Engagement
6 tips for holding a public media listening tour
|
“Don’t try to tack listening onto a performance or ‘normal’ event — make listening the entire point.”
Programs/Content
Through podcasts, kids’ shows also get more airtime on old-school radio
|
Podcasts give creators of kids’ shows more freedom, but finding ways to play to radio’s strengths can help them reach more listeners.
Programs/Content
Vermont’s TV, radio networks team up for ‘News Minute’
|
The collaboration between Vermont PBS and Vermont Public Radio could evolve into a broader partnership.
Programs/Content
Music station leaders discuss challenges in expanding digital presence
|
An attendee at the Public Radio Program Directors Conference asked whether public media should build its own music-streaming platform similar to Spotify and Pandora.
Development
Development leaders say capital campaigns require commitment from executives, community
|
“You immediately become hyper-aware of how good, or not good, your relationships with people are.”
Programs/Content
Travel ban complicates VPR’s special coverage of refugee resettlement
|
Plans for the State Department to facilitate interviews fell apart while reporter Nina Keck was on the ground in Jordan.
Quick Takes
Vermont Public Radio kicks off $8M facility expansion
|
Vermont Public Radio has started an $8 million expansion to its Colchester facility.
Quick Takes
Thursday roundup: NPR drops Krulwich blog, VPR A Go Go is back
|
Also: A head audio engineer at Oregon Public Broadcasting takes first prize in an Atari contest.
Tech
In maintaining towers, stations face higher costs, lack of space
|
If any part of the broadcast plant ever merited the label “necessary evil,” a top nominee would be the tower. Expensive to maintain, fraught with potential hazards, bound by an ever-growing web of regulations, unloved by neighbors and often located inconveniently far away, a pubcaster’s tower still serves as the essential link between its program service and its audience. In the early years of public TV and radio — before streaming and podcasting and cable and over-the-top video delivery — pubcasters and their audiences depended completely on the reach of the signals their towers could deliver. When broadcasting was a new and developing communications medium, those towers were much easier to build. As long as they weren’t in an airport flight path, the NIMBY factor was rarely a concern as public TV and FM stations spread across the country from the 1950s into the 1970s.