PUBLIC RADIO STATIONS THAT SUCEED IN SMALLER MARKETS: THE INTERLOCHEN STORY • RATINGS FOR ST. LOUIS, SACAMENTO & SALT LAKE CITY

Sometimes stations in small markets have to try a little harder to engage with people in their communities.  

That is fact of life for Interlochen Public Radio (IPR), located near Traverse City, Michigan. 



IPR is part of the Interlochen Center for the Arts, known worldwide as one of the best places to study music, theater, dance, visual arts, creative writing, motion picture arts, and comparative arts.

Interlochen Center for the Arts was founded in 1928 by pioneering American music educator Joseph Maddy. IPR began in 1963 with a single station.

Despite Interlochen's notoriety on the world stage, its two public radio stations compete in a small market. IPR [link] offers two channels of full-time public radio program service: NPR News/Talk and Classical music. WIAA is the flagship for music and WICA is the primary station for NPR News/Talk.

The largest population center, Traverse City, has less than 20,000 year round residents. Both program services are also on repeater stations and translators plus streaming audio. IPR’s regional area includes Charlevoix, Manistee, Ludington, Harbor Springs and Petoskey. There are maybe 100,000 local folks in the entire area. (The population of the area triples during the warm months of year.)

Despite this small population base base, IPR does remarkably well. According to transparency documents on the IPR web page, the two stations combined had total cash revenue of around $1,787,000. About two-thirds of the money came from members and underwriters. CPB added $270,000 (15%). These are numbers that would be impressive in a market many times larger than Traverse City.

Credit the development team for the terrific fundraising efforts.  By tying station fundraising with the entire Interlochen Center for the Arts, donors outside of IPR’s coverage area help IPR meet its goals. But local support is also importation and IPR keeps visible in their communities.

Students performing at Open Mic Night

A promotion that has done very well for IPR is Open Mic Night at Horizon Books, a well-known gathering spot in Traverse City. Last Friday (6/23) the bookstore was packed to hear local folks perform. This was the second in a series of Open Mic events that began in March. A portion of the show is broadcast live on IPR’s Classical music service.

Classical music Open Mic Nights are popular in big cities.  Dallas has perhaps the best known – Open Classical – featuring Music that is dressed down, but not dumbed down [link]. But, such events are rare in smaller cities.

IPR has found that there is something special about having students from Interlochen and any nearby Central Michigan University perform live.

IPR’s operations and engagement coordinator Alex Flannery and Classical host Amanda Sewell organized the event and emceed the events.

MAY 2019 NIELSEN AUDIO PPM RATINGS FOR ST. LOUIS, SACRAMENTO & SALT LAKE CITY