True story: More than a decade ago, I’m on the phone with a Classic Rock PD who was quite exuberant about his spring book. That’s because his station finished in the Top 5 25-54, triggering a ratings bonus.
A week later we’re on the phone, and I ask him how he’s spent the aforementioned bonus. And he sadly informed me that when the actual digital book came out, the public radio station in town finished in the top five, knocking his station down to sixth – and out of the money. How could that happen? Well, back in the pre-PPM days, public radio stations didn’t show up in the physical “book.” They only appeared in the digital rankers. Today in PPM, public radio stations live right alongside their commercial cousins – as it should be.
By the way, I asked this PD whether the public radio station (that edged him out) was well-programmed and he told me he never listened to it. Like it was some sort of alien life form that had nothing to do with his competitive sphere.
I think about that a lot these days as our company puts together our dual technology surveys. With 10 Techsurveys for commercial radio completed, and our 6th Public Radio Techsurvey being presented next week to its stakeholders, you get a truer sense of where the two media are similar – and where they differ.
Public radio has done some amazing things over the years, and has gained some important ground especially since 9/11. As commercial radio’s Talk format and cable TV networks have become louder, angrier, and more dogmatic, public radio’s stature as a credible, calm voice of reason has grown.
To tell its story in a credible way, public radio plays a long game – with long-form programming. It doesn’t follow the “PPM rules.”
As our culture moves to faster, louder, and shorter information bites, public radio succeeds by taking the necessary time to explore topics in depth and provide perspective in a calm manner. It doesn’t follow the trends – it knows what it is and consistently stays the course. It’s as committed to its core values today as it was when they were formalized decades ago. We see this in research survey after research survey in public radio. The basic fundamentals on which this institution was built are rock solid today. The more things change, the more public radio stays the same – in a good way.
NPR’s drive time news magazines, as well as programs like Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Diane Rehm, and Here & Now, provide context and perspective to news cycles that are have been dumbed down to “Breaking News” push messages, celebrity updates, and trivial tweets.
Sure, you can log onto any of hundreds of web news pages throughout any given day, but if you want to really find out the story behind the story, you’re probably listening to All Things Considered on the drive home, while catching up with the news over the weekend with many great magazine shows. Want to get perspective on business news and the economy? It’s American Public Media’s Marketplace (now partnered in the morning with NPR).
And the funniest, cleverest treatment of the news happens each week with NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! which continues to innovate and break ground.
But it’s not just about news – storytelling has been elevated to a fine art throughout the public programming lineup. Of course, This American Life set the tone, but it has been followed by PRX’s The Moth Radio Hour – essentially standup storytelling that you can’t turn off. And there’s even something for sports fans as Bill Littlefield’s It’s Only A Game takes a deeper dive inside sports in a way you simply cannot hear on any station that calls themselves The Fan. I’ve only touched on some of the key programs that make public radio the unique medium that it is, not to mention the local shows and programming that differentiate stations like WUOM in Ann Arbor from Minnesota Public Radio from music stations like KCRW in L.A. or WXPN in Philly.
From a tech standpoint, the lean forward attitude has been firmly in place for a long time. Typically, public radio programs are among the leaders in iTunes’ podcast downloads week in and week out. It was no coincidence that NPR had an app ready to go the day the iPad launched in 2010. And NPR has been very early in the process to get its app embedded in “center stacks” throughout the auto industry.
As commercial radio is at an inflection point on so many fronts, public radio is no different. Perhaps even more so, because the lion’s share of its revenue is generated from “listeners like you.” I think about public radio as sort of satellite radio on the honors system. You have to have a unique relationship with your audience communities in order to convince them to subsidize you – especially in the challenging economy broadcasters have faced during these past few years.
That’s why one of the true contrasts between these two silos of broadcast radio revolves around recommendation – that Holy Grail quality known as “word of mouth.” We use the Net Promoter Score in our surveys to get a better sense about the propensity to recommend, and more often than not, public radio stations average around 30 points higher than their commercial counterparts.
Earlier in the month, a new CEO took the reins at NPR, Jarl Mohn. As you may have read when he was announced earlier in the year, Mohn has a background deep in commercial radio and MTV Networks. But his big play was transforming a cable channel called Movietime (which showed mostly trailers) into the network we now know as E!
Perhaps it’s simplistic to make this analogy, but when Mohn was announced, it reminded me of Bob Pittman’s return to radio a few years ago with Clear Channel. Here’s a guy with a world view in media, technology, and entertainment. He has credentials that vary considerably from past NPR leaders, which may be advantageous in order to navigate the turbulent waters of our media crazy times.
So even if you’re programming a rock station or doing mornings in country or run a small group of stations in the southeast or you’re on the corporate staff of a major radio broadcasting company, keep an eye and an ear on public radio in the quarters ahead. And if your idea of public radio is that old SNL parody, “Schweddy Balls,” now may be a good time to refamiliarize yourself with public radio today.
The big move is building on their substantial assets and their amazing brands in this new media morass – and they are in a position to make it happen. While too many in the business constantly parrot “content is king,” in public radio they don’t need to say it – the concept is embedded in their DNA.
But they have issues, too – the donation model, aging demographics, and the need to expand the footprint without sacrificing quality.
That’s the play, and that’s how you retain your essence and grow your audience in a rapidly-fragmented media world.
The comings and goings in commercial radio get more headlines, but in its more trademark subtle ways, public radio may end up generating more groundbreaking news.
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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Yes…The only thing I knew about NPR was from the classic SNL skits on late night TV…until 9/11. That day I started tuning in and often listen while on long drives when I’ve had my fill of music. Michigan PR and NPR have a unique and effective way to inform, educate and influence listeners. I’ll be listening today on my drive up north.
Thanks, Steve, and I would be remiss not to mention that mobile apps for public radio can be an effective way of taking them on vacation with you.
There has been noticable difference in NPR programming, in particular of late – notice the increase in music related stories – but also as far back as 1999 when this article was written – https://www.audiographics.com/agd/100199-1.htm
The tell-tale sign of why it is producing such quality programming is heard at the end of programs; like MarketPlace, which credits 6 people involved with producing the half-hour show (not including host Kai Ryssdal). Besides a few big names, where in commercial radio do we have multiple people working behind the scene to produce a program?
Ken, great points all – and thanks for including that post from the archives. The prep, the infrastructure, and the programming are in place. And many in public radio realize that there’s ample opportunity to attract younger consumers via on-demand, social, and of course, mobile. When you’ve got quality programs, the distribution challenges lessen. Thanks for chiming in.
The proof is in the ratings and NPR hasn’t slid the way commercial radio has over the past 20 years. Not everything they do is applicable to commercial stations and in some ways, each makes the other possible. But the concepts of taking the long view, spending real time and money on the product and making it available however fans want it all apply. And radio, for the most part, doesn’t do any of that. NPR’s product focus presents an interesting contrast to Clear Channel’s current smokestack company type focus on the just in time, industrial supply chain model. They’ve even gone so far as embracing the centralized catalog sheet approach to sales.
Whoda thunk it 20 years ago?
It is about product focus in public radio, as well as adherence to a very well defined set of values. Today – decades later – those principles are intact. I would make the case, however, that public radio actually benefits from a stronger commercial radio presence. While very different, they need each other to maintain the strength of the larger medium. Thanks for the comment, Bob.
Funny, I think that the worse commercial radio gets the more opportunity there is for NPR – unless things get so bad on the commercial side that people abandon it completely…then I would agree. Hopefully that won’t happen.
Bob, I think it works that way – but to a point. They perform very different functions and are probably better off when each is healthy.
Working in a market where the public station is routinely Top 5 25-54 – we used to simply slide them out of the rankers for bonus calulation becasue they weren’t considered a competitor for the agency business we were chasing Rank to earn. Those days are over.
There’s something else happening “around” Public Radio that’s flying under the radar. A growing communitiy of Indie Radio-Makers creating original “Public Radio-ish” style story-telling and releasing it as Podcasts. Take a look at the Third Coast Festival and you’ll discover there’s more people making interesting “Radio” online than there are on the actual Radio.
Some of the more adventuerous and exceptional material actually gets aired on Public Radio itself (Love+Radio, 99% Invisible)
But what is most interesting about this to me is how Public Radio has inspired an entire new generation of Radio makers that set out to make their own content – their own way – on their own terms to build their own audiences. Kinda like Bands used to do.
Very inspiring stuff.
It’s interesting that in San Francisco, KQED clearly is a dominant player and truly reflects its community at a time when other stations have let that slide. And I also find it noteworthy that the same entrepreneurial attitude that permeates the Bay Area is finding its way into media content creation. As I noted after Convergence last month, it’s a bit discomfiting that some of the most innovative ideas about radio are coming from outside startups rather than from inside the industry.
Public Radio has its issues and challenges to be sure, but as Eric Nuzum of NPR pointed out at last year’s Nielsen Client Conference, the idea of failing fast and launching trial balloon programming has become very common in the Public Radio sector. They won’t all works, but as you point out, that trial and error process often leads to some amazing things. Thanks, as always, Jeff for commenting.
My station competes with three non-comm stations, including KQED. These stations all get their support because their audience values the stations as a commodity instead of as a jukebox. Their relationship is much deeper than “they play the songs I like” and “the morning guys are funny.” Public radio listeners gladly pay for something they can get for free. People even bequeath money to KQED and set up trust funds and annuities for them.
Radio needs to figure out how to create that deeper relationship again. Eight minute commercial breaks, satellite networks, and voice tracking certainly aren’t.
Clearly, it’s a different value proposition, Andrew. Having worked with public radio on both the network and local station level now for many years, I can tell you that while not everyone in the system agrees on everything (in fact, there’s lots of healthy debate), there is a very strong sense about what is truly important about the mission and a very strong respect level for the listener. These core values are in cement and everyone from top to bottom concurs about their importance. Thanks for the comment.
I certainly agree with your observations of NPR quality. Depth and breadth of coverage on most any story are simply not matched by any other radio source.
However, much of NPR’s coverage of the news is made from the ideological left. Programs such as Fresh Air and This American Life don’t even try to hide that. That’s a flaw – and leaves me waiting for an alternative that would deliver the same depth & breadth, but without the ideological predisposition.
Michael, I’m not going to get into a red vs. blue conversation. It’s about quality of the programming and whether that translates to the quality of the ratings. Ideology really doesn’t enter into it, and as I’m sure you’ve noted, most commercial Talk stations have suffered ratings speed bumps. In the final analysis, great quality programming wins out whether it’s left, right, or center. Appreciate you taking the time to comment.
Fred,
This is a fantastic read as viewed by someone with extensive experience in both worlds.
It sounds we need something inbetween to keep radio ticking.
Concepts, anyone?
Phil, much appreciated. I agree with you that experience in both ends of the spectrum is valuable. That’s been a key reason why I believe we have brought value to public radio system. And not surprisingly, Jarl Mohn’s vast experience in commercial media – and yet strong love and appreciation for public broadcasting – puts him in a great position to have a huge impact. Thanks for the comment.