Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio 
 Spring 2000 

At last year’s AMPPR conference in San Antonio, I was one of three presenters on a panel discussing public radio’s role on-line, along with about.com’s Mike Powers and WGUC music director Chris Koltz. During that presentation each of the presenters painted a picture of how congested the internet radio industry had become. When discussing what public radio stations and programmers could offer in this marketplace, I offered several suggestions:

    • Build programming that attracts listener occasions—in other words, create on-line program elements that encourage listeners to come back often, not just static pages that never change or evolve.

    • Create “tell me more” programming that goes beyond the possibilities of radio. Add the ability of going in-depth (instead of forcing a listener along that route). Use audio, video, text, and images to tell the story of your music instead of a more traditional, didactic approach.

    • Create secondary program streams that reflect the fact that your listeners have multiple interests.

    • Gravitate towards more “on-demand” programming that allows users to interact with your offerings as they choose—on their schedules, rather than yours.

    • Take a realistic look at the connection between what you offer and what an internet user wants. This asks the question, “Is your content focused on your listener—or on you?”

A year later I think this is still good advice. The internet music marketplace has become nothing if not MORE crowded than it was when we talked in San Antonio. But quantity does not equal quality. There is still plenty of room for quality music programming (both audio streams and multimedia content) on line. 

In the past year WKSU has worked hard to continue to grow and refine all its offerings, both on line and over the radio. Particular to the internet, we have seen some amazing growth in the products we offer to our listeners. Our new site design and content (opened shortly after the AMPPR conference last year) is arguably the most sophisticated and in-depth public radio web site in the country. We currently offer three unique streams of audio for our listeners. The WKSU Channel, which is a 24-hour mirror of our broadcast signal; the WKSU Classics Channel, a 24-hour classical music channel including 9 hours a day of unique on-line content; and the WKSU NPR Channel, featuring 16 hours a day of NPR news and entertainment programming again, including content and program roll-overs not available on our radio broadcast schedule. Later this month WKSU will be the provider of classical, evening classical, and folk music for Public Interactive’s Personal Public Radio, providing unhosted audio streams for more than 130 station web sites.

However, as I have watched WKSU and other stations grow their on-line offerings over the past year, I’ve had some concerns. Specifically, is our industry’s “gold rush” mentality towards creating on-line content causing us to spend incredible amounts of money and resource without any idea what “public service” on the internet is? If we proceed without coming up with some kind of benchmark about on-line public service or our listeners’ expectations, could stations risk their positioning, value, and financial support stemming from their current listeners and supporters? What specific opportunities exist for public radio on the internet? Are there missed opportunities or any public radio “potholes” on the information superhighway?

To answer some of these questions, WKSU conducted several focus groups this past August aimed at understanding its listeners’ perceptions about our on-line activities and how that affects our image and value to them as a public service. The focus group results were very interesting and offer us a bit more direction as we expand our on-line product.

Some of the most interesting results came in regard to station site design and organization. The bottom line is, leave the “bells and whistles” at home. WKSU’s listeners come to us for content, not for fancy (and slow loading) graphics, form that gets in the way of function, and needless distractions to their on-line experience. WKSU’s audience consists of busy people, they are extremely “time poor.” They want to be able to get on line, get what they want, and get off, period. If a web site is not designed to provide them with information quickly, it is of no utility to them. Verbatim listener comments from the study regarding site design and organization included:

     • “A site that moves quickly is a good site. Not extremely gaudy. Flashing stuff is obnoxious. A home page that will give you info that says what the site is about.”

     • “Most businesslike and pleasant—amazon.com. Found the book in seconds, acknowledged, and off.  Had the book in a matter of days.”

     • “I want to explore it as an encyclopedia. I want to find out the information or at least a link to where I might find my answer.”

The study showed a significant degree of caution and conservatism among station listeners toward WKSU’s current on-line presence. WKSU listeners strongly felt that the ideals and principles of the station’s radio business should be ported verbatim to the internet. For example, listeners suggested that the station adopt identical underwriting rules and regulations for the station’s web site. Listeners were very leery about advertising (such as banner advertisements or page sponsorships appearing on our web site). They felt that banner advertisements and non-programming- related e-commerce activities would lower their opinion of WKSU as an institution. Verbatim comments from the focus group included:

     • “If you have ads, then your advertiser may want to try to influence some different kind of programming other than what they have now.  I don’t feel that a member-supported station [needs  to have ads].”

     • “Too much advertising makes you question what the station stands for. What are we paying for?”

     • “It’s inevitable.”

     • “A can of worms.”

The study also provided fascinating insight on listeners’ views towards on-line streaming, station e-commerce activity, and the type of content they want on public radio web sites. 

One obvious question of these focus groups is whether these attitudes will hold up with repeated testing, apply to all public radio stations across the country, and whether these attitudes are linked to the station’s current amount of on-line and transactional interactivity with their audience. WKSU currently has a Future Fund proposal under review by CPB to expand this study to include stations across the country. If approved, WKSU plans to enlist four other public radio stations and conduct a series of sixteen focus groups, followed by an in-depth telephone survey, to understand these issues on a national basis. Pending completion of the study, the results will be shared on line, in publications, and at a number of industry conferences over the next year. Stay tuned.

Eric Nuzum is the program director of WKSU-FM in Kent, Ohio, and author of the upcoming book, Bound and Gagged: The History of Music Censorship in the United States (to be published by Harper Collins in late 2000). WKSU’s web site can be found at http://www.wksu.org .