Diminished Expectations Still Go Unmet at Red River Radio

It’s fundraising time at Red River Radio. Here’s my two cents.

First, they’ve made their goal the lowest I’ve seen in years: $200,000. And they’re still not meeting it.

Let’s do the math. With $200,000 to be raised over a pledge drive of 14 days, Red River Radio needs to get $14,285.71 in donations each day. After nine days, they had only raised $114,210, according to their website. That’s $12,690 a day. At that rate, and barring any large donations being held back for a contrived big finish, Red River Radio’s drive will end with around $177,660, about $22,340 short.

The past several pledge drives have also fallen short -- distressing news for the network which is undergoing digital modernization yet still needs massive infrastructure redevelopment. They need lots of money and they aren’t getting it.

What’s the cause? Simply put, people don’t listen as much as they once did and the general focus is shifting from reliance on public donations to corporate contributions.

Consider these quotes from publications by David Giovannoni’s Audience Research Analysis organization:

Reinvigorating Public Radio’s Public Service & Public Support: INTERIM REPORT 1 APPROACH.

Americans are listening less to public radio today than two years ago. Not coincidentally, their financial support of our industry shows signs of softening.

Reinvigorating Public Radio’s Public Service & Public Support: INTERIM REPORT 6 LOSING OUR GRIP.

Public radio is losing its grip on its own listeners.

Stations that generate almost half of all public radio listening have lost loyalty in the last year. MORNING EDITION, ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, and other programs generating 80 percent of all listening have lost their forward momentum or fallen back.

It doesn’t matter whether public radio has gotten weaker or commercial radio has gotten stronger. Either way, our listeners are listening less to us and more to them.

Reinvigorating Public Radio’s Public Service & Public Support: INTERIM REPORT 4 AN HISTORIC LOSS OF MOMENTUM.

After a 30 year run of virtually uninterrupted audience growth, public radio is no longer increasing its reach into American society or claiming larger shares of radio listening.

It’s not lost listening that portends ill for public radio. It’s the loss of upward momentum – the absence of growth on which we have traditionally relied – that threatens to ripple through our public service economy.

Public radio’s revenues have grown in lockstep with its audience for decades. Station managers could budget on the assumption of financial growth because their assumptions of audience growth typically proved true.

We can no longer assume we’ll have more resources tomorrow than we have today. At many stations, listener-sensitive revenues are poised to level or even decline; the projected gap between expectation and reality will approach or exceed the size of their Community Service Grants.

What’s the solution?

Red River Radio needs to change it’s programming to both increase ratings and boost audience loyalty. The program director should carefully analyze Arbitron data. Programs that perform well in similar markets should air here, replacing poorly performing ones here. That might mean grinding the sacred cows of opera, classical, Hearts Of Space and other programs into hamburger, but the network should find the courage to do it.

Christmas is the traditional time for “format change.” That gives them about two months to complete the analysis and make the changes, and it’s plenty of time. Bumped programming could go onto the digital channels.

Increasing productivity from the sales side would also help, but I can’t knowledgeably comment on how to do that. I do know about ratings and programming, though; I studied it for my degree and professionally.

Finally, I still think LSUS should pony up a sizable sum to rebuild the network. I’ve written about it before, so I won’t go over it again here. Dr. Vincent Marsala should personally champion the network in the legislature to secure increased funding, something he seems loathe to do.

Here’s an excerpt from email Dr. Marsala sent me:

“ ... we have been concerned about the needs of the radio station and for the past two years have included a radio station project in our capital outlay plans. However, it is unlikely that the state will fund such a project without substantial contributions from the public, if at all. Regardless, the project will stay on our capital outlay plan.”

As I said, the network needs a champion in the legislature to get that capital outlay funding. It might take a while, but trying is better than doing nothing.

Gerritsen Update

Still grinding along slowly in Roy Gerritsen’s sex crimes case.

The conference scheduled for July 17 was rescheduled for August 10. His trial date is a month later on September 10.

Roy, the former GM of Red River Radio, was arrested last October in a sting operation accusing him of soliciting sex from a juvenile over the Internet. He faces charges of computer-aided solicitation of a minor and attempted carnal knowledge of a juvenile. Bossier City police said Gerritsen arranged to meet who he thought was a 14-year-old girl for sex but who was actually a police officer posing as the girl. He was arrested when he arrived at a pre-determined location in Bossier City.

Gerritsen’s docket numbers are C149466, attempted carnal knowledge of a juvenile, and C149467, computer aided solicitation of a minor. If convicted, he faces a maximum 15-year sentence and $12,500 fine, according to reports.

New Studios for Red River Radio

There was an interesting article in The Times the other day, “Public radio network outgrowing facilities.” Read it quick before you have to pay to see it.

Essentially, it boils down to, as the article states, “KDAQ has outgrown its current location at LSUS, and needs to move into a new facility in the next three years, according to station manager Kermit Poling.”

This is completely true and accurate. KDAQ, the flagship of Red River Radio, is consigned to hovels on the LSUS campus. It’s disgraceful and shameful. In fact, the university is just plain lucky no one has gotten seriously ill from working there or that the buildings haven’t been blown away by a bad storm.

Kermit goes on to mention that the station has plans for a new studio that will cost about $3 million, which he is trying to raise through federal and matching grants.

This plan was bandied about before I left Red River Radio, and I saw the artist’s conception of the new studio. It was very nice but not extravagant, and it would serve Red River Radio well for many decades.

It seems, though, that little progress has been made towards fruition since I left. So I’m going to say this yet again: LSUS should pay the lion’s share in funding the new studio.

Every time you tune in to Red River Radio, you hear that KDAQ is a community-supported service of LSUS. They are very proud to provide public radio to such a large area. For decades, Red River Radio has helped LSUS achieve a positive image throughout the region.

Yet the university has kept the network based in tin shacks all this time.

It’s time for some reciprocation. After all the benefit Red River Radio has provided LSUS, coming up with at least half the construction cost can easily be viewed as both a reward for that service and as an investment in continued service. It just seems fair to me.

What can you do? Write the chancellor and tell him your thoughts! Surprisingly, he has yet to make a public comment on the situation.