Last week the
bankruptcy trustee for Pataphysical Broadcasting Foundation, licensee of the
former KUSP-FM in Santa Cruz, California, sold the station’s license to Educational
Media Foundation (EMF) for $605,000. EMF had the highest bid in an auction for
the FM license, the licenses for four translators and the tangible assets of
the organization.
As we reported in
early August [link], KUSP ceased broadcasting at end of July and then filed for
Chapter 7 bankruptcy to settle its debts, estimated at over $800,000. Some of
the former station’s creditors will not receive full payment. The bankruptcy trustee
also received a $600,000 bid from KCRW, Santa Monica.
EMF is the nation’s
largest noncommercial religious broadcaster. It owns and distributes two
satellite-delivered Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) formats known as K-LOVE and Air1. Both formats already
are heard in Santa Cruz on FM translators.
A CAUTIONARY TALE FOR NONCOM BROADCASTERS
There are a number
of lessons from KUSP’s failure that all noncommercial broadcasters can learn from, particularly stations
licensed to community organizations.
KUSP suffered from
“Pacifica Syndrome,” a dysfunctional condition often associated with Pacifica
Radio, perhaps the next noncom to face a similar fate.
As a public
service, here are five essential questions that station management should answer to determine if their
station has Pacifica Syndrome:
• Are your Board members
divided into “factions” that stridently disagree about the governance,
programming and purpose of the station?
• Is there a prevalent belief
within your station that it is more important to get your station’s politics
right than get the “radio basics” right?
• Does your station have
internal committees with the power to overrule management decisions?
• Can the station’s members vote
to overturn the management of the station?
• Do members of your governing
Board feel that decisions made in Board meetings are more important than what
goes over the air and on digital media?
If you said “yes”
to three or more of these questions you should take action to prevent your
station from being the “next KUSP.”
PUBLIC MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS DOMINATE TOP PODCAST
RANKINGS
Podtrac [link] has
released its latest list of the Top 20 podcasts and noncom public media
publishers continue to dominate the chart. Of the 19 publishers identified
in the September rankings, 13 (68%) are affiliated with public radio outlets.
NPR publishes 6 of
the Top 20 podcasts, PRX/Radiotopia
publishes three and WNYC Studios and This
American Life both publish 2 of the podcasts.
FYI – Note that no specific
access or listening metrics are provided for the chart entries. There is no
way to tell how close or far apart #1 is from #2 or #20. In the fine print
Podtrac says: Ranking of these shows is
determined by a proprietary Podtrac algorithm which uses publicly available
data.
So, show us the data
data please. Without some sort of metrics, the Top 20 list feels like an
Ouija Board.