A COMMENCEMENT: SEVEN IDEAS FOR THE NEXT ERA OF PUBLIC RADIO magnificentnoise.com/ prpd You get the audience you deserve. And what you “get” will be determined by your mindset.
(not by external forces) Who are you? Eric Nuzum [email protected]
@ericnuzum
In 2020, the definition of public radio’s public service is changing. In 2020, the definition of public radio’s public service is changing. …has changed!! Note:
Broadcast is not past tense.
The traditional way we serve audiences via broadcast is what has changed. THE ERAS OF PUBLIC RADIO — 1967: Prehistoric
1967 - 1987: Building the Foundation
1987 - 2001: Getting Better
2001 - 2013: THE ERAS OF Local, Local, Local PUBLIC RADIO 2014 - 2020: Age of Disruption 2021 — (?) 2021 — (?)
THE ERA OF TRANSFORMATION
THE ERA OF DECLINE Don’t focus on maintaining status quo. Focus on what doesn’t change. Live the questions, don’t worry about the answers. ACTION ITEM: • What are the three things that won’t change about your station in the next ten years. • Edit those answers into questions. IDEA #1 IDEA #1
BLOCK OFF 10% OF YOUR TIME 10% agenda items: • Walk around and talk with staff—greet everyone. • Ask someone to show you what they are working on. • Solve a small problem. • Sit in an open space and be accessible. • Listen to your shows and station—then send love notes. Your next success will come out of your 10% time. ACTION ITEM: Don’t just agree that this is smart or “commit” to doing it
…block off the time for the next two weeks NOW. IDEA #2
YOU CAN’T SUCCEED AT “LOCAL” UNTIL YOU DEFINE WHAT “LOCAL” MEANS
What does “local” even mean? Answer: • What stories does your newsroom or program cover? • How does it cover these stories? • Why do you do things this way? Make the answers disputable, debatable, and open for regular revision. If your newsroom, program, or network does not have a clearly defined statement of editorial intention (and most likely it doesn’t), then your coverage is being guided by your own biases. Answer: • What stories does your newsroom or program cover? • How does it cover these stories? • Why do you do things this way? ACTION ITEM: Plan out the process to answer these three questions …and do it before November 4th…
Make sure you create a space that’s conducive to dialog, understanding, and debate. IDEA #3
YOU AUDIENCE ISN’T CHANGING… IT HAS ALREADY CHANGED What is the largest generation cohort listening to your station? What is the largest generation cohort listening to your station?
Silent Generation Baby Boomers Generation X Millennial and Gen Z Listeners to Public Radio News Stations 91 Station Sample - PPM Markets 8 Millennial & Generation Z
6 Baby Boomers
4 Generation X
2 Silent Generation Persons per Week (Millions) per Week Persons
0 Fa 10 Fa 11 Fa 12 Fa 13 Fa 14 Fa 15 Fa 16 Fa 17 Fa 18 Fa 19 Sp 10 Sp 11 Sp 12 Sp 13 Sp 14 Sp 15 Sp 16 Sp 17 Sp 18 Sp 18 Sp 20
AudiGraphics Listening to Public Radio News Stations 91 Station Sample - PPM Markets 34
29 Baby Boomers
24 Millennial & Generation Z 19 Generation X 15
10
Listener-Hours per Week (millions) per Week Listener-Hours Silent Generation 5
0 Fa 10 Fa 11 Fa 12 Fa 13 Fa 14 Fa 15 Fa 16 Fa 17 Fa 18 Fa 19 Sp 10 Sp 11 Sp 12 Sp 13 Sp 14 Sp 15 Sp 16 Sp 17 Sp 18 Sp 18 Sp 20
AudiGraphics Who is your station speaking to?
Who is your station programmed for? Anything on your station that is the same as it was six years ago needs to change. Anything on your station that is the same as it was six years ago needs to Six months!! change. ACTION ITEM: Answer these: • What programs are of interest to my target audience? • What topics and news stories are of interest to my target audience? • How do we talk on air that reflects them and their world? IDEA #4
YOU WILL NOT HIRE YOUR NEXT STAR; YOU WILL MAKE YOUR NEXT STAR “I need diverse candidates for my senior leadership position.” Hiring top talent is hard and expensive.
So…make your own. ACTION ITEM:
• Station-wide mentoring program • Train your successor (and make sure they are different than you) • Start a community training program. IDEA #5
IDENTIFY YOUR “CONTRIBUTORS” AND YOUR “INVESTMENTS” aka: STOP THINKING EVERYTHING NEEDS TO PAY FOR ITSELF Primary reason things die:
“[Project X] can’t pay for itself.” Who says everything has to pay for itself? Resources given to contributors generate revenue.
Resources given to investments generate learning and ideas. In Amazon:
Retail and AWS are contributors.
Alexa is an investment. What are the contributors and investments at your station? Invest to: • Learn how to do something new. • Build staff and station capacity and skill. • Build morale and culture. • Test crazy ideas and learn to accept risk. ACTION ITEM:
• What are your station’s contributors? • What are your station’s investments? • What metric will you use to evaluate investments? • Ask yourself…
WHY ARE YOU DOING EVERYTHING ELSE? IDEA #6
STOP OVER-PROGRAMMING WEEKENDS Want to free up 10s of thousands of dollars in cash, create an innovation fund at your station, maximize your program dollars, and streamline your station’s on-air promotion efforts? Drop 70% of your weekend programming Average number of Average number of weekend hours heard programs on a by core? weekend 1-2 25 hours Who are the weekends programmed for? Contribu on of Na onal Programs to Na onal Audience Spring 2020 100%
Four hundred distinct nationally-distributed 75% programs are aired by public radio stations
50%
25% Percent of Na onal Audience to Acquired Programs Acquired to Audience of Na onal Percent 0% 0 100 200 300 400 Number of Na onally-Distributed Programs AudiGraphics Contribu on of Na onal Programs to Na onal Audience Spring 2020 100%
Twenty programs generate 80% of all 75% listening to acquired programming
50%
25% 80% Percent of Na onal Audience to Acquired Programs Acquired to Audience of Na onal Percent 0% 0 100 200 300 400 Number of Na onally-Distributed Programs AudiGraphics Contribu on of Na onal Programs to Na onal Audience Spring 2020 100%
75%
50%
25%
200 nationally-distributed programs generate .4% of all listening to acquired programming
.4% Programs Acquired to Audience of Na onal Percent 0% 0 100 200 300 400 Number of Na onally-Distributed Programs AudiGraphics What is the benefit of all this glut? Choice isn’t always a good thing
In the past 20 years, there has been a net increase of 83 programs, yet no meaningful increase in listening. Top 20 Na onal Programs vs All Others 55 420
41 315
TOP 20 ALL OTHERS Number of Programs
28 210
14 105 Number of Na onally-Distributed Programs Number of Na onally-Distributed Na onal Audience for Acquired Programming (LHs) Programming Acquired for Audience Na onal
0 0 F01 F02 F03 F04 F05 F06 F07 F08 F09 F10 F11 F12 F13 F14 F15 F16 F17 F18 F19 S01 S02 S03 S04 S05 S06 S07 S08 S09 S10 S11 S12 S13 S14 S15 S16 S17 S18 S19 S20
AudiGraphics Besides the news mags… Pick four and run them repeatedly throughout the weekend. In the Top 20
Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday Wait Wait Don't Tell Me This American Life Top weekend shows
Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday Wait Wait Don't Tell Me This American Life Radiolab ATC Saturday TED Radio Hour On the Media Moth Radio Hour ATC Sunday Ask Me Another The New Yorker Radio Hour Reveal Snap Judgment What are the bottom 200
A World of Possibilities • Acoustic Accents • Against the Grain • Alan Watts' The Love of Wisdom • Alaskan Fisheries Report • American Graduate Series • American Indian Living • American Landscapes • American Parlor Songbook • American Standards by the Sea • American Variety Radio • Are We There Yet? • Art of the Song • Atlanta Symphony Orchestra • Background Briefing • BBC Promenade Concerts • Best of Our Knowledge • Between the Lines • Bluegrass Review • Blues & Beyond • Blues America • Blues from the Red Rooster • Blues Quest • Bluesmobile Radio Hour • Bonjour Africa • Book Talk • Bookwaves • Bookworm • Brazilian Hour • Building Bridges • California Capital Report • Cambridge Forum • Capital Report-Florida • Celebration! • Celtic Connections • Centerstage Minnesota • City Club Forum • Community Progressive Radio • Compact Discoveries • Concertgebouw Now • Cyber Media • Dream Farm Radio • DW WorldLink • DW: World in Progress • Earth Eats • Earthbeat Radio • Earthsongs • Encounters • European Jazz Stage • Every Little Thing • Exploration • Feature Story News • First Voices Radio • Flashpoints • Folk Sampler • Food Sleuth Radio • For The Wild • Freedom From Religion • Fronteras • Full Moon Hacksaw • Gilmore International Keyboard Festival • Good Books Radio • Grand Teton Music Festival • Great American Orchestras • Grey Matters • Hard Knock Radio • High Plains News Service • Highway 61 • Home Ground • Hour of Slack • Humankind • IdeaSphere • Illinois State Week in Review • In Black America • Indianapolis Symphony on the Air • INDIGEFI • Inflection Point • Informativo Pacifica • Inspirations Across America • International Americana Music Show • Into the Music • Jazz At 100 • Jazz Countdown • Jazz Inspired • Jazz Odyssey • Jazz Rhythm • Joe Frank • Juke in the Back • Keller's Cellar • Kim Scott's Block Party • Law & Disorder • Legislative Gazette - New York • Live from the Divide • Living American Composers • Living Planet • Loafers Gallery • Master Control • Midnight Special • Music City Roots • Music Mountain • Native Sounds Native Voices • Needle Drop • New Letters on the Air • New Urban Jazz Lounge • Nightly Business Report • No I Know • Notes from the Jazz Underground • Noticero Latino • On Story • On Track • One Night Stand • Ongoing History of New Music • Pacifica News • Pacifica Radio Archives • Passport Approved • Person Place Thing • Planetary Radio • Playing on Air • Portraits in Blue • Powerline • Project Censored • Public Radio Environment Show • Public Radio Health Show • Public Radio Law Show • Quirks and Quarks • Radio Ecoshock • Radio Unleashed • Red Barn Radio • Reel Music • Relevant Tones • Return to the Source • Ritmo Latino • River City Folk • Rock School • Rockin' in the Days of Confusion • Romantic Hours • Roots of Smooth • Saturday Light Brigade • Saturday Night New Orleans Radio • Savannah Music Festival • Sea Change Radio • Shortwave Report • Sierra Club Radio • Sing for Joy • Sing Out Song Bag • So What's Your Story? • Song Travels • Soul Deluxe • Sound Ideas • Space Radio • Spoleto Festival • Sprouts Radio • State News Reports • Stuck in the Psychodelic Era • Studio 360 • Sundilla Radio Hour • Syndicated Drama • Syndicated Entertainment • Syndicated Jazz • Talk Nation Radio • Talk of Alaska • Texas Matters • The Appetizer • The Bioneers • The Bone Conduction Show • The Checkout • The Final Straw • The Latin Alternative • The Lutheran Hour • The New Jazz Archive • The Organ Loft • The R&B Chronicles • The Ralph Nader Radio Hour • The Stone Age • The Story Hour • This Way Out • Time of Useful Consciousness • Tropicalismo • Under the Influence • Underground Garage • Unshackled • Uprising Radio • Value This • Voices from the Circle • Voices of the World • Washington Week • WBGO Jazz • We Are Science • Weekly Feed • West Coast Weekend • What's the Frequency Kenneth • WINGS • Wiretap • Wisdom of the Elders • World Affairs Council • World Have Your Say • World Radio Network One • Writers Voice • Your Legal Rights • Your Weekly Constitutional Average carriage of bottom programs 23 What is the collective investment in all these programs and how better could those resources be used? There is a place for niche programming…and it isn’t on your station. ACTION ITEM:
• Pick four non-news mag shows and repeat them throughout the weekend. • Promote the hell out of them. • Spend the saved money on your future. IDEA #7
UNDERSTAND THAT YOUR JOB HASN’T CHANGED …BUT IT HAS EXPANDED Are you a curator or a creator? Chief Program Content Director Officer Chief Content Program Director Officer
Audience’s advocate in the Chief editor of programming the station’s heard on the output radio station
Curation Creation Curation Creation Are you a curator or a creator?
(And who is doing the other half of your job?) Over the past six months, a lot of stations sound like they are on autopilot. ACTION ITEM:
• Recognize what you are and compensate where you are not as strong. • Do I follow best practices for radio curation and programming? You get the audience you deserve. In an ideal world, what is your vision for the future of public radio? The thing holding us back from our “ideal word” isn’t external forces…it is us. “The first thing that I see is a situation driven by habits of consumers that are not related to the content of our programs.”
“You’d look at the demographic trends and young people were not listening to radio like older people.” RADIO IS IN DECLINE since 1983 What if you were hired to be the CEO of a company with 27 million legacy customers. Would you just give up on them? Starting today, you are either a co-conspirator in transformation
or satisfied with decline.
There is no other choice. So? Who are you? Thank you to
David Giovannoni, AudiGraphics, Izzi Smith, Abby Goldstein, Matt Martinez, and Mabel… Questions? magnificentnoise.com/prpd Eric Nuzum [email protected]
@ericnuzum