Rural Programming Initiative
Final Report, KIDE

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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.

Which ones did we abandon? We have not abandoned any plan. Most are still pending more personnel hiring and/or additional funding. Due to irresolvable logistical difficulties we had to release our Development Director. We found that having the director living in Eureka didn't work out as well as we hoped. The Development Director needs to be based at the station and be a part of the ongoing daily activities to really understand the station's needs and potentials.

We are dividing the former Development Director duties into three parts as consultant contractual duties. We are dividing the position because we have only one more year revenue from this funding source. One person will follow up and expand on the contacts made by the former development director for local and regional underwriting. Another person will focus on grants and ongoing projects, such as CPB grants and projects, and regional foundations; and a third person will focus on a five year strategic plan for the station.

What worked:
The Development Director did work well getting us back in the CPB, CSG system and finding other regional grant funds for specific short term projects. When we have additional funds to sustain a full time Development Director position on-site we will do so.

Of the programming goals set in the beginning of this project we were able to complete the shifting of one talk show to a better time slot. This show was a problem for listeners to hear. It was not until this project did we understand why our quilted schedule was not working well.

We reconfigured our half hour morning news block to a news & information hour. This hour is scheduled prior to Native America Calling which now gives us a solid two hour block of Native issues & information and news along with local highlights. The result, our morning figures have become steadier.

Another change happened after we move the local Speaking Out program from 11:30 am to 9:30am. We experienced an increase in locally produced information programs for the 9:30am slot. This worked out well as two of our previous non-local shows stopped production leaving us with a hole in the morning. I switched from doing a Native music artists interview to doing an informational program using the Mainstream Media, Guests On-Call line up. This completed a full week series of similar programming content.

What's still on hold:
We have yet to tackle our afternoon drive time block. The early evening hours is our weakest slot. Judging from our latest survey our listenership dips after 3pm. There is less news and informational content after 11am. I feel the music mix needs to be adjusted if we continue with our current pattern. We currently run various music genres from 11am to 7pm. This large block in the mid day needs adjusting.

Since most listeners tune us in the car or at home we could give them more local and more creative programming content. A listener once asked what KIDE is going to do to keep him listening and not turning to Jefferson Public Radio. He further suggested that we should provide local people more local political/ tribal department updates. Another person said they enjoyed KIDE more when we had more hours filled with live announcers. I hear, people want more news and information and different music with live announcers. I think we need to try both.

There is a combination of ideas we would like to try. The primary goal is to focus more creative production energy during the 11am to 1pm block. Next we need to improve our programming from 3pm to 8pm Monday through Friday. Improving these blocks we feel will increase our listenership overall.

With this year's CPB, CSG funds we will hire a full time Program Assistant. This person's job will be to begin the outreach for future local interview segments, and to assist with the production of a local 11am news and information program hour.

Keep'em listening
The 10am to 11am Native America Calling program is our strongest hour. We find that during 11am to 1pm block our number drop slightly. We need to keep people tuned at 11am for another hour of important programming. If we keep this hour focused on current local issues we should keep people tuned in. This may be a natural slot to address the need for local political feature programming.

The most important current issue happening is the state of the Trinity and Klamath Rivers. Being river people our communities can not be anymore healthier than the health of our rivers. People need and want to know more about what is happening to restore the Chinook Salmon population, to restore more water in both rivers, to the improvement of the ecological and economical standards that depend on healthier rivers. There is a myriad of people to interview up and down both rivers and among the three local tribes.

The noon hour could become a locally produced Triple A music mix. This hour would lead into World Café which is another high listened to program. Within our local music mix hour we could include more local announcements, perhaps a well produced community calendar or a daily event reminder. We installed a live-assist system that would allow us to pre-record a week's worth of programs for this one hour block.

This local music mix program would segue into our next high audience program, World Café, running from 1pm to 3pm. After World Café we are considering a shift to PRI's The World followed by Pacifica's Democracy Now. This gives us two hours of solid national news in the middle of the day.

At 5pm we can do our evening drive block. This hour would be similar to our morning drive news. The focus is Native American news feeds, the California Report, local news and sports reports, and fill-in modules as needed. A second half would include local updates and news items from other California Indian Tribes.

Half past five
The second half hour block would be another task of the assistant producers to arrange a series of local information updates via live telephone calls to local agency managers. There would be general information topics that could geographically include agencies up and down the Trinity and Klamath Rivers. We foresee starting out with three shows per week from the Trinity and Klamath River area. The other two days would outreach to other California Tribes and communities. Each show would feature two or three telephone interviews making up a half hour module. Again, the Program Assistant would be in charge of setting up each call and ensuring the party is at the ready for their turn on the telephone.

This change will shift our music shows to later hours. We will have to decide on how to deal with late evening talk shows. Perhaps a local survey should happen to see if the community would listen to locally produced live call-in talk shows that address local issues during a 6pm or 7pm hour.

Complaints we consistently hear is that our late night music shows end too soon and that we switch to AIROS too much. With the new live assist program we will eventually be able to pre-program local late night music shows before we switch to over night satellite feeds. We will also be able to offer different overnight satellite feed services.

Our weekend programming schedule is still a problem that needs to be addressed. However, until we can afford more producer help, or we successfully recruit reliable volunteers weekend programming changes take a lower priority. We foresee the Spring 2004 as a target period to address the weekend line up.

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.

With the loss of our Development Director we have not been able to measure financial results stemming from any program change. Likewise we have not utilize the survey numbers for underwriting or grant applications. There has been no financial support change from the summer of 2001 that can be attributed to this project.

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

What we have learned from this project regarding programming and listening actually confirmed what we had thought. Regarding news and informational shows people want more localism rather than national feeds. People also want news and information they can not usually get from national TV news.

People evaluated what we offered. By the sample numbers given we found out what blocks work better than others. Over the three years we see that even our better rated local shows have slipped. This tell us we need to upgrade our production quality. All shows need to change technique, presentation, hosts or maybe just retire the show completely and offer something new every three to five years.

We seemed to be able to attract our target age group once we decided on the target. group. This was important because it allowed us to concentrate our programming energies within certain parameters and not worry about not serving everyone's wants.

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?

Speaking from a small rural Native American community I believe other rural stations need to take the time and effort to periodically re-evaluate their service. We all started out with a purpose to serve our communities. We defined our operational mission and opened the doors so to speak.

Over the years we felt that we were addressing our mission, but somehow our listeners changed. They may have found other ways to entertain themselves. We know there are many more options available to fill one's time and attention. So we have to re-establish a niche in the media world that is identifiably ours as compared to other media.

We found that the three survey studies helped us see our strengths and weaknesses. We found a target audience to focus on and developed a plan to better service this age group. Judging by the survey numbers we found out which day parts need improvement.

Sometimes the only way to address the need to improve is to stop doing what you're doing and start doing something else. Sometimes this could mean only a change in delivery and style. But even this I find is easier said than done. There is always resistance to change from those who have become comfortable with a routine. But the listening public is always changing, we should attempt to remain in touch with the pulse.