Rural Programming Initiative
Final Report, KCHO

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1. You set some programming-related goals for your station when we began this project.
Please describe which ones you have accomplished; which ones you are still working on and where you are in that process; which ones you have abandoned and why you abandoned them.

Initially our main goal was to attract younger listeners to our daytime weekday programming. When we began the NFCB project we were doing our own classical music programming from 9:00 AM to 5 PM, Monday through Friday. We switched to Classical 24 in February '02 in pursuit of the goal, hoping their style of music selection and presentation would appeal to younger listeners. However, as evidenced in a comparison of A&A survey data between February '02 and February '03, our weekly cume of listeners 25-54 (our target demo) went down. In March '03 we pre-empted our classical music programming to carry NPR's special coverage of the Iraq war. We stayed with NPR and BBC news/talk programming after the major conflict had ended and now carry news/talk in place of classical music from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. We have in effect given up our goal of attracting younger listeners to our classical music. However, we're now expecting to gain younger listeners who are attracted to the news/talk format.

2. Has there been a financial impact-either directly or indirectly-as a result of your participation in this project? (For example, has membership increased or decreased; have you used the research to get new underwriters or raise your rates; have you used the research in seeking and getting grants). Please tell us the percentage increase or decrease in financial support since the summer of 2001 that can be tied to programming and/or the use of the research.

The four A&A surveys made it clear that the main reason listeners turned to us was for news and information. This was supported by the Arbitron data we had. We made the switch in format with this research in mind. We have just completed our Fall '03 on-air fund drive and the financial impact of our decision to replace classical music with news/talk from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM is remarkable. Our goal was over 10% higher than the previous ($112,000 vs. 100,000) and we accomplished it three days sooner than anticipated. Furthermore a preliminary estimate shows that 40% of the pledges we received were from new members.

3. Please summarize what you have learned about programming and listening at your station as a result of your participation in this project.

We have learned that our listenership is diverse, but that our predominant appeal is news and information. It is interesting that our first A&A survey in the summer of '01 was conducted using telephone prefixes weighted more heavily toward our more rural service areas. This produced an indication that our listeners tuned to us mostly for music, which ran contrary to the data we had from Arbitron. (Interestingly, the music the rural listeners identified was not classical, but music in general.) When in the subsequent A&A surveys the telephone exchanges were weighted more to our cities of license it became clear that our main appeal was indeed news and information. Perhaps at least in part due to our format shift, we learned that the number of listeners who listen every day increased from 28% to 38% from February to July '03. With over 75% of our listeners listening in the car, it seems logical that they are more inclined to stay with us for our news/talk programming.

4. Can you generalize from anything you have learned about programming and listening at your station that would be useful for other rural public radio stations?

Perhaps the most important point to be made is the need for some kind of regular research to be conducted on a regular basis. Without it the tendency is to place too much weight on the unsolicited input of a small number of listeners. Furthermore, the type of research is significant. The telephone interview is the more preferred method over Arbitron diary-keeping, because of the ability of the interviewer to clarify information and engage the respondent. We hope that rural stations will continue to have access to such research.