Rural Programming Initiative
Summary #2, Allegheny Mountain Radio

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October 2002

Where are you relative to your goals?

One of our major goals was to extend Morning Drive from 9:00 to 10:00 am, and to make our morning (before noon) programming more consistent both vertically and horizontally. One of the major obstacles was moving our Gospel Hour from 9 to 10 am. It had been in the same spot for 20+ years. Some of the Gospel Hour programs were 1 hour and some were 1½ hour. There was a "patchwork" of programming during the other time slots-Health Show, Environmental Show, etc.

We made the following M-F programming changes June 1: Morning Drive show runs 6-10 am, Gospel Hour runs 10-11 am, Country Hour from 10-11 am, and Noon Hour Magazine 12-1 pm.

Most of you defined one or two target audiences. Based on the research, are you reaching those audiences? If not, what are you planning to do about it?

We have added occasional listeners in our defined target audience. We still have lots of work to do to reach these younger listeners (35-54) and to convert the new occasional listeners to regular listeners.

What is your current thinking about programming at your station? What areas are you monitoring? How satisfied are you with the level of public service you are providing? How do you plan to improve it?

It was very obvious from our survey that local news was very important to our listeners. We have inserted additional news slots during the Morning and Afternoon Drive programs. We have put a lot of energy into making our Community Calendar announcements and weather reporting consistent throughout the entire broadcast day. Both were being broadcast at different times depending on who the deejay was; particularly daytime vs evening programmers. As of September 1, weather is broadcast consistently at 15 after and 15 till the hour from 6 am-10 pm each day. Community Calendar is read at the top and bottom of the hour. Instead of three separate "County" calendars, (one for each county), there is one "Community" calendar now. We are now ready to focus on afternoon programming.

Have you seen a noticeable increase (or decrease) in your listener-sensitive financial support? (membership, underwriting, community events, etc.)?

No significant change.