Current March/April 2021 Issue

MARCH / APRIL 2021

NEWS FOR PEOPLE IN PUBLIC MEDIA

Public space to explore podcasting as a ‘serious creative practice’ PAGE 8

CPB boosts funds to pubTV’s alliance of multicultural organizations

BY SKYE WITLEY AND JULIAN WYLLIE

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(Illustration: Anthony Foronda)

SPECIAL COVERAGE

The Way

We Work Now T

he coronavirus has forced us all to rethink how we live and the assumptions that shape daily routines and relationships.

In public media, decisions about how to respond to the evolving public health crisis initially were made in the moment. Employees started working from home.

Conferences were canceled. Suddenly, newscasts originated from living rooms. Guests appeared via Zoom. Through Slack chats and social distancing protocols, producers and fundraisers tried to keep their programs and membership campaigns on track.

But the work changed as the “new normal” of the pandemic evolved. Demand for trusted sources of news and

entertainment upended how viewers and listeners consumed public media content. Corporate sponsorship revenues took a nosedive, triggering budget cuts and layoffs in at least 11 organizations. Sales reps went on the hunt for new clients and opportunities. Performance venues once packed with ticket-buying public media fans sat empty while event planners tried new ways to engage audiences on digital platforms.

The job of tape syncing — an audio gig and once-steady source of work for independent producers — evolved into a series of workarounds and multiple technology solutions that enable people to record themselves.

We’re now one year into the pandemic, and vaccines offer hope that the worst is behind us. How has this experience forever changed the way we work? SEE PAGE 10

INSIDE THIS ISSUE ERIC NUZUM ON PUBRADIO’S ‘EXISTENTIAL MOMENT’ 2 PATTY CAHILL ON HOW ‘THINGS’ CAN CHANGE 18 PEOPLE 5 BUSINESS DIRECTORY 19

Current.org

@currentpubmedia

he five public media organizations that fund and distribute TV content created by nonwhite filmmakers will receive $500,000 increases in their annual funding from CPB. CPB is boosting its support for each of the independent nonprofits that make up the National Multicultural Alliance: Black Public Media, the Center for Asian American Media, Latino Public Broadcasting, Pacific Islanders in Communications and Vision Maker Media. The increase takes effect this fiscal year.

Totaling $2.5 million, the funding represents a 37% increase in CPB’s annual support to the NMCA organizations. CPB’s total annual funding to all five will top $9 million.

The funding boost, announced in Februar y, is the first to the Stimulus funds NMCA organizafor CPB, page 6: tions since 2010, said Leslie Fields- Biden relief Cruz, executive bill comes through with director of Black $175 million Public Media. requested That increase for pubmedia turned out to be short-lived, however. Following a 2013 federal budget sequestration that triggered budget and staff reductions at CPB, annual funding to each of the NMCA members decreased by 20%.

The additional $500,000 provided each organization this year brings funding levels slightly above the increase that CPB provided in 2010, Fields-Cruz said.

NMCA leaders worked with the National Communication Association to document the rising costs of production and make their case to CPB, she said.

“Luckily, within the walls of CPB, they were listening, and so when the opportunity came about to make the increase happen, they did.”

BPM’s support for Black filmmakers and media creatives includes production of AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange, public TV’s only national series devoted to stories by and about the African diaspora, and incubator and training programs for emerging Black media makers. Its annual funding from CPB will grow to more than Continued on page 6

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COMMENTARIES

For their listeners, NPR News stations are the last thing worth listening to on the radio How Michigan Radio launched 42 podcasts at once (and why it’s just the beginning)

(Photo: Rawf8/iStock)

Public radio is on the threshold of a new era People who lead stations are asking, ‘What comes next?’

The answers depend on you.

BY ERIC NUZUM

For this column you’ll need a fresh sticky note and a pen. Grab them now so you don’t miss the moment later!

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1. Prehistoric era: 1895–1967

While histor y arguably begins with Marconi’s first transmission of wireless, public radio really began at colleges and universities that experimented with AM and FM broadcasting. The building blocks of noncommercial educational radio formed and continued to grow with the programs developed from these experiments. The National Association of Educational Broadcasters, a forerunner to NPR and PBS, formed and worked to convince the FCC to reserve channels for noncommercial educational stations. The era ended with the signing of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.

tionships to the audience. Format focusing takes hold, with a strong lean towards news and information as well as single-genre focus for music stations.

4. Local, local, local: 2002–2013

Faced with concerns about the coming digital future, the growth of direct access to national content providers and the effects of these disruptions on other media such as local TV and daily newspapers, stations invest heavily in local production. They build capacity to report local news and launch websites to house and showcase their original content.

e often don’t recognize the significance of important his5. Age of disruption: 2014–2020 torical moments while we are 2. Building the foundation: Podcasting, Spotify, streaming services, living through them. I believe public radio 1968–1987 audiobooks and other forms of digitally disis at one of those moments right now — a As public broadcasters start to under- tributed spoken-word audio begin to influhinge point that marks the end of one era stand and develop their collective identity, ence how audiences spend their listening and the beginning of another. national membership organizations and time. Perceived threats from these external In the 100 years since the FCC issued program distributors emergeFREQUENCY — includ- forces to actual listening and the universal the first education license to a radio sta- ing National Public Radio, the National reach of public radio’s public service cause tion, public radio had gone through five Federation of Community Broadcasters existential concerns about the field’s future. distinct evolutionary eras. The coming and American Public Radio. Local staI’m sure there are many who would end of the pandemic, the end of the Trump tions began raising direct financial support quibble with dates and defining events, but presidency and the end of an incredibly from listeners and common “best prac- there are two points to take away from these disruptive period in media coincide with a tices” also started to emerge. The satellite five eras: call from within for public radio to exam- interconnect system came online. Stations n Over the past decades, public radio ine its ideals to imagine a more embraced the concept of national has moved through hinge points that redeinclusive public service. program offerings and moved fined its public service and changed the Public radio finds itself their programming from course of the entire industry; and at one of those moments AM to FM frequenn One of these moments is happening when the actions we take cies. To answer calls right now.

FREQUENCY BOOST for audience-focused today have more signifA number of people have asked me icance than we realize. program strategies and why I’m so convinced that we’ve entered Consultant and podcast producer Eric A new era is about to on-air best practices, an era-changing hinge point. Aside from Nuzum believes public radio is entering begin, and it’s arguably a group of public radio the political and cultural shifts I mentioned an era of transformation, but he’s worried t he most imp or t ant directors formed the earlier, we are seeing the whiplash-inducthat decision-makers are unprepared for to the future of public Public Radio Program ing swings in listening patterns and the this “existential moment.” Public radio radio. 2021 will, quite Directors Association. serious emergence of streaming and podleaders need to discover a “30% idea” l it e r a l l y, d e t e r m i n e casting as rivals for the territory public that will boost audiences or revenues by the existential path of 3. Getting better: radio broadcasters have long claimed as one-third over the next five years, and to FREQUENCY BOOST the industry.

1988–2001 their own. find that they must think differently about What will that sixth Foundational research In addition, there’s been an unrivaled the challenges they face. era be? After thinking l i k e Au d i e n c e 8 8 , changing of the guard in station and orgaHe doesn’t know what that idea is, about this for almost Audience 98, Listener nization leaders who led public radio but he aims to help people find it through a year, I’ve only come Focused Fundraising through its third, fourth and fifth eras. A “Frequency Boost”, his new column for up with two possible a n d t h e u s e o f number of people who are moving into Current. This commentary is the first in options. But before we Au d i Gr aph i c s ( an d leadership roles now are asking, “What the series. For subsequent columns, and get into the awesome other similar research comes next?” That, to me, marks a hinge more on how “Frequency Boost” will help power of this moment, proj e c ts and to ols) point and the beginning of a new era for readers take actions that will define the let’s look back at the five build the industr y’s the industry. future in positive ways, visit our website.

BOOST knowledge about public eras that have gotten us FREQUENCY — Karen Everhart Continued on page 19 to where we are today. radio’s service and rela-

BOOST

How KQED is using AI to explore the future of news audio

NEWS ARTICLES

N.J. governor proposes first funding for public media in a decade Attorneys for Michael Pack seek dismissal of D.C. lawsuit Nonprofit newsroom dissolves over allegations directed at founder KPBS podcast seeks new audiences while highlighting San Diego culture Acast acquisition will ‘supercharge’ RadioPublic’s development Former WTTW news director says colleagues’ objections to social media posts prompted ‘unfair’ firing

WEBINAR

Talking Tech Transitions: Oregon Public Broadcast’s Steve Bass and Current contributor Scott Fybush discuss ATSC 3.0 television and HD Radio services

Current

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Web: Current.org Managing Editor Karen Everhart 202-885-6414 karen@current.org Digital Editor Mike Janssen 202-885-6419 mike@current.org Reporters Tyler Falk 202-885-6465 tyler@current.org Julian Wyllie 202-885-6492 julian@current.org Editorial Interns Stephanie Mirah, Skye Witley Design & Production Kelly Martin kelly@kmartindesign.com Chris Campbell brightoncreative@mac.com Business/Circulation Manager Laura Rogers 202-885-6412 rogers@current.org Advertising Sales Kathy Bybee Hartzell 727-433-2527 advertising@current.org Account Manager, Classified Ads Amanda Iannuzzi publicmediajobs@current.org Executive Director Julie Drizin 202-885-6453 julie@current.org Contributing Editor Theodore Fischer Published 6 times a year as an editorially independent service of American University School of Communication, and funded in part by a grant from the Wyncote Foundation.

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Quick Takes ‘Caillou’ sale, SVOD income boost PBS’ net revenues far above expectations

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BS earned $27.2 million in net income for the first half of its fiscal year, a figure that vastly exceeded expectations.

PBS had budgeted $200,000 in net income by the end of December but a combination of one-time payments and increased streaming revenues generated $27 million more.

Details about the network’s finances were disclosed during the public session of a March 10 finance committee meeting led by CFO and Treasurer Tom Tardivo.

PBS brought in $17.8 million in “other revenue,” which includes earnings from the sale of its interest in the canceled program Caillou. PBS also received a settlement from Dish Network for past subscription fees.

Income from subsidiaries for PBS Distribution also exceeded budget. This revenue category, which was budgeted to generate $9.1 million by the second quarter, accounts for direct-to-consumer SVOD channels and other programming.

It brought in $20.6 million.

During the meeting, Tardivo attributed some of the increase to an “overperformance” in subscriptions for the PBS Documentaries channel on Amazon Prime, which launched in August.

“Clearly, this is an extraordinary result for PBS at this stage of the year,” Tardivo said.

PBS also cut spending in several areas, including member services, content and marketing, and technology and operations. The network saved on travel and meetings costs due to work-from-home protocols and canceled conferences, Tardivo said. “I’m always happy to report that we have no debt on the books and that we are not in our line of credit as well,” he added.

San Bernardino College unveils plan to restructure KVCR, transfer FNX

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he board of the San Bernardino Community College District in California is considering a plan to reduce NPR and PBS programming on KVCR, the dual service public broadcasting service located on campus.

The plan also proposes to transfer the trademark and license for First Nations Experience, a nationally distributed television channel for Native American and Indigenous programming.

The report, released March 12 prior to a board retreat, recommends relocating KVCR’s facility and equipment to San Bernardino Valley College’s Institute of Media Arts by June 2023. The transfer would lead to an expanded curriculum of television and audio production courses for students, according to the report.

The transition plan “will not result in a loss of access to NPR and PBS in our community,” the report said, noting that

KPCC in Pasadena, Calif., will continue to provide NPR programming to the community, and PBS programming will be accessible through PBS SoCal and KCET in Los Angeles.

“Best of all, as this plan is implemented, the region will gain access to content newly created by our SBCCD students and community,” the report said. The report did not discuss plans for student productions.

The school district cited KVCR’s financial losses as one reason for dropping national public media programming.

It said the station has lost $10 million in the past six years and that the licensee used its endowment and loans to cover expenses. The report added that the station is projected to lose another $8.7 million over the next five years.

The college also recommends transferring FNX to its founding partner, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians.

A spokesperson for San Manuel did not respond to requests for comment.

The board is expected to take up the recommendations during its April 8 board meeting.

PMG adopts new brand to clarify its identity, business model

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ublic Media Group has rebranded as Signal Infrastructure Group, a name that reflects a broader mission while also alleviating confusion among several similarly named entities.

The company, based in Boulder, Colo., was formed in 2019 as a for-profit benefit corporation. Public Media Venture Group, a shareholder in the newly created corporation in 2019, was itself spun off in 2017 from Public Media Co., a nonprofit consulting firm.

PMG’s initial mission centered on the ATSC 3.0 transition and the potential for single-frequency networks to extend the reach of over-the-air broadcasts for both public and commercial TV stations. It has since expanded its projects into digital platforms for content management and distribution, including the purchase in 2020 of a share of the Public Media Management content platform from Boston’s GBH. “We wanted to be sure our name did a better job reflecting our mission to be of service both to public and commercial broadcasters,” said SIG President Erik Langner of the rebranding, which became official March 8.

“We thought now was the right time, given the acceleration of our business both on the SFN side and on the software and infrastructure side,” he said.

The company has also added a new executive VP; Azita Manson joins SIG as head of cloud and software infrastructure. Manson developed ATSC 3.0 technology in her role as president of OpenZNet and will bring that company’s technology to SIG.

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Current March/April 2021

PEOPLE IN PUBLIC MEDIA

Andrea Downing stepped up to president of PBS Distribution, the joint operation owned by PBS and GBH in Boston.

Downing joined the organization as co-president in 2009. She previously worked as VP of home entertainment and partnerships for PBS, and was a director of operations for Discovery Communications.

“Andrea is an accomplished executive who has guided PBS Distribution’s path from a startup to a global company with far-reaching impact,” said PBS President Paula Kerger in a statement.

“We are grateful for her ongoing leadership to ensure that PBSd continues to adapt, evolve and thrive in the modern media landscape.”

David Bernstein, a VP and GM for GBH Enterprises, had worked as co-president with Downing. He is moving into a new role as president for strategic partnerships for PBS Distribution, according to a GBH spokesperson, and will focus on Masterpiece and scripted dramas.

NPR promoted Kenya Young to managing editor for collaborative journalism, effective June 1.

Young moves from her current job as EP of Morning Edition, a role she has held since 2015, to fill a vacancy created when Chris Turpin became chief of staff last year.

During the transition, Tamar Charney has been serving as acting senior director for collaborative journalism.

In her new role as managing editor, Young will oversee the initiative that has supported creation of regional newsrooms in California, Texas, the Midwest and the Gulf States, according to a staff note by Nancy Barnes, SVP of news and editorial director. Young will also occasionally run day-to-day news operations.

NPR also hired Lauren González as senior manager of Story Lab, an initiative for developing podcasts, programs and segments. González most recently worked as director of programming for Luminary.

Mark Vogelzang will retire as president of Maine Public in June.

Vogelzang led several stations before joining Maine’s public broadcasting network in 2012. As station manager at WBFOFM in Buffalo, N.Y., he help e d ove rsee a merger with WNED. Vogelzang was president and CEO of Vermont Public Radio from Vogelzang 1993–09. Earlier in his career, he helped launch Fresh Air into national distribution while working as radio manager at WHYY in Philadelphia.

Vogelzang served on the NPR board as a member director from 2001–08. He became executive director of the NPR Foundation in 2009.

Maine Public Board Chair Marion Freeman said she will launch a nationwide search for Vogelzang’s successor.

Young, left, will manage NPR’s collaborative journalism initiative; Garcia leads WBUR’s newsroom as managing editor; Downing takes the helm of PBSd as president.

Georgia Public Broadcasting restructured its leadership, appointing Bert Wesley Huffman as president and chief revenue officer.

Huffman joined the state-owned network in 2014 and stepped up from his previous job as SVP for external affairs and chief development officer. GPB also promoted Chief Technology Officer Adam Woodlief to EVP. Teya Ryan, president and CEO since 2009, retains her CEO title.

As president, Huffman will oversee GPB’s finance and human resources divisions. Woodlief, who continues in his role as CTO, oversees news and content.

“This new structure is designed to free me up from day-to-day management of the company and allow me to work on larger overarching projects to guide and keep the company on solid ground,” Ryan said in a staff memo announcing the changes.

Huffman previously worked as the director of development for several nonprofits, including the Atlanta Opera; the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers; and Emor y University’s Yerkes National Primate Research Center.

Woodlief joined GPB in 2018. He previously held directorial and managerial roles for PBS North Carolina and worked as a technician, engineer and production assistant for WRAL, an NBC affiliate in Raleigh, N.C.

WBUR in Boston appointed new editorial leadership.

Maria Garcia, a former WBUR reporter and senior editor who created the podcast Anything for Selena, is managing editor. She has worked at the station since 2017.

Todd Wallack, a veteran of daily newspapers, joined WBUR as deputy managing editor. He arrived from the Boston Globe, where he worked as an investigative and data reporter on the paper’s Spotlight team.

A. Rima Dael succeeded George Lombardi as GM of WSHU in Fairfield, Conn.

Lombardi, who worked at the station for four decades, retired at the end of last year.

Dael began managing the station in 2019 as part of a planned leadership succession, she told Current in an email. She took over day-to-day management last August.

Lombardi started at WSHU as a parttime engineer. Under his leadership, WSHU became an NPR affiliate in 1983. Prior to his retirement, Lombardi was named general manager emeritus by John Petillo, president of WSHU licensee Sacred Heart University, according to a station spokesperson.

Management

New York Public Radio promoted Brenda Williams-Butts to SVP of diversity, equity and inclusion. Williams-Butts joined

the organization in 1996. Her previous jobs at the station include VP for DEI and senior director of community engagement and audience development. NYPR also hired Monique Jefferson as chief human resources officer. Jefferson most recently worked as head of HR for two divisions for the law firm Hogan Lovells.

Mat Mezer joined Lehigh Valley Public Media in Bethlehem, Pa., as VP of production. Mezer most recently worked as lighting director for WCAU, an NBC affiliate in Philadelphia.

Jenell Walton, a former reporter and anchor for commercial TV stations, is VP of content for Cincinnati Public Radio. Walton most recently worked as VP of communications and strategic development for the Cincinnati USA Convention & Walton Visitors Bureau. She started her career in public radio in 1994 at WVUB in Vincennes, Ind., and worked in TV newsrooms of Cincinnati stations WCPO and WLWT. At Cincinnati Public Radio, Walton succeeds Chris Phelps, who continues to work at the station during the transition.

TV journalist Dan Lothian, a former correspondent and bureau chief for CNN, is interim EP for The World, co-produced

by PRX and GBH in Boston. Lothian is president and founder of Little Park Media, a company that develops videos, podcasts and websites. In addition to his stints with CNN as a White House correspondent and Boston bureau chief, he was a West Coast correspondent for NBC News and a reporter for local television stations. Lothian, who has served on PRX’s board since 2017, succeeds Andrea Crossan, who departed in November to return to her family’s home in Canada, according to a spokesperson.

Andrew Ramsammy is chief content and collaboration officer for the Local Media Association. Ramsammy departed from the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University, where he directed digital content. He previously directed audience strategy for Arizona PBS.

Content

Veralyn Williams is EP of the podcast and radio show The United States of Anxiety, produced by WNYC in New York City.

Williams has worked in several production jobs at the station since p a r t i c ip at i n g i n its Radio Rookies workshop in 2004.

She has also been a producer for Slate.

Williams

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PBS NewsHour hired Talesha Reynolds as senior content and special projects producer. She succeeds James Blue III, who departed to become an SVP and head of the Smithsonian Channel. Reynolds most recently worked as a producer for NBC News and also managed the network’s Washington, D.C., internship program.

Fernando Pizarro has joined NPR’s Morning Edition as a supervising editor. He most recently worked as a Washington correspondent for Univision.

Pizarro is also an adjunct lecturer for American University.

Mariam Sobh is hosting All IN, a statewide weekday talk show produced by WFYI in Indianapolis and distributed to most members of Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations. Sobh previously worked as an anchor and reporter for WBBM, a commercial radio station Sobh in Chicago, and as a host, reporter and producer for Chicago Public Media’s WBEZ. Craig Kopp is news director at WEKU in Richmond, Ky. Kopp most recently worked as managing editor of Aspen Public Radio, but his public radio career includes stints as GM of WMNF in Tampa, afternoon host at WUSF in Tampa and news director at WNKU in Highland Heights, Ky., which was sold by its university licensee to a religious broadcaster. WEKU’s news director job has been vacant since the death of John Hingsbergen in 2017, according to the news release.

Hannah Meisel, a part-time statehouse reporter and former intern for NPR Illinois in Springfield is now the station’s government and politics editor. Meisel reported for Illinois Public Media in Urbana, Law360 and the Daily Line.

Dalia Colón is hosting The Zest, a culinary podcast produced by WUSF in Tampa. This is Colón’s third stint with the station. She previously worked as producer and occasional podcast host, and as a health and features reporter. She has also reported for the Tampa Bay Times and Cleveland Magazine.

Concert pianist and recording artist Lara Downes joined KDFC, a classical station in San Francisco, as a host and resident artist. Downes is the creator and host of Amplif y w ith Lara Downes, an NPR Music video series about Black Downes musicians. She also curates the Rising Sun Music series, which will release music from Black composers.

Vicky Gregor will retire as a music coordinator and host for KRCC in Colorado Springs, Colo. Gregor started at the station in 1995 as a volunteer host. As music coordinator, she emceed nearly all of the station’s live concerts. Gregor plans to continue writing KRCC’s weekly music newsletter and will occasionally appear on the air for features and artist interviews, according to the station. — Julian Wyllie Send news of “comings and goings” to people@current.org

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NMCA funding Continued from page 1

$1.85 million this year, according to BPM’s news release.

The increase “not only affords us the opportunity to continue to bring the talented voices telling the stories of Black life front and center, but it reminds us that we work within a community of public media professionals who all strive to create and showcase content that genuinely reflects the diverse communities in which we all live,” Fields-Cruz said in the release.

L e a d e rs of Pa c i f i c Isl and e rs i n Communications are talking with CPB about their plans for the new funds, said Leanne Ferrer, executive director. She expects that most of the increase will back expansion of PIC’s existing programs and creation of new content. PIC produces Pacific Heartbeat, a documentary series entering its 10th season in national distribution through American Public Television.

Ferrer said NMCA organizations are also looking at training initiatives that will bring filmmakers and content creators together, “rather than each one of us doing the same work.” In the past, the alliance has offered training on pitching films and producing impact media. They’ve also paired filmmakers with mentors who help them with their film projects.

The Center for Asian American Media plans to expand its work in regional talent development and efforts to support content creators who want to produce media without relocating to cities that are major hubs for TV and film production, said Stephen Gong, executive director.

Gong said he hopes to build initiatives designed to increase the number of diverse

“Spit on the Broom,” a surrealist documentary that debuted on Black Public Media’s AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange, explores the United Order of Tents, a secret society of African American women that was founded during the Underground Railroad.

(Photo: Jon-Sesrie Goff) creators working in public media. One such “pipeline collaboration,” as he called it, is already creating opportunities for filmmakers in the southern United States. Hindsight is a new partnership between CAAM, Firelight Media and Reel South, the independent documentary series co-produced

by PBS North Carolina, South Carolina’s ETV and Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

The project supports six filmmakers who will produce short films for a new digital series that explores the lived experiences of communities of color in the South and in Puerto Rico.

“ Luckily, within the walls of CPB, they were listening, and so when the opportunity came about to make the increase happen, they did.”

— Leslie Fields-Cruz, Black Public Media

CPB’s commitment to funding work by diverse media creators “spans decades and has resulted in content that educates, informs and inspires mutual understanding and respect,” said President Pat Harrison in a news release. Increased support to the NMCA “will build on that foundation and ensure that public media’s content reflects the broadest range of cultural and social perspectives.”

“The NMCA comprises individual organizations that encourage and fund diverse storytellers whose voices and experiences might never be heard without their support,” Harrison said.

Stimulus includes $175 million in emergency funds for CPB

BY JULIAN WYLLIE

More emergency relief is vital for stations, said America’s Public Television Stations CEO Pat Butler.

“We are grateful for the broad bipartisan support for this emergency funding for public media … ,” Butler said in a statement released March 6 after the Senate approved its bill. “We will do our best with the resourc-

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he $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package signed into law by President Biden March 11 provides an additional $175 million in emergency funds for CPB. Public broadcasting’s advocates had been working to secure the funds since last spring, seeking to fulfill CPB’s 2020 request for a total of $250 million in emergency aid. The first relief bill passed last year included $75 million in stabilizing funds for CPB. Congress did not include additional funding in the package enacted last December, but CPB made another formal request for the $175 million in January. In its request, CPB said stations’ income from state governments and private sources has decreased, in part because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The request pointed to potential losses to the system exceeding $196 million in fiscal year 2020, and continued losses this year. “Revised forecasts by public media’s national organizations indicate that the public media system will lose an additional $200 million in non-federal funding in 2021,” CPB said.

CPB’s latest request to Congress cited forecasts of

$200 million

in additional revenue losses in FY 2021

President Biden walks along the Colonnade of the White House to the Oval Office.

(Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz) In fiscal year 2019, stations’ total revenues, including government and private funding, was $3.4 billion.

“Although our data indicates that public media’s stabilization needs exceed $400 million, we are mindful of the difficult decisions the new Administration and Congress

must make during this time,” CPB’s request said. “If stations are forced to cut additional jobs or further reduce content and services, their ability to deliver emergency alerts, essential information and educational services, especially in underserved areas, will be significantly impacted.”

es we have to continue to respond effectively to serve our country and our fellow citizens as we get through this crisis,” Butler said.

During a CPB board meeting this month, President Pat Harrison said the corporation would “convene a group of system leaders to create a distribution plan” for the new infusion of emergency funds.

After consulting with an advisory group last year, CPB decided to split the $75 million in emergency funds evenly between public TV and radio stations, a departure from how it divides funds from its annual appropriation. It also allocated additional funds to small and rural stations.

FUNDRAISING

Delays in direct mail delivery ease after holiday disruptions

BY TYLER FALK

‘Tough to pin down’

KQED in San Francisco “experienced some ublic media fundraisers say that deliv- minor delays and impacts, but thankfully ery issues with their direct mail are nothing to cause a major strategy shift,” clearing up after U.S. Postal Service according to a spokesperson. delays backed up donation asks over the WNET did experience a slowdown holidays and into the new year. during the holidays through mid-FebruAt WNET in New York, the organiza- ary, especially with bulk mail sent using the tion’s direct mail operations are running nonprofit mailing rate. A holiday card sent “relatively, pretty good,” said Jonathan to donors in mid- to late November wasn’t Raymond, senior director of development. delivered in some areas until late January, “I don’t think we’re noticing anything like Raymond said. what we were noticing over the holidays.”

“So it was definitely an impact in terms Contributor Development Partnership, of our ability to cultivate donors and steward a fundraising consultancy for public media, donors in the way that we want to,” he said. was “still seeing some really significant But Raymond said he also believes that delays in some key distribution centers” “everybody’s taking all of that with a grain through mid-February, according to Daren of salt these days, because they understand Winckel, CDP’s senior director of fundrais- that our infrastructure is being stretched ing strategy. “I do think that some of those to its limits.” are clearing out,” Winckel said.

While donations from direct mail USPS delays caused year-end fundrais- slowed because of the delays, WNET also ing mail to arrive late and created customer saw an uptick in digital giving. The organiservice issues at stations, he said. zation receives about 25–30% of its memCDP, a public benefit corporation, bership revenue from direct mail. oversees management of membership pro“In terms of our revenue impact, it’s grams for about 35 stations. It sends out ... really tough to pin down because even about 10 million pieces of mail each year, though mail was delayed, more people are Winckel said. giving online,” Raymond said. “So were “We were mailing into large markets and there impacts? Sure. … And can I tell you small markets, and they were all affected,” exactly what they were? No, unfortunately.”

Winckel said.

The USPS delays were compounded by ‘They just don’t come back’ the coronavirus’ impact on postal workers, The USPS delays also disrupted donor increased parcel volume and cost-cutting acknowledgments, according to CDP’s measures by the agency, according to the Winckel. Donors could become frustrated if Washington Post. they gave to a station but received a second Those holdups led to “serious delays mailing asking for a donation because their in bank deposits” for stations and shift- check hadn’t reached the station, he said. ed revenue into later months, “making it “You get donors that contact you difficult to assess fundraising campaign when they get frustrated, but they’re the results or get a clear view of the over- minority,” Winckel said. “The majority of all revenue picture,” Winckel wrote in a donors vote with their wallets. … If they February blog post. “This could result in a feel that their gift doesn’t matter, if they feel cash crunch for those slighted or ignored, w i t h o u t re s e r v e s , or they’re not getcost-c utt ing me a ting the good feeling sures, underinformed of giving because budget reforecasts or nobody’s acknowlthe delay of capital edged that they even investments.” gave … , they just While on-time don’t come back.” rates have improved To try to counin most areas that teract that problem, CDP mails to, C DP u s e d e m ai l Winckel said that he newsletters to ask is concerned about people who were long-term impacts of thinking about sendchanges being made ing checks to recon— Daren Winckel, CDP at the postal service. sider and give digitalThe Post also reported last month that ly. It provided QR codes to direct donors to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s strategic online giving pages. plan includes potentially slower, costlier Postal delays also emphasized the first-class mail. importance for stations to diversify their “The one red flag for me is, OK, if sources of membership revenue. A good you’re going to raise the price for first- sustainer program, for instance, provides class mail with the expectation that stations with “a lot of predictability and you’re actually going to lower the service really insulates an organization from the level, what does that mean for everybody worst effects of something like what we just else? What does it mean for nonprofit went through,” Winckel said. mail, which is typically slower anyway?”

“I guarantee you those stations with a Winckel said. higher percentage of sustainers went through Still, even with the changes, “I don’t this whole ordeal with less hand-wringing think it’s going to be as extreme as it was at than stations that have a much lower perthe end of the year,” he said. centage of sustainers,” he said.

P

“ I guarantee you those stations with a higher percentage of sustainers went through this whole ordeal with less hand-wringing.”

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8 | March/April 2021 | Current

PODCASTS

An artist’s rendering of a recording booth to be installed in the VPM + ICA Community Media Center. (Photo: An Liu/Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University)

Virginia’s VPM enters partnership to make podcast creation more accessible

BY STEPHANIE MIRAH

N

ovice and advanced Virginia-based podcasters alike are building their skills through the VPM + ICA Community Media Center, a free and public recording studio and workspace co-sponsored by Richmond’s VPM and the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The center aims to amplify the voices of local storytellers and make podcast creation more accessible for VCU students, Virginia community members and professional podcasters. Its director is Chioke I’Anson, perhaps best known as a voice of NPR’s underwriting credits.

Also an assistant professor at VCU, I’Anson pitched the idea to VPM early in 2019.

He saw it as an opportunity to bring public media to the university level and to make skills for creating podcasts and other media more accessible.

“If we can expand the access to knowledge, then we can get more people making good media,” I’Anson told Current.

VPM Chief Content Officer Steve Humble was a b o ard memb er for the station when I’Anson suggested the collaboration. “At that time, I was excited about it, and I continued to be more and more excited about it,” Humble said.

VPM pursued the partnership because it was a chance to undertake a long-term initiative “with an important university here in Richmond and to feel like we can really make a difference,” Humble said.

VPM and VCU committed to a four-year contract and launched the center virtually in the fall.

VPM may benefit from the partnership by finding podcasts that it could help produce, Humble said. “If nothing else, the goal is really to help tell interesting stories locally.”

VPM’s main responsibilities include cost-sharing and working with the ICA to create programming. Humble declined to disclose how much VPM is investing.

‘100% free’

The Community Media Center will hold podcasting and media classes, workshops on podcast development and critique, symposia with invited speak-

ers and mentors, and live recordings of podcasting programs.

Being free and open to the public is crucial to the center’s purpose, I’Anson said.

“We have to admit there’s a lot of really great audio initiatives out there,” I’Anson said.

“There’s the [PRX] Podcast Garage. There’s everything the Association for Independents in Radio is doing. There are so many really great resources. It’s just that we’re 100% free.”

So far, the virtual sessions have largely attracted participants from the Washington, D.C., region. Abby Mullen, a term assistant professor in the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University, and host and producer of the podcast Consolation Prize, has attended almost all of the Community Media Center’s events.

Mullen said that she and her team participated in a producers’ institute in October featuring Alison MacAdam, a freelance story editor who previously worked for the NPR Training team.

As part of the class, MacAdam listened to an episode of Consolation Prize, which is a history podcast about consuls. She advised the producers to add a tagline at the beginning of each program.

“It really helped us think about how we talk about the show and how we present it,” Mullen said.

Art beyond galleries

Dominic Willsdon, executive director of the ICA, believes that making podcasts should be considered a serious creative practice.

Adding the Community Media Center contributes to his goal of making the ICA “an institute for contemporary culture broadly,” he said.

Construction of a physical space for the center begins this summer, with an opening tentatively planned for fall.

Because traditional sound booths are not aesthetically pleasing, designers wanted to find ways to make them “a sculptural element that would make the space exciting, immersive [and a] visual environment,” Willsdon said. The booths will double as pieces of art, crowned with flocks of arrow shapes inspired by birds.

VCU School of the Arts and ICA faculty and staff are designing the center, along with graduate students from VCUarts’ Department of Interior Design.

EDUCATION

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‘Nova’ aims to inspire and diversify next generation of science communicators

BY SKYE WITLEY

N

ova has launched its first national program designed to teach science journalism and video production to teens who are typically underrepresented in STEM fields.

Nova Science Studio uses an interdisciplinary curriculum developed in-house to teach and train middle and high school students in science communication, video production and digital media literacy. By the end of the course, students will produce short videos about topics of their choice related to science, technology, Hamilton engineering and math.

The program, which launched nationally in January, seeks to include female students, those with disabilities, and certain racial and ethnic minorities.

Tenijah Hamilton, Science Studio manager, said the program is also designed to address a shortage of Nirmal adequate science communication programs for youth.

Boston’s GBH, where Nova is produced for PBS, ran a local pilot in 2018–19. Participating

students produced videos about such topics as artificial intelligence and the impact of environmental toxins on human health.

The curriculum originally was designed for in-class use. But after schools closed and classwork went virtual last year, the team worked to make the lessons more dynamic. They added outdoor learning activities and conversation-based lessons that prompt students to reflect and share their perspectives on a given learning topic.

The national program that began in January is virtual and includes 30 students divided into five regional cohorts from the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest and West Coast.

Participants were selected from a pool of roughly 90 candidates who applied last fall, Hamilton said. Each cohort is led by a site coordinator with ties to the science communication field.

Niba Nirmal, site coordinator for the West Coast cohort, said she appreciates the flexibility of the curriculum, and has adapted lesson plans to include relevant examples, memes and icebreaker activities.

A video tutorial produced for the Science Studio program. (Photo: GBH)

Nirmal also noted the inclusion of “sensitive but important topics” in Nova’s curriculum, including conversations about race and gender equality.

One lesson addressed James Marion Sims, also known as the “father of modern gynecology,” and his use of enslaved Black women for surgical experimentation. “It sparked a lot of discussion about women's rights and who gets to choose reproduction, and ... where this idea of femininity comes from,” Nirmal said.

Lessons on how to recognize and reject scientific misinformation on social media are another component of the curriculum.

Misinformation experts developed these lessons, and Nova Science Studio created a digital video series, Misinformation Nation.

Produced by Alex Clark, the series addresses issues such as the spread of mask-related

misinformation and how misinformation influences human behavior.

Coursework for the Science Studios program is designed to accommodate varying levels of access to technology, according to Hamilton. “... We really think helping students to get familiar with the devices they already have will lower the barrier of access for students wanting to participate in the program, and then ultimately it will allow for a broader range of stories and diversity in the voices that tell them,” Hamilton wrote in an email.

While completing the learning phase of the Science Studio program, the students will start choosing their groups and video topics soon. Their videos will be published on the Nova Science Studio YouTube channel in July.

10 | March/April 2021 | Current

THE WAY WE WORK NOW

Slow recovery

for sponsorship sales

(Illustration: Anthony Foronda)

After steep downturns, local sales reps look for underwriting to pick up next year

BY JULIAN WYLLIE

S

alvador Carrera signed on as development director at Vegas PBS about a month before the city’s businesses began closing their doors and cutting their marketing budgets in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Vegas is pretty unique in that it’s got all its eggs in one basket,” he said, noting that the regional economy depends on businesses that support tourism — arts and entertainment, dining, hospitality and gambling. By the end of March 2020, two weeks after lockdowns began, dozens of underwriting clients pulled back from the station, Carrera said.

Vegas PBS’ experience with sponsorship early in the pandemic was similar to that of many public broadcasters that had counted restaurants and local arts and cultural institutions among their top underwriting clients. Cancellation of live performances, travel plans and dinner reservations for the foreseeable future triggered a nosedive in sponsorship sales for public media on the local and national levels. Sponsorship sales to educational institutions also dropped sharply, according to marketing execs and sales representatives.

A year later, public media’s sponsorship Garrubbo sales leaders report that they’ve found ways to begin to make up for the losses. Some sales reps have cultivated relationships with new clients — from new categories of businesses to government agencies — repackaged their sponsorship offers or focused on developing new products or services.

Some are seeing signs that long-standing clients are preparing to resume marketing soon.

“Things were pretty dire in March, April and May, but we steadily had a rebound,” said Gina Garrubbo, CEO for National Public Media, which handles corporate sponsorship sales for NPR and stations.

A definitive analysis of the pandemic’s effects on corporate underwriting programs of local stations won’t be available until fall, when CPB typically publishes its annual report on public broadcasting revenues. Sponsorship sales executives and analysts estimate a 5% to 10% drop in underwriting revenues in 2020, noting that results vary widely among stations.

A study published in December by public radio’s Station Resource Group reported that underwriting is in “serious trouble.” Based on stations’ preliminary budget data, it estimated a 7.9% median decline in underwriting sales in FY20 and a further decline of 7.6% this fiscal year for the median station.

The SRG study combined flash poll and survey responses submitted by 142 stations last spring and summer. Though the report focused on public radio revenue trends, 32 joint licensees that also operate TV stations participated in the survey.

“Bigger stations are taking heavier hits because they had more to lose,” said Tom Thomas, co-CEO of SRG, in an interview. Stations that earned more than $15 million in annual revenues reported that they anticipated a 17% downturn in underwriting this year.

But SRG’s December study has also shown that sponsorship for national programs has been more resilient than local underwriting. National programmers tend to have more access to major corporations and foundations, and their national reach makes a difference, he said.

Overall business income, which includes corporate underwriting, accounted for nearly 13.5% of public broadcasting’s revenue in fiscal year 2019, according to the most recent CPB annual revenue report. The nearly $458 million total business income of local public media stations in FY19 was a 2.1% increase over the previous year.

THE WAY WE WORK NOW

Mixed results for national, local sales

Suzanne Zellner, VP of corporate sponsorship for GBH in Boston, agreed that local underwriting took a harder hit than national sales in 2020. She declined to discuss how much local underwriting decreased, but she expressed optimism that revenues in 2021 and 2022 will rebound.

Like other stations, GBH was affected by local sponsorship cancellations from arts, cultural and higher education institutions. Clients from the tourism industry and child care organizations also scaled back, but she sees signs that they may resume marketing soon.

Clients from travel companies have told her that they expect to buy more spots in the near future to position themselves for “pent-up demand” for tourism once travel restrictions are lifted.

Public media sponsorships have a competitive advantage over ad-supported media organizations because they can offer underwriters “category exclusivity” for their campaign. For example, a national sponsor can pay to be the only one in its industry to underwrite a program.

Category exclusivity is especially effective with sponsors from financial, cruise travel, pharmaceutical and other industries, and has helped Zellner hold on to GBH’s biggest clients.

GBH also created an underwriting package for new podcasts from Nova, Antiques Roadshow and All Rev’d Up, which is co-hosted by Black pastors.

At NPM, the sales team that handles NPR’s corporate sponsorship saw underwriting decrease 11% during the pandemic, according to Garrubbo. For the team that places national spots on local stations, sales declined 10%. Underwriting spots for online grocery shopping and delivery were one of the bright spots for stations, she said.

NPR has also leveraged its standing as a top podcast producer with underwriters, Garrubbo said.

“NPR has six of the top 20 podcasts. So on the podcast side we are doing very well,” she said. “On the radio side, I believe the only reason we’re off is because of the Morning Edition and All Things Considered ratings being off on adults from 25 to 54,” a listenership decline that’s linked to the sharp drop in commuting after workplaces shifted to telework arrangements.

Hunt for new clients

As stations were hit with sponsorship cancellations last March, during the first month of lockdown, sales leaders advised station reps to pitch sponsorships to local museums, arts organizations and educational institutions looking to spread word about virtual events and online classes.

But that strategy didn’t work well, according to sales reps who tried it, because these organizations were reeling from revenue losses. Efforts to reach out to new prospects in different industries turned into sales.

Carrera of Vegas PBS said the station acquired new accounts from senior health care companies. Another new client is an automotive company that paid for a Black History Month underwriting spot. The station also ran spots for statewide immunization efforts, which were paid for by state agencies.

“Immunize Nevada is a yearly effort that comes to all stations in the form of a PSA,” he said, describing the nonprof- Carrera it that organizes the campaign. Since it was critical that broadcasters commit airtime for those messages, Immunize Nevada recently invested in a paid campaign across all stations.

Local philanthropists also stepped up to help Vegas PBS by continuing as major donors and underwriters, Carrera said.

Hawaii Public Radio boosted its underwriting sales to real estate companies and government organizations, and an airline that put its sponsorship on hold has since returned, according to Cat Gelman, VP of corporate rela-

tions. With those inroads, the station is projecting a 5-10% decline in underwriting this fiscal year, Gelman said.

Hawaii Public Radio has been sharing its data, broadcast packages, digital strategies and virtual sponsorship ideas with other stations, Gelman said. She also participates in a Greater Public support group for sales reps from similar-sized stations, led by corporate support advisor Laura Landress.

WHQR in Wilmington, N.C., added new accounts with small businesses and sole proprietors offering goods and services. The new clients include home improvement companies, psychotherapists, landscapers and craft brewers, according to Jeff Hunter, who handles both underwriting sales and major gifts for the station.

The station also won a small contract to produce virtual museum presentations.

Hunter co-organizes a group of sales representatives who work for public media stations in North Carolina.

The group has its own Slack channel and holds virtual meetings to share ideas.

Will Keible, director of marketing and corporate support at WDAV in Davidson, N.C., said similar efforts by Greater Public and the Public Radio Program Directors Association to support stations’ corporate sales teams have been helpful.

Focus on digital sales, news beats

Sales directors for stations in other regions described their efforts to build sponsorships for digital products.

WFYI in Indianapolis had completed two consecutive years of best-ever underwriting sales before the pandemic arrived, said Stacey Stuteville, director of corporate and foundation relations. A third of the sponsorship revenues in 2018 and 2019 were from spots marketing live events, arts organizations and entertainment.

When fiscal 2020 ended, actual sponsorship sales were $600,000 short of budget.

The budget for FY21 forecasts a slow recovery. WFYI projects that it will bring in $500,000 less than pre-pandemic sales.

WFYI is looking to sell more underwriting for its digital products, such as spots inserted into its podcasts and its online radio stream, Stuteville said. Back in 2014, WFYI didn’t project any revenues for digital sponsorship. This year her goal is to reach $160,000.

The station’s newsroom is introducing reporting initiatives on specialized beats, including education, health and diversity, equity and inclusion. Stuteville’s plan is to pitch sponsors on the beat coverage as a way to target their messaging to specific audiences.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s sponsorship sales took a big hit last year when top sponsors pulled back, according to Eric Erickson, VP of corporate sponsorships for Friends of South Dakota Public Broadcasting, the state network’s fundraising organization.

In addition to SDPB’s sponsors in the arts, culture and tourism categories, the state network’s major underwriters included utility companies and businesses tied to agriculture, finance and legal services. At the end of fiscal year 2020, underwriting revenues had dropped nearly 20% over the previous year. Most of the cancellations were arts organizations, including museums, and tourism groups.

One of SDPB’s competitive advantages is that its television and radio networks reach the most rural regions of the state. For companies that want to spread their messages everywhere, SDPB helps them do that.

Some of the network’s top clients have told Erickson that they plan to resume sponsorships, and efforts to attract new clients are progressing, he said. The state’s department of tourism booked underwriting spots encouraging safe travel and attracting tourists back to the state. A higher educational institution that wanted to reach Native American communities signed on to sponsor Indian Country Today, which the television network airs on Sundays.

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“They know that we’re the only statewide offer for news programs related to Native Americans,” he said.

Erickson, who joined the station in October, said his greatest challenge is figuring out how to boost SDPB’s digital underwriting sales. A client interested in radio and television sponsorship was disappointed to learn that SDPB doesn’t have original podcasts or offer underwriting digital packages. “As a new guy in this industry I’m eagerly seeking a mentor who can show me the way,” he said.

Producing ads for state agencies

Maryland Public Television took a different approach to boosting revenues in corporate underwriting. Before the pandemic, Station Manager Steven Schupak created a new division that produces TV ads and marketing campaigns for state agencies. The Maryland State Ad Agency creates ad campaigns that can run on commercial or noncommercial stations.

5%-10%

Estimated drop in 2020 underwriting revenues

“ Bigger stations are taking heavier hits because they had more to lose.”

— Tom Thomas, Station Resource Group Recent campaigns addressed the 2020 Census and public health precautions related to COVID-19 and the state’s opioid addiction crisis. MPT also reached a deal with the Maryland Department of Aging, an organization that Schupak described as “a natural fit for our audience.”

When an agency wants to run its campaign on MPT, the state network can earn additional revenue from the sponsorship, but sometimes the spots run as public service announcements, Schupak said. After Governor Larry Hogan recorded a message encouraging Marylanders to wear masks, for example, that spot ran for free as a “goodwill” gesture, Schupak said.

In a similar case of stewardship, West Virginia Public Broadcasting offered a run of free radio underwriting to independent and locally owned restaurants and small businesses affected by the pandemic. The station eventually assisted 40 businesses.

WVPB wanted to support struggling businesses and be a good community partner, said Jane Wright, director of grants and underwriting. The initiative was well-received and five businesses that benefited from the program came back later to pay for a run of underwriting spots.

“We didn’t do it for the retention, although it has evolved into a great partnership with small businesses in our state that may otherwise not have tried underwriting with WVPB,” she said. “Our mission is to serve West Virginians, so it was a no-brainer.”

12 | March/April 2021 | Current

THE WAY WE WORK NOW

Coping strategies for staying sane

A

s the COVID vaccination effort rolls out, are we allowed a glimmer of optimism that a return to normal could be on the way? Regardless, it’s not over yet, and it’s been a very long haul. Getting through this pandemic has tested all of us. We asked Current readers to tell us how they’ve managed to stay sane, healthy and connected amid the challenges of social distancing, Zoom meetings and child care crises.

— Mike Janssen, Digital Editor

AMY LABENSKI Senior Director of National Impact & Engagement, WETA, Washington, D.C. Jigsaw puzzles! My 2-year-old is getting really good at floor puzzles, and he sometimes “helps” with my 1,000-piece puzzles, too!

CATRIONA COMB Database Manager, WEDU, Tampa, Fla. Every day I try and make sure I put time aside to do exercise, something creative, housework and read a paper book. I’ve taken up piano and crochet. I put my digital items away an hour before bed and just read. I try to be kind to myself and my family. I make a point of saying three nice things daily, and “please” and “thank you” to my husband and son (who both work from our home, too). And every Friday after work, we have family hot tub time with a nice drink! At the weekend we often gather outside on a neighbor’s driveway around a fire pit and share beer and news with our neighbors. I realize I’m fortunate to have these options. I wish everyone health, happiness and prosperity for 2021.

CORINNE SMITH GM, Talkeetna Community Radio, Talkeetna, Alaska It’s a surprising answer, maybe, but I’m sleeping later on workdays. Early on in the pandemic when our governor issued a stayat-home order, we had to tell volunteers to stay home. We have a dedicated corps of volunteer news readers who deliver KTNA’s three daily newscasts. Staff took on those duties and I did the early-morning newscast every day for about two months. When we started welcoming volunteers back to the studios, I decided to prioritize sleep to help reduce my stress by starting off each day well-rested.

ANNE SCHWARZ Director of Human Resources, PBS North Carolina Being intentional with catching up 1:1 with staff — it’s so easy to get disconnected. Hosting virtual coffee talks for supervisors. Personally, I started mountain biking and listening to webinars while walking!

JUNE FOX GM, C89.5/KHNC, Seattle Binge-watching stupid TV shows.

RUSS HITZEMANN VP & Chief Individual Giving Officer, Nine PBS, St. Louis Working out and doing home improvements at our house and two of our kids’ houses. Learning a lot of skills that I hope to never have to use again ;).

ROSEMARY BRUNTON Community Engagement Manager, Nashville Public Television Walking dog regularly, cardio first thing in the morning and getting outside for at least 10 to 30 minutes each day (yes, even in the cold).

(iStock / Ciripasca)

High Fidelity Tech solutions for recording at home change expectations for audio quality

BY JON KALISH

P

art and parcel of producing radio at home are the wacky intrusions into broadcast interviews by kids, spouses, neighbors and pets.

Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon recently had to pause an interview because of construction noise in his Washington, D.C., apartment building.

A cat named Ori interrupted a live interview

by Alicia Zuckerman, editorial director of WLRN in Miami. Ori’s meowing was not as intrusive as the power drill overheard in Simon’s interview, but nevertheless distracted Zuckerman and her listeners, she said.

Zuckerman recalled hearing a dog bark during a live interview on one of the national morning shows, followed by a prompt apology by its owner on the air.

“I loved that moment,” Zuckerman said. “In the days before the pandemic, it would be really strange to hear some- Gonzales body’s dog bark on the radio in the middle of an interview. Now, I think we just kind of expect it and it makes us laugh. It actually gives us a little moment of lightness.”

Zuckerman describes herself as an evangelist for the best in-person sound. In the before times, she discouraged WLRN reporters from using phone tape in their stories. Back then, guests came into studios for in-person interviews, or producers sent tape syncers to guests’ homes or offices to record their remarks with broadcast-quality microphones. But the pandemic has changed all that.

Now, a year into the makeshift arrangements and workarounds of broadcasting from home, “I’ve really had to make my peace with using audio quality that in the past I would not be happy with,” Zuckerman said. She thinks listeners have noticed the difference in the quality of sound but are forgiving.

As the virus spread, so has a slew of new tech tools and DIY techniques for gathering optimal sound. Some of them may ultimately reduce public radio’s reliance on tape syncs and the use of studios to record guests when the pandemic is brought under control.

The vast majority of the people whom radio and podcast producers interview for live or recorded programs have smartphones, tablets or computers that allow them to record themselves using voice memo apps and other software.

The process has its drawbacks, including the amount of technical support that can be involved to get good audio, according to producers who developed new techniques under lockdown.

“It starts all the way at the beginning when [engineers, producers and reporters] are reaching out to people, right in the ask — ’What do you have available to record with?’” said Jocelyn Gonzales, EP at PRX Productions. “The technical people on our side are just getting involved a lot earlier.”

Producers and engineers have come to rely on specialized apps, and they’ve developed workarounds for the shortcomings of Zoom’s recording functions, among other tech solutions.

THE WAY WE WORK NOW

Self-recording techniques

One of the most common workarounds to tape syncs and studio recordings is asking interviewees to record themselves with the voice memo app on their smartphones or tablets. Each self-recorded conversation usually has to be conducted on a landline phone or another device, be it a second cellphone, tablet or computer.

Before these interviews begin, producers talk people through a self-recording scenario. Many send interviewees to a web page created

by WBUR’s Modern Love on the best way to do it.

“Mic placement is absolutely key when [a guest is] using a phone for tape syncs,” said Rob Byers, director of broadcast and media operations for American Public Media and co-founder of Final Final v2, an audio post-production and consulting company.

“Get the guest to hold the phone … where it’s up by the face,” Byers said. “That usually puts the phone right in the place where it needs to be, so Byers that it’s not going to get plosives. It’s not going to get blasts of air. And its proximity to the mouth will get you a nice close recording.”

PRX’s Gonzales stressed that it’s important to delve into where interviewees will record themselves.

“You just have to be vigilant about where they’re recording because even a phone will sound OK if they’re in the right space,” she said.

Gonzales recalled booking an interview with a scientist who ended up recording herself in the storage room of her lab.

“It was just like being in the basement. It was blank walls and metal shelves.”

The PRX producer recently asked a couple of her hosts to give her live video tours of possible spots to record in their homes. One ended up making a space in his closet.

The other erected a blanket fort around his desk.

App solutions

Some voice memo apps have time limits, but Motiv, an app made by the microphone company Shure, sidesteps those constraints. It also offers manual control of the phone’s mic level and functions for equalizing the recording to boost presence and adding light, medium or heavy compression. Motiv and other similar apps also allow users to record uncompressed WAV files, which don’t have to be converted for use in a digital audio workstation.

One podcast producer who knows the art of the tape sync well developed Talk Sync, an app that’s designed to record interviewees on their smartphones. Ben Adair, a veteran of APM and Reveal who left public radio after a 12-year career, now runs the Los Angeles podcasting company Western Sound.

He found web services for podcast interviews to be lacking, mostly because “computer mics are bad, and people sit pretty far away from them.” Mics on the newer phones, such as the iPhone 11 and 12, and the latest Samsung phones, are quite good, Adair said.

“We’re all carrying around these really great microphones in our pockets,” Adair said. “We should figure

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out a way to use them. They sound better than most mics podcasters use.”

Adair tapped his twin brother, John, to create Talk Sync. The app’s $10 per month pro plan allows producers to record an unlimited amount of uncompressed WAV files. Among the hundreds of subscribers are APM Reports, the Hidden Brain podcast and Iowa Public Radio.

Monique Laborde, producer of the Pushkin Industries interview show Deep Background with Noah Feldman, praised Talk Sync’s ease of file transfer. When a guest ends a recording, the app automatically uploads the audio to her Talk Sync account. Another important feature: The app records only when the phone is in airplane mode, she said. “There’s no way an incoming call or text can interrupt the recording.”

NPR’s newsmagazines and public radio stations use hardware and an app made by Tieline, an Australian company, for live and recorded interviews.

To prepare for an interview with an NPR host or reporter, a guest downloads Tieline’s iOS or Android app. They can use it to connect to the network’s studios for a live interview. If they use the app to self-record the conversation, they upload the audio for NPR producers to edit.

Tieline’s hardware is audio codecs similar to the Comrex gear that’s widely used in public radio for remotes and studio to transmitter links. A feature in the Tieline app called Report-IT Live allows guests to use their phones for live appearances on All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Weekend Edition.

Another feature, Record A Report, enables interviewees to record their end of a conversation and then upload the audio file to NPR’s FTP server.

Asked to compare the audio quality of Report-IT Live to that of a voice memo, one public radio veteran Continued on page 16

14 | March/April 2021 | Current

THE WAY WE WORK NOW

Alberto Villalobos, left, Ernesto Villalobos and Victor Murirllo perform on the Franklin D. Roosevelt Boardwalk in Staten Island during the Mostly Mozart Festival.

(Photo: Richard Termine, courtesy NYPR)

‘Lean forward to respond to the moment we’re in’ With venues closed, event planners create virtual experiences to connect with audiences

BY TYLER FALK

S

ince the pandemic quashed in-person gatherings, public media’s event and engagement producers have been experimenting with digital events, trying out new platforms and testing different types of programming.

In the process they’ve discovered new ways to engage audiences with events that focus on urgent and timely topics.

They’ve tested new formats on Twitch, created summer enrichment programs for school-aged kids and designed events tailored to members’ interests.

Public media’s event spaces may have been mostly sitting empty, but event producers say they’ve developed strategies that they will continue — and continue to refine — even after they can bring people together again.

“We will never go back to a world where we focus almost all of our energy just on the intimate in-person audience that we can serve in the studio,” said Jennifer Keeney Sendrow, EP of New York Public Macdonald Radio’s The Greene Space.

Virtual space to ‘grapple with the issues’

Early on in the pandemic, WBUR in Boston noticed that many organizations were hosting virtual panel discussions or interviews, but not town hall–style events. So the station created a 14-part town hall series about topics related to COVID. WBUR journalists spoke with experts about such topics as education, racial disparities and the surge of COVID-19 infections in the city. The events were free, and the format provided space for attendees to ask questions directly to the experts.

“We wanted to provide a place for people to gather, grapple with the issues that were unfolding in their lives and provide a

deeper sense of understanding about everything that was going on in the world,” WBUR CEO Margaret Low said.

Before the pandemic, WBUR held in-person events at its CitySpace venue, a 8,700-square-foot space with a 270-person capacity that opened in February 2019. WBUR had been considering launching an events-based membership before the venue was forced to close, according to Amy Macdonald, CitySpace director.

Since last March, her staff has created virtual formats for events that are likely to continue when the doors open again.

For CitySpace Summer Camp, a free series targeted to families with children aged 5 to 12, “camp counselors” from local organizations helped create enrichment activities around the arts. Counselors developed weekly assignments for the kids around six themes, from theater to creative writing.

Participants sent photos or videos of their completed assignments to the station. CitySpace compiled a montage video of the submissions each week.

Circle Round, WBUR’s podcast for children, helped promote the camp. The series drew more than a thousand registrants, and the station received a “significant” number of submissions from national and international attendees, Macdonald said.

WBUR also launched CitySpace Productions, a new business unit specializing in event production services.

After WBUR presented its annual gala as a virtual event last May, other organizations “wanted to understand what we'd done and how we did it,” Macdonald said. So WBUR created the unit to help other groups plan and produce their digital events.

CitySpace Productions has worked with five organizations and has five more in the pipeline, she said. The company charges a minimum of $12,000 for the service, according to its website.

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Current March/April 2021

THE WAY WE WORK NOW

The CitySpace venue already had the technical capability to stream events, but didn’t produce them regularly before the pandemic. Now Macdonald predicts a hybrid approach of in-person and virtual to take hold when its doors finally reopen.

“Now we know, having had this experience, the flexibility it gives us, the larger audience to reach outside Boston, that going forward, even post-COVID ... everything will be a hybrid. We will always have streaming, and virtual will be part of our events going forward.”

Testing Twitch

didn’t have to think about canceling or postponing one of the Mini J School sessions that was scheduled.

“I no longer have to avoid planning an event in January because I'm concerned about weather,” Davis said. “I just have to plan for it to be accessible virtually so that if for some reason weather is an issue, we've already planned for this … and everyone can participate virtually.”

| 15

But when GBH closed its public spaces during the pandemic and began experimenting with virtual events, Stern decided to give it a try.

The team created a digital event with birding author David Allen Sibley and Arun Rath, executive editor and host of GBH’s All Things Considered. “Next thing you know, we have 1,500 registrants and over 1,000 attendees logging in on a noon on a Friday in the summer to talk about birding.”

“It had a big impact,” Stern said.

“We brought in a lot of new people, and yet it was really simple and it was also data-driven.”

Ticketed membership-focused events such as a conversation with travel show host Rick Steves have also been well received, Stern said.

The station sold a limited number of tickets to the event, which featured a conversation between GBH Radio’s Celtic music host Brian O’Donovan and Steves, and invited participants to ask questions.

Attendees could also join a digital meet-and-greet to do a virtual photo-op with Steves, whose shows are popular with public TV members. Events that pair a virtual program with a meet-and-greet with well-known talents has been “really popular,” Stern said.

GBH treats membership-oriented events “a little bit like pledge,” with a fundraising pitch in the middle and end. Attendees also receive post-event emails or texts, and the follow-ups have converted some to sustaining members. “We're really pleased with the results,” he said.

He thinks the approach has long-term value for cultivating members, but it’s too early to know how well virtual events work compared to on-air pledge or acquisition mail.

“My instincts tell me, yes, that they probably are more valuable because they're coming in and engaging with us right off the bat,” Stern said.

For virtual events addressing the community’s response to the pandemic and the movement for racial justice, GBH partnered with the Boston Globe, the NAACP’s Boston chapter and World Channel to present “The State of Race,” a series of virtual forums that began last summer.

The first event was a panel discussion on how the pandemic has exacerbated inequalities in the Black community. The series, which also explored police reform and inequities in housing, has been “some of our most successful events as far as community engagement,” Stern said. “We're bringing thousands of registrants and attendees to these really important discussions.”

During the pandemic, GBH has found it has more flexibility to offer events on weekday afternoons, Stern said.

“Where our station is located and the demands on the space during the business day and parking and things like that — afternoon events are kind of tricky,” Stern said. But with virtual events there’s an audience during times that wouldn’t have worked to physically gather.

In the first two months of 2020, St. Louis Public Radio had just begun experimenting with hybrid in-person and digital events, including a livestream of an in-person event for its podcast We Live Here.

“We had, of course, no idea ... what was coming,” said Leslie Davis, the station’s special events director.

After WBUR canceled public The station continued experimentevents in its CitySpace venue, ing even as the pandemic forced events the empty auditorium was set online, and eventually decided to creup as a backup studio.

(Photo: Karl Voelker/WBUR) ate two shows for the livestreaming platform Twitch.

Lindsay Toler, the station’s engagement producer, came up with the idea and hosts both shows. In Too Much News, Toler discusses news stories of the day with St. Louis Public Radio journalists and engages with Twitch viewers who post in the chat. House Show features live music by local artists performing from different locations, including their homes.

“We definitely are attracting a —Margaret Low, WBUR younger demographic, people who are interested in live music and are comfortable with the platWhen live in-person events are once again possible, form,” Davis said. The audience for Too Much News, which Davis sees hybrid in-person and digital productions as typically attracts a few dozen participants, is more of a mix- the norm. ture, but it “definitely skews younger than what we would “The conversation you have in-person is, of course, get in the room for a live event.” House Show has been more something that we don't want to lose,” Davis said. “But popular, drawing more than 600 viewers for one episode. if we can make our events more accessible to people Twitch doesn’t require viewers to set up accounts to join because we're offering them in more ways, then I think an event, which is an advantage for attracting new audi- that's just a great benefit that will come out of this.” ences. With its display of a continuous chat box next to the St. Louis Public Radio also presents events at Public video stream, Twitch is also “a slightly more interesting plat- Media Commons, an outdoor event space operated form than just a Zoom screen,” Davis said. Producers use by Nine PBS, the St. Louis public TV station formerly Zoom to record the video and livestream it through Twitch. branded as Nine Network. Davis hopes to be able to proDavis is also working to adapt events that St. Louis duce events there “in the late summer or early fall.” But Public Radio used to hold in-person. This summer, Best at this time, “we're not yet comfortable making those of Shorts, an annual screening of short films, will be plans,” she said. streamed on the platform.

Davis prefers to use Zoom by itself for events that are Birding’s ‘big impact’ with members targeted to a specific audience, or for which the station GBH in Boston found success with a digital event it wants to have more control of the chat moderation. It’s might have never tried in-person. also the preferred platform for ticketed events.

Two years ago, Yuri Stern, director of member The strategy for digital events has paid off “when we engagement and head of the events team, saw memstick to the things we already excel at,” Davis said. bership survey data showing strong interest in birding For example, the station’s Mini Journalism School among the station’s donors. has been adapted from an in-person to a virtual event.

GBH was “never going to do a birding event in our The multi-week series, now presented on Zoom, fea- studio,” Stern said. “It was never going to be practical. It tures lectures and discussions of journalism topics like was never going to make sense to do it.” media literacy and investigative journalism.

“We don't want to do virtual events just for the sake of doing virtual events,” Davis said. “We want to make sure that our events are still connecting to our content and our mission.”

Virtual platforms also provide the flexibility to offer events year-round, Davis said.

As the St. Louis residents hunkered down in February for a big snowstorm, she St. Louis Public Radio’s Lindsay Toler, left, hosts a Twitch livestream of House Show with the band Boxcar.

“ We wanted to provide a place for people to gather, grapple with the issues that were unfolding in their lives and provide a deeper sense of understanding about everything that was going on in the world.”

‘People really value the liveness’

Early in the pandemic, NYPR’s events team at The Greene Space decided to post digital events five days a week by drawing on an archive of in-person events that had been previously recorded. After repackaging more than 60 Continued on page 17

16 | March/April 2021 | Current

Audio quality Continued from page 13

who is familiar with the Tieline system said, “It’s not any better or worse.”

Tieline technology is available to public radio stations at licensing fees based on usage, according to Jacob Daniluck, technical sales specialist. Entry-level hardware is under $2,000 and a high-end model costs $13,000. The fees are based on the number of simultaneous connections a client uses, with a maximum of 16.

Another pricing factor is the number of locations designated for audio syndication. Some Tieline hardware can accommodate as many as 80 locations.

“We’ve definitely seen an increase in demand for hardware and software … during the pandemic,” said Daniluck.

Audio from video streams

As people became increasingly familiar with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and other videoconferencing services, audio producers developed techniques for recording audio virtual conversations on these platforms, despite apparent shortcomings.

Zoom allows multiple participants in a call to be recorded as separate m4a audio files, but producers have been frustrated by the phenomenon referred to as “dropout,” “lag” or “audio freezing.” Each time a host or guest starts speaking, sound from the first couple of seconds is often unusable until the audio stabilizes.

To prevent dropout, APM’s Byers advises asking a guest run a speed test during the setup call. The result will determine whether their bandwidth is conducive to videoconferencing. Bandwidth can be conserved by turning off the interviewee’s camera.

Many Zoom recordings are affected by the speed of the internet connection of each participant. Gonzales of PRX recommends a backup solution: Designate a second person as co-host of the interview, which enables them to also record the Zoom call.

The pitfalls of dropout on Zoom and other videoconferencing services such as Squadcast can be avoided by having each end of the interview recorded locally, i.e., on the computer of both reporter/host and interviewee.

Nora Young, host and creator of the CBC tech show Spark, praised the new web app riverside.fm, which was created by two brothers who live in Israel. Pricing ranges from $7.50 to $24 a month for two to 15 hours a month of “studio-quality audio.”

PubTV viewers turn to Passport, broadcasts early in pandemic

P

assport usage surged during the first months of lockdown. But as members initiated more streams, the number of minutes they watched dropped to pre-pandemic levels. That’s because Passport members found few new programs, or when they sampled shows they didn’t stick them as long, according to Craig Reed, TRAC Media Services executive director. In January, the arrival of All Creatures Great and Small and other new programs boosted streaming usage.

Interest in PBS NewsHour drove growth in broadcast audiences during early fringe dayparts.

Primetime viewership was also a big win for stations, according to TRAC Media’s analysis, even with the dip during the third quarter. The analysis compares 2020 Q3 ratings to the fall 2019 debut of Ken Burns’ Country Music, which elevated viewership.

THE WAY WE WORK NOW “It’s not contingent upon the quality of the video chat or the quality of the network at that moment, so you don’t end up with the dropouts and the freezing of the audio that you sometimes have with a video chat that you’re recording,” said Young.

“That’s been a big advantage.

‘Simple solution’

Another route for self-recording of tape sync is to send a recording kit to an interviewee.

Jennie Cataldo, a producer at Ben Manilla Productions in San Francisco, got her shop to shell Zuckerman out $200 for a Tascam DR10L, a roughly 2-inch-square recorder that is slightly less than an inch thick. It comes with a small clip-on lavalier mic and records on a micro SD card.

Cataldo works on the “Sounds of America,” a series for 1A on “aural treasures” designated for historical preservation by the Library of Congress. She FedExed the Tascam recorder to an older interviewee who didn’t want a tape syncer to come visit him. The kit included an instruction sheet explaining how to operate the device.

“I was looking for a very simple solution because even the simple Zoom recorders are complicated for people who don’t know about audio,” Cataldo said. “I gave it a test to hear what the audio would sound like and thought it sounded great.”

Zoom makes a similarly sized machine that costs slightly less and records audio at a 32-bit floating setting, which basically makes it impossible to distort, notes Jeff Towne, producer of Echoes, the music soundscape series distributed by PRX. Towne is also the tools editor for the public radio website Transom. On the listserv operated by the Association of Independents in Radio, he’s recognized as the elder engineering sage.

“It’s basically impossible to record too low,” Towne said, describing the Zoom device. “There’s nothing to set. There’s no level adjustment. It’s adding extra work on the production end [after engineers get the 32-bit audio file], but having that insurance is awfully nice.”

Towne is among the producers and engineers who are worried about audiences’ acceptance of “terrible-sounding audio” during the pandemic. “Honestly, it’s driving me a little crazy,” he said.

He’s concerned that an aesthetic reset may have taken hold with radio producers who have put up with compromised audio for a whole year and may be willing to accept it just because it’s cheaper.

“I do fear that once it becomes safer to do tape syncs, we may see a dramatic reduction in syncs and, therefore, in good-quality sound,” Towne said. “And I think that’s a tragedy.”

Some are questioning whether there is a future for tape syncs in public radio. In a January edition of the podcast newsletter Hot Pod, columnist Aria Bracci wondered whether tape syncs should resume.

“If lots of people are doing DIY recordings,” Bracci wrote, “a BBC show might at times sound like a homegrown production, and vice versa, and neither is necessarily a bad thing.”

The notion that one of the most prestigious broadcast networks on the planet sounds like a homegrown production may be a little hard to swallow, but these are extraordinary times.

Think back to just one year ago and ponder the reaction to anyone who advocated abandoning professional recording studios and tape syncs. Such advice would have been regarded as blasphemous. But that’s what the Tieline company, on some level, is now recommending.

“U.S. radio companies have found that broadcasting from home is working, so the trend now is to go from those quick-fix, cheap setups [improvised for the pandemic] to more permanent, long-term, higher-quality solutions,” said Tieline’s Daniluck. “If you didn’t have the money to step up and buy the good equipment [after the pandemic started], you’re probably doing it in 2021, because broadcasting from home is not going to go away.”

Reducing the size of production studios and the high costs of leasing and maintaining them will be an attractive budget-cutting move for commercial and public radio stations struggling in the current economy, Daniluck said. He cited several research findings reporting that a substantial percentage of U.S. workers who currently work from home want to continue to do so even after it’s safe to return to offices. Daniluck believes that broadcast employees will be among those who stick with teleworking.

PASSPORT STREAMS PER USER & STREAMING MINS PER USER Streaming min/user

300

Streams per user

10 9.38 256

271

250

7.68

8

7.43 6.32

214

200 Q1 2019

Q2 2019

Q3 2019

Q4 2019

Q1 2020

Q2 2020

Q3 2020

Q4 2020

6 JAN 2021

Source: Except for January 2021 data, TRAC Passport Ratings for station clients are monthly averages for each quarter.

TRAC’s Passport Ratings driven by CDP data.

2019 VS. 2020 RATINGS CHANGE M-F Early Fringe

Prime Time Q1

-8%

0% M-F Early Fringe

Q2

24%

9% -1%

Q3 Q4

3%

6% 7%

Source: Ratings from Nielsen Local Overnights

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Current March/April 2021

THE WAY WE WORK NOW

Virtual events Continued from page15

events, Sendrow said it was time to try to reevaluate.

“We learned pretty quickly that it takes a lot of effort even to pull that stuff out of the archives,” she said. “And so we did decide ... to just focus on making new things and … just lean forward and keep responding to the moment that we're in.”

Since March 2020 the team has produced about 100 digital events, including some that had been planned as in-person and transitioned to digital.

“We really went all-in and did just as much as we would have done if we were still working in person,” Sendrow said.

Its events have ranged from First Peoples Week, NYPR’s first-ever festival featuring

Public Radio’s WQXR partnered with the Lincoln Center to present their annual Mostly Mozart Festival last summer. It featured local artists performing live in public parks in each of the five boroughs. “We took advantage of the fact that we could use all our skills and ability … to do these field experiences that we would never do when we could use our studio,” Sendrow said.

In December, NYPR’s team began producing some events inside The Greene Space, where musicians performed without an in-person audience.

“There's no replacing that feeling of being in the room when something happens,” Sendrow said. “But I think that we've found a lot is still possible and that we are still able to connect with one another as people, as artists, as thinkers. That's been a challenge, but one that's been rewarding to me.”

Violinist Mazz Swift performs at the Old Stone House in Brooklyn during the Mostly Mozart Festival. (Photo: Richard Termine, courtesy NYPR) Native creators and artists, to a book club series called Get Lit led by Alison Stewart, host of WNYC’s All Of It. “What we learned is that people really value the liveness and really do engage in real time,” she said. Most of the virtual events have been free, but they’ve attracted online donations and attendees from around the world.

The team has utilized physical spaces for some digital events, including musical performances. For instance, New York

After nearly a year of digital events, Sendrow has found that “we’re very conscious now of the power of this video platform. And that wasn’t something that was native, being a radio station primarily.”

The team has learned that digital events “can be a way to reach entirely different audiences than we reach” on other platforms, Sendrow said. “... There’s just a lot of power in being able to invite people who aren’t physically able to join us into these experiences.”

Radio reverses ratings nosedive while podcast downloads climb

A

s closures of businesses and schools disrupted drivetime routines, AQH ratings for NPR programming dropped sharply. The weekly cume lost nearly 6.5 million listeners, a decline of 18%. But by December 2020, AQH persons had recovered to 3% below pre-pandemic levels. The weekly cume had regained more than half of its lockdown losses, hitting just 8% below average ratings from Fall 2019.

Weekly users of NPR podcasts grew 5% during the pandemic, while average number of downloads increased 28% from Q4 2019 to Q4 2020. The boost in downloads reveals increased listener loyalty.

| 17

Conferences resume with mix of virtual, in-person events

(Photo: fizkes/iStock)

P

ublic media’s conference organizers have placed calculated bets on when and whether to resume in-person meetings.

PBS, which completely canceled its spring 2020 conferences because of the coronavirus pandemic, plans to convene a virtual Annual Meeting in mid-May and an in-person PBS Technology Conference in October.

In a February message announcing PBS’ plans, President Paula Kerger advised those who want to meet in Las Vegas this fall to “consider making travel arrangements at a later date.” PBS will continue to monitor developments with coronavirus spread and provide booking details in July, she said.

American Public Television’s Fall Marketplace and the Public Radio SuperRegional, which are typically held in the fall, will bring people together again in November. But one of the biggest events on the public media calendar — Greater Public’s Public Media Development and Marketing Conference, in July — will be virtual.

Leaders of associations that produced virtual events in 2020 said the format has many advantages to improve access to training and professional development. They plan to keep developing ways to boost participation by offering live streams and on-demand access to conference sessions. — Julian Wyllie

Here’s a rundown of the public media conferences announced

by Current’s deadline: Public Media Journalists Association JUNE 22–24: Virtual conference, training Public Media Business Association JUNE 1–4: Virtual conference PBS Annual Meeting MAY 10 : Virtual preconference workshops MAY 11–20: Virtual general and

breakout sessions Public Media Development and Marketing Conference JULY 13–22: Virtual conference PBS Technology Conference OCTOBER 6–8, LOCATION:

Cosmopolitan Hotel, Las Vegas American Public Television Fall Marketplace NOV. 8–11, LOCATION:

Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort and Spa, Indian Wells, Calif.

Public Radio Super-Regional Meeting NOV. 15–17, LOCATION:

Grand Hyatt, Denver

SEMI-ANNUAL BROADCAST AVERAGES Weekly listeners (cume) 35 million (cume)

Avg quarter hour listeners (AQH persons) 35.59

35.07

1.5 million (AQH persons)

32.65 1.32

1.29

1.28

29.13

30 million

1.2 million

1.19 0.9 million

25 million

Spring 2020

Fall 2019

Spring 2019

Fall 2020

Source: NPR Audience Insights

QUARTERLY PODCAST TRENDS Avg. weekly downloads

Avg weekly users

50 million 40

44.5 38.5

34.4

48.6

50.8

46.9

36.7

30 20 10

11.5

11.9

Q2 2019

Q3 2019

12.7

14.0

13.7

Q4 2019

Q1 2020

Q2 2020

14.5

13.3

0 Q3 2020

Q4 2020

Sources: NPR measurement system, certified by the IAB. NPR Podcast Trends, Winter 2021

18 | March/April 2021 | Current

CURRENT THINKING

GM who broke ceilings, took heat, urges pubradio to confront ‘rapidly changing environment’

BY PATRICIA DEAL CAHILL

I

n 1966, when I was a student at the University of Kansas, a professor who taught radio production told me that I should change my major to nursing or teaching. He said that women couldn’t — more likely meaning that they shouldn’t — get jobs in broadcasting.

I didn’t listen to him. I found my first job at the university’s radio station, KANU in Lawrence. I started as traffic director and then became director of the station’s radio reading service. Then I moved on to KCUR at the University of Missouri in Kansas City to take a job as a reporter and producer.

Back then, NPR programs came across telephone lines and I heard the voice of All Things Considered host Susan Stamberg, who apparently had also ignored the advice of broadcasting professors. Susan and other women who delivered and reported news for NPR — Linda Wertheimer, Nina Totenberg and Cokie Roberts — were inspirational and affirming for those us who were starting our radio careers. All of us were determined to change the world.

At the time there was only one phone line linking the stations to NPR. Programming changes and notes were announced on the line prior to broadcasts of All Things Considered. Some GMs would call NPR to ask for a repeat of the offensive language advisory — just to make sure they had understood it correctly. Like, “At 15 minutes and 3 seconds into All Things Considered, the word ‘tongue’ will be used as a verb.”

My career took me from KCUR to KMUW at Wichita State, where I worked as news director. The program director left after I had been there six months, so I ended up doing that job. When the general manager left, I got that job — even though several people warned me that Wichita State wasn’t ready for a female general manager.

Eventually, I noticed that I was paid less than the former GM, and the savings from my lower salary were paid to the new male program director. I was 28 years old and so elated to be promoted that I didn’t question the pay disparities.

A couple of years after national programs began arriving by satellite, station managers began arguing about whether to prioritize audience ratings over noncommercial educational services. We finally figured out that we could do both.

Those debates made quite an impact on me when I moved back to Kansas City to become GM of KCUR. When I arrived, the program schedule included volunteers producing hourlong weekly shows on Bollywood music and French-language broadcasts. I took those programs and a dozen others off the air. The women who produced the French program complained in writing to the chancellor, and fans of the folk music program picketed the station.

Afterwards, the folkies left their signs at the station. I kept them in my office for years.

Changes aren’t easy. I’ve been burnt in effigy, asked to resign and chastised in the Kansas City Star. The heat I withstood for decisions were a personalized microcosm of what hap-

Patricia Cahill, center, during her tenure as CPB board chair, posed with CPB Director Bruce Ramer, left, and former FCC Chair Newton Minow. CPB honored Minow in 2012 for his role in shaping public policy that spurred development of public broadcasting. (Photo: CPB) pens to public broadcasting nationally, especially when politicians try to cut or zero out funding for CPB. That kind of pressure — wielded in Congress and state legislatures — is the reason why CPB’s annual appropriation is forward-funded by two years.

Representing public radio

Forty-two years after my professor told me that women shouldn’t work in broadcasting, I was confirmed by the United States Senate to serve on the board of directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. I was the first CPB director to be designated as a representative of public radio stations.

Although the Public Broadcasting statute says the CPB board should include a representative of public radio, senators who nominate citizens to the board tend to choose political friends or high rollers from their political parties. Few of them know of this provision in the statute.

meeting, I wore long sleeves and high-cut shoes to cover my tattoos.

But when I heard from Pat and began working with her senior staff, I immediately became comfortable. They weren’t the enemy I had imagined; they were the answer.

They had thought through the big challenges facing public broadcasting and knew what to do about them. At my next meeting, I wore short sleeves and took off my shoes.

Not that it was all smooth sailing in the board room. We disagreed on issues that weren’t all that different from what I’d seen as a GM. Sometimes members of local station advisory boards want to make program decisions. In Wichita, my PD once got into a minor fistfight with the chair of our advisory board about classical music programming. At CPB, I wasn’t surprised when Howard Husock, a Republican board member, wanted all the public stations to focus exclusively on local news. He believed that

“The ways we embrace change and respond to the unknown will define us.”

I was nominated by then–Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill. Since she was a Democrat, during the nominating process I was asked if I was a Democrat. I said I was.

I had never really thought of myself as a political being, particularly when I managed a news station. I was concerned about declaring a political affiliation but quickly discovered that everyone who serves on the CPB board is outed as a Republican or Democrat.

In fact, the statute calls for the majority of the board seats to be controlled by the same party as the president. Fortunately, the votes on the board don’t fall along political lines.

When I joined the board in 2008, I was concerned that I was going to be walking into a conservative quagmire. Pat Harrison, who became CPB president in 2005, had co-chaired the Republican National Committee and was selected to lead CPB

by Ken Tomlinson, the board chair who campaigned to bring more conservative programming to public TV. For the first

CPB could make programming decisions, which is wrong.

CPB doesn’t make programming decisions. It funds some programs, but decisions about whether and when they air are up to local stations. And the CPB board doesn’t ever make programming decisions. Husock also wanted the board to form a journalism committee, but no one agreed that this was worth doing. We weren’t appointed to the board to discuss journalism decisions or to program stations. We were there to act as a firewall against political interference in editorial decisions, and as stewards of federal funding.

Many things have changed in journalism, but the need for a free and independent press remains. Because of the difficult economic landscape and disruptive technologies affecting news media, among other challenges, it turns out that federal funding of public broadcasting through CPB works as an effective firewall between political influence and content.

It’s a hard concept for people to get at first. The spending of federal dollars on public broadcasting, with funds managed

by CPB as an independent and separate institution, reinforces and supports locally owned and operated stations’ control of their broadcasting choices. CPB also funds good ideas.

The tiny investment by the federal government turns out to be really important at the local station level, and that’s particularly the case for smaller rural and minority stations. And the other really key aspect of federal funding for public broadcasting is that it also provides a firewall between public media stations and advertising — I mean “underwriting.” Take away the federal funds and many stations will find it even more difficult to serve their communities with meaningful content and engagement.

Asking them to substitute advertising for federal dollars would lead to the end of locally owned and operated public media as we know it.

There are a number of issues with the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 that could be or should be changed. Having served on the CPB board’s compensation committee, one issue stands out to me. The statute limits the salary of CPB’s president and chief executive to no more than that earned by members of the president’s cabinet. The restriction also influences the compensation of CPB’s senior leaders. NPR, PBS and the stations aren’t affected by the statute’s salary limits. Having reviewed salary comparisons for CPB and other organizations, the differences seem unfair.

To me, the risks of trying to revise the law outweigh the potential benefits.

Members of Congress, lobbyists, and some listeners and viewers would try hacking at the statute to serve their own political or personal agendas. Just like the problems I dealt with from local advisory board members, everyone thinks they know how to make decisions about programming or finances. And then there are people who want to end federal funding for CPB — even though it’s been proven that defunding CPB would end public broadcasting as we know it. Updating the law would open up other important provisions, including the qualifications for the Community Service Grant program, the 75/25 split of the appropriation between television and radio, and funding to other nonprofit groups and for programming. The list goes on.

We’ve worked with the law for over 50 years and, overall, we’ve made it work. This is not the time for public broadcasting to be in the spotlight. I wonder if there ever is a time.

Things can and will change, which brings me back to something that happened during a Kansas Association of Broadcasters conference about 10 years into my public radio career. By then, I was GM of KMUW at Wichita State. The radio professor who had told me to change my major was at the conference. I had fantasized about meeting him again. When we spoke, I reminded him that he told me that women couldn’t work in broadcasting. Yet here I was.

|

Current March/April 2021

CURRENT THINKING

Frequency Boost Continued from page 2

Cahill shows off her tattoos with former NPR commentator Baxter Black. When the cowboy poet visited KCUR, he wrote her name on his arm in solidarity.

In my imagination, I expected he would get down on his knees and beg my forgiveness. Instead, he replied, “Things change.”

That’s why the conversation underway in the public radio system about aligning for the digital future is so important. It’s up to us to confront this rapidly changing environment with its new competitors, disruptive forces and the imperative to improve diversity, equity and inclusion across the system.

We must respond quickly to ensure our public service is even more essential and valued than ever. The ways that we handle change and respond to the unknown will define us.

In my years on the CPB and NPR boards, and career running stations, I came to recognize that we all love this business of public broadcasting for our own reasons. The common thread we share is that working in public broadcasting allows us to participate in shaping American democracy, culture and identity. At the community level, at the national level — communicating, opining, entertaining — uninhibited by commercialism, or by political action committees, we are free to serve the public and, together with them, respond to the changes that shape us.

Patricia Deal Cahill retired as GM of KCUR in Kansas City, Mo., in 2012. She was elected chair of the CPB board that fall and became the first radio broadcaster to lead the board.

During her career as a GM, Cahill served on the NPR board from 1982–88.

The question I want to focus on is this: What will this new era be? That’s a matter of debate, but I can only see two possible directions — the Era of Transformation or the Era of Decline.

Decline is pretty easy to imagine because it involves doubling down on the status quo, not recognizing the moment or simply deciding to buckle in and ride things out. An Era of Decline will be characterized by a lot of talk and small action that sound good, but neither of these change the course of public radio’s audience service or produce a significant net effect. As a result, listening declines, revenue declines and community impact declines. Public service slowly weakens to the point that few people really notice or care anymore. If you want to know what it looks like for an organization to follow the path of managing decline, send me an email and I’ll be happy to point some of them out, even within public broadcasting.

An Era of Transformation is not only the right path, but the path that will expand public radio’s public service in new and exciting ways. And it would be a hell of a lot more fun.

Just like starting over

An Era of Transformation starts with a very simple question whose answers will have profound impact: If we were going to start over in 2021 — with no legacy or expectations — what would we do differently? If you were to establish an audio-based public service organization today, how would it be different than before? How can you quickly transition to that new answer?

While I don’t have the answer for your workplace, I can share some of the characteristics you see in organizations that embrace transformation:

Whatever the next era of public radio is to be depends completely on those of you who are reading this.

Yes — you. Not external forces, not an industry organization, not a national network, not a funder. You. n Be your own disruptor and revolution — do it to yourself before someone does it to you. n Always ask if a practice or norm is part of your station's future or part of your station’s past. When you encounter things that are from the past (which, to be honest, will happen a lot), ask yourself how to do this thing differently — or empower someone on your staff to think of a new way of doing it. n Tenaciously pursue opportunities in everything — and I mean everything— that your station and its staff touches and does. n Never be complacent about where you are or with the progress you are making.

Whatever the next era of public radio is to be depends completely on those of you who are reading this. Yes — you. Not external forces, not an industry organization, not a national network, not a funder. You. That means you get to make a choice: Do you embrace transformation, or do you accept decline? By making your choice, you are defining your legacy in public radio.

Were you the generation that reimagined public radio’s public service? Or were you the generation that guided public radio into obscurity?

Now it’s time to reach for a sticky note.

Write your answer to this question on the sticky: Which era are you working

towards — the “Era of Transformation” or the “Era of Decline”?

If you don’t write down either phrase — or if you ignore this exercise altogether — we’ll mark you in the “Era of Decline” column. If you can’t be bothered to write out a sticky note, then you probably can’t be counted on to be a change-maker for public radio.

If you answered “Era of Transformation,” take that sticky and put it on your computer monitor or somewhere in easy view of your workspace. Whenever you notice it there, ask yourself if there’s anything you can do with whatever you are working on at that moment to lean towards transformation. Almost everything you do can point towards transformation, and the sticky will remind you of that.

If you answered “Era of Decline,” I respect your honesty. Whenever you notice your sticky, you should be asking if you are doing things at that moment to prepare your station and work to pass your responsibilities off to someone else who is up for the fight.

By the way, I am fully and completely serious about this sticky-note business. So much so that I’d be grateful if you would take a picture of your sticky and email it to me at eric@magnificentnoise.com (or post it with #frequencyboost on social and tag me so I can reshare).

Make great things. I’ll be listening.

Eric Nuzum (eric@magnificentnoise.com) is the co-founder of Magnificent Noise, a podcast production and consulting company. He provides strategic advice to public radio programs and stations. His latest book, Make Noise: A Creator’s Guide to Podcasting and Great Audio Storytelling, was published in December 2019.

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