Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio 
Spring 2000 

“Bridging the Gap: Success Stories of Positive Working Relationships.” Music directors and program directors of several stations explained how they work together: Know your audience, know your market, know your mission statement. Agree on the terminology to reach the sound you’re looking for. Recognize that no rule is hard and fast. You cannot say, “never play this piece,” because it may work at a different time, surrounded by other selections. The panel stressed the importance of availability and communication between the music director/program director and the staff. The program director must be able to communicate with the music director. “Is there something better that we could be playing than what we are playing?”—“Our medium is radio; it isn’t music—music is what you put on the radio.”

In the presentation “Listeners as Consumers: Using a Customer Service Approach with Listeners Off Air,” a number of the same ideas were mentioned by the pair of personal motivators, Rick Phillips and Mary Kay Kurzweg, giving recommendations for turning listeners into customers. Your complainer is your best friend, because he cares enough to complain. Learn to handle conflict. Don’t be drawn in on irrational comment. Interpret, listen, find the real issue. Cool down, respect their opinions, let them vent. Concede that you might be wrong. Study your own motives: are you trying to be right or to build a working relationship? Keep your sense of humor and keep a professional attitude. Ignore little conflicts, get to the point. Encourage feedback from the listeners, at public events, by phone, by internet. If they are complaining about your programming, request a sample program from them—what did you play and what would they like to have heard? Encourage communication, and the comments will come. Do a member survey or solicit comments and broadcast them on the air. Be responsive and don’t put it off; if you don’t have time, make time, because responding shows you care and are interested. The benefit is that the station gets their dollars—and maybe learns something in the process.

Joyce Schreiber of NPR presented a very detailed study which broke first-time donors into News, Jazz, and Classical categories, though her presentation, Fundraising Tools for Music Formats: Presentation of NPR’s “First-Time Givers Study,” concentrated on the latter. A few points: The classical audience values music more than public radio or the station. First-time classical givers average ten years’ listening before their first gift (down from the previous eleven—perhaps stations are fine-tuning their appeals better). They have little interest in premiums but tend to give the lowest amount cited (jazz listeners have much higher premium awareness). Classical listeners tend to respond to challenges more than news or jazz listeners. 

Schreiber suggested that some dayparts be rotated out of fund drives on certain days, airing short announcements along the line of  “our volunteers aren’t here right now, but we do need your support, so you can visit our web site.”

The panel for Grand Dramatic Rights consisted of representatives for licensing organizations ASCAP (Fran Richard) and BMI (Barbara Petersen) and for publishers G. Schirmer (Ed Matthew) and Boosey and Hawkes (Jeffrey Herman). All agreed that there is no simple rule regarding Grand Rights. The general (though not infallible) rule  is, “If it’s 1900 or later, check before scheduling.” 

According to copyright law, Small Rights are concert rights. Grand Rights relate to dramatic works, usually with costumes and props; for example, if the symphony brings in dancers for a piece, it needs to pay Grand Rights fees. ASCAP and BMI are licensing organizations for Small Rights. For Grand Rights, one pays the copyright holder directly. Copyright law has recently been changed to bring the U.S. more in line with other countries’ rules, so some works that were Public Domain are now again covered under Grand Dramatic Rights. Nor is there any rule of simply going by date. For example, the Albinoni Adagio was rediscovered in the 20th century and is therefore under copyright protection under Small Rights.

Always check with the publisher. To find the publisher, contact either BMI or ASCAP. Both organizations maintain lists of the works and publishers under both their own and their competitor’s control.