First posted at WAMU's The Conversation
A lot of our favorite radio shows would never have survived the "focus group" stage of inception. Car Talk springs to mind. Prairie Home Companion is another. Some hard-nosed statistician would have shot them down in flames.
But by the same token, you can't just sit down and open the mic. These days, the least a successful start-up public radio production takes is a great idea. Try big resources, investment, and a high degree of blind faith. Not to mention gall, guts, opportunism, deluded optimism, stubbornness, and a high degree of nerve. Then there are all the potential competitors for your favored time-slot who will try to shoot you down before you get started or rubbish your show's quality, and some of them have bigger microphones and much deeper pockets than you.
And, then, the acid test - will listeners even like it? Our own Diane Rehm managed to do it virtually alone, with just the support and encouragement of her closest colleagues.
So its sad to hear this week of 11 economy-related layoffs at Chicago Public Radio, one of the boldest and most imaginative outfits in our dysfunctional public radio family, and the news that NPR are shutting down two relatively new programs, "Day to Day" and "News and Notes"among other big cutbacks.
Chicago have been experimenting with "Vocalo.org", a swash-buckling new format aimed at younger and more diverse audiences who allegedly pass on the traditional rigidity of NPR. The nersayers are already accusing station management (who are taking pay cuts) of wasting core money on the experiment, hence the need for the cuts.
NPR wanted more variety and diversity in midday conversations, hence Day to Day and News and Notes. But a lot of big stations stuck with the established talk shows citing the strong audience numbers for those programs. I never had a prime-time slot for either on Channel One, but we aired them both on HD Channel 3.
Not that any of these new enterprises were in every sense failures. Its more a recession-driven need to retreat to the tried and trusted and away from experimentation which drives the decisions when economic reality beckons in public broadcasting. These days, some purists also question the proportion of investment being made by industry leaders in trying to get out ahead of the innovations in "new" and "social" media and whether its at the expense of high quality programs which might work on any given distribution platforms. You decide.
Its a sad fact that despite the diversity we have in our programming line-ups nationwide, only a handful of shows survive without heavy handouts from their sponsoring stations or from corporate partners. So the next time you think about starting a gardening show, think twice. You'll likely need a wealthy backer, and a strong stomach, as well as a big shovel.
