Western States Public Radio (WSPR) President’s report on the NPR Board Meeting in Washington (11/12-11/13)

It’s been a busy time.  In the two weeks since the NPR Board meeting, WSPR held its annual conference in Phoenix and then Thanksgiving cycled around.  Thank you everyone for making the WSPR – SPR Super Regional a great success. This is my last report as WSPR President.  Ron Kramer assumes the WSPR Presidency and will be covering NPR Board meetings in the future.  It’s been an honor serving WSPR stations. 

The Gift

Announcement of Joan Kroc’s $200 million +  gift to NPR preceded the NPR Board meeting by only a few days.  Everyone was jazzed and enthused by the news.  Kevin Klose and Mark Handley have both communicated at length with stations about the gift. Here are a few verbatims from the NPR Board meeting:

• Jay Kernis – “The best use of the money is transformational…Not about adding new programs…Need to focus on bread and butter programming… We get a lot of credit for investigative work that we don’t do…What would happen if we had ten Anne Garrells?

• Kevin Klose – “How do we scan the horizon to make sure we have the necessary transformational discussion?… Kroc thought public radio critical to the sensibilities of our civilization.

• Mark Handley - “It’s an affirmation of the work all of us in public radio have done and power of local national partnership.” 

In a recent e-mail to AREPS Handley wrote, “We expect to assemble targeted groups of station managers and civic leaders to further this discussion.  By engaging in this dialogue we night find that there are possibilities we had never dared dream of before.  If that is true, then the Kroc gift will have been truly transformational.”

 At this juncture several themes seem to be emerging about The Gift-

• NO REBATE - NPR and most managers seem to reject the idea posted on PubRadio by Manager Alan Chartock that interest from the Kroc gift be used to reduce NPR costs to stations.

• DEBT - NPR carries considerable debt on its DC and LA properties but NPR Sr VP Ken Stern says that NPR can invest at higher rates than we borrow.  So use of the gift to payoff debt is unlikely.

• Transformational is clearly the operative, current buzzword within public radio.  I think it means taking things to the next level, building on existing strengths, without repudiating present practices.  A central discussion may be whether The Gift is used to deepen or broaden NPR programming.

• LEVERAGE - The NPR Foundation passed a resolution urging that the dollars be used to enhance the fundraising capacity of local public radio stations.

• COLLABORATIVE – The Gift resulted from the joint major donor cultivation efforts of NPR and KPBS San Diego.  More collaborative fundraising efforts may be on the horizon.  NPR’s Cahill Resolution, a Board policy which prohibits NPR from directly soliciting funds from station listeners, may be challenged in this new environment. Ken Stern labeled it as “limiting.”

• Peter Jennings –“Now you have enough money to hire us.”

 FCC at NPR

“You – public radio – are the example of localism we [the FCC] want to hold up to everyone” said FCC Commissioner Kathy Abernathy as she spoke with the NPR Board on Wednesday, November 12^th.  She’s been a Commissioner since 2001, a Republican, and a George Bush appointee.  In an appearance arranged by NPR’s National Affairs VP Mike Riksen, Abernathy said the FCC will “likely have penalties associated with NOT serving the local community.”  She said it is “a bit of dance how we put teeth in this” and “it must be consistent with the First Amendment.”   The FCC convened a Localism Task Force earlier this year.  She also reported “a lot of legitimate debate about the appropriate number of licenses an entity can own.” She said all “singleton” non-reserved band translator applications will be processed by August 2004.  NPR demonstrated the supplemental audio channel of HD Radio for Abernathy.  Kevin Klose explained that after September 11^th “many stations were forced to make a Hobbesian choice in which they’re partly right”, referring to NPR station’s having to choose between all-news coverage, mixed format and all-music.  Abernathy said “we look at it [supplemental audio channel] as doubling or tripling capacity without issuing additional licensees.”  

 Great Numbers

This Board meeting coincided with Kevin’s annual evaluation by the Board.  For Kevin, the timing of the $200 million Kroc gift couldn’t have come at a better time.  There was justifiable pride radiating from Kevin as he recounted the process of NPR successfully cultivating Ms. Kroc. In recounting the cultivation and in many public presentations, Kevin almost inevitably leads with NPR audience numbers.  He cites how NPR’s listenership increased from 13 million prior to September 11^th to more than 20 million a few days after the event.  He cites the Jeffersonian ideal that “people cannot be ignorant and free.” 

 According to NPR Research Chief Jackie Nixon, NPR stations have a weekly audience of  29.3 million with NPR programming reaching 22 million persons.  In Spring 2003, audience gains pushed NPR audience levels to another record high.  “NPR Programming audience gains were driven in part by the addition of Classical Public Radio Network (CPRN) as well as a number of programs setting new audience highs – albeit only by a small margin in some cases.” CPRN is carried by 23 stations and reaches 727,000 cume. Since 1999, the number of listeners who tune into NPR stations has increased by 49%.   Likewise, the audience for NPR programming has more than doubled in size within the last ten years.

The accomplishments are impressive but may concern managers who are wary of living (and dying) by the numbers.  Arbitron numbers verify our extensive public service.  They also demonstrate our failure to achieve wide public appeal.  With an estimated 292 million persons residing in the US , NPR reaches only 10 percent of the population.  Ninety percent of Americans do not listen.  This goes back to the best use of The Gift discussion. How can our windfall be used to extend NPR service beyond the present ten percent?  

Program Duplication / Policy on Signal Expansion

Acknowledging that “duplication of audience service is a growing issue in the public radio community,” NPR issued an analysis of “Programming and Audience Duplication in the Top 25 US Radio Markets” to determine “the relationship, if any, between duplicated audience and shared audience.”  The study’s key findings –

• The vast majority (94%) of public radio programming is not duplicated.
• 9 of the Top 25 markets have head to head broadcasts of NPR newsmagazines.
• “There is no correlation between amount of duplicated programming and amount of duplicated audience.”
• Stations that do not carry “head to head” programming show comparable levels of shared audience as stations in markets that carry one or both of the weekly news magazines head to head.”

In other words, according to the NPR study, competition and even duplication of programming is not detrimental to member stations.  12 of the Top 25 markets have stations with no head to head programming, including Chicago , Dallas , Phoenix and San Diego . 

NPR now intends to expand its analysis to the Top 50 US Markets.  Sacramento CA (Market # 26), home base of Mike Lazar, was not included in the initial study.  Lazar is a relatively outspoken opponent of duplication since KQED San Francisco expanded into Sacramento . Outgoing Board member Jose Fajardo, who also has been concerned about duplication, requested that NPR look at the revenue effect of duplication --  “How is the first station being impacted by the second station in audience growth?” 

The Board passed a resolution on “Policy Regarding Signal Expansion Projects” that indirectly addresses duplication.

• “Where appropriate, encourage partnerships between public radio stations –especially in multiple station markets or regions to achieve complementary program service offerings.”
• “Support and encourage development of incentives to public radio stations that offer new programming services in multiple station markets while making the most efficient use of public and private resources.”  

NPR Counsel Neal Jackson says the resolution purposely does not reference duplication so that NPR “does not have to worry about the appearance of anti-trust and discouraging competition…NPR can encourage end points but should not take a position on members competing with each other.”   Kevin Klose opposes any restraints.  He commented that public radio “shouldn’t have limitations of how we serve the nation.  The marketplace determines service.”  Kevin spoke against a proposed amendment to the resolution that would have provided incentives to extension of program services “for and among unserved audiences” because “it’s important to stations that they respond to constituent’s needs without directives.”     

NPR Board Business

The NPR Board re-elected Mark Handley as Chair. Bruce Haines was elected Vice Chair and is the heir apparent to the Chair.

• Membership committee Chair - Tim Eby
• Distribution & Interconnect Chair – Scott Handley
• Strategic Planning & Technology Chair – JoAnn Urofsky
• Ellen Rocco of North Country Public Radio (upstate New York ) took her seat as a member station Board member.  Howard Stevenson, Associate Dean Harvard Business School for Entrepreneurial Studies was appointed as a public Board Member.  There are now two public vacancies.  The Board is seeking to enrich rather than duplicate existing skills with a broad diversity of viewpoints, experience, geographic, ethnic, gender with emphasis on corporate finance and technology.

New NPR member stations including three in our region – KAJX Aspen, CO; KCIE Dulce, NM; WCPE Wake Forest, NC.

• No increase price of listener hours in FY 05

• Only three months of overlap between SOSS and Content Depot.  November 2004 – January 2005.

 More Meetings Ahead!

A concentrated week of public radio meetings is scheduled in early May 2004.

·        Sunday May 9 - Governance Summit sponsored by U:SA (tentative)

·        Monday May 10 – Tuesday May 11  (ending midday ) Management Forum

·        Tuesday May 11 (afternoon) – AREPS Meeting with NPR Annual meeting. 

·        Wednesday May 12 – Capitol Hill Day

·        Thursday May 13 – Friday May 14 – NPR Board meeting

Meetings Sunday – Tuesday will take place at the Sheraton National Arlington .

The Public Radio Management Forum is the successor meeting to the Public Radio Conference (PRC) and is being planned by a wide array of public radio organizations.  Two planning meetings were recently convened.  Subject to further modification, the one and a half day meeting will be dayparted into three topics:  Technology, Programming and Funding.  In SRG Tom Thomas’ words the meeting will be “organizationally inclusive, strategically focused, collaboratively planned, and relatively marketing-free.”  There will be an Awards Dinner Monday evening.   

WSPR

Our annual meeting was an unqualified success.  With over 85 persons participating, it may have been the largest regional public radio meeting ever.  Participation was diverse with Native stations, Community stations, and Southern stations joining the WSPR riff raff for discussions about world news, governance, new technologies, legal issues, NPR strategies, legislation and underwriting research.  Let’s do it again next year.

 Have a happy holidays and a rewarding New Year!

 John Stark

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