WAMU's Karen Munson on the trail of zoo sound.
Where Calling All Pets once aired
Animal lovers will not be denied
The nation’s capital may be populated disproportionately by people who love wonky jibberish, but Mark McDonald, p.d. of Washington’s WAMU, has discovered that the District of Columbia has its share of pet lovers.
WAMU built a large and vocal audience by bringing in Wisconsin Public Radio’s weekly Calling All Pets three years ago, even though it aired Saturdays at 7 a.m. McDonald scheduled the call-in showon a whim in 2006, thinking that WAMU listeners needed more “humor and interaction on the weekends,” he recalled. “I was astounded by the reaction.”
Last fall Calling All Pets garnered a 10.5 share for WAMU in its Saturday morning timeslot — making it Arbitron’s top-ranked program in the market, according to Portable People Meter ratings for October through December 2008.
Unfortunately, those were the last months of the 14-year production of Calling All Pets, which the Wisconsin network had been self-distributing without charge to 110 stations around the country. WPR retired the show late last year saying it could not continue to bear the cost of producing and distributing it. It fed repeat broadcasts until May, but WAMU didn’t carry them.
“We were inundated by listeners asking, ‘Where’s the pet show? What have you done?’” McDonald said.
The cancellation disrupted listening habits around the country but WAMU, which had been weighing its options for a new local show, was in a position to fill the gap for its listeners.
Animal House, hosted by D.C.-based freelancer Sam Litzinger, debuted June 20 as WAMU’s successor to Calling All Pets. It combines call-in segments with Dr. Gary Weitzman, a veterinarian who directs the Washington Animal Rescue League, and field-produced reports on animal science and wildlife conservation.
Weitzman, in his first-ever broadcast gig, “turned out to be warm and engaging and friendly,” McDonald said, “The interaction between him and Sam is good. We have Wisconsin Public Radio to thank for that formula.”
“This is not just for people who love dogs and cats,” McDonald says. The field reports aim to broaden the show’s appeal by covering animal psychology, wildlife conservation and environmental topics on a national and global scale, McDonald said. Producers tap experts from D.C.-based institutions such as the Smithsonian’s National Zoo — a research scientist specializing in migratory birds, for example — in sound-rich pieces that evoke the natural world of the backyard and beyond.
Arbitron PPM figures for the June 20 debut—the only ratings available at Current’s deadline — gave Animal House a 9 share and No. 2 ranking in the market during the time slot — still Saturday at 7 a.m. “We were right — there is an audience for this,” McDonald said.
A small team of WAMU producers collaborate on Animal House: Karen Munson, manager of content operations; Tara Boyle, a producer for the Kojo Nnamdi Show; and Andrew Chadwick, “an in-house engineer who is a wiz with digital editing,” McDonald said. The station is also talking with Patricia O’Connell, the animal behaviorist who co-hosted Calling All Pets, about making regular appearances on Animal House. He wouldn’t disclose the show’s budget, but said the economic downturn hasn’t prevented WAMU from creating new programs.
The Wisconsin network ended production of Calling All Pets after deciding it could no longer afford to cover the show’s costs, said Mike Crane, chief operating officer. Charging other pubcasters to broadcast it “didn’t seem to be the right thing to do at that time,” he said, especially since most of them were small stations with limited program acquisition budgets. That reasoning turned out to be sound, given the economic pressures on stations this year, he said, though listeners in Wisconsin and elsewhere were upset by the decision.
Out of the 110 stations broadcasting Calling All Pets, WAMU was one of the few in major markets, which limited the potential for underwriting support. As the producing station for Michael Feldman’s Whad’Ya Know and Zorba Paster On Your Health, both distributed by Public Radio International, WPR is squeezed by the downturn of corporate sponsorships, Crane said. “None of our national shows is receiving the kind of underwriting support we’d like.”
McDonald hasn’t developed national distribution plans for Animal House. “I’m interested now in getting a show that really works in this market, rather than world domination,” he said.
Meanwhile, McConnell makes occasional appearances on WPR with her former co-host Larry Meiller, and she’s working with Audio for the Arts, the Madison-based recording studio that produces The Onion Radio News and Progressive Radio, to develop a weekly 30-minute podcast.
The format “will be very different” from Calling All Pets, McConnell said in an e-mail. She hopes to produce in-depth interviews with animal behaviorists, authors and scientists. “So often I hear interviews that don’t ask the questions that I think people who are deeply interested in behavior want to ask.”
Photos: Lisa McCarty, WAMU.
Web page posted Aug. 18, 2009
Copyright 2009 by Current LLC
