NEW LIFE FOR PACIFICA? JOHN PROFFITT MIGHT MAKE IT HAPPEN

NEW LIFE FOR PACIFICA? JOHN PROFFITT MIGHT MAKE IT HAPPEN

I am surprised and pleased to hear that former KUHF GM John Proffitt has been hired to be the new Executive Director of Pacifica. Proffitt seems to be an unusual choice for the highly politicized noncom network and station owner. Proffitt, respected by his public radio peers as solid broadcasting professional, might be the right person at the right time to re-create Pacifica.

JOHN PROFFITT

As I have said before, Pacifica has become an embarrassment to all of us who work in public media.  The last I heard about them was when former temporary Executive Director Summer Reese locked herself in her office to protest being fired. It took an army of lawyers and a California Superior Court Judge to get her out of there. Pacifica is known as a workplace with petty personal politics, long-simmering grievances and LOTS of lawyers.

I met John Proffitt at public radio conferences back in the 1990s when I was Director of News at PRI.  At KUHF, John was known as a conservative decision maker who kept a close eye on the budget. KUHF was known as a TV/FM dual licensee where TV ruled the roost. When John was there, KUHF-FM was one of the last big-market stations with a dual format: NPR News and Classical together in an unhappy marriage.

John was forced out of KUHF in 2011 for reasons that were never made clear. But he forever changed KUHF Radio for the better when he acquired a second FM frequency. KUHF became 24/7 NPR News and the new KUHA became 24/7 Classical thanks to John Proffitt.  This is a big achievement.

I hope John does well at Pacifica.  I have two pieces of advice:

1. REMEMBER STEVE YASKO

Many people know Steve Yasko as a talented manager and innovator at WTMD.  Before WTMD, Yasko spent a couple of not-so-great years as National Program Director at Pacifica – a job rumored to be one of the Rings of Hell in Dante’s Inferno.

Yasko came to Pacifica as a successful program manager at NPR. He tried to make changes but encountered merciless bureaucrats whose fulltime jobs was keeping their fulltime jobs -- by any means necessary.

Then Yasko pissed off Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now! His life became a living hell. Goodman is and was a proven street fighter who knows how to use the system to her advantage.  She and others filed grievances, lawsuits and undermined Yasko with the Pacifica Board. Around the same time, an anonymous agitator posted a vicious online smear campaign to embarrass and discredit Yasko. He posted this note when he left:

Effective September 15, 2001, I will no longer be the National Program Director of Pacifica. Before you all gloat too much, I did not make this choice because of your attacks on me. I made this decision because Pacifica cannot move forward until it is free from persecution. This persecution is executed by people who say they are champions of free speech and tolerance, but use the tactics of hate and bigotry to achieve their ends. I don’t know what drives you, but I choose not to be a part of it.

Today Steve Yasko runs WTMD, a successful noncom Triple A station in Baltimore.  Pacifica now is in the dustbin of radio history. What goes around, comes around.

Advice to John Proffitt: Protect yourself legally before you start work.

2. START WITH BASICS & LEVERAGE THE ASSETS

From 30,000 feet, Pacifica looks like a dream assignment.  They own five of the most powerful FM signals in five of the largest markets in the nation: NYC, LA, Bay Area, DC and Houston. No other noncom group owner – not even APM – has such a reach. But, you’ll never develop this potential unless you Kick Out the Jams first.

Pacifica is jammed by its arcane system of governance.  Get rid of as many committees as possible, particularly Program Committees. Don’t try to change programming until you have the governance system streamlined.

Advice to John Proffitt: Take the longer view, avoid internal politics and keep in mind many of us in public media are grateful for what you are doing and wish you well.

MEMO FROM MARK RAMSEY: “SERIAL” PODCAST SHOWS HOW TO DISRUPT PUBLIC RADIO

Last week media consultant, blogger and media scholar Mark Ramsey posted a fascinating item on his blog about the popularity of This American Life’s spinoff podcast Serial. I urge you to read Mark’s post at [link].

MARK RAMSEY

[Disclosure: Mark Ramsey is a friend who inspired me to start this blog. I don’t always agree with his opinions, but I always consider what he is saying.]

Ramsey examines TAL’s strategy and how it disrupts public radio’s traditional funding model. Serial was created by, and introduced to listeners via broadcasts of TAL.  Once their appetite was wetted, Serial moved listeners to another platform: their podcast. Ramsey describes it this way:

[When you listen to a podcast of a show on public radio, that show is] hijacking its own audience to a different platform. Serial hijacked somebody else's audience on somebody else's platform and attached to somebody else's financial support ecosystem.

I should point out that Ramsey uses the terms “disrupt” and “hijack” without implying a value judgment. He is describing changes in consumer behavior that are observable trends, like them or not.

PUBIC RADIO’S FUNDING MODEL

Public radio as we know it began with the creation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (“CPB”) in the early 1970s.  CPB supported NPR directly during the early years.  Then in the early 1980’s (thanks in part to Bill Kling and American Public Radio – “APR”) the funding mechanism was changed. CPB began sending the bulk of their money to stations, not to NPR. This created a “program market economy” where stations “shopped” with NPR, APR and other providers. This process continues today.

BYPASSING PUBLIC RADIO STATIONS

Listeners are asked to support public radio stations, not NPR or other producers.  Serial bypasses stations and goes directly to listeners, in a sense competing with the stations that introduced Serial to their listeners via TAL. Ramsey describes it this way:

You don’t support the station you may have heard the first episode on, you support Serial, the podcast (technically you support WBEZ in Chicago, but that fact is underplayed in the fine print).

So here’s what Serial has achieved:

1.The show hijacked the attention, time, and listening of public radio fans and moved a portion of it off public radio per se 


2. The show hijacked the relationships that exist between local public radio stations and their listeners by gathering emails for fans of Serial, thus launching new – and direct – relationships off the public radio grid (I can’t do that for Fresh Air, can I?) 


3. The show circumvented the “you support the station, the station   supports the show” business model by linking support directly (superficially at least) to Serial, the show.

Again, let me stress, Ramsey is not saying this good or bad.  It is a trend – reality, so to speak.

WHY LISTEN TO MARK RAMSEY?

I call Ramsey “The King of All Media – Platforms.” He looks at commercial and noncommercial radio, podcasting, online streaming, mobile, etc. from the end user’s point of view.  Consider this: Ramsey has spoken several times at PRPD conferences.  This year he is the keynote speaker at Momentum – the annual conference of Contemporary Christian Broadcasters.

His observations are valued by The God Squad and public radio programmers alike because they are based on the fundamental (no pun intended) reasons why certain messages appeal to people and others do not.

Here are some basics of Ramsey’s philosophy in his own words:

• “You don’t fall in love with distribution channels. You fall in love with content.”

• “In many cases radio continues to be obsessed by short-term priorities and minimizing risks… If we banish experiments, we extinguish our future.”

•  “Don’t pigeonhole content so that it’s tied to one particular platform…[to do so] is to diminish and restrain potential.

In other words, be in the world as it is, not how it once was or how you wish it could.  The key is HOT CONTENT no matter what platforms you use. Terrestrial radio still reaches large audiences -- a reality TAL used to its advantage getting the word out about Serial:

Never underestimate the power of launching a program on a hugely popular stage. Just ask the TV show that follows the Superbowl.  

COMING SOON: hivio – THE AUDIO FUTURE FESTIVAL

Mark Ramsey is one of the organizers of hivio, now in its third year. hivio brings together broadcasters, online radio providers, music streaming services and digital entrepreneurs.  It is June 4^th & 5^th in LA at the legendary Hollywood Improv.  Learn more at [link].

RIPR DEAL WITH WMVY GETS TRIPLE A ON FM FOR MARTHA’S VINEYARD

Consulting engineer Aaron Read sent me a comment recently telling how Rhode Island Public Radio [link] is working with MVYRADIO [link] to serve Martha’s Vineyard with an awesome FM signal. The key is using an HD2 channel to feed a translator.  This is a way that others might copy to get their online stations on the crowded FM dial.  Here is how Aaron describes it:

I'm not really a fan of HD Radio but it has its uses. We're making good use of HD on our WRNI-FM [Rhode Island Public Radio – “RIPR”] by leasing an HD2 to mvyradio.com. They use it to feed their translator in nearby Newport RI, which needed a new primary when they sold their old 92.7 signal (now WBUA). They do have a new primary FM out on the Vineyard again, but it's on the same freq as WJMF in Smithfield/Providence and there's no way the Newport location can receive the new WMVY on 88.7.

It works out fairly well for all involved. RIPR makes a few bucks a year off the deal, and we're helping out a fellow non-comm station that we happen to like a lot.

But there's no question this wouldn't have happened if I wasn't the CE of RIPR because the actual owner of the translator is former employer, current mentor and good friend of mine. Fortunate coincidence for all involved, but kinda limits the utility of this situation to be analogous to anyone else.

Still, leasing an HD2 to feed an analog translator is certain a good way to make use of HD Radio. I'm well aware of how "weak" that sounds given the original purpose of HD Radio, of course. :)

AARON READ

Delivering signals to translators has proven to be one of the very few successful uses for HD Radio.  A public radio GM in California called the HD-to-tranlator method the poor man’s STL.  (An STL is a studio to transmitter link, most often done using microwave signals.)

HOW IT WORKS

Here is how Aaron Read describes it:

We acquire MVY's programming via Comrex BRIC Link over the public internet, and use that to feed WRNI-FM-HD2.  Then the translator in Newport (W243AI, 96.5FM) has an HD Radio locked to 102.7HD2 to get our HD2 and it feeds the translator's analog input.

Programming originates from the MVY studios in Tisbury, MA, located on the north side of Martha’s Vineyard Island.  Rhode Island Public Radio takes MVY’s streaming audio and broadcasts it on WRNI-HD2 transmitting from Narragansett Pier, RI.  Here is the coverage map for WRNI:

MVY picks up the WRNI-HD2 signal off the air and rebroadcasts it on 88.7 FM covering Martha's Vineyard Island (coverage map):

BINGO!  MVY is on the air in one of North America’s finest resort areas on the good old analog FM band.  It is a good deal for everyone: RIPR gets revenue for leasing its previously wasted HD2. MVY gets back on FM.  Listeners get to hear great music online and on FM.

[MVY also provides FM service to listeners in Newport, Middleton and Jamestown, RI, via RIPR’s HD2 via a translator on 96.5 FM.]

HOW CAN WE DO THIS TOO?

The first thing you need to do is hire a contract engineer like Aaron Read [link] (there are others available also) to do a frequency search and see if there are any FM translators available or space to establish a new translator.

It takes time for the FCC to approve a new FM translator frequency, so look at current translators first. Many FM translators are available for sale and/or lease. There are folks who are in business of applying for FCC translator frequencies for the purpose of selling them at huge profits.  Be careful.

Also look for translators owned religious NCE broadcasters.  Some of these organizations are hard up for cash. Educational Media Foundation [“EMF” – the purveyor of K-Love] makes a sizeable portion of its income by buying and selling translator licenses.]

Then, talk with your local CPB-qualified stations that own HD channels. Many of these stations built HD stations when CPB offered stations the money to get into HD.  Now they are stuck with them.