WAMU 88.5 FM American University Radio 2006 Annual Report 6705-1_WAMU_AR06.indd 1 1/26/07 1:21:54 PM WAMU 88.5 FM American University Radio A Letter from American University Interim President, Dr. Cornelius M. Kerwin As a longtime member of the American University community, WAMU 88.5 has been a part of my life for more than 30 years. In addition to offering news, information, and civilized discourse for radio listeners in the nation’s capital, WAMU 88.5 is an important part of American University’s educational mission. Through its local news coverage and well-known talk programs, the station is a great ambassador for AU. The Diane Rehm Show, in national syndication, takes our name to more than 00 stations around the country. With its community-based programming, The Kojo Nnamdi Show takes an in-depth look at local issues and prompts thoughtful discussion. The town halls and panel discussions facilitated by WAMU Cornelius M. Kerwin, American University Interim President 88.5’s collaborations with America Abroad Media and the AU School of Communication promote an on-air review of the important issues of the day. In addition to this record of success, WAMU 88.5 is constantly looking to the future for technological innovations that will increase our broadcasting services. WAMU 88.5 is a leader in the testing of HD Radio®, and we anticipate broadening our top-notch radio services into the future. These are a few examples of WAMU 88.5’s role in furthering American University’s ideals of global education, civic involvement, and awareness of today’s important issues. We look forward to future plans and innovations that will benefit our listeners and friends even more. 6705-1_WAMU_AR06.indd 2 1/26/07 1:21:58 PM WAMU 88.5 FM American University Radio A Letter from WAMU 88.5’s General Manager, Caryn G. Mathes As we celebrate 45 years as your NPR station in the nation’s capital, we envision WAMU 88.5 developing into a family of content services. From our traditional analog signal heard on radios throughout the region to online streaming audio and podcasts and the budding technology of HD Radio, our commitment is the same as ever: to be the media standard-bearer for reasoned civil discourse in our community. This tradition was alive and well in Fiscal Year 2006 with the continued success of WAMU 88.5–produced programs. The Diane Rehm Show remained on the global scene with balanced analysis and perspective while expanding its audience overseas as part of the new NPR Berlin service. The “first lady of public radio Caryn Mathes, talk programming” was also honored in Italy with the inaugural Urbino Press Award, created to recognize WAMU 88.5 General Manager outstanding work by American journalists. The Kojo Nnamdi Show continued to bring local culture and politics into focus, while host Kojo Nnamdi was named a “Washingtonian of the Year” by Washingtonian magazine, in recognition of his contributions to the community. Metro Connection followed through on its goal to connect listeners to news and cultural happenings from the District, Virginia, and Maryland. As always, WAMU 88.5 augmented its own program productions in 2006 with the best of network offerings from a variety of respected producers and sources around the world. We participated once again in the Public Radio Collaboration, an annual national conversation on an important topic of interest in the world. This past year, the collaboration focused on the topic “Think Global,” with programs that explored our connections to local communities and the rest of the world. WAMU 88.5 took a step into the future in 2006, putting its HD Radio multi-casting abilities to the test with special gavel-to-gavel coverage of the confirmation hearings for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Nominee John G. Roberts on WAMU2, the station’s second HD Radio channel. It was a great opportunity to raise awareness of the emerging technology and to demonstrate the enhanced community service it will allow us to offer listeners in the very near future. Of course, WAMU 88.5 continued its support in 2006 for our community’s cultural roots with traditional music programming. Listeners can still hear bluegrass music all day Sundays on WAMU 88.5 and 24 hours a day at BluegrassCountry.org. Ed Walker, host of The Big Broadcast, celebrated 5 years on WAMU 88.5 at the end of this past year, and Hot Jazz Saturday Night host Rob Bamberger celebrated 25 years on the air. Hot Jazz Saturday Night also experienced expanded distribution through the NPR Berlin service. The end of this past year marked the end of my first year as General Manager of WAMU 88.5. I’m greatly encouraged by our growth and by the ever-increasing support from our community. Without our members and listeners, we would quickly lose both relevance and the power of the microphone. I’m gratified that listeners continue to entrust us with that power, making us their first choice for NPR news, talk, and cultural programming in the nation’s capital. 6705-1_WAMU_AR06.indd 3 1/26/07 1:22:01 PM WAMU 88.5 FM American University Radio WAMU 88.5 Annual Report Fiscal Year 2006 Programming Highlights . 2 Awards, Anniversaries, and Special Events . 2 Community Outreach. 4 American University Radio . 8 wamu.org . 9 Technology . 20 WAMU 88.5 Funding . 2 AU Board of Trustees, FY 2006 . 30 AU Employees, FY 2006 . 3 6705-1_WAMU_AR06.indd 1 1/26/07 1:22:03 PM WAMU 88.5 FM American University Radio 2 PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS Audience Update WAMU 88.5 consistently is ranked as one of the top five public radio stations in the country by listenership, with more than 540,000 listeners per week in Fiscal Year (FY) 2006. In that time, WAMU 88.5 also was ranked fourth in the country for delivering listeners to National Public Radio (NPR) programming, and brought the fourth largest listening audience to Morning Edition and fifth largest to All Things Considered. During FY 2006, WAMU 88.5’s The Diane Rehm Show was carried on 09 stations across the country, including 2 of the top 25 markets. It was ranked in the top 0 of five of those markets: Washington, D.C., Miami, Seattle, Phoenix, and St. Louis. Additionally, the audience for the show grew to more than ,600,000 weekly listeners during FY 2006, an increase of nine percent over FY 2005. “I wake up to WAMU every day, I drive to work listening to WAMU, I have my lunch listening to WAMU, I drive home listening to WAMU, and WAMU is the last thing I listen to before I sleep. Thank you for the wonderful programs that make me think about issues that really matter!” — WAMU 88.5 listener 6705-1_WAMU_AR06.indd 2 1/26/07 1:22:08 PM WAMU 88.5 FM American University Radio 3 WAMU 88.5 Productions The Diane Rehm Show For more than 25 years, The Diane Rehm Show has offered listeners thoughtful and lively conversations on an array of topics with many of the most distinguished people of our times. Each week, more than .6 million listeners across the country tune in to the program, which has grown from a small local morning call-in show on WAMU 88.5 to one of public broadcasting’s most-listened-to programs, posting its best numbers ever at the end of last year. The program is carried on 09 stations across the country, the Armed Forces Network, NPR Worldwide, and Sirius satellite radio. Free podcasts now are available online at wamu.org. In FY 2006, the show extended its reach internationally with two significant events. On April 3, 2006, the new free over-the-air NPR Berlin radio station in Germany began broadcasting the “first lady of radio talk programming.” In addition, Rehm received an international accolade as the inaugural recipient of the Urbino Press Award in Italy, created to recognize outstanding work by American journalists. Rehm was chosen for her “long and prestigious career in journalism and…special focus on the problems of human frailty.” Guests in FY 2006 included: • Senators Trent Lott (R-Miss.), Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) • Governors Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.) and Jennifer Granholm (D-Mich.) • Lynne Cheney, Mary Cheney, and Kristin Gore • Gen. Anthony Zinni, former Commander-in-Chief, United States Central Command, and Gen. James L. Jones, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, and Commander of the U.S. European Command, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) • Former President of Brazil Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Canadian Ambassador Frank McKenna, and Lady Catherine Manning • Journalists Linda Greenhouse, Joe Lelyveld, Bob Woodward, Anthony Shadid, Andrea Mitchell, Maureen Dowd, Mike Wallace, Jane Bryant Quinn, Fred Barnes, and Joe Klein Diane Rehm interviews some of the • Violinist Joshua Bell and flutist Sir James Galway most distinguished people of our time. • Authors John Banville, Bebe Moore Campbell, Joan Didion, E.L. Doctorow, Umberto Eco, Jules Feiffer, John Irving, Erica Jong, Salman Rushdie, and Zadie Smith • Actors Alan Alda, Jane Fonda, David Hyde Pierce, Blair Underwood, and Gene Wilder 6705-1_WAMU_AR06.indd 3 1/26/07 1:22:11 PM WAMU 88.5 FM American University Radio 4 The Kojo Nnamdi Show Kojo Nnamdi, a native of Guyana, lends a global perspective to front page headlines and explores emerging stories before they are news. Kojo’s inviting on-air style encourages guests and callers to discover new points of view, embrace controversy, and spark new ideas.