Rural Programming Initiative
Final Report, KGVA

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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.

KGVA was involved in the project before I was hired as station manager. However, when I was informed about the project by Ginny, my goals for this project were: 1) to receive information about the program schedule and content that was running at the time of the surveys, 2) to find out our audience preferences and profile, 3) to find out core audience likes and dislikes.

The programming of KGVA at the time of the surveys was explained to me as being satisfactory for the listeners. The listeners that participated in the surveys overall were satisfied with the program schedule and content. The results of the programming questions played a role in the decision making of changing the program schedule.

The listeners of the survey were of many communities. KGVA's footprint is broad with many small communities. Unfortunately, due to the small sizes of these communities some were not part of the survey or received few calls. The amount of listeners for KGVA was very low. I believe this was due to the bigger communities having an established radio station. The listeners that participated gave information of themselves and what they liked and disliked. This information was very useful to us to as to programming decisions that were made.
I have not abandoned the third goal, but I am not relying on the results of the surveys to use for our core audience profile. KGVA's core audience is made up of small communities. One reason for this, I think is due the lack of sufficient calls made to these communities. As stated before the bigger communities were given more calls and the smaller communities received few. As we receive local feedback from these communities we see a difference from the survey results.

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.

I am happy to say that there is a slight increase in underwriters since the summer of 2001. From the survey we have broadened our reach to get underwriters from the bigger communities. From the surveys we were able to plan a larger search for underwriters in the bigger communities.

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

What really helped me were the conference calls of the results from Ginny and E.B. Ginny and E.B. had very good ideas for KGVA's situation. Programming issues were based on the information provided by these conference calls. Program changes were based on the audience's comments.

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?

Audience Surveys are useful tools for programming and determining what your audience preferences are. Here at KGVA we are very new to broadcasting and we are still learning about effective programming. My recommendation for programming issues is to ask Ginny and she will answer all your questions. :