THE STATE OF NATIONALLY SYNDICATED PROGRAMS ON NONCOMMERCIAL STATIONS

The King Biscuit Flower Hour was a very popular weekly radio program from 1973 until the 1990s. 

The weekly two-hour show was heard on over 400 Album Oriented Rock (AOR) stations and perhaps 100 college stations. 

It featured live recordings of some of the biggest music acts of the day.

Our reason for bring up King Biscuit, is because it was mentioned in a recent blog post by Fred Jacobs [link], titled Could The King Biscuit Flower Hour Survive Today?

Jacob’s answer to his own question is “maybe, but not likely.” King Biscuit was not sustainable because of the high cost of talent, the splintering of musical tastes and styles and the hyper consolidation of the commercial radio industry. But, at the height of its popularity in the late 1970s and 1980s, King Biscuit was a bankable opportunity to enhance a station’s brand during low-listening day parts.

King Biscuit was influential during its early years. Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) used it as a template to create A Prairie Home Companion. 

However, a program of its type and cost probably couldn’t make it in public radio today.

The current programming mantra of noncom AAA is “local, local, local.” 

That makes sense, because hyper-local engagement works in the noncom radio economy. 

Still some nationally syndicated programs can shine a station’s aura, bring talent and music not available locally and draw new weekly listeners to the station.

NONCOM AAA SYNDICATION NOW: IT’S WORLD CAFE & EVERYONE ELSE

We decided to take a look at nationally syndicated shows on public radio music stations now. 

As you can see in the chart on the left, only one show is carried on more than 50% of the 23 full-time music stations we examined: WXPN’s World Cafe.

Near universal carriage is important for nationally syndicated programs because it adds to their clout in the music industry, makes foundation grants doable and provides the producers with carriage fee revenue.

Some of the stations that air World Cafe use it in weekday drive times. Others air it to fill overnight hours. 

The common attribute, regardless of when it is aired, is its connection to a larger national music scene. This doesn’t hurt local appeal. World Cafe’s curation, interesting people and terrific music transcends regional boundaries.

After looking at the data, it is clear that local music is in and national shows are mainly bit players. The shows that succeed are most often focused on niche interest, such as the Grateful Dead Hour. American Routes offers Smithsonian quality music with a scholarly approach. [Disclosure: Ken Mills Agency, LLC, markets American Routes to stations. Scroll down for a big announcement about American Routes.]

BEST OF THE NEW SHOWS: LATIN ALTERNATIVE

Most of the programs on the list have been in distribution for many years. Only two are fairly new: Live From Here, APM’s expensive follow up to Keillor, and Latin Alternative, an innovative DIY show from WEXT in Albany.

Latin Alternative [link] cuts new ground for public radio. The mix of Latin rock, funk, hip-hop and electronic music, much of it in Spanish, opens minds and hearts to artists such as Manu Chao, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, Cafe Tacuba, Kinky, Julieta Venegas and Ozomatli.

Co-hosts Josh Norek and Ernesto Lechner bring a personal touch to the presentation. Latin Alternative works because it is authentic and passionate. It is obvious Norek and Lechner aren’t doing the program for big bucks. They are there because they love the music, the culture and the vibe. It is contagious.

Latin Alternative is available to stations via PRX and is available to everyone as a podcast distributed by NPR [link].

AMERICAN ROUTES ANNOUNCES NO FEE INCREASES FOR FY 2020

This is a promotional message for one of our clients.

As American Routes with Nick Spitzer enters its 21^st year of national distribution, the program is pleased to announce that station carriage fees for FY 2020 are the same as for FY 2019. American Routes has not raised station fees since 2011.

The program’s producers are able to offer this budget-friendly policy because new stations continue to add the show.  The number of station’s carrying American Routes is now 330.

You can learn more about American Routes and hear recent programs at the program's  website [link].

Station folks who are interested in American Routes should contact Ken Mills for more information. 

Call 612-819-8456 or email publicradio@hotmail.com for more information.