Happy Holidays from PRPD

As the decade winds down, we know many of you are taking off for the holidays.  The PRPD Board and Staff would like to wish you very HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

May 2010 exceed your wildest expectations!   HAPPY NEW YEAR.

New Faces on the PRPD WebHome,

...literally....

Holidays approaching allow time to add new pictures in rotation on the PRPD front webpage.They are faces of programming staff at PRPD member stations, gleaned from some of your sites (randomly chosen with our Radio Roulette feature.)

With the new batch, there are 86 photos from WYEP, WUSF, WVXU WXXI, OPB, WQED, WPR, WKSU, WGUC, WCPN, WCBU, WBHM, WBUR, VPR, Prairie PR, KUHF, NHPR, KUOW and KERA.

We are a relatively small community, with strong ties across the nation.  This little touch is a small homage to all of you who serve the public in audio, text and now even pictures.

Note:  Radio Roulette tops the center column of prpd.org.  Clicking the text link below it takes you to a random PRPD member station's website.  It's like a "Feel Lucky" button for stations.  Since its random it sometimes leads to some gems in design, content or audio - that we would never otherwise discover.  Try it!

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Looking Ahead ... Media Trends in the New Year

As we wade through lists of the "Top Ten of ...", here is a list that looks ahead and gives folks in the media something to consider as the last page of the calendar is about to be ripped off. Mashable created "10 Media Content Trends to Watch in 2010". They include:

1. Living Stories
2. Real Time News Streams
3. Blogozines
4. Distributed Social News
5. News Goes Mobile
6. The Year of Geo-Location
7. Story Streaming
8. Social TV Online
9. Marketers as Producers
10. And Social News Gaming.
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First of Argonauts Sign on for NPR's Voyage

The first two Argonauts have been hired by NPR, according to paidcontent.org.

Joel Sucherman has been tapped as project director for Project Argo, the $3 million local news development effort. Like Kinsey Wilson, Sucherman joins NPR from USA Today where he spent the last 16 years. He starts Jan. 11.

Named editorial project director is Matt Thompson. He joins NPR Feb. 1. Thompson was one of the minds behind Epic 2014, the Flash movie that suggested an entity named Googlezon replaces media as we know it.

NPR still needs to hire Argo's lead technology architect and a front-end designer/developer.

The stations that will be part of Argo are KPBS (San Diego); KPCC (Southern California); KQED (San Francisco); KALW (San Francisco); Oregon Public Broadcasting; KPLU (Tacoma/Seattle); Minnesota Public Radio; WAMU (Washington, D.C.); WXPN (Philadelphia); WNYC (New York City); WBUR (Boston) and WGBH (Boston).  Each station will specialize in a certain topic and share their reporting nationally.

Argo is funded by $2 million from CPB and $1 million from the Knight Foundation.

(Photo: Todd Armstrong as Jason in 1963 film version of Jason and the Argonauts.)

Android Gets NPR App

NPR Tuesday announced its popular mobile app is available to Android users. A news release from NPR says that "... makes NPR the first U.S. radio broadcaster to launch an app for Android."

Powered by NPR’s API, the app uses open source code. Highlights include:

• The NPR News app for Android allows backgrounding, so that users can click to listen to audio and then toggle between applications as the audio is playing.
• Allows users to listen to programs and read news at the same time.
• News section showcases NPR’s top 10-20 topics of the day ranging from Science to Books to World News.
• Easy to find and bookmark more than 600 favorite NPR stations and hundreds of station on-demand streams. Live station streaming to launch in Spring 2010.
• Bookmark favorite programs to play later.

Arbitron to Accelerate Cell Phone Only Sampling

Arbitron has announced that it will speed up implementation of new cellphone-only (CPO) sample size, increasing the CPO proportion of their diary sample to 15% by the Spring 2010 survey period.  A press release issued yesterday stated:

Arbitron is committed to reflecting the increasing trend of CPO households across the U.S., which is why we've moved up the date to increase the number of these households in our samples, said Alton Adams, Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President, Arbitron Inc.

This new benchmark will likely have the greatest impact on the 18-34 demos, where CPO represents a rapidly increasing phenomenon:

Persons who live in CPO households are more likely to be age 18-34. While the CPO sample target was an average of 10 percent of the total (12+) diary sample in Spring 2009 across all markets, it represented approximately 28 percent of the 18-34 in-tab sample. "With this new increase in spring 2010, the percent of 18-34 sample represented by CPO households should be closer to 40 percent," said Dr. Robert F. Henrick, Executive Vice President, Customer Solutions, Arbitron, Inc.

CPOs already make up 15% of  PPM samples on average and Arbitron's goal is to increase that to 20% by the end of 2010.
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YouTube Called Social Networking Product of the Decade

As the first 10 percent of the 21st Century is about to expire, the world is in a reflective mood. If "Best of the Year" lists were not enough, many are issuing "Best of the Decade" assessments.

Adam Ostrow of Mashable declares that YouTube is the social media product of the decade. The stars in the technology firmament aligned to create the perfect opportunity for YouTube to flourish ... and be acquired by Google for $1.6 billion.

Oddly enough, YouTube was originally created to be used on eBay, but the online auctioneer felt sellers would not use it so they let it drop. YouTube found its way thanks to three former eBayers.

Two Commercial Networks File Bankuptcy

Two commercial radio behemoths are seeking bankruptcy protection.

Citadel Broadcasting and NextMedia Group both filed prearranged plans. Between them they own almost 250 stations across the country in markets of all sizes, and both sought bankruptcy protect because of mounting debt and slumping advertising sales. Citadel's WABC in New York City is home to several syndicated hosts, including major Don Imus, Rush Limbaugh, Joe Scarborough and Mark Levin.

World of Opera Production Moves from NPR to WDAV

The new year means a new home for World of Opera.

As of Jan. 18, WDAV 89.9 Classical Public Radio in Davidson, NC will be the site for the production the show. It will continue to be marketed and distributed by NPR.

WDAV's General Manager Benjamin K. Roe is the show's new executive producer. The rest of the current creative team remains: host Lisa Simeone and producer Bruce Scott.

NPR World of Opera, carried now by 87 public radio stations across the nation.

The move complements what WDAV has been working on for a while, according to a statement quoting Roe:

“In the last 18 months, we’ve been working to re-position WDAV as a strong source for original classical music productions from the Carolinas and beyond. This partnership with NPR puts us squarely now in front of a national audience –- a step we welcome."

Coverage on Boston PubRadio Changes Continues

How to describe the growing competition between Boston pubcasters WGBH and WBUR:

1. Kerfuffle?
2. Donnybrook?
3. Skirmish?
4. "... an old-fashioned radio war"?

Boston Globe columnist (and "resident curmudgeon", according to his bio) Alex Beam chose number 4 in a recent column about programming changes at WGBH since its purchase of WCRB.

While no shots have actually been fired, public radio observers are keeping a close watch on things ...

Meanwhile, WBUR's website has a lengthy story about not just WGBH's changes, but about similar programming switches and competition elsewhere.  Curt Nickisch, WBUR's business and technology reporter, today examined the competitive situations in Seattle, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
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Congressman Gives PPM Players 30 Days to Create Solution

The clock is ticking for those involved in the discussion of whether Arbitron's Portable People Meters accurately counts minorities.

Congressman Edolphus Towns, a Democrat from New York City and chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said in a letter to those involved in the issue 30 days to craft "a solution that creates accurate ratings for all radio stations, including minority targeted broadcasters." Towns has held hearings about the issue.

Radio World reports that Towns sent letters to Arbitron and the MRC, as well as Univision Communications, Minority Media and Telecom Council, ICBC Holdings, Bromley Communications, Spanish Broadcasting System and Radio One.

Towns wrote:

On December 2, 2009, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform conducted a hearing entitled "Will Arbitron's Personal People Meter (PPM) Silence Minority-owned Radio Stations?" At the conclusion of this hearing, I gave Arbitron, the MRC, and members of the PPM coalition thirty days to develop a plan of action to address problems associated with the PPM device. I have asked that this plan of action contain not only viable solutions, but also a realistic timetable for addressing the issues raised at the hearing.

I am confident that participants at the hearing, with help from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), can develop a solution that creates accurate ratings for all radio stations, including minority targeted broadcasters. To achieve this, it is critical that all parties, including Arbitron, work together to ensure that the PPM methodology finally meets the high standards set by the Media Ratings Council (MRC). As a first step, all parties should meet as soon as possible to establish a foundation for a sustainable agreement.

It took decades of hard-fought battles to finally create diversity on the airwaves. I will not let this diversity perish overnight because of inaccurate ratings. I am personally committed to working with all parties to resolve this problem expeditiously. Committee staff will be closely following your progress over the next month.

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WBEZ Questions Commercial Station at 87.7

WLFM-FM broadcasts smooth jazz in Chicago, and continues to expand its presence.

So?

The problem, according to that city's large public broadcaster WBEZ, is that WLFM is located at 87.7 on the dial ... inside the space the FCC has reserved for non-commercial broadcasters. In a statement sent to the FCC WBEZ's lawyers said that this is not just a Chicago problem. They said stations in several markets are "bleeding 24-hour dance music with commercial advertising, over into non-commercial stations that are on the lower, non-commercial FM channels."

WLFM argues it is a actually a TV station that happens to have a radio presence. The station maintains what the Chicago Sun Times calls "a minimal video presence on Channel 6 on television."
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