Research

Kicking the tires of philanthropy.

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To give or not to give, that is the question.

Not-for-profit radio stations around the country are entering into the spring fund-raising season, facing the same challenges as last year and the year before that, and the year before that. The perennial challenge is engaging the listener in a conversation about the relevance of the station in peoples’ lives and the need for voluntary contributions to cover the station’s expenses. There’s a cause and effect dynamic at work. Programming causes listening, good programming causes loyalty, loyalty causes giving. In theory. Is that all there is to it, do the best we can with creating content and then ask for money – and we shall automatically receive?

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“In this economy”

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If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a hundred times, “We’ll be lucky to achieve our goals in this economy”.

We’re all in the same boat, this challenging economic boat – in the doldrums yet relatively secure, generally insulated, and comparatively safe – not untouched mind you, but our lifestyles are barely altered – we’re afloat. We may be thinking greener, driving less, recycling more, watching household expenses, packing lunch, eyeballing boxed wine for the first time and generally curbing our consumption but at a pace that  could be characterized as a stroll. No real urgency.

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KFUO sale challenged, and some views on music research

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Four petitioners hope there’s still a chance that the sale of St. Louis’s KFUO isn’t a done deal. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported today that multiple challenges have been filed with the Federal Communications Commission to block the sale of the commercial classical station to Christian broadcaster Gateway Creative Broadcasting.

One group is made up of members of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, which is selling the station. Another is a fundraising group that has helped support KFUO. I was surprised to see Patty Wente speaking on behalf of this fundraising group — she used to be general manager of KWMU, the city’s main NPR station, until she was dismissed amid controversy last year.

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Stations share experiences with midday music research

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For almost two years, a small set of classical public radio stations have been trying to draw more listeners during middays by changing the music they play. The casual listener might not even be aware of the changes, but station programmers are aware that the process is systematic and grounded in extensive research backed by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

I wrote a few posts about this some time ago, and just recently I wrote an update for Current, the trade newspaper that covers public broadcasting. I hope you find it enlightening — its starting point was a session at the Public Radio Program Directors’ conference in September, where station programmers shared their results due to the changes. As I learned, it’s made a big difference for some stations.

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