Rural Programming Initiative
Summary #1, KZYX

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What did you learn about listening to your station and your research?
We learned that we have very strong listenership to news and public affairs, as well as a fairly dedicated music audience (although we're not sure what kind of music they're most interested in). We learned that our main competition comes from a station nearby which offers country music and some talk, and from another station that features classic rock. We also learned that we have a significant drop-off in listening as we transition from morning drive to the musical programming we feature mid-morning.

Our morning programming went from Democracy Now!, to NPR, to local public affairs (tending to be fairly left-wing activist) to classical music. Our survey showed a drop-off in listening which was difficult to pinpoint because the day-parts of our survey weren't broken down into small enough pieces to be able to distinguish. It could be that the drop-off came between NPR and local public affairs, when the tone does change significantly. Or it could be that it comes later, between public affairs and classical music. Some of our questions, which we think will be answered in the next round of research, have to do with whether or not people are tuning out because of the switch from one kind of talk to another, from talk to music, or because of the kind of music we're switching to.

Where are your programming strengths and weaknesses?
Our biggest strength, in terms of programming, is the variety of news and information we offer, along with a regular audience that has a fairly high level of education and income. The surveys showed strong listening during the public affairs segments of the day. Another strength is our relatively high TSL, and the fact that a large percentage of our regular listeners name us as their favorite station.

Our weakness may be the unpredictability of our musical offering (although we tend toward strips, there are some exceptions within strips that may throw people off), or perhaps the timing of the types of music we offer. Specifically, the classical strip at 10:00 a.m. does not appear to be getting the listening it deserves. We have a sense that there are a lot of classical music lovers out there and yet, the listening at that time of day doesn't bear that out.

What process are you using to decide on program changes?
Participation in the Rural Radio Project has been a big part of the process, but only one part. We began a strategic planning process in early 2001, received a grant for that, and as part of it, we conducted audience research in March (also with A&A), which gave us some interesting information. Then after the second round of audience research (the first round within the Rural Radio Project), and after our cohort meeting, we decided to try moving Democracy Now! from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00. We wanted to see whether going from NPR to Democracy Now!, then to the local public affairs, was a smoother progression of intensity. We had mixed response, as measured by phone calls to the station and word on the street. Then in mid-January, we had the first board retreat in our process of strategic planning. Involving our Board in examining the results of the audience research and having them participate in interpreting those results will be part of how we approach further changes.

What program changes have you made?
The events of September 11th and afterward, provided an impromptu testing ground for some of our theories about our listeners wanting more public affairs, but also muddied the water in terms of how to interpret the results. For the occasion, we brought in different sources of news and aired various perspectives at different times. We created, temporarily and for the occasion, large blocks of public affairs programming, for which we received much kudos. The very positive response we got for all of the news programming gave us encouragement and bolstered our belief that our audiences would be receptive to a trend towards more public affairs in our schedule. However, this may not be an accurate interpretation, since the response could have been only a temporary sign of the times.

Recently, in the wake of Amy Goodman's return to Pacifica and Democracy Now!'s return to its one-hour format, we have brought BBC into our morning drive time line-up and have received predominantly positive feedback from that change, both from the Democracy Now! lovers and from NPR lovers.

We are also working to form connections and alliances out there in the communities, by going to and hosting community meetings and working with community groups throughout our region. These provide us with the opportunity to hear what the listeners are thinking and how they're reacting as we make these changes.

We're pleased with the next round of survey questions because we think it will help elucidate the drop-off in listening as we transition to mid-morning programming.