Jack Allen on the future of classical public radio

Today’s post is the first part of a guest commentary by Jack Allen, who started work this week as president of KBPS-FM in Portland, Ore. Allen previously served as general manager of KMFA-FM in Austin, Texas, for five years, and before that was director of news and music at Minnesota Public Radio. We hope his commentary prompts some reflection about classical radio’s future. The second part is here. Enjoy!

The Future of Classical Public Radio

Copyright 2008 – Jack Allen

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.

It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.

Every morning a lion wakes up.

It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.

It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.

When the sun comes up, you better start running.

—African proverb

This illuminates a pretty basic principle not only of the African savannah but of the business world. It is a perfectly salient point for public radio as well. For we find ourselves not in some kind of benign parallel universe of business and media, one which is safe, protected and warm, but rather one that is competitive, evolving and unforgiving.

Environment

Research tells us over and over again that people who use radio make very little distinction between our noble enterprise and that of other choices. True, we have roughly 10 percent of our audiences (if we’re lucky) voluntarily contributing to the work we do — covering our overhead and giving us salaries — but what about the other 90 percent of the folks who tune into what we do and sit passively on the sidelines? They have an ever-expanding universe of outlets to choose from that offer what we represent and what we do.

The rock on which public TV is perishing is based on their longtime slogan and detached assumption, “If we don’t do it, who will?”

We’ve now seen the public answer that seemingly rhetorical question by shifting to cable television for the same basic concepts in programming, even with commercials.

Whether in TV or radio, we find ourselves in a rapidly evolving and complex media environment, dealing with fickle and niche-conditioned media consumers who know what they want, when they want it and where to get it. They are willing partners as long as we don’t continue to insist on pushing our content at them. We must listen instead of merely broadcasting.

We in “public” radio must realize that we are not entitled to an audience, even with our carefully crafted and lofty aspirational statements. In today’s world, if we do manage to attract an audience with our programming, we must also understand that in order to keep them listening we must truly serve them. What works today may not be enough tomorrow. If we listen, they may just tell us what they want and need. Remember the 90 percent? They’re already telling us something by withholding their financial support from us.

Bill Kling, founder of Minnesota Public Radio and president of its parent company, is fond of saying, “Whatever we want to know or need to know, there’s a significant chance someone in our audience has the answer.”

If we want to know what classical public radio will look like in five, 10 or 15 years, we should seek input from our audience. How will they reach us? How will they talk back to their radios? If we’re content to dictate to our listeners this future, we may need to adjust our expectations of their loyalty.

Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International, said recently in a fascinating and extremely compelling article in Newsweek about consumerism and the global marketplace, “America is losing the ability to dictate to this new world, but hopefully it has not lost the ability to lead. Generations from now, when historians write about these times, they might note that by the turn of the 21st century, the United States had succeeded in its great, historical mission — globalizing the world. We don’t want them to write that along the way, we forgot to globalize ourselves.”

Fifty years ago, it would have seemed utterly fantastic and completely outlandish for the founders of terrestrial radio to reach a global audience instantly and simultaneously. But here we are. We must now take deliberate steps beyond our parochial views and reach for that curious and hungry global audience — but with what and how? We can no longer dictate to the public, a local or a global public, what classical music is. With a potentially much larger audience, there is a correlating potential for diversity and sophistication in programming and services.