System/Policy
How stations are enhancing statehouse journalism with CPB funding
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With its latest round of funding, CPB has invested $4.9 million in its state government initiative.
Stanley Nelson, John Oliver among WGA members petitioning stations for fair freelancer contracts
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The petition accuses GBH, WNET Group and PBS SoCal of delaying their response to the union’s demands.
SPONSORED
The U.S. public wants more news coverage of climate change, surveys find
As hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and heat waves have intensified over the past decade, public concern about climate change has grown dramatically. Today, 65% of the U.S. public is worried about the issue, up from 52% a decade ago, according to nationally representative surveys conducted by scientists at Yale University and George Mason University.
Programs/Content
Stations find no easy replacements for soon-to-be-canceled Tell Me More
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The cancellation of NPR’s Tell Me More is leaving pubradio program directors struggling to fill the gap left by the show, which presented diverse viewpoints that some programmers say will be difficult to replace. Program directors still have a month to come up with an hourlong replacement. Tell Me More goes off the air Aug. 1, a victim of budget cuts at NPR and its limited reach through carriage on 136 NPR stations. Its core constituency within NPR’s membership consists of stations licensed to historically black colleges and universities and other stations seeking to reach minority listeners.
Quick Takes
Chair of rival public radio station criticizes GPB’s entry into Atlanta
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Three days after Georgia Public Broadcasting took over daytime programming on Georgia State University’s WRAS-FM, Atlanta’s other public radio station, WABE, released an open letter criticizing the channel-sharing agreement. Dr. Louis Sullivan, chair of the board of directors at Public Broadcasting Atlanta, which owns and operates WABE, called the deal between GPB and GSU “bad public policy.”
The agreement, which took effect June 29, gives GPB control over the 100,000-watt station’s programming between 5 a.m. and 7 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends. The arrangement also provides GPB with a presence in on Atlanta airwaves for the first time. Previously, the news/classical format WABE was the city’s only public radio station. In his letter, Sullivan pointed out that WRAS is now airing NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered at the same time that WABE runs those programs. WABE is already serving the Atlanta market, said Sullivan, who called on GPB and GSU to modify or terminate their agreement.
Programs/Content
Proposed NPR clocks would add morning newscasts, longer underwriting credits
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A proposed revamp of NPR’s newsmagazines would allow for longer underwriting credits, expand the number of morning newscasts, and incorporate American Public Media’s Marketplace Morning Report as a baked-in segment within Morning Edition. NPR is announcing the changes today to staff and member stations after working with stations on the revisions for more than a year. The network will solicit and review feedback from stations over the next two weeks, aiming to implement the changes by Sept. 22. “These changes give Member Stations new flexibility to meet local audience needs while ensuring that Morning Edition and All Things Considered remain vibrant national programs that continue to fuel the public radio economy,” NPR said in a memo to stations.
American Public Media
Salt Lake City’s KCPW hits fundraising goal to keep programming
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With a day to spare, Salt Lake City’s KCPW-FM hit its goal of raising $42,000 to pay off delinquent programming fees and avoid going dark. KCPW was six months in arrears on payments in programming fees to American Public Media. Station staffers took to the airwaves, sidewalks and online starting June 29 to try raising the money by July 3. The station hit the goal Wednesday afternoon. Of the $42,000, $12,765 came in from an Indiegogo crowdsourcing campaign.
Quick Takes
Thursday roundup: Sherlock will return, GPB fires employee over vulgar T-shirts
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Plus: Ira Glass’s salary, and bloodshed at Pacifica’s KPFK.
System/Policy
WHYY prototypes dashboard to measure audience engagement
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An attempt by Philadelphia’s WHYY to measure the impact of its news website has its execs asking bigger questions about the best ways to gauge success in public media. In July 2013, WHYY needed an accurate and effective way to measure the progress of NewsWorks, the station’s digital news venture, launched in 2010. The station talked with CPB, a primary funder of NewsWorks, about integrating an R&D budget for site analytics into the next phase of NewsWorks’s grant. “At some point during that conversation, we got to talking about Google Analytics and how many phantoms Google Analytics make people chase,”said Chris Satullo, v.p. of news and civic dialogue at WHYY. The popular analytics service provides data that, according to Satullo,“sound really important but [are] really set up for e-commerce” rather than public service.
Programs/Content
New This American Life podcast will serialize investigative stories
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This American Life announced today that it will launch a new podcast this fall, titled Serial. TAL host Ira Glass said on the show’s blog that the weekly podcast will feature longform investigative stories broken into chapters, with a chapter per podcast. It will launch with a crime story that will run for 12 weeks. “Our hope is that it’ll play like a great HBO or Netflix series, where you get caught up with the characters and the thing unfolds week after week, but with a true story, and no pictures,” Glass wrote on the blog. “Like House of Cards, but you can enjoy it while you’re driving.”
System/Policy
There once was a public radio station from Nantucket…
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A public radio station in Nantucket, Mass., that previously aired a simulcast of Boston’s WGBH has recast itself as a full-fledged service hyperfocused on the resort island. Nantucket Public Radio’s 89.5 FM WNCK signal had aired WGBH’s classical music programming for the better part of a decade. When talks broke off over increasing WGBH’s payments to the station’s operator, the parties decided to walk away amicably. “We thought, so what do we do with the station now?” said Jeff Shapiro, owner of Nantucket Public Radio.
Programs/Content
StoryCorps launches initiative to collect LGBT oral history
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The oral-history project StoryCorps is expanding its vast archive of Americans’ personal stories with OutLoud, a special initiative focusing on the LGBTQ community. In particular, OutLoud is seeking stories of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people who were born before the Stonewall riots, the watershed moment that sparked the modern gay-rights movement. OutLoud launched June 28, the 45th anniversary of the riots in which the patrons of the Stonewall Inn, one of New York’s most popular gay clubs at the time, retaliated against the police department vice squads that frequently raided gay bars. StoryCorps is collecting OutLoud stories at its venues in Atlanta, San Francisco and Chicago, and elsewhere with its mobile recording booth. It is also partnering with public radio stations and local LGBT organizations.
System/Policy
WCNY in Syracuse, N.Y., cuts seven from staff
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WCNY in Syracuse, N.Y., has laid off seven employees in a staff restructuring. “We are being prudent as we grow,” station President Robert Daino told Current. “We are continuing to hire in some areas of the organization. And we’re realigning staff to where we believe we need to focus.”
The cuts, first reported June 23 by the local Post-Standard newspaper, were made across several departments. Daino said that programming and community services “will not be impacted in any way.”
The station is currently advertising for a radio program director, web developer and part-time producer.