Rural Programming Initiative
Summary #1, WKMS

Back to Rural Programming Initiative

What did you learn about listening to your station and your Listeners from the first round of research?
It was comforting to hear that a few phone calls do not consensus make, and to have debunked the old chestnut that one call equals a hundred opinions. It was not comforting to be reassured that programming decisions need research and gut feeling somehow balanced together. Our discussions did not reduce my pondering whether broadening the appeal to grow audience is a good thing or a bad thing. Since being at WKMS I have been criticized for advocating audience growth. I didn't really understand until the Oakland trip how hard an idea that is for the audience and the programmers that you have. I'm not sure we haven't turned off our core audience by making the switch to news, and I don't know enough about our core audience. Mark asks if it is possible to have more that one core, i.e., news/info core, music core, etc.

Mark and I came back talking about consistency of appeal. We both agreed that Zorba Paster doesn't appeal to the same audience as Car Talk, but we haven't moved it yet. The other place where the consistency issue needs attention is the 7 p.m. daypart where we have Performance Today. But at 9 p.m. we go to jazz programming until 1 a.m. when we go to the BBC. This doesn't make sense to us, but we hold on to PT, because we've cut so much classical during the day, and it is a good show. What to do, what to do?

We decided to remove the Brits on Sunday mornings, and they were pre-empted for holiday programs in December. Effective January 6, we are moving From the Top to follow St. Paul Sunday, then we are adding Sound and Spirit at the noon slot Sundays to bridge the morning classical to the afternoon jazz. We also put Harmonia back up at the 6 a.m. slot Sunday mornings. We were going to put NPR's Weekly Edition there, but it was cancelled. Mark and I couldn't agree on a news show to go there, so we went with his feeling about Weekly Edition and we were disappointed to not have it. We have aired Zorba and Living on Earth in that time, but we wanted neither of them back. Mark decided that this would be enough newness for the turn of the year.

I think we are both spending more time trying to hear station through the research; i.e., if some daypart looked weak, what is it about the sound that would suggest that? We are going to hold public meetings with listeners to get ideas about where we are, what we're doing--one per town per week through January. We continue to have problems with my tardiness in getting fresh promos written for routine continuity. I promise to keep them fresh and then don't. I get so sick of hearing them read, but never get around to it in a day. Our operators don't write their own show continuity. They pick up cards and read them. I wish we could change this cultureÖso that everyone feels free to put promos in their own words, but we haven't managed to yet.

Based on the research and other information you have, what are your programming strengths and weaknesses?

Strengths:

°  Mature programmers who do solid shows.
°  Enthusiastic volunteers who produce idiosyncratic music shows.
°  Rural incentive dollars from CPB to add national programming where needed.


Weaknesses:
°  We can't agree about who comprises a larger potential audience. °  We don't know enough about national programs available on the interconnect.
°  We spend too much time worrying about what news should be.
°  Our air staff doesn't think about talking to one friend out there often enough.


What is the process you are using to decide on programming changes?
The program director usually announces that he believes we should make a change and suggests a program. The station manager and the program director spend a few weeks arguing about it. Sometimes the assistant station manager gets into the argument. We wade through ego/philosophy disagreements, and then we come together with a rationale for what we've decided to do. The program director is charged with increasing cume and communicating that need to other producers. Getting the station staff to understand that we need to increase our audience seems to be a problem. How do other stations do this? William said that he brought his entire staff around the table to ask them about the program change to have twenty more minutes of Morning Edition on the air. We don't do that, and I'm pretty sure it's because people don't seem to engage during staff meetings unless there's plenty of sugar around. We might have these in the morning rather than right after lunch.

What have you learned about these changes so far?
Our spring 2001 Arbitron book came in with our Cume back up to 29,700. We've had a few comments both pro and con the move to news. We received more end of the year contributions than usual. The station staff is split with two of us deeply offended at the diminution of classical music. Reaction from the rest is positive to neutral on the news. Our boss likes the news.