Topic: ArtS
MARK RUSSELL, ON THE ROAD AGAIN, TO PERFORM FOR SEWARD house museum
LISTENER DATA HELPED DRIVE WAER PROGRAMMING SHIFT
Public radio isn’t all pledge drives and quirky human-interest narratives, they say at WAER-FM (88.3). Sometimes, it’s about shaking up the formula to better suit your audience. On June 30, the Syracuse Universityowned and -operated station introduced changes to its weekday programming schedule. The station cut jazz between noon and 4 p.m. and replaced it with more news content. WAER added syndicated programs like BBC Newshour, On Point, Here & Now, The Takeaway and The World, bookending them with daily NPR news staples Morning Edition and All Things Considered. The station’s general manager, Joe Lee, said the number of listener donations to WAER will be down in 2014, a fact that played a significant role in the decision to focus on more news and to trim the music. “The research question for us was: Can we sustain a dual-format radio station going into the near future?” Lee said. “And if not, which of those services provides us a better chance of survival?” The answer was news and information. Music listeners tend to tune in for shorter periods of time before shutting the station off altogether; news programming brings in listeners for longer. Lee said the station could identify these trends because they were all part of the larger data picture, something employees at WAER have been studying. Before making its format changes, WAER hired a consulting agency to analyze the listening patterns of its audience, including where listeners go when they tune their radio dials away from WAER, Lee said. “We know who’s listening, when they’re listening, when they’re not lis-
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“Bringing national public figures to a local audience is a big deal for us,” said Natalie Stetson, the museum’s director of develtake opment. “It helps us preserve the legacy of William Seward and his family.”
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tening and who they’re listening to when they’re not listening to us,” he said. The data revealed a listener loyalty rating of 33 percent during Morning Edition, the industry standard, Lee said. Station management opted for a newsrich format that aimed to hold those listeners for the rest of the day. More news might mean more local news and even more student involvement, according to programming director Ron Ockert. But since this is public radio, any kind of expansion requires two crucial elements: manpower and money. They rely on each other, Ockert said, and if the money’s right, WAER might introduce a live host during its noon-to-2 p.m. broadcast of Here & Now. No matter how much any radio station adapts to its market, it will still face challenges from the Web, Ockert said. “Public radio is doing its very best to figure out where it fits in the digital world. The digital world is changing radio drastically,” he said. WAER has made a few technological shifts, including adding a live stream on its website. An HD digital jazz stream is forthcoming, Lee said; the WAER schedule includes jazz 8 to 11 p.m., hosted by the station’s music director, Eric Cohen. For many listeners, Ockert said, music may be the very reason they tune into public radio in the first place; WAER doesn’t plan to entirely cut music out of its programming anytime soon. “I’m a music lover. I got into radio because of music, so in some ways I’m sad to see it change,” Ockert said. “But as a business, it seems to be the right next step.” Ockert said he expects the station will see preliminary data on how effective the format switch has been in about six months. SNT
07.30.14 - 08.05.14 | syracusenewtimes.com
— By Patrick Hosken
Mark Russell is at it again. That’s right, Washington — he’s taking notes and making jokes. Russell, 81, who made a career out of political song parodies, has been making stops all over the U.S. since coming out of retirement in 2013. At 7 p.m. Sept. 4, Russell will perform at the Auburn High School auditorium in conjunction with the Seward House Museum’s annual fundraiser: the Elsa Soderberg Distinguished Speaker Series. This is the third year of the fundraiser. Previous speakers were historian and author Doris Kearns Goodwin and journalist Cokie Roberts. Natalie Stetson is the director of development at the Seward House Museum. “A volunteer told me to look up Mark Russell and see what he was up to,” Stetson said. “She had seen him in the ’70s, and his performance stuck with her.” For those unfamiliar with Russell’s work, he is a political satirist. His shows are a mix of stand-up comedy and musical parodies. A major staple and companion of Russell’s performances is his star-spangled piano. Russell got his start playing the piano in a bar in Washington, D.C., where he settled after serving in the Marines. Lobbyists and politicians populated the place, and there he learned “political science 101.” “When the congressional hearings let out, the congressmen would head over to the bar,” Russell said. “The Democrats would feed me dirt on the Republicans, and the Republicans would feed me dirt on the Democrats. I would then do material about both of them.” No material was off the table. Russell recalled a time during the late 1950s when he cut out eyes in a pillow case and did a bit on the Ku Klux Klan.
Twenty years after he began performing, his home city called. A PBS affiliate station in Buffalo pitched the idea of a live comedy special that would air periodically throughout the year. And thus, the Mark Russell Comedy Special was born. The show ran 1974 to 2004 with eight shows a year. Russell also appeared annually on Meet the Press from 1991 to 2008. Then — in 2010 — Russell decided it was time to put aside his star-spangled piano and put down the microphone. Retirement didn’t suit Russell. He found himself making up songs and lacking an audience in front of which to perform them. “I tried to bring my bits up casually at parties,” Russell said. “But then, whoever I was talking to would either try to join in or cut me off, and I would get annoyed.” That was a sign for Russell that he was missing the stage and the craft he had perfected over the years. A second sign came in August 2012. On a sultry summer evening in Israel, a few congressmen decided to have some drinks, shed some clothes and then hop into the Sea of Galilee. This event convinced Russell it was time to perform again. His shows these days start with some religious fodder and elements aimed at his generation. From there, Russell talks about such things as technology and newspapers and then moves to the daily headlines. Russell reads three to four papers every day to check in on his favorite topic: the players on Capitol Hill. As for the show in September. Russell does have a warning for the audience. “I will be using the f-word,” Russell said. “Filibuster.” SNT — By Dianna Bell
Tickets cost $35 for general admission and $15 for students. After the show, there will be a private reception at the Hilton Garden Inn. VIP tickets are $75 and include preferred seating at the event. A few tickets will be available for purchase at the door for $50. The money raised will go toward maintenance of the Seward House Museum and to pay for next year’s event in the series.