Certainties in Spring

First seen at
http://www.conversation.wamu.org

There are waves of blue crocus, white snowdrop and yellow daffodil in Dumbarton Oaks in Upper Georgetown.

And the best reason for my seasonal optimism is the four months which have elapsed since the vet gave my dog four weeks to live, and Pundit is still dragging me to the Hearst Recreation Field each morning, despite his incurable cancer.

But the truth is I'm equally energized both by our recent membership campaign, where our amazing recession-hit listeners came through with much more than we'd bargained for, and by the latest Arbitron numbers for our flagship program, The Diane Rehm Show, which are beyond extraordinary.

Diane's national weekly audience grew by 28% over the past year to more than 2.2 million, an achievement Washington Post reporter Paul Farhi puzzlingly overlooked in his story about NPR audiences earlier this week. A baffling oversight, because it was the outstanding number from all the public radio program statistics.

Given the importance of this program in American life, none of this is a surprise to us at WAMU.

In the run-up to the most exciting and important US election, held amidst the most worrying and confusing economic crisis in years, Diane's ability to energize her guests to synthesize the issues, explain them in everyday terms, and suggest energizing solutions has been consistently brilliant. She has represented the concerns of the public to the moneyed and powerful throughout this time, and she has become required listening in an increasing number of cities, families, schools, and businesses.

On a more experimental note, and thanks largely to the people who support our work, including those who contribute to this unique site, I have been able to make some program changes also. Don't worry, I gained Pundit's approval first.

We debuted "The Takeaway", the allegedly hip alternative to Morning Edition on HD3. It hasn't found its voice just yet, but there are inspiring moments, chuckles, conversation-starters, and provocative reasons to tune in. Please give it a try and let me know what you think. So far, we've had a handful of BBC fans moaning about the demise of the 9 a.m. "Newshour".

So please, if you like the Takeaway, let us know.

If you don't, we'll hear from you anyhow.

Happy Spring from Pundit.

A new NPR boss and a new deal for public radio?

FIRST PUBLISHED AT WAMU'S THE CONVERSATION

PLEASE NOTE:-
THESE ARE MARK'S VIEWS. NOT WAMU's VIEWS, NOT AU's VIEWS, NOT ANY OTHER 'U's VIEWS.......

Vivian Schiller, NPR's new Chief Executive Officer, has a unique opportunity to slay the dragon which has had many public radio stations breathing fire at the mother ship these past few years - the web.

At a public media conference a few years back a station delegate, fed up with paying top dollar on behalf of his listeners for NPR's news magazine shows, summed up the marriage:

"NPR wants to sleep with other people, and we're tired of being told to 'lose a few pounds'."

The problem is NPR-DOT-ORG, which has been perceived by many stations as a rival, not a partner, with its slick one-shop content, and contextual information to add to the stories aired.

Recently, NPR even offered live steaming event coverage which competed for listeners with NPR-sponsored station programming, and promoted it on air in a program the stations pay for - Morning Edition. Meanwhile, even the biggest stations can barely afford a webmaster (or webmistress?) for their own sites.

Rather like the poisoned chalice handed to President Obama of drinking the collegiality and cooperation Kool-aid with the fisticuff-prone democrats and republicans, Vivian Schiller will face entrenched positions. But she has a vital task to unify the public radio community system behind one, dedicated website, which can be customized by individual stations according to geography to make it local or "hyperlocal", and contain all the great public radio programming there is from coast to coast and around the globe. The one-destination goal is surely the most economic choice for the system's future survival, and the fairest and most accessible for public radio's community of loyal listeners, who won't be asked to fund competing services.

Especially now with the economy in the tank, and the new media revolution well underway, its clear we public service broadcasters all need each other if we're to continue to set the standards of excellence our listeners have come to expect.