SEPARATING RADIO AS A PRODUCT FROM RADIO AS A DEVICE • LISTEN TO WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED

In case you haven’t noticed, “radio” is becoming more than transmitters and towers. 

The marriage of over-the-air signals with digital gives content creators the ability to reach people in any place and any time.

Edison Research has published [link] the Top Ten findings about how audio is consumed so far in 2019.  

Edison's slides show the shape of the whole forest. You can see the whole report here

Edison's Top Ten is derived from Share of Ear and Infinite Dial plus information client studies. 

Slides are samples from the report

The Edison Top Ten shows us a world where the listener/viewer is in charge. People who came of age in the digital era are native to the digital world.

But, it can become a hostile and dehumanizing mental space. These days, pictures are in and talking is out.

So, how is over-the-air radio doing? The percentage of the U.S. population hearing radio remains unchanged at 92%. But listening to radio via streaming audio isn’t growing.

Edison’s Top Ten Audio Trends

1: Podcasting has worldwide impact

2: Podcasting passes the 50% reach mark

3: Smart Speakers are becoming more user friendly

4: Facebook usage is declining

5: The younger you are, the more likely you are to have been ‘unfriended’ on social media, and be criticized or attacked

6: Parents with teens in the household are more apt to use listen to streaming audio

7:  A quarter of all audio listening is done on a smartphone

8:  Younger people spend 27% of their audio time listening to AM/FM Radio

9: AM/FM Listening is almost exclusively over-the-air…still

10: The number of people listening to online audio continues to grow

KEN DOCTOR DEBUTS LOOKOUT LOCAL

Ken Doctor

Ken Doctor, the news industry columnist writes about how to keep news coverage sustainable. 

His reporting in newsonomics [link] is required reading for people in the field.

In his most recent column Doctor announced boldly:

“I’m starting a company to build out a new model for local news in the 2020”

The company, LookOut Local [link], wants to create a new kind of newsroom. Doctor foresees it as an all-digital news portal with content coming from embedded local reporters.

We wish the Doctor Doctor success in the new venture.

JUDITH SMELSER HELPS OHIO COLLABRATIVE WITH STYLE & MOXY

When ideastream in Cleveland needed help building the Ohio news collaborative, they knew who to call: Judith Smelser, the “go to” consultant who has perfected the art and science of creating new journalism centers.

The Ohio Digital and Radio News Collaboration is preparing for its official launch in early 2020. Smelser can add it to her list of successful multi-station collaborations including Indiana's Regional Journalism Collaborative, the Texas Station Collaborative, which recently became the first NPR Journalism Hub.

The fiduciary and center point for the project is ideastream [link]. The two other stations in the collaboration are WOSU in Columbus and Cincinnati Public Radio. The three stations announced on Thursday (10/24) that a planning process is nearly complete and will be a reality after the first of the New Year.

Judith Smelser & Michael Marcotte

after a PRNDI training session

Smelser told Cleveland’s Crain’s Business Journal [link]:

“Ohio is in a great position to launch a public media journalism collaborative. Its stations have a history of working together, both through the Statehouse News Bureau and through informal content sharing among news departments. Deeper collaboration is a natural next step…”

SMELSER LIVES “THE FREE AGENT LIFESTYLE"

Smelser founded Smelser Editing & Consulting [link] in 2013. Her blog, Scribbles & Scruples [link] is a lot of fun.

Station clients have flocked her doorstep to take advantage of her ideas. She has consulted some of the leading shops in the public radio system: Capitol Public Radio, Sacramento; WUNC, Chapel Hill; KPBS, San Diego’ KERA, Dallas; WESA, Pittsburgh; Colorado Public Radio and Florida Public Broadcasting.

She often provides clients with story editing, training and advice about running a news organization. Smelser helped design and present PRNDI's [now PMJA] News Manager Training and Certification.

Consulting to news organizations around the country.  My current and past clients include helped design and present PRNDI's first and now ongoing News Manager Training and Certification.

Prior to starting her consulting gig, Smelser was Managing Editor at Colorado Public Radio and led CPR's participation in the innovative NPR/WBUR Here & Now Contributors Network. She is currently based in Orlando.

KEN SAYS: We have a prior association with Smelser. Around 20-years ago she started out at Feature Story News [link], an independent news provider in DC. At the time we were consulting The Stanley Foundation an organization that produced the weekly news show Common Ground and produced high-profile news specials.

[Editor’s Note: The Stanley Foundation will change its name to The Stanley Center for Peace and Security on November 11, 2019.]

Common Ground bought audio and reporter packages from Feature Story. That’s when and where we met Judith Smelser.

From the very start, we could see that Smelser had a keen ear and knew how to create powerful audio, all “on budget.” We are pleased to see she is doing so well.

WALLY SMITH CRAFTS A SWEET DEAL WITH WNET-TV • DAN MULSHALKO SETENCED

Dr. Wally Smith

Wally Smith, the President, General Manager and Program Director of WPPB in Southampton, NY, is probably smiling today. 

Peconic Public Broad Broadcasting [link], and WNET-TV, the PBS station for NYC, have reached an agreement to sell the FCC License of WPPB to WNIT for $944,834. 

WNET will own WPPB once the FCC approves the transition. Smith and Peconic will continue to operate the station on day-to-day basis.

Smith and WNET have agreed to a Public Service Operating Agreement (PSOA) that will allow Smith and his team to keep WPPB humming. Most importantly, eastern Long Island will have a vibrant local NPR member station.

The sweet part of the arrangement is that WPPB will now have the resources of WNET to tap and have the stability needed to run a NPR member station. Smith could not comment on the transaction because of a contractual “silence period.”

Southampton is thought of as a place where the rich and famous hang out. Many of the areas that WPPB covers are remote. it is  WPPB serves a small year-round population near the eastern tip of Long Island. 

WPPB is closer to Old Saybrook, Connecticut, than it is to Manhattan.

According to WPPB’s FY 2018 audited financial report, WPPB had a loss of $223,000 during the year. Revenue for the year was around $531,000. Major sources of cash were members (36%), underwriters (34%) and CPB (26%).

The deal was reached on October 17^th and announced on October 24^th when the paperwork was accepted for filing by the FCC.

The 2015 Spark News produced a video podcast featuring Smith. It it tells the true history of how Smith helped found American Public Radio and then saved the founders from a fiery demise. You can see the video here.

DAN MUSHALKO PLEADS GUILTY TO FALSIFYING DOCUMENTS

Dan Mushalko

The mystery of why Dan Mushalko, the former GM of NPR News/Adult alt WCBE, continued this week. Mushalko hid around $900,000 of past due invoices, mainly from NPR, for reasons that are still unknown. 

It was anticipated that Mushalko would plead pled guilty at a hearing on Wednesday (10/23). It is a felony offense.

In the plea he admits he falsified invoices to conceal the station's true debt in documents he provided to Columbus City Schools.

According to a report in the Columbus Daily Dispatch [link], written before the court proceeding, Mushalko planned to plead guilty to one count of telecommunications fraud. Mushalko was expected to ne placed on probation.

KEN SAYS: Why did Mushalko continue this crazy scheme? He didn’t do it to pocket the money. For some reason he couldn’t admit that WCBE was so far in debt.

We occasionally spoke with Mushalko over the years, particularly when we were marketing nationally syndicated programs to noncom stations. Mushalko impressed us with his encyclopedic knowledge of the Columbus media scene.

Many times when we talked with Mushalko he hinted that “some bigger deal” was in the works that involved WCBE and the two Ohio State stations.

We would like to hear from Mushalko and get his first hand account of what happened.