Community Advisory Meeting

On July 12, 2005, listeners asked the SPR managers about programming issues. General Manager Dick Kunkel, KPBX PD Verne Windham, and KSFC PD Doug Nadvornick answered as many questions as possible during the hour-long live phone-in.

Listen to the Audio, download, or read this summary of the topics we touched on. If you have additional comments, send them to us at kpbx@kpbx.org

New Technology:
We're working on new technology. High-definition radio, podcasting, satellite radio, there's more electronics possibilities than ever before, and we're sorting out not only what we should try, but what funding is available for the differing technologies.
As for current technology, KSFC still remains unheard in most of our KPBX coverage area. We're looking at translators and other ways to extend the signal. It doesn't appear that we'll be able to raise the power any more, because we seem to be 'boxed in' by other frequencies.

The CPB and "liberal bias"
Jim of Coeur d'Alene asked why it was "liberal bias to report the facts." Dick replied that in every report, bias is seen is what facts are included or left out, and how the facts are said. "If you even could put an equal number of facts for right and left, it would still appear that more 'heavy-weighted' facts are on one side or another. It's so hard to achieve a truly balanced report, and perception of the listener is often different from the producer."
But Dick agreed that the attack from within the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the non-profit organization created to give federal funding to public radio stations, is unprecedented. "That has been more frustrating to broadcasters and audiences than anything else. To the delight of public broadcasters, the new president of CPB and chair of CPB got up in a Senate hearing and stood behind public broadcasting, and pushed very hard for full funding."
Dick continued that the issue of "fair and balanced" may never go away. "As you may know, the chairman of CPB hired a couple of what he considered "ombudsmen," one on the political left and on the right -- which by itself violates the principle of an ombudsman, who's just supposed to be looking for fact and comparing against performance. The chairman expected to find a lot of bias. One of these ombudsmen put out a preliminary report already, and says he's not finding it. We'll see where it all shakes out."
Thank you to all of the listeners who were moved to contact our government officials about this issue.

Programming Format
As usual, we received a mix of listeners complaining of too much classical music, wanting more classical music, and liking our balance of classical, jazz, and talk. Brad praised Front Porch Bluegrass. John wants more live music showcasing the region's talent.
Verne pointed out that while there was more classical music on a decade ago, there hasn't been any classical music loss in the past five years, as long as KSFC has been operating. Dick added that one reason for creating KSFC was that we could air more news/talk without cutting into our long-established music programming. As noted above, it's not a perfect solution because not everyone in the KPBX listening area can hear KSFC.

Reaching younger listeners
Sandra in Coeur d'Alene suggested expanding entertainment programming to bring in more young people, especially on weekends. John thinks a roundtable discussion with teens would draw a younger crowd. While Doug responded that he doesn't think that's a 'draw,' he agrees "there are a lot of young people out there and we should listen to them more."

Book Readings
Liz of Montana specifically requested more reading aloud of books and plays. Verne replied while it seems inexpensive to produce, it takes several hours to create a good reading program. "You can't just grab people and read, it's much more involved. It's taken quite a bit of our effort to do our current four hours a week." Why can't we just use volunteers? "We still need a paid engineer to edit with them, or afterwards someone needs to sit and listen to every word. Otherwise, on the air we'll hear the person stumble over the same word five times."

Health shows
Several callers asked for a different health program on KPBX, rather than Zorba Paster On Your Health. Randy asked for someone more holistically oriented, John from Post Falls wanted less health 'entertainment' and less reliance on the New England Journal of Medicine, and Elizabeth in Spokane credits The People's Pharmacy with saving her life.
Doug answered that he doesn't have the medical knowledge to see where Zorba's weaknesses are, and we put a lot of trust (perhaps too much) in his being a medical doctor. In years past, we produced a program called the Health Journal, where we tried to present alternative forms of medicine, but we also ran into criticism trying to determine between what is science-based health information, and what is misleading. "If you have specific examples of where Zorba is going wrong, by all means email them to me," Doug says. Meanwhile, Verne says we'll begin the discussion of which health programs to air on KPBX and when.

To Beeb or not to Beeb
KSFC airs the BBC some afternoons, and one caller asked for "better things to talk about" at that time. Another appreciates its "different perspective of the world -- and that's what we need."

News/Talk
Doug Nadvornick asked some news/talk listeners what they thought of a local talk program, and if they would listen if it was content-driven and not personality-driven. Jim in Spokane wants influential people in Spokane to be regularly interviewed, "I'd like to know where some people are coming from."
Bitsy wanted to hear more news of the exciting things taking place in Spokane, from new retail stores coming to new events taking place. Doug agreed that we could use more on new projects. On a related note, he says he'd like a news series on the infrastructure citydwellers take for granted, like how water goes from the aquifer to the tap.

Information Calendars
In a similar vein, a caller asked for a community bulletin board on the air, to share public meeting times and non-profit organizations' events. Doug answered that it's a laudable idea, but too work-intensive to happen now. The arts calendar, a similar venture on KPBX solely for arts events, takes more than half of the attention of a full-time employee. Dick commented that it consumes hours to sift through the entries, make phone calls to confirm information, putting it in a format easily read on the air. Verne said that it's hard to rely on volunteers for it, because there's so much work to be done to make it happen and if a volunteer isn't available one day, it can't get done.
"As much as I believe in the Arts Calendar, I find it frustrating," Verne added. "Radio is a poor way to deliver information. In a newspaper, you can go back for information, but if the dog barks, you've missed something. I feel the answer lies in new technologies and in the web. There could be really great listings to access. I think after having five or ten minutes of meetings read at you, your ears glaze over."
However much we've talked about it, there isn't a simple answer to getting either arts or public meeting notices on the SPR website, not at this time. For the Arts Calendar, the Spokane City Arts website at spokanearts.org still lists events information.

OTHER QUESTIONS:

Why does KPBX only air Fresh Air four times a week?
Verne says that Fridays are almost always reruns. FA seldom airs new material then, so we figured we could miss that one day a week.

When are the "live" slots for Car Talk, Zorba Paster, and People's Pharmacy?
There aren't any. Those are all produced ahead of time, using callers who have left messages and arranged with the shows' producers to be at the phone when taping occurs. Additional note: The People's Pharmacy uses its email list to ask for callers on particular topics.

How can we suggest a news story idea?
Send information to Doug Nadvornick, dnadvorn@kpbx.org.

Why do you interrupt Morning Edition so much?
Doug says when the program began 25 years ago, stations told NPR to provide chances to break in with our own information. "Considering my own listening patterns, I'm washing dishes, doing other things all the time, so I don't catch the weather report. It's especially important to have frequent time checks - people use them as gages to get up and get moving.

Why don't you air the Metropolitan Opera anymore?
Although we air opera on Wednesday evenings, we know that for some people it does not match the thrill of a live broadcast. However, for most of listeners, Saturday mornings were not when they wanted an operatic experience.
The Opera broadcast was free. But this wasn't an issue of cost. It was about serving the majority of our listeners. Looking along the West Coast, the only stations who broadcast opera so early on Saturdays are classical music stations. Mixed-format stations, such as KPBX, do not air opera at 10 a.m.
"We tried as hard as we could to get the Met to allow us to broadcast it later," Dick says. "I do like live broadcasts, but it made more sense from a programming standpoint to air it in the evening when most opera is performed and when you would see it in any other media."
The change several years ago allowed us to serve more people better on Saturday morning. At present, we offer locally-produced classical music until noon, followed by From the Top and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, which each cost us some money to air. But the cost is well offset by the added listenership and their membership dollars.