Rural Programming Initiative
Summary #2, KBUT

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September 2002

Where are you relative to your goals? (For example, if you had a goal to change the Morning Edition host, have you done it? If not, do you have a schedule to accomplish it? Or have you changed your mind and no longer have that as a goal?)

Due to the largely positive responses to KBUT's first two surveys, we have decided not to implement any large-scale programming changes. We are still concerned that 38% of our listeners report that they listen to us because it is the only station they get, but happy to learn that 71% of our listeners who stop listening do so because of their schedules, not our program offerings. We decided to focus more on streamlining our current offerings, and attempting to get a more cohesive flow to our days. We have had a little success with this, and did move our one call-in talk program to a 4:00 p.m. timeslot to coincide with the rest of the week, with positive response from both the host and listeners. However, we have found that replacing vacant timeslots with the type of music we want there is more difficult than it seems; we often revert to the closest available warm body. This is something that I think we will continue to struggle with, as the turnover in volunteers varies from year to year.

"One goal that we have placed on the back burner for now is our hopes to incorporate music programs in our overnight offerings. We had envisioned adding satellite music programs to the midnight to 4:00 a.m. slots, and leaving BBC World News Service from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. We have now found, however, that we waited too long to make this change, and now BBC World News has quite a following who would be very unhappy with this change. Since we are not hearing a lot of requests for music programming at these hours, we have decided "if it's not broken, don't fix it" will be our approach for now.

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?

KBUT is certainly reaching its target audience. Fortunately, our area consists of a higher than average number of people in our target audience, which helps immensely.

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?

Currently we are happy with the programming at our station, with the caveat of losing volunteers and having open timeslots to fill more often than we would like. I think this is more a matter of the type of tourist-driven industry town we live in, and is a problem not likely to go away. I think that we are providing a great public service to our listeners as well. My goal, where programming is concerned, is to increase the level of professionalism among our local hosts. We find that our programmers often are "chatting" too much on the air, not pre-reading announcements, not incorporating new music…many of the same challenges that I am sure other stations face. I plan to continue to do air checks with our hosts on a regular basis, give as much feedback (positive and negative) as possible, and train new volunteers as thoroughly as possible.

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

We have not seen a noticeable change, but do feel fortunate to have maintained the level we are accustomed to, even in this financially difficult year. We are planning to implement some new community events this next year, as we feel our old events are perhaps "played out." We will have a better idea about these results in a few months.