KMUW TAKES THE LEAD IN THE EFFORT TO PRESERVE KANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA HISTORY • MORE ABOUT PUBLIC RADIO’S “MISSING CUME”

Audio carts were used at KMUW until the late 1990s

NPR News station KMUW in Wichita is now searching for an archivist to digitize public media’s history in Kansas.

The project is part of a nationwide effort by the American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) to digitize public media content in all 50 states. 

Kansas is one of 12 states that currently does not have their state's public media history digitized and included AAPM’s national archive.

AAPB is working with the Library of Congress, the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) and the WGBH Educational Foundation to preserve public media content that is at risk of being lost. 

The goal is to make historical material accessible for research purposes. The public will be to access the material via the Library of Congress.

CLIR awarded KMUW a $407,000 grant for the Kansas project. The Kansas project will collect and digitize over 2,000 hours of programming.

KMUW is working with six other Kansas public media broadcasters including High Plains Public Radio in Garden City, KANU in Lawrence, KRPS in Pittsburg, KHCC in Hutchinson, Vietnamese Public Radio and KPTS-TV, a PBS station based in Hutchinson.

AAPB reached out to KMUW GM Debra Fraser, Chair of the Kansas Public Broadcasting Council, to choose material that reflects all parts of the state. Fraser said in a press release: “Hopefully [the Kansas project] will be used as a model for other states and areas.”

Jessica Treadwell

Jessica Treadwell, KMUW’s Director of Major and Planned Gifts, is in charge of Kansas archive project. She told Spark News that KMUW is seeing strong interest in the position so far, but she wants to hear from more applicants.

The requirements of job are very specific. In addition to having digital archiving skills, the person who gets the job must live in the Wichita area have knowledge of public media in Kansas.

To learn more about the job follow this link. Treadwell is available to answer questions. She can be reached directly at 316-978-7572 or treadwell@kmuw.org.

MORE ABOUT PUBLIC RADIO’S “MISSING CUME”

We received several comments from readers concerning our post last Friday [link] about our comparison of Nielsen PPM data from January 2020 and January 2017. Our analysis found that there were over 13% fewer weekly listeners to public radio stations in 2020 than their were in 2017.

In our post, Fred Jacobs from Jacobs Media told us:

“Every year in the Public Radio Techsurvey, we see “traditional listening” decrease, while digital consumption of public radio continues to rise.”

An anonymous reader agrees with Jacobs and brought a new wrinkle into the conversation:

Fred Jacobs is right. More people than ever are listening to public radio as streams and (mostly) podcast. But fewer are listening to terrestrial radio. We have been telling the lie for years that somehow the new digital listener is going to become a "regular radio" listener.

So how much longer is NPR going to subsidize their digital efforts on the back of terrestrial radio stations who are paying ever-increasing carriage fees?  The station compact [is] a total joke.

“[This is] the time for radical change in the public radio world is now, or we risk losing the smaller over the air stations.”

KEN SAYS: The station compact is a recent change in the agreement between NPR and its member stations. In the agreement, many stations are paying higher carriage fees for Morning Edition and All Things Considered. The change has caused a rift between large stations and small stations.

KDFC and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) have announced

that the two organizations will become neighbors later in 2020. KDFC will be

moving to the new Bowes Center, located at 200 Van Ness Avenue, across

from Davies Symphony Hall.

We also received a comment from Gregg McVicar, the host and producer of UnderCurrents [link], a syndicated music program that features Triple A music. 

McVicar lives in the Bay area and considers KDFC to be a precious resource.

McVicar: “KDFC is one of two full-time noncom music stations in the Bay Area. The other is Jazz-formatted KCSM, south of San Francisco in San Mateo." 

"KCSM has been struggling in recent years. KDFC is the only reliable alternative to News & PA, then the station is an easy choice, especially as the American nightmare deepens.”

“And KDFC is easy to hear anywhere via six transmitters, streaming, apps, Apple TV, smart speakers, etc.”

“If there were a 24/7 AAA station serving the Greater Bay Area, I believe you’d see strong numbers similar to those of WXPN.

Info graphic from KDFC’s media kit

KEN SAYS: We agree with McVicar about the need for a noncommercial Triple A music station in the Bay Area. San Francisco has a rich history of progressive music. No other station airs AAA.

KDFC is one of the nation’s leading Classical music stations that excels in its programming, community engagement and listener access to content on digital platforms. To learn more about KDFC, we urge you to download their fantastic media kit [link].

We made the case for a Bay Area noncom Triple A station last December [link]. Sooner or later, someone will fill the need. KCSM, are you listening?

We also heard from readers that wondered why Jazz music WDCB wasn’t included in our charts. 

The answer is simple: We didn’t realize that we had  omitted WDCB until we received messages from readers. The revised chart for Jazz stations in the top ten Nielsen PPM markets is on the left.