Public Radio Programming Strategies
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From the ARAnet On-Line Library Of Public Radio Research Public Radio Programming Strategies by David Giovannoni, Thomas J. Thomas, and Theresa R. Clifford (111 pages) Originally published as: Giovannoni, David, Thomas, Thomas J., and Clifford, Theresa R. Public Radio Programming Strategies: A Report on the Programming Stations Broadcast and the People They Seek to Serve. Washington, DC: Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 1992. aranet.com Copyright © 1992 Corporation for Public Broadcasting Copyright © 1999 David Giovannoni, Audience Research Analysis All rights reserved ii PUBLIC RADIO PROGRAMMING STRATEGIES A Report on the Programming Stations Broadcast And the People They Seek to Serve David Giovannoni Audience Research Analysis Derwood, MD Thomas J. Thomas Theresa R. Clifford Thomas & Clifford Takoma Park, MD PUBLIC RADIO PROGRAMMING STRATEGIES Funds provided by: Corporation for Public Broadcasting The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Copyright 0 1992 Corporation for Public Broadcasting 901 E Street NW Washington, DC 20004 ISBN O-89776-126-X CONTENTS 1. INTR~DUWI~N . 1 2. CONTEXTANDDESIGN . 4 Design of the Project; Conducting the “Census” 3. PROGRAMMINGCOHORTS . 9 Multiple Cohort Membership; What Shapesthe Cohorts?; What Describes the Cohorts?; Programming Cohorts -The Big Picture; Format Definitions; The Programming Profiles; The Network News Dominant Cohort; The Local Public Affairs Dominant Cohort, The Classical Dominant Cohort; The Rock, Jazz, & “Other” Music Dominant Cohort, The Local Alternative Cohort, The Classical, News, & Jazz Cohort; The Acquired Eclectic Cohort; The Local Eclectic With Folk Cohort; The Local Eclectic With Words Cohort 4. PROGRAMMINGCOHORTSCOMPARED . 32 Size, Audience, and NFFS; The Relative Sizes of the Programming Cohorts; Programming Dimensions; Sourceand Daypart; Non-English Programming, Information and Music; Programming and Non-Programming Characteristics 5. FUTUREDIRECTIONS OF THEPROGRAMMINGCOHORTS . 39 Format Focusing, Today’s Cohorts Tomorrow; Cohorts of Today and Tomorrow, The Dispersing Classical, News, & Jazz Cohort; The Emerging Jazz Dominant Cohort; Crossover Among Current & Future Programming Cohorts; Public Radio’s Shifting Information Cohorts; Realignment of the Network News Dominant Cohort; Realignment of the Public Afairs Cohorts; More Information More of the Time; Future Characteristics Compared 6. APPEALCOHORTS . 51 Appeal; Appeal As Measured in This Study; Appeal’s Two Interpretations; Important First Steps; Appeal Cohorts; PerceivedAppeal Norms; The Well-Educated Appeal Cohort; The Older Appeal Cohort; The Mid-Age Appeal Cohort; The Multiple Appeal Cohort; The Younger Appeal Cohort 7. APPEALCOHORTS COMPARED . 61 Size, Audience, and NFFS; The Relative Sizesof the Appeal Cohorts; Appeal Dimensions; Age Appeal; Education Appeal; Minority Appeal; Programming and Non-Programming Characteristics 8. AUDIENCESERVICEDIMENSIONS . 66 Audience Service Dimensions of Public Radio Stations; Audience Service Dimensions of the Appeal Cohorts; Future Appeal Cohorts 9. COMBININGPROGRAMMINGANDAPPEAL . 71 10. APPLYINGTHEDATABASE . 75 Minority Issues; Who Are These Stations?; Minority Stations and Cohorts; Two Measures of Minority Service; Black Listeners and Strategic Cohorts; Hispanic Listeners and Strategic Cohorts; Expansion Issues; The Expansion Station Audience; Expansion Stations Today; Expansion Stations Tomorrow; Expansion and CSG-SupportedStations Compared; Where Expansion Stations Make a Difference; Subsequent Inquiries; Obtaining the Database How COHORTS AREDETERMINED AND AFFILIATION LIST . 91 PUBLIC RADIO PROGRAMMINGSTRATEGIES 1 INTRODUCTION Public radio stations embrace a mission that speaks to the highest standards of public service in journalism and cultural expression; many draw from a shared body of national programming; and from station to station, community to community, the kinds of listeners drawn to public radio have much in common. At the same time, the independent and local character of America’s public radio stations is reflected in clear and measurable differences in the programming strategies through which they serve listeners. Central questions such as “Whom do you seek to serve?” and “What kinds of programming will comprise your service?” evoke ever more diverse answers from an expanding public radio system. This report presents the findings from a comprehensive ascertainment of public radio stations’ programming strategies. The study was conducted on behalf of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by Audience Research Analysis and Thomas & Clifford. More than 740 stations were contacted for the study; some 570 chose to participate. The project’s central thrust is to seek out underlying patterns in the key dimensions of stations’ audience service - the kinds of programming they present and the kinds of listeners they serve - and to identify where these patterns are shared among significant numbers of stations. The result is a new framework through which to explore the natural alignments and prospective partnerships among stations. PUBLIC RADIO PROGRAMMINGSTRATEGIES highlights the shared audience-service goals hidden within the complexity of today’s and tomorrow’s public radio system. These shared goals can guide public radio’s strategic planning along audience- service lines. They shape numerous opportunities to preserve and strengthen public radio’s programming and audience diversity. They will be the foundation of new programming streams designed to reach listeners now at the periphery of public radio’s audience. This study finds that large numbers of stations concentrate in the familiar public radio programming areas of classical music and news. But significant numbers of stations feature other combinations of formats - enough to comprise nine programming-based “cohorts,” groups of stations with similar programming profiles. 1 PUBLIC RADIO PROGRAMMINGSTRATEGIES Similarly, large numbers of stations perceive that their service is most appealing to public radio’s familiar demographic clusters of white, highly-educated, and older listeners. But significant numbers of stations believe they now serve quite different audience segments, including listeners who are younger, more racially diverse, and who have not (or not yet) attended or completed college. Audience data, to the extent it is available, confirms this perception. The study identifies five distinctive appeal-based station cohorts, each with its own audience mix. The study finds several broad directions of change in stations’ programming profiles. Individual stations will be more focused in their programming efforts, more discriminating in their program choices. They plan to devote more time to fewer formats. To best serve these stations, producers and funders will need to apply a similar focus and precision. Stations in almost all programming cohorts plan to present more information programming. One new programming cohort will in fact be a “News and Public Affairs” group - a more intense variation of current information-oriented cohorts. Stations plan to maintain the current balance between local and acquired programming, which tilts about 60/40 in favor of local programming. Over the next few years, as stations contemplate somewhat longer broadcast schedules, they expect to add an average of some two hours per week of acquired material. The directions of change in audience targets are softer. Stations now at the extremes of the age continuum - those serving very young and very old listeners - would like to migrate toward a more middle-aged audience. Many stations expect to see more black listeners in the their audience, as well as more listeners who have not completed a college education. The study anticipates greater diversity in programming and target audiences - not within a given station’s program schedule, but among several stations within the same community. For example, even as a given station is working to focus its schedule on a particular service “niche,” other stations in the same community are committed to quite different strategies - different kinds of programming for different kinds of listeners. There are both differences and similarities between the programming and audience goals of stations that are supported by CPB and those that are not. As “expansion stations” join the system in the next few years they will change it. One dynamic will be new themes in programming and audience targets that these stations introduce. Just as important, if not more so, will be areas in which they align with currently CPB-supported, interconnected stations to create a “critical mass” of stations focused on a particular programming strategy. The emergence of a new “Jazz Dominant” cohort is one such example. 2 INTRODUCTION Similarities and differences also exist among stations that are operated by minorities and those that are not. Although minority stations do tend to cluster in a few cohorts, they do not define their own. Indeed, black-managed stations are joining the “mainstream” - or perhaps, the mainstream is joining them, as the emerging Jazz Dominant cohort will be a mixture of black- and white-operated stations. Perhaps most important of all, the study finds that the programming and audience service aspirations of stations unite in ways that cut across geography, network affiliation, or eligibility for a given grant at CPB. The focus of the project’s strategic cohorts are stations