WUGA FM Public Relations Campaigns 5950/7950 Abby Taylor, Allison Miller, Bailee Smith, Ben McMichael, Chris Swinson, Clair Owens, Elizabeth Bonnie, Marisa Stout, Riley Muse, Samantha Gelfand, Sarah Refuss, Shelby McCaskill and Taylor Kay TABLE OF CONTENTS Situation Analysis - 2 Master Tactic List - 18 Goal 1 Objective 1 Tactics - 25 Objective 2 Tactics - 98 Goal 2 Objective 1 Tactics - 121 Objective 2 Tactics - 133 Objective 3 Tactics - 155 Evaluation - 172 Budget - 174 Gantt Chart - 180 Research - 181 1 SITUATION ANALYSIS I. Description of Organization a. Based in Athens, Georgia, WUGA is a public radio station that partners with Georgia Public Broadcasting to distribute local and national news, information and music programming to Athens and the surrounding areas of northeast Georgia. WUGA operates through the University of Georgia and is affiliated with National Public Radio. The station airs its segments on two frequencies, 91.7 and 94.5, which together reach the entire community, including downtown Athens and the UGA campus. The station has over 25,000 listeners and covers a forty-mile radius. b. WUGA’s programming schedule integrates segments produced both locally and nationally, allowing its audience to receive a wide variety of content. National segments include “BBC World Service,” “Performance Today” and “Here and Now.” Two of the station’s most popular segments are “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered.” “Morning Edition” offers multi-faceted stories and commentaries on a variety of subjects, and has earned a place as the most listened-to news radio program in the country, while “All Things Considered” is the most listened-to afternoon news radio program in the country. In addition to this content, WUGA offers locally-produced segments specific to Athens. These include “Nothing Funny about Money,” which is produced by professors at UGA’s College of Family and Consumer Sciences; “Athens News Matters,” a bi-weekly segment that invites citizens and community leaders to discuss Athens; and “African Perspectives,” which examines African culture and is hosted by another UGA professor. The content offered and produced by WUGA is authentic, well- crafted and researched, and delivered in a compelling and interesting manner. 2 The quality of reporting and storytelling offered through WUGA is highly-valuable and unique to media platforms in Athens. c. WUGA is supported by state funds, and its seven full-time employees are paid by the University of Georgia. In addition to state support, WUGA generates a significant amount of income from over 70 underwriters, which consist of businesses and organizations in and around Athens who have purchased announcements to support the station. These funds go toward the cost of producing news, public affairs and music segments featured on WUGA. WUGA frequently employs fundraising efforts to support and continue providing its services as well. These efforts include events, letter-writing campaigns and promotion of the 1987 Club. Listeners of the station can become members of the 1987 Club, which is based upon the year WUGA began broadcasting, by donating $19.87 to the station monthly. The 1987 Club is the station’s most recent effort to promote sustained donorship among its listeners. WUGA also holds six to eight events a year in which attendees pay an entrance fee. Its Artists in Residence series, in which visual artists open up their homes and display their work, is a popular event in the community. II. Industry Trends a. The field of media, especially traditional media, has seen significant shifts in recent years. The most obvious shift has been through the development of new technologies and their role in information dissemination. New media have changed the way users access and consume news and information. People can now get news on their devices at all times thanks to online media, and the rise of social media has drastically changed how news is shared and dispersed. In 2017, two-thirds of American adults get news from social media, according to a Pew Research Study. The expansion of the Internet means that people want to receive news on- demand and on their own schedule. This is one reason that podcasts have gained popularity in recent years; listeners want the ability to listen to segments on their own terms and to have the ability to pause and replay. This poses a threat to traditional radio because listeners may choose on-demand streaming sources over live broadcasts for their flexibility. b. These new forms of media, however, can present specific problems for people using them to receive news. Push notifications on iPhones mean that many people only read headlines without ever diving into the specifics of major issues, and social media becomes a hub of “fake news” and unreliable sources. In these respects, it is a critical time for radio. The tumultuous election cycle of 2016 has resulted in decreased trust in the media overall. According to a Gallup poll, trust in the media has dropped to just 32 percent, an eight percent decrease in the last year. Old models of communication are being turned upside down, and the media landscape is 3 transforming as a result. NPR and its affiliates, however, have managed to maintain trust and a loyal following during this uncertain time for traditional media outlets. According to Nielsen Audio ratings, the total weekly listeners for all programming on NPR stations reached an all time high in fall of 2016. These numbers suggest an exciting time for radio and the opportunity for NPR affiliates such as WUGA to reach and gain new and loyal listeners. III. Competitive Analysis a. While several other radio stations exist in Athens, WUGA is unique in that it is the only outlet able to offer both NPR-produced content and local content. Fox News WGAU, dubbed “Athens News and Weather Station,” covers local and national news on 98.7FM. However, it airs primarily conservative talk programs and is therefore unable to provide the same unbiased and versatile content that WUGA can. The remainder of the Athens-based radio shows are music-oriented, with WUOG being one of the most popular and well-known among UGA students. Aired on 90.5FM, WUOG is a UGA student-run radio station focused on alternative music and entertainment. b. In addition to radio stations, a number of traditional media outlets exist in Athens that compete for the time, attention and loyalty of Athens locals. These include the Red&Black, Online Athens and Flagpole Magazine. All of these outlets offer both traditional print editions and online content that cover both local and national issues, which presents competition for WUGA. In 2016, the Pew Research Center found that while only two in ten Americans get news from print newspapers, twice as many (38 percent) get news online either from news apps, websites or social media. This compares to just 25 percent of Americans who get news from radio. IV. Publics a. WUGA’s audience is largely made up of Athens locals and those whose permanent residence is in Athens or the surrounding areas, rather than students who are temporarily living in the city. This includes UGA faculty, many of whom are avid listeners of the station. Out of 17 faculty survey respondents, 15 had listened to WUGA before. Ten of those faculty respondents listen to WUGA every day. WUGA’s listeners are more likely to be college-educated, with seven out of 10 NPR listeners having a bachelor’s degree or higher. Listeners of WUGA are also older, working adults with established careers and incomes. In WUGA’s 2015 market trends survey, 90 percent of respondents were 35 years of age or older, and 70 percent were between the ages of 45 and 74. Of all NPR listeners, 43 percent have family incomes of $75,000 or more. 4 b. Our target audience consists of millennials in Athens, specifically UGA students. Our survey, focus group and interview responses indicated that few students had ever listened to or regularly listened to WUGA. Many were not familiar with the station, with 77 percent of survey respondents saying they did not know the difference between WUGA and WUOG. While there is currently a low awareness of the station, we believe there are significant opportunities to target this group and address this issue. With millennials increasingly seeking authentic news outlets for critical new topics, WUGA can gain loyal listeners from this group. V. SWOT Analysis a. Strengths As Jimmy Sanders stated in the client briefing, “[WUGA] is the only station in the community doing what we do.” WUGA is an official NPR affiliate radio station for the University of Georgia and surrounding areas, and is the only source of public radio in the area. Public radio is notably designed to be a politically impartial source of news, giving a voice to opinions from all sides of an issue. In a world of increasingly partisan media sources, unbiased sources like this become more and more crucial for fair and accurate reporting -- and more people turn to these sources. WUGA has seven full-time staff members who are consistent, professional, and highly experienced. In addition to these staff members, they also have a variety of programming from outside sources that bring a greater breadth of experience, viewpoints, and ideas to the station. One example of this programming is “There’s Nothing Funny About Money,” a segment that discusses and simplifies matters of personal finance. Another strength is WUGA’s 1987 Club, the station’s fundraising program that encourages donors to give $19.87 per month. The benefit of this program is that members of the 1987 Club bring in consistent donations that WUGA can anticipate each month, allowing the station to predict fundraising contributions in advance.