WFIU Community Advisory Board Meeting

Indiana University Radio & Television Center, Faculty and Staff Lounge

July 18, 2011

Prepared by Anna Pranger

Attendees: John Bailey, David Bowden, Cary Boyce, Carolyn Calloway-Thomas, Laura Ginger, Mary Hall, Nancy Krueger, Nan McEntire, Perry Metz, Lewis Ricci, Ellen Sedlack, Lynn Schwartzberg, Janis Starcs, Janet Stavropoulos

Janis called the meeting to order at 4:00 pm. Minutes approved

Programming Changes

• CB: St. Paul Sunday replaced by Harmonia. Got a dozen or so calls. St. Paul Sunday was replaced because it has been in reruns and the price was not changing. Living On Earth (LOE) was replaced with Moth and Radio Lab

• ES: Moth and Radio Lab are intense to listen to.

• CB: we may bring back LOE on Sunday evenings

• PM: LOE was not getting a lot of pledges either

• JS: Who’s listening to what and how do we know?

• CB: No fast way to know. In the past, we would take Arbitron ratings to test the market, but it’s not quite set up to analyze our market, but it can track ratings over many years. Fund drive is the typical indicator of how popular something is.

• PM: because we’re not a specific market, we have to look at many factors: how well the pledges are for a program over a number of years, are there any underwriters, how many listener comments do we get, does a particular program tie in to the listener area

• DB: I love that Harmonia is replacing St. Paul Sunday

• LG: Can we design a survey to see what people are listening to?

• LR: We could find random people to listen online to what they would normally listen so that we can have some idea of what programs a random sampling might listen to.

• LG: But it leaves out those who listen in their cars

• CB: We can get some indication from server logs.

• PM: The board might discuss having a larger programming survey, but do we survey members, listeners, or the general community?

• CB: We’ve thought about doing a survey monkey survey

• JS: How many people listen to HD2?

• CB: it’s rapidly growing. Initially when HD2 went out for a while, we got no calls because no one noticed. People who have HD really enjoy it. Possibility of HD3.

• JS: Will there be more programming changes?

• CB: We might pair Living On Earth with Earth Eats. We would expand Earth Eats to half-hour show and add a TV element. The expanded show would look at other elements of food and other guests. Chef Daniel Orr has been forthcoming with time, while other chefs, not so much.

• CB: Comments about Earth Eats revolve around a concern that we’re too focused on Chef Orr, but right now he’s the only one willing to take the time to be on the show.

• NK: Earth Eats has listeners nation-wide

• LG: what about Marina from La Petite Café?

• JS: Any other programming changes?

• CB: DBJ is now hosting Just You & Me.

• CCT: will the title stay the same?

• CB: yes, for now

• LG: Is David Brent Johnson still doing the other late night jazz?

• CB: Yes. We’re ahead of last year in national syndication

• DB: Dick Bishop did lots of great shows. Could we rerun the “Afterglow” shows that he did?

• JS: Is there an archive of the shows?

• PM: I don’t know. Unfortunately we lost a lot of the archives in clean-out a few years ago. We just got approved for a grant to catalog and identify archives of radio and TV holdings for CPB.

• LR: I’ve experienced recurring problems with “Echoes” between 7:30 and 7:45. Especially bad on July 9.

• CB: July 9 was bad anyway.

• LR: but this is a persistent problem.

• LG: also bad static sometimes

• CB: the static is probably from the heat index.

• PM: Hopefully the new transmitter will help with these problems

• JS: automation still fails sometimes

• CB: “Ask the Mayor” is going to Columbus for a live show.

• “StateImpact” site launched, programs also starting to appear on air. NPR is looking to pull more from Indiana and the Midwest in general. Looking to make this sustainable.

• DB: Nice transition on Sundays from “Harmonia” to “With Heart and Voice”

Station Initiatives

• CB: We’re still ramping up StateImpact, and we had trips to Louisville and Pittsburgh for conferences. NPR will be offering a digital initiative soon. We need digital content that NPR can provide: web content, underwriting. I voiced an opinion on the prices set up by NPR and the fact that you have to buy everything packaged. But I’m afraid they’re already too late. There was no consideration of PBS. Our website is doubling in traffic. No response as of yet to comments to NPR.

• DB: Are there other stations who have already done digital initiatives?

• CB: mostly stations in bigger cities. NPR is building theirs from a Wordpress platform/

• CCT: Will this require more money?

• CB: Funding still under threat.

• PM: We need to have online presence, even though some camps feel that giving money for radio to go online is money wasted. Moving in to the future of radio will require a foot in both the traditional radio world and the online world. Uncertainty in funding has risen.

• JS: Any lobbyists?

• PM: Yes. Funding for public broadcasting could simply be part of a compromise that cuts government spending for whatever reason. $1.2 million for radio and TV budgets come from the federal government, $200K from the state. Both sources of funding are at risk and will require being conservative with spending and trying to raise revenue, finding new and creative ways to bring in money.

• CCT: what if we were forced to keep one but not the other (i.e. radio or TV)?

• PM: It’d be cheaper to sustain radio than TV, but we wouldn’t make that choice. WFIU would still be around, but damaged.

• DB: Has there been a strategic approach to target certain people that can make a difference?

• PM: I talked with lobbyists for NPR. Senator Coates may be an ally (in Indy or DC?) On a big vote, Rep. Sodrel was one of a small number of republicans to vote for public broadcasting.

• LR: it comes down to a philosophical question of what you think the government should fund

• PM: An appeal to senators is key

• LS: Have we written letters?

• PM: Yes, but key is finding the right time to write letters

• LR: House released budget, where did the Corporation for Public Broadcasting end up?

• PM/CB: Unsure.

• LR: Public broadcasting is a primary community asset. It’s the fulcrum of community life.

• LG: Especially in rural areas.

• NK: You have information about “Weekend in Washington” in packet. Look it over and let me know.

• DB: three comments: web site is great, suggests that resolution of online version of “Directions in Sound” be better. It’s sometimes hard to see. Having contemporary music at 9 am on Monday morning can be a little jarring. Maybe wait until 9:30 or so. I brought charter for what CAB members are supposed to do. What were we then and now who are we?

• NM: Sunday had a great program about Bob Dylan, but there were some glitches (July 10). What happens when someone calls into the station to report those?

• CB: Usually they get called back in a few days once we figure out what the problem was.

• DB: can we re-broadcast the Dylan program?

• CB: yes

Next Meeting: September 19, 4 pm

Meeting adjourned.