advice about his back files. He told us he had program guides from the dawn of public radio and an exhaustive collection of guides and internal information from Pacifica stations.

Rather than throw the stuff away, Subkis sent his collection to us for evaluation. We have been hired in the past to look through historical papers for possible appraisal. We reviewed the whole batch and decided to focus on the program guides because the images we found in them tell remarkable stories about the 1970's mindset.

WBFO BUFFALO PROGRAM GUIDE

The star of the show, so to speak, is a program guide from WBFO, Buffalo from March 1975. 

At the time, WBFO was a hothouse of creativity and passion for public radio.

The staff at WBFO in March 1975 included several people who went on to have tremendous impact on our business:

Click to enlarge

• Marvin Granger was WBFO’s General Manager. He would go on to found Yellowstone Public Radio in Montana.

• Marcia Alvar was WBFO’s PD. She went on to become CEO of the Public Radio Program Directors (PRPD).

• Terry Gross was the Library Coordinator at WBFO years before Fresh Air.

• David Benders, a noted talk show host and author, was part of the staff of WBFO in March 1975 and he is still there today.

WBFO had women involved with all aspects of the station, 

WYSO YELLOW SPRINGS, OHIO PROGRAM GUIDE

Image from 1975

WYSO was very important to Subkis. He added these personal notes:

Subkis:  "When I was in graduate school and for some time after into the mid-1970s, I was researching community radio. I was able to visit WYSO."

"JoAnne Wallace was the GM at the time and she graciously showed me around and gave me a community radio orientation. We stayed friends for years, even working together when I was in California at KHSU."

KCFR DENVER PROGRAM GUIDE

Subkis did not have a personal tie to KCFR, but he was in awe of the station and it's free spirit.. 

In the 1970s KCFR called itself Colorado Free Radio.

On the cover of the guide, the headline promotes KCFR as the home of Selections from the Wasteland.

An ad in the KCFR program guide promotes a new show Amber Lightning and the Star Slingers. 

The images are reminiscent of The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, a stoner magazine sold in "head shops."

PACIFICA STATIONS

At the time, Subkis wanted to work at a Pacifica station. He shared a priceless story about a time when his radio goals came into conflict with his family life:

Subkis:  “I'm living in Virginia and driving north in my Wallace-voting father-in-law's car with him, my wife and a couple of others. We get into the DC environs and I can pick up WPFW. Finally, the first community station I can hear and it’s broadcasting some ideological or intellectual talk program not targeted to a general audience.”

“But nobody else wants to hear it, even though I'm telling everyone that this is what I do for a living and it's an important moment for me.”

“ It was in a VW Rabbit, a small car, and the next thing I know hands keep grabbing for the radio dial and wrists are being slapped left and right. There I was, fighting for community radio - literally.”

“I can't remember the end result, but a divorce did eventually follow.”

We thank Ed Subkis for sharing his back pages. If you have documents and/or images from the past that may be of interest to radio folks please contact us at publicradio@hotmail.com.