The lyrics to Carmen Ohio may date back to 1902, but seem fitting in 2016. It has been a time of change and of great anticipation at WOSU Public Media. I hope you will page through this Community Report to see the breadth of your dynamic local public media organization. Our success reaching a greater audience for all our media channels is especially remarkable at a time when you have so many media choices literally at your fingertips. For example, our average annual listener growth over the past six years for 89.7 NPR News and Classical 101 is 18 percent and 12 percent, respectively. And how about this one: the average percentage growth of video views on CONTENTS our wosu.org website is over 140 percent. That’s for every year since 2010! Letter from Tom Rieland 2 A major challenge in 2016 was the departure of our TV studios and production center from the COSI Science Center. We hosted debates, forums, performances, and more at WOSU@COSI – a remarkable space Overview 3 that brought the community together. While WOSU has moved all its television studios into the OSU Fawcett Center, an exciting opportunity Arts, Life & Culture 4 is on the horizon. WOSU Public Media plans, with individual and corporate support, to Digital Media 9 move its headquarters to a new building as part of the 15th & High University District. This vision may take some time, but we’re thrilled with the potential it offers to expand our programming and service reach Financials 12 and grow our ability to “engage, inform and inspire” all the citizens of central Ohio. Look for more to come on the WOSU 15th & High project. Major Contributors 13 We hope you enjoy surveying some of what we do to make this a better community to live and work. Thank you for your support! Learning & Public Engagement 18 News & Public Affairs 22 Tom Rieland WOSU Public Media General Manager 2 COVERING OVER A QUARTER OF OHIO 2 Public Radio Stations 89.7 NPR News and Classical 101 Plus 4 Regional FM Stations: Coshocton, Portsmouth Marion, Mansfield 2 Public TV Stations Columbus & Portsmouth And 3 Channels: WOSU TV, WOSU PLUS & WOSU OHIO 1 Mobile App Available for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Android and Amazon devices 2 Websites wosu.org and columbusneighborhoods.org 3 4 Thursday Nights on WOSU TV It’s a one-two primetime punch that demonstrates WOSU’s commitment to sharing the stories that are unique to our community. Broad & High and Columbus Neighborhoods – two nationally recognized, Emmy® award-winning programs– now premiere each Thursday night at 8pm and 8:30pm respectively. And complementing each show is an extensive and vibrant online digital presence that makes all of this content available on-demand to thousands more. With the generous support of The Greater Columbus Arts Council, Broad & High continues to offer powerful and engaging portraits of local artists and arts organizations. This vital exposure goes beyond WOSU’s broadcast signal in central Ohio: many of the segments are aired across the nation on PBS stations through an innovative cooperative programming initiative. Successfully transitioning this year from occasional documentaries to a weekly magazine format, Columbus Neighborhoods explores living in Columbus—then and now. That includes historical stories, such as our look at the locally owned and now defunct Big Bear grocery chain, which attracted tens of thousands of web views. Current stories about Columbus’ living, breathing neighborhoods are also included, such as our extensive portrait of the newly revitalized Reeb Elementary School, with its mission to encourage community solutions by housing several service organizations in a cherished building. Production support for Columbus Neighborhoods is provided by Capital Sponsors: American Electric Power and State Auto Insurance Companies; Hometown Sponsors: Bailey Cavalieri LLC, COTA, Fahlgren Mortine, OhioHealth and The Columbus Foundation; Contributing Sponsors: Barbara Fergus, Nancy Jeffrey, The Hattie and Robert Lazarus Fund of The Columbus Foundation, Thomas and Nancy Lurie, and Robert and Missy Weiler. Thursday night: one of the most watched nights on television. That’s why WOSU placed its landmark local series here front and center. 5 COLUMBUS IS A CITY OF IMMIGRANTS SOME ARRIVED LONG AGO SOME ARRIVED YESTERDAY Columbus Neighborhoods: New Americans The last documentary in Columbus Neighborhoods, WOSU’s groundbreaking TOP 5 SHOWS local programming series, was perhaps its most ambitious and daunting. After ON WOSU TV 11 hour-long documentaries produced over six years focusing on the city’s historic neighborhoods, WOSU would break geographical boundaries to tell the story of a community that is found nearly everywhere: New Americans. Downton Abbey: 1 The Final Season To do this WOSU would have to unravel complicated histories of arrivals through the years by people of all nationalities: some welcomed, some not. 2 Antiques Roadshow Language barriers would have to be overcome. People still trying to find their place in a new city and a new country were asked to share their stories of struggle and persistence. We convinced many people—some of them living Democratic Presidential 3 in relative isolation, and some of them fearful—to trust us with their stories. Debate Columbus Neighborhoods: New Americans was the appropriate and perhaps inevitable conclusion to this extraordinary documentary series. By showing Churchill’s Secret 4 the challenges, struggles, and successes of those recently arrived, the on Masterpiece program reminded us of the strength, tenacity, and imagination required of everyone—regardless of when or how they got here—to create the 53,364 5 Poldark on Masterpiece remarkable community we live in today. Average Number of Columbus Homes that Watched the Final Season of Downton Abbey New American Voices Series on 89.7 NPR News Columbus is a city of immigrants. Some arrived long ago. Some arrived 17,600 yesterday. As part of WOSU Public Media’s Emmy® award-winning People Watched the Columbus Neighborhoods documentary series, 89.7 NPR News reporter Sam Premiere of Hendren shared a series of nine stories which focused on the experiences Columbus Neighborhoods: of Columbus immigrants and their families. New Americans The weekly radio profiles included the story of Bertha Santos, a Mexican immigrant who owns a thriving bakery and grocery on the far west side of Columbus. Listeners also heard the story of Bhutanese refugee Kashi Adhikari, Afghan immigrant Noorgul Dada, and others. This series was supported by a grant from Ohio Humanities. 6 Songs at the Center This year, Songs at the Center went national. Securing distribution through American Public Television, WOSU was able to help this locally produced show air on more than 100 public television stations coast In 2016, WOSU TV celebrated 60 years to coast. The program showcases singer-songwriters performing on air. Its humble beginnings were in a “in the round” before a live audience. It blends interviews, spontaneous modest building off North Star Road with on-stage interaction, and special features. Taped at the Peggy R. an antenna that stood in a farm field. Its McConnell Arts Center of Worthington, it can be seen on its ‘home 10-kilowatt signal could be received only station’ Saturday nights at 11pm on WOSU TV. within a 42-mile radius of the station, and then only if households had installed UHF converters in their sets. But over the years the service adapted and evolved with time and technology. From the Space Race to the Columbus mayoral race, WOSU TV has been there for 60 years as the only 53,364 local PBS station for central Ohio. Average Number of Columbus Homes that Watched the Final Season 3rd of Downton Abbey Highest Percentage of African-American TV Viewers in the Country* *Out of 56 markets surveyed Downton Abbey Finale WOSU’s highest-rated show of 2016 was the first episode of the final season. And the second-highest rated episode for WOSU was the last episode of Downton Abbey. We would love to continue the show and as the Dowager Countess said, ending the series, “If we only had the choice!” We’re all still in denial about the end of Downton Abbey, but that didn’t stop us from celebrating the series finale at the Gateway Film Center in March. We hosted nearly 150 people for a screening party with live trivia, prizes and giveaways to send the Crawleys out in style. 7 Classical 101 Reflections 2016 saw some staffing changes at Classical 101. After 30 years with WOSU Public Media, Classical Program Director Beverley Ervine retired in July. Long-time morning host Boyce Lancaster retired at the end of August and, after a well-earned rest, returned on a part-time basis to his regular morning slot…much to the delight 20 of his dedicated morning listeners. Christopher Purdy filled in as a In-studio Guests knowledgeable and familiar voice during the interim, never once on Classical 101 complaining about the early hours! Jennifer Hambrick stepped in as Music Director, shouldering much of the programming workload after Bev’s retirement. And in October, Cheryl Dring assumed the role of Classical Program Director, coming to Columbus after more than 30 years in classical public radio in markets from New Orleans to Sacramento, Madison to Austin, and a few spots in between. Our hosts represent the station at concerts and events around central Ohio, and Classical 101 reflects many of the amazing musical happenings in Columbus in our local programming. Our online and social media presence continued to grow. The Classical 101 Facebook page garnered more than 3,000 likes and expanded into Facebook Live videos of interviews and in-studio performances; these videos routinely drew audiences in the 60,000 thousands. And our online content became easier than ever for new audiences to discover because of efforts in search engine Average Weekly optimization.