Public Radio Program Directors (PRPD) and the Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio (AMPPR) are partnering in a new project aimed at applying Classical Core Values findings to public radio’s classical music programming.

Using tools developed from two Classical Core Values research studies, the project’s overall goal is to more effectively serve and build audience for public radio’s classical music. The tools are aimed at helping stations better define their target audience, develop the stationality to serve that audience, analyze the effectiveness of break content and evaluate host presentation.

Working with six partner stations, a new workshop has been developed to provide a showcase for using and testing the new Classical Core Values tools. The workshop will be led by WDAV Program Director Frank Dominguez who is also serving as Project Director. Stations participating in the project include:

WITF, Harrisburg, PA
KBIA, Columbia, MO
WUSF, Tampa, FL
WFCR, Amherst, MA
KSUI, Iowa City, IA
KVNO, Omaha, NE

Each station is setting its own quantitative audience service goal for the project.   Qualitative goals include improving the on air presentation of local classical programming through better preparation, focus, and consistency.

Project updates will be presented at both the 2005 PRPD and 2006 AMPPR Conferences. The PRPD Conference will be held September 21–24 at the Renaissance Grand Hotel in St. Louis, MO.  The 2006 AMPPR Music Personnel Conference will be held at the Intercontinental Houston Feb. 5-8.

At a meeting of the project partners held earlier this month, KBIA Music Director and AMPPR President Karen Walker described the new classical music initiative as both significant and exciting. “This marks a ‘first’ for classical music” said Walker, “the first time a group of classical station colleagues from around the country have joined together to test and document ‘best practices’ for classical music presentation on radio.”

The PRPD/AMPPR project is the second national field test of Core Values-based tools conducted since PRPD launched its Core Values Project five years ago. In 2004, PRPD and PRNDI worked with twelve stations to conduct a national “beta test” of news planning and evaluation tools developed from findings of PRPD’s 2001 study on “Core Values of Local News.” The “beta test” culminated in the publication of the “PRPD/PRNDI News Toolkit” distributed to members of both organizations.

The research studies that produced the tools being tested in the PRPD/AMPPR project include “The Core Values of Classical Music Radio” (2002) and “The Core Values of Classical Music/Dual Format Stations” (2004). Both studies were conducted by PRPD and the Station Resource Group (SRG) with funding support from CPB.
 
 

Posted 6/15/05

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