which the public radio system can answer these criticisms, while serving a wider ..... Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), one of NPR's chief programming rivals, has ...
.Journal of Radio Studies/Volume 9, No. 1, 2002
Leveraging the NPR Brand: Serving the Public While Boosting the Bottom line Michael P. McCauley During its more than 30-year history, National Public Radio has earned its reputation as America's radio news source of record. Success has not come easily, though, because the promise of a steady supply of funds from the U.S. government-free from the taint of government influence-was never fulfilled. This article examines the reasons why NPR now raises more money from listeners and business underwriters than it does from government sources, once its sole means of support. By serving a particular audience, developing a strong brand for its signature programs, and leveraging the brand with a variety of ancillary services, NPR has assured its own financial viability. Some critics deride these moves as a commodification of the organization's original public service mission. Concerted efforts to maintain the network's public service focus and the development of new programming streams are two ways in which the public radio system can answer these criticisms, while serving a wider swath of the American population at the same time. The June bug Jackson Po/locked my windshield. And as I looked at its innards, I saw substance. Which made me think. Is there still room, in a society of disposable razors, disposable cars and disposable marriages for anything with substance? Or is the American mind so completely closed that it can no longer digest anything but cerebral cupcakes? Mental junk food filled with a lot of air. And as another June bug adds to the painting on the windshield, I glance at the radio dial and think, Yes. There are a few places where substance still matters. (Morning, 7993) This quotation comes from an advertisement commissioned by National Public Radio (NPR) in 1993 to promote Morning Edition and All
Michael P. McCauley (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1997) is Assistant Professor of Communication and Journalism at the University of Maine. His research interests include public radio, the history of broadcasting, and the political economy of mass media.
McCauley/NPR & THE BOTTOM LINE 67
66 Journal of Radio Studies/Vol. 9, No. 1, 2002
Things Considered, its two featured news magazine programs. It would be specious to make sweeping inferences about America's leading noncommercial radio network from this isolated bit of ad copy, yet it does provide a glimpse of the transformation that has taken place at NPR since its founding in 1970. Once a low-budget operation with a tiny staff and audience, NPR now has more than 680 affiliate stations and more than 19 million listeners each week ("NPR expands," 2002; "NPR programs," 2002). The ad copy highlighted above also suggests a sophisticated target audience in terms of education, class, income, and cultural capital. In its early years, NPR was a place with few employees, even fewer experienced staffers, a dearth of listeners, and an experimental sound that came from journalists who scrambled to learn their craft on the job. The political philosopher Jurgen Habermas (1989) published his classic Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere 5 years before Congress passed the bill that created America's present-day public broadcasting system. Yet "National Public Radio Purposes," the mission statement penned by NPR Planning Board Member William Siemering (1970), refers to the kind of radio service Habermas might consider as part of an archetypal modern-day public sphere of mass communication-an electronic salon or coffee house where people could meet to formulate their own sense of politics, apart from the influences of family or state. First of all, Siemering and other board members sought to distinguish their service from that of commercial radio: National Public Radio will not regard its audience as a "market" or in terms of its disposable income, but as curious, complex individuals who are looking for some understanding, meaning and joy in the human experience. (Siemering, 1970, p. 5) NPR would serve these curious, complex individuals by offering programs to local stations and by encouraging those stations to interact with their audiences through broadcast forums and the airing of public hearings. The network would not devote a large number of resources to programming for specific minority groups; it would serve them, instead, with a regular program schedule that would speak with many dialects. And NPR would offer public service programming not just because it's a good thing to do, but rather to help listeners become "more responsive, informed human beings and intelligent responsible citizens of their communities and the world" (p. 12). NPR continues to provide programs that live up to these ideals. Along the way, it has also taken on some characteristics of the marketplace, including the development of several spin-off programs from its
major shows, the selling of program-related products through e-commerce, and new marketing schemes designed to make it all work. This article examines the ways in which NPR has grown beyond its early days into the network it is today, with a collection of on-air celebrities, intensely devoted listeners, and underwriters who wish to reach one of the most choice audiences, demographically speaking, in radio today. The network has done this, in part, by producing programs so compelling that insiders often talk about "the driveway effect," wherein a person drives home at the end of the day, but stays in the car until the current story on All Things Considered is finished. NPR executives have also ensured their success through an embrace of branding-a coordinated series of marketing techniques designed to make people aware of their products, enhance the NPR image, and foster a better performance in broadcast ratings. In large measure, these techniques derive from NPR's need to wean itself away from federal funding and build a stronger base of financial support among listeners and potential business underwriters. Some critics who hold tightly to the values of NPR's Planning Board chafe at new developments in marketing and ratings research, wondering whether they contradict the network's original noncommercial mission.1 At a broader level, they also pose difficult questions about the contemporary meaning of public service in noncommercial broadcasting. Critics maintain that a market-driven public radio and TV system should either be given a healthy supply of new, untainted funding or agree to give up its tax-based funds while pursuing more money from listeners and underwriters (Hoynes, in press; Jarvik, 1995). If the mission statement written by William Siemering is the standard by which today's NPR should be judged, these complaints are logically valid. In practical terms, however, we shall see that NPR's complicated history defies explanation by normative theories of society developed in the 1960s and 1970s. Organizational missions change over time, and judgements about whether those changes are good, bad, or something in between must be situated within appropriate contexts before they can meet the test of logic. HISTORICAL CONTEXT A quick review of NPR's history reveals a network that has virtually been forced, by strictures of funding and politics, to serve one particular audience and serve it better than anyone else. To learn about how this audience was identified and courted, we must look to public radio's beginnings as an educational, noncommercial service. Small and poor were the best descriptors for much of the noncommercial radio industry
68 Journal of Radio Studies/Vol. 9, No. 1, 2002 from its beginnings in the early 1900s through the mid-1970s. Although educational broadcasters were among the first to transmit voice and music over the airwaves, these radio pioneers were soon plagued with financial woes, complaints from regulators who tried to clean up the chaos of overlapping signals, and a variety of threats posed by commercial broadcasters who sought to take advantage of the situation (McChesney, 1993; Sterling & Kittross, 1990; Witherspoon & Kovitz, 2000). The National Association of Educational Broadcasters served as a net beneath the system and saw it through many Jean years until the Ford Foundation contributed its money and prestige in the 1950s. The following decade brought forth a nationwide movement to create a system of noncommercial radio and television stations, although the forces behind this movement were clearly more interested in television. Finally, in 1967, Congress promised its first dose of program support by passing the bill that created the noncommercial broadcasting system we know today. The Public Broadcasting Act was the last piece of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society program, and it shared one characteristic with many of his other initiatives-it went forward with scant funding on the bet other benefactors would come to the rescue (S. Holt, 1995). But as fate would have it, the incoming Nixon administration had little patience for programs or funders it viewed as part of the Eastern liberal elite. Nixon's veto of a public broadcast funding bill in 1972 was largely designed to harass public television, but any cut in the industry's funding would naturally affect radio as well (NAES, 1972). Periodic efforts to engage commercial broadcasters in the funding of public radio and television also faltered. In the late 1970s, one of several proposals to have for-profit operators pay a spectrum fee in return for their right to use the airwaves (with part of the proceeds going to public radio and TV) was derided by Broadcasting (1979) as a "socialistic vehicle to redistribute the wealth of the broadcast industry in accordance with the desires of a few Washington bureaucrats" (p. 24). NPR was a relatively small player in American radio until the hiring of Frank Mankiewicz as its president in 1977. A flamboyant journalist, lawyer and political operative, Mankiewicz turned the network's fortunes around by starting Morning Edition in 1979 and by greatly expanding the size and competence of NPR's Washington-based news staff. Soon afterward, however, the election of Ronald Reagan marked a rightist resurgence, complete with a series of renewed attacks on public television and radio. Initially, Reagan's transition team called for the abolition of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPS) by 1983 (Broadcasting, 1981 ). Funds for the Corporation were temporarily cut by a modest amount, but these maneuvers would not soothe conservative discontent over the long term.
McCauley/NPR & THE BOTTOM LINE 69 In response to these pressures, Mankiewicz launched an aggressive campaign to wean NPR from federal subsidies with a series of new business and programming ventures that promised, in his view, to be solid revenue generators ("Current," 1982; Henry & Howard, 1981). However, bad timing and a lack of adequate oversight and venture capital meant Mankiewicz's plans would falter in short order, leaving the network with a multimillion dollar deficit. An interim management team worked with CPS and member station representatives to engineer a bailout, but NPR soon fell under the Congressional microscope regarding major financial decisions (Wolf, 1984). Its next president, Douglas Bennet, managed to retire the debt and his successor, Delano Lewis, presided over a period in which public radio began to raise more money from listener-sensitive sources (i.e., pledges and underwriting) than from tax-based sources. 2 Still, the network was badly shaken by the financial misfortune and political gamesmanship of years past (Lewis, 1995). The next opportunity for action against public broadcasting came after Republican majorities surged to power in the House and Senate in the November 1994 elections. Incoming House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) and Larry Pressler (R-SD) of the Senate Commerce Committee talked openly in December of their desire to eliminate all CPS funding (Carmody, 1994; Weintraub, 1994). Political allies of Gingrich and Pressler attempted two legislative maneuvers in July 1995 designed to end federal support for CPS. The last and most serious of these threats was defeated in the House by a margin of better than two to one, and the two conservative leaders soon learned that public broadcasting had developed a solid constituency among educated people of all political stripes, including Republicans (Lewis, 1995). One might think this resounding defeat would bode well for the future of public broadcasting's federal support. Instead, it further stressed the notion that noncommercial radio and television would be forced to seek funds from the private sector even more urgently. This fact has become painfully obvious in recent decades, since media executives and lawmakers have joined forces to dispel the notion that commercial broadcasters should pay a fee for their use of new digital frequency allocations, with part of the proceeds earmarked for public broadcasting (Starr, 2000). Why did NPR pursue the audience it now has? The political and financial pressures outlined above forced the network to become adept at niche marketing or narrowcasting, and to do it much more quickly and effectively than its commercial rivals. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the primary segment of the American radio audience that was left for NPR to take was the highly educated, well off, and otherwise distinctive group of listeners it now has-an audience that had never
70 Journal of Radio Studies/Vol. 9, No. 1, 2002 been served well by the formats offered on commercial stations (Giovannon_i, 1995; Kigin, 1998). Public radio's news and information prog_rammmg expanded greatly during a time when pressures on commercial network e_xecutives to make substantial cuts in their news budgets sent that portion of the radio news industry into decline. The story of NPR's programming success also lies in the way public radio's audience r_esearchers have continually refined their ability to know what their listeners really want to hear(" Audience," 1999a; Stavitsky, 1995). As we shall see, NPR's branding efforts further ensured that the network would lock these listeners in.
TODA Y'S NPR AUDIENCE 3 Who, then, are the people whom NPR programs for? The characteristics of this group are best summarized in terms of education and other ?emographic variables. Before examining these factors, however, it is 1m~ortant to define two terms that have now become central to public radio research-core listening and fringe listening. Core listeners are thos~ people ":'ho spend more than 70% of their listening time with public radio. Fringe listeners, as one might expect, use public radio less ~han ~0% of the time. Public radio's leading audience researchers, including former NPR research specialist David Giovannoni, use a tool known as VALS2 .(VALS st.ands for Values and Lifestyles) to identify the number of core listeners in the audience. Giovannoni and his team at Au~ience Research Analysis have used VALS2 to identify a segment of Arb1tr?n survey respondents who share the attributes of two of psychograph1c archetypes. These people, known as Actualizer-Fulfilleds make up only 4~ ofthe.U.S. a_d~lt populati~n, but are pre~ent in much ~reater nu~bers 1~ public ~ad10 s core audience. The primary, or Actualizer tr.a1ts of this group include a take-charge attitude, an active lifestyle, high lev~ls of self-esteem, and a keen interest in personal growth and ~xplor~t1~n. The s~condary, or Fulfilled traits include maturity, satisfaction with JOb and lifestyle, a strong sense of responsibility, and a thirst for knowledge. These people are very loyal to public radio programs and, because they contribute more money to their favorite stations, the ~anagers of those stations increasingly craft their program schedules in ways that appe~I to them. For the purpose of our analysis, I will use the term core audience as a shorthand phrase to describe public radio's Actualizer-Fu lfil Ieds. Like any business, NPR provides services to a certain group of ~eople who, if the product is good, will reward the company with incre~sed p~tro.nage (listening) and greater potential to stay afloat financially (with income from listeners and underwriters). Before exam-
McCauley/NPR & THE BOTTOM LINE 71 ining the ways in which NPR serves this audience, it is important to understand its demographic and psychographic characteristics. Educational attainment is the hallmark of this group. Sixty percent of NPR's listeners have at least a bachelor's degree and members of this group are also four times more likely than average to earn graduate degrees. The core audience for the public radio system as a whole is even more distinctive. Virtually all of these people have graduated from college and about 70% have advanced degrees. When proper statistical controls are applied, it becomes clear that education is the best predictor of whether a person will become a public radio listener. In effect, the educational achievement of NPR listeners causes these people to have many of the other characteristics mentioned in the paragraphs that follow. 4 NPR's audience is 53% male and mostly white, although the number of highly educated minority listeners continues to rise. About half of the audience falls within the "baby boom"generation, people who were between 35 and 54 at the time of the network's national listener survey in 2000. The number of these listeners, and of younger members of the 55-and-over crowd, has risen slightly during the past decade, a simple reflection of the fact that people who witnessed NPR's birth in the early 1970s are getting older. The investment these people have made in higher education seems to pay off in terms of their advantageous positions on the career ladder. Twenty-seven percent of all audience members hold professional jobs, compared to 11 % of adults in the general population. Twenty-two percent describe their jobs as executive, administrative, or managerial and about 34% have the authority to supervise others and make business purchases. Not surprisingly, almost 60% of NPR listeners view their work as part of a career, not simply as a job. Household income for this group is substantial. Forty-six percent of NPR families bring home $75,000 or more per year. The average annual household income for public radio's core audience is more than $100,000. The people who listen to NPR and other public radio services can also be described in terms of their values and self-image-factors that local station managers take into account when crafting their program schedules. Public radio's core listeners typically stay abreast of the latest developments in world and national news and enjoy the opportunity to broaden their knowledge in a variety of ways. Almost 60% of NPR listeners have voted in an election, compared to 43% of the overall U.S. adult population. They are about twice as likely as other people to write a letter to the editor, write an elected official, address a public meeting, or write something for publication. Image is certainly important to members of the core audience, but apparently not as a symbol
72 Journal of Radio Studies/Vol. 9, No. 1, 2002 of status or power. Rather, the possessions and recreational activities of this group reflect "a cultivated taste for the finer things in life." Members of public radio's core audience are practical when purchasing consumer goods, with durability, functionality, and value important factors in the decision to buy a particular product. Finally, NPR listeners are more likely than average to partake in just about any kind of leisure activity including exercise, playing a sport, attending live musical and theatrical performances, and reading.
HOW NPR SERVES THIS AUDIENCE Overall radio listening in America has been declining in recent years, with the biggest dip taking place among listeners who possess advanced degrees-the very same people who inhabit public radio's core audience. These figures may seem depressing at first blush, but research shows these people are simply using less commercial radio; in fact, public radio is becoming ever more important in their lives (Bailey, 2000). Why is the most highly educated segment of the U.S. radio audience turning away from commercial stations and, at the same time, showing stronger loyalty to public radio? Audience researchers argue that people listen to public radio because it resonates with their interests, values, and beliefs. In short, public radio's core listeners are more likely to experience a sense of community upon hearing their favorite programs; a sense that these programs support their value systems, enhance their ability to become involved in real-world communities, and, in some cases, create an "invisible community of the air" among like-minded Americans ("Audience," 1999a; Klose, 2000). Arbitron survey data show that when people tune into public radio, they listen to news programs 31% of the time. The leading programs in this category, by far, are NPR's Morning Edition (ME) and All Things Considered (ATC). Together, they generate about a quarter of all public radio listening and about 35% of the listening experience for members of the core audience. Pound for pound, these shows also carry significant economic clout; they trigger 30% of all listener pledges and more than half of the industry's underwriting support ("Audience," 1999a). Such calculations about a given program's ability to satisfy public radio's core listeners, and thus its ability to trigger support from listeners and underwriters, are now an important part of research done atthe systemwide level and used by the managers of most local public radio stations ("Audience," 1999b; Freedman, 2001; "NPR Audience," 2001). One reason for NPR's success in programming to its highly educated core audience lies in the fact that the network has now become America's radio news source of record (Conan, 1995; Fox, 1991; Mitch-
McCauley/NPR & THE BOTTOM LINE 73 ell, 2001; Siegel, 1995; Zuckerman, 1987). This lofty status is the fortuitous result of several colliding forces, including the steady decline of commercial radio news, a boost in publicity from extensive coverage of the Persian Gulf War and the tragedies of September 11, 2001, and a concerted effort by NPR programmers to capitalize on these important opportunities for public service (Farhi, 2001; Mitchell, 2002; "NPR Annual," 2000). Indeed, a sampling of contemporary stories from Morning Edition and All Things Considered demonstrates a depth and breadth of news coverage that could never have taken root in the 5-minute "top of the hour" culture of commercial radio news. 5 An analysis of five days of ME programs in January and February 2001 found 14 stories about international affairs, including coverage of a meeting between Bill Clinton and Yasser Arafat, George W. Bush's views on Iraq, and the arrest of the former secret police chief in Yugoslavia. Next in order of priority were 13 stories that focused on U.S. politics, including the legacy of President Clinton's environmental policy and the process of transferring power to the new president. During this same period, All Things Considered featured stories about the stormy confirmation hearings for Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Bush administration's initial tax cut proposal. International stories focused on peace in the Middle East, the assassination of Congolese President Laurent Kabila, and the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in India. News-related features and commentaries helped bind entire half hour segments together. The topics of these pieces included alternative energy sources for power-strapped Californians, the "cult of personality" surrounding Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, and a debate over the effects of income inequality. The care with which NPR's programs and stories are crafted has not gone unnoticed. Its correspondents, reporters, and hosts have won more than 300 awards, including 37 of the prestigious Peabody Awards for broadcast excellence and nearly 20 Alfred I. duPont awards for broadcast journalism. The keys to a branding strategy based on programs such as ME and ATC are the establishment of brand equity and the building of brand loyalty. Shimp (2000) maintained that "from the consumer's perspective, a brand possesses equity to the extent that consumers are familiar with the brand and have stored in their memory warehouses favorable, strong, and unique brand associations" (p. 23). Brand loyalty is the top goal for any marketer, a precondition to the company's long-term growth and profitability. ME and ATC foster brand equity and loyalty because of the strong match between the content on these shows and the economic and cultural characteristics of the audience described above. Few people who work in the public radio industry would say that NPR has used its news programs to target an attractive audience solely
74 Journal of Radio Studies/Vol. 9, No. 1, 2002 for the purpose of gaining income from listeners and businesses {Freedman, 2001; Mitchell, 2001 b). That said, public radio's research specialists have, since the 1980s, developed better methods for knowing the people who listen to programs, building the kinds of program appeals and schedules that serve these people best, and jettisoning programs that don't resonate with them in any significant way. Again, research aimed at understanding NPR's audience addresses not only the demographic characteristics of this group, but also the values and lifestyles that underpin their daily activities. Naomi Klein (2001) has aptly described a marketing strategy that can reach highly intelligent people who also have a sense of social responsibility. NPR can do this quite successfully if, in Klein's words, the network "makes its brand a cause ... and makes its cause a brand." This practice is evident in both the tone and content of NPR's news magazines. Jack Mitchell, a former NPR board Chairman, Executive Producer of All Things Considered and long time Director of Wisconsin Public Radio, described an aesthetic sense of objective noninvolvementthat is found both in NPR's featured programs and among many members of the network's core audience: ... which means lots of rational, relatively objective, fair and balanced inquiry and argument-a// somewhat abstract and distant from reality, all engaged in by a very comfortable and moderately privileged group of people whose personal interests make them generally support the status quo, while they may see the need for change intellectually. Public radio and the broader academic world are liberal or progressive in their thinking. But [they] are not radical; they are not about to jeopardize their own comfortable situations by fostering fundamental change. (Mitchell, personal communication, July 25, 1996) NPR's in depth news coverage, which is not-too-liberal and not-tooconservative, is a perfect fit for this audience {see "NPR Audience," 2001 b). The network's presentational style, often wry and understated, also contributes to greater brand equity and loyalty.
HOW NPR LEVERAGES ITS BRAND Brand leveraging involves the maintenance of equity and loyalty while new products are introduced (Shimp, 2000). At the strategic level, research developments in public radio are increasingly geared toward this end, with software packages that explicitly relate the needs of core listeners to certain kinds of programs. These developments promise to
McCauley/NPR & THE BOTTOM LINE 75 give programmers, fund raisers, and top managers a common way to discuss public service goals (Giovannoni, 2001 b; "NPR Audience," 2001 b). Public service, in this conception, is tied directly to overall levels of listening to NPR programs, because service to the public is impossible to gauge unless some portion of the network's potential audience is actually listening (Giovannoni, 1994; Mitchell, 2001b; Stavitsky, 1995). NPR has expertly capitalized on this type of research, first of all by building on the image it has carefully cultivated for its two major news magazines. Weekend All Things Considered (WA TC) marked the network's first major effort in this direction. Making its debut in 1977, WA TC sought to extend A TC's brand of news coverage to the weekends with a stylistic "twist" that helped distinguish it from NPR's weekday news coverage ("About," 2001; Collins, 1993). NPR next moved to extend the portion of its brand that flowed from the creation of Morning Edition in 1979. Douglas Bennet, who became president in 1983, wanted to prove the network could create new programs following the debt crisis earlier that same year. The show that resulted was Weekend Edition, a Saturday version of NPR's signature morning program, that premiered in November 1985. Scott Simon teamed with then-producer Jay Kernis to build this program, which "fell right in line with NPR's old style of news programming: personality-driven, often irreverent and leisurely paced" (Collins, 1993, pp. 91-92; Looker, 1995). Weekend Edition soon became very popular, owing in part to the special bond that Simon has always been able to form with public radio listeners. 6 Based on the success of its domestic operations, NPR has also been expanding its reach to other countries. The network now broadcasts its signature programs to a potential audience of 25 million people through NPR Worldwide. This service uses 140 radio stations and other cable, satellite and shortwave outlets to make NPR's signal audible in virtually every corner of the world. NPR Worldwide has also added a 24-hour digital stereo service in anticipation of the global change to digital audio transmission-a change that has not yet happened in the United States ("New," 2001; "NPR Worldwide," 2001). Finally, NPR has complemented its own slate of programs by teaming with the World Radio Network to provide overnight English-language coverage of events around the globe. Designed as a lead-in to Morning Edition and Weekend Edition, this service offers participating stations feeds from various broadcasters in Europe, Africa, and other continents. Its goal is to provide early-bird listeners with a first glimpse of important stories that might be carried by the American media later in the day ("Overnight," 2001).
McCauley/NPR & THE BOTTOM LINE 77
76 Journal of Radio Studies/Vol. 9, No. 1, 2002 NEW TECHNOLOGIES, NEW PRODUCTS NPR content is now available through America Online and Bloomberg business terminals in major companies around the nation ("AOL," 1999; Conciatore, 1999; "Public Radio Goes," 2000). The network has negotiated other distribution agreements with Microsoft, Real Networks, and Apple, and has also secured a place for NPR programming on the Yahoo! web site. Audible.com now offers downloadable versions of more than 20 kinds of NPR programming ("National," 2001 ). NPR Online brings newscasts, features, and commentaries to Internet users; by the fall of 2000, it was receiving more than a million page views per week ("NPR Names," 2000). The home page for this service features brief summaries of the day's news, with links to more headlines and in-depth coverage. Special "web extra" features supplement NPR's traditional broadcast fare, and other links connect interested surfers to hourly newscast streams, other programs, and the web sites of the network's online business partners. NPR Online also includes an archive of past programs, discussion pages for many issues in the news, links to individual stations, and information about the network's operations and history (Holt & Mandra, 2000). Finally, the network's current president, Kevin Klose, has also hastened the development of two program streams for distribution by Sirius Satellite Radio, a company that has begun to beam 100 commercial-free channels to the automobiles of people who can afford new digital receivers ("Sirius," 2002). From the "you knew it had to happen eventually" department, NPR has also entered the world of e-commerce. Originally opened in December 2000, the NPR Online Shop offers branded merchandise not available anywhere else, including Morning Edition with Bob Edwards latte mugs, NPR Polartec fleece pullovers, and infant sleepers. Of course, those visiting the site can also choose from a varied selection of recordings and books related to programs they heard earlier on NPR ("NPR Online," 2000). Individual programs have developed web sites to hawk their program-related goods; one prominent example is the "Shameless Commerce" page on the web site for Tom and Ray Magliozzi's popular Car Talk program. Fans of the show can procure Dewey Cheetham and Howe Polo Shirts, books and recordings related to the program, and apparel that tells politically minded onlookers, "Don't Blame Me ... I voted for Click and Clack" ("Shameless," 2001 ). Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), one of NPR's chief programming rivals, has also made successful forays into the world of e-commerce; this is significant because most NPR stations also carry programs from MPR and Public Radio International (PRI), a spin-off firm that focuses mainly on program distribution. MPR developed the Public Radio Music
Source ("Public Radio Musicsource," 2001) to offer listeners an easy way to purchase the music heard on their favorite stations, with part of the proceeds going to support those same stations. The parent firm of Minnesota Public Radio also developed the Wireless product catalog ("Wireless," 2001 ). This service, originally focused on the promotion of goods related to Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, now offers a variety of nonprogram related items that speak to the demographic and psychographic traits of public radio listeners. Rivertown Trading, the subsidiary that operated Wireless, sold the catalog operation to the Dayton Hudson department store chain in 1998 for $120 million. Proceeds from the sale help support MPR's programming efforts (Conciatore, 1998; "Minnesota Public," 2000).
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER Increasingly, brand extension involves the formation of alliances with companies that have similar images and market potential, and at least some common goals. One of NPR's most promising efforts in cobranding is the partnership now being developed with PBS, its public television counterpart. In early 2001, NPR and PBS agreed to cross-promote each other's programs, cooperate in e-commerce efforts, and coproduce live events on the Web (" NPR and PBS," 2001 ). The two organizations have also announced a new show called Public Square, "a fresh, bold 90-minute weekly television program rooted in conversation" ("PBS and NPR," 2001, p. 1). Public Square will focus on the traditional fare of politics and economics, but will also cover science, religion, popular culture, and other areas. Another interesting example of cobranding is Classroom Radio, a collaboration between NPR and bigchalk. com. Classroom Radio links stories from ATC, ME, and Talk of the Nation with a variety of useful online resources. For example, students can follow hyperlinks to NPR's full-length audio coverage and specially formulated study questions about top stories in the news ("Classroom," 2001 ). The sheer volume of brand extension activities described above would seem to be a recipe for sensory overload. But a firm called Public Interactive (Pl) attempts to cut through the clutter by giving local stations a way to organize a full array of public radio programs and ancillary products through their very own web sites. Pl was created in partnership with Public Radio International and 15 leading radio stations. The home page for any station that contracts with this firm can be built from a basic template that allows a mix of local images and slogans, links to NPR news highlights and featured programs and, of course, pathways to the web sites of sponsors. Also contained within
78 Journal of Radio Studies/Vol. 9, No. 1, 2002 this system are customizable pages for in-depth news, chat rooms, arts information, and e-commerce ("Company," 2001; "Content," 2001). This formula seems to work well because Arbitron, in its spring 2001 online ratings book, ranked Public Interactive 13th among the nation's top interactive application service providers (" Arbitron," 2001 ). NPR and Minnesota Public Radio have also teamed up to create eXploreRadio, which provides news ticker modules, specialized public radio search engines, discussion boards and listservs, and local calendar software (Conciatore, 1999). The users of web pages powered by Public Interactive and eXploreRadio can access a multitude of content, some of it cobranded, while knowing they can also return quickly to the local station's home page. THE BENEFITS OF PROFESSIONAL MARKETING Public radio's audience researchers measure public service in terms of the amount of time that people actually listen to programs; again, they claim that no public service is possible unless some significant fraction of the audience is actually tuned in. Public radio provides a valuable service to members of its core audience, and Development Exchange International (DEi), a clearinghouse of marketing services, helps station managers publicize this fact to potential underwriters. DEi's promotional materials suggest the reasons why certain upscale businesses might consider public radio underwriting a good investment: Start with programming. It's unique, and designed to meet the needs of the local community. Move to the audiences our programming attracts. They are highly educated and highly involved within the community. They are decision-makers in business, industry, and government. They are concerned, active citizens. [Most] have attended college. Incomes are way above average. Public radio is often their primary choice of broadcast media. The weekly audience is growing and public radio stations are capturing more market share than ever. Public radio stations boast psychographic numbers that commercial stations would kill to emulate. ("Underwriting," 2007, p. 1) NPR and other public radio organizations have kept the importance of core listeners and underwriters in mind when working to extend their basic brands through additional programs, program-related merchandise, and adventures in new media. Former NPR president Delano Lewis was keenly interested in expanding NPR's online presence, and his successor, Kevin Klose, was hired with a specific mandate to build on
McCauley/NPR & THE BOTTOM LINE 79 these efforts and expand into digital and satellite broadcasting. NPR executives and their counterparts at Minnesota Public Radio have actively sought experienced managers to oversee these brand management initiatives-people who either have an MBA or exceptional experience in coordinating a company's communication, promotion, and marketing functions ("Job postings," 2000; "Jobs," 2001 ). The payoffs from this careful attention to brand management have been substantial. Today's public radio industry brings in half a billion dollars in revenue per year (Giovannoni, 2001 a). NPR's total revenues during FY 2000 were nearly $144 million, with net assets at the end of the year of more than $71 million ("NPR Annual," 2000). By the end of that year, the NPR Foundation had also raised more than $17 million for the network's Endowment Fund for Excellence. As mentioned earlier, pledges and underwriting now account for more of public radio's revenues than the total of all funds supplied by the federal government and other taxing bodies; this marks a stark contrast to the early 1970s, when virtually all of NPR's funding came from CPB. The success of NPR's programs and ancillary services has also made it easier for the network to achieve economies of scale when recycling contemporary content, and its own coterie of radio "stars," through new formats and distribution channels. Finally, NPR's efforts at brand extension have protected the organization's competitive position by raising barriers-to-entry for independent program producers. The opportunity for independents to contract with NPR has improved slightly during the past few years, but on the whole, these producers still face substantial difficulties in communicating with the network ("Minutes," 2000). WHITHER THE ORIGINAL MISSION? It would be very easy for people who read corporate mission statements for their normative, rather than practical, content to believe that NPR must necessarily operate in a manner that is thoroughly democratic, one in which all people have an equal chance to "hear themselves" in the dialogue of regular daily programming. In the process, it would seem that NPR must keep any hint of commercialism at bay, because an adequate supply of clean, untainted government funds should, in theory, remove the need for this organization to behave like any other radio network. In point of fact, NPR's corporate mission has gradually shifted away from the lofty prose of 1970 -with statements about "promoting personal growth" and "regarding individual differences ... with respect and joy" (Siemering, 1970)-and toward the more flexible and pragmatic goals of "producing, acquiring and distributing programming that meets the highest standards of public service in journalism and cultural
80 Journal of Radio Studies/Vol. 9, No. 1, 2002 expression" ("NPR Annual," 2000, p. i; Siegel, 1995). Many individual public radio stations have similarly "revisited, reinterpreted, and in a few cases, adjusted" their mission statements to move beyond the cultural context of the 1960s and early 1970s, when many of these statements were first drafted (Giovannoni, 1992, p. 3). Why all the change? Public broadcasting has always been deprived of an adequate supply of federal money, and stations have increasingly turned to listeners and underwriters for support. Through niche marketing, branding, and brand extension, NPR and other players in American public radio have effectively "locked in" a viable, valuable audience that was just waiting to be served. In the process, though, NPR has come to target its programming efforts at "a cross section of the most highly educated Americans" -not exactly the diverse audience that William Siemering and other NPR founders envisioned in 1970 (Mitchell, 2001, p. 416). In a sense, public radio managers, who sometimes interpret the notion of mission differently than program producers do, have simply learned the rules of narrowcasting (Stavitsky, 1995)-that survival in an increasingly competitive radio marketplace means targeting some discreet segment of the potential audience and serving it better than anyone else can. Again, NPR reaches an audience of about 19.5 million people each week. Impressive as that number sounds, it represents fewer than 9% of all Americans over 15 years of age-the potential audience, roughly speaking, for all U.S. radio services, public and commercial ("U.S.," 2001 ). 7 There is nothing inherently wrong with targeting such an audience, although the practice does beg the question of how NPR could have possibly locked the word "public" into its widely publicized and trademarked corporate name. Minority audiences and those who fall outside the nation's top income brackets also listen to NPR's programs, but only the most highly educated people in these groups can be counted among the network's audience ("Audience," 1999a). The news departments of NPR and other public radio organizations do cover stories about minorities, the poor, and other marginalized groups (Giovannoni, 1995). But with lower-than-average representation of these groups in terms of both staff audience numbers, they air stories that are produced by or for these same people on a comparatively infrequent basis. NPR and the larger public radio system did not have to develop in this way. Continued adherence to the program-centered philosophy of educational radio-the airing of a disparate collection of audio gems that station managers thought their audiences "just had to hear" would have yielded a system with far fewer listeners and financial resources (Stavitsky, 1995). Increasingly, then, the public radio industry has focused on programs that have greater potential to score well in the
McCauley/NPR & THE BOTTOM LINE 81 Arbitron ratings. Public radio managers have not always implemented the programming adjustments implied by ratings research with the utmost grace and efficiency, but most successful stations have now learned the key lessons this research has to offer (Conciatore, 1995; Janssen, 2000a; Mitchell, 2001; Stavitsky, 1995). Some of NPR's critics (see Farhi, 2002; Fisher, 1989; Fox, 1991; Freedman, 2001; Mccourt, 1999; Porter, 1990; Solomon, 1995; Zuckerman, 1987) maintain that the traditional definition of public service br?adcasting, wi:h .goals of universal access, comprehensive programming, and pluralistic treatment of various subgroups, 8 has been altered by the network's embrace of market mechanisms. In this "commodific~tion" of public :adio, they argue, public service is bought and sold; with more marketing and brand extension comes a tighter embrace of this commercialized variant of public service. 9 Thus some critics argue that public radio's justification for continued federal funding has become tenuous (Mccourt, 1999; Tolan, 1996). Conservative critics such as Laurence Jarvik (1995) wonder why Congress would fund one market savvy broadcasting service, when other radio companies already operate on a commercial basis, with no regular allowance from Uncle Sam. 10 Defenders of NPR acknowledge these critiques and admit that the task of answeri~g them requires a delicate balancing act (Dvorkin, 2000; Klos~, 2000; Mitchell, 2001 ). To gain a sufficient amount of private funding, NPR must show that it attracts a substantial audience a task that is easy to demonstrate through quantitative audience resea;ch. But the network's leaders also know they must somehow demonstrate that NPR's programs are having a positive impact on American communities, and on society as a whole (Klose, 2000). The existence of these connections is a matter of faith, not social science; it would be difficult, for example, to show that listening to NPR actually causes increased voter turnout o.r b~tter policy decisions in Washington (Mitchell, per~onal c?mmun1cat1?n, August 15, 2001 ). Still, some of the founding figures in U.S. public radio regularly speak about NPR as a service that provides much more public benefit than commercial stations and net"".orks do .. For Minnesota Public Radio president William Kling, the difference 1s most noticeable in news stories that deal with matters of controversy:
A commercial network will have that story over in 30 seconds. You're angry a~out it, but [you go} onto something else. NPR might spend seven minutes on it, by which time you're apoplectic, you've sent three faxes, and called two Congressmen . ... NPR reaches the people who do things. You look at the demographics. [They} are
82 Journal of Radio Studies/Vol. 9, No. 1, 2002 people who vote. They're the people who sit on school boards. They're the people who make decisions. And they have the opportunity to really understand issues that they don't [otherwise] understand by listening to NPR. NPR is really a major player, I think, in the fabric of this country, in terms of an informed citizenry. (Kling, 1995, p. 29)
McCauley/NPR & THE BOTTOM LINE 83 major effort to fashion a Public Telecommunications Trust Fund failed, in part, because executives from the public broadcasting industry thought they might achieve a bigger and better mix of funds by continuing to focus on listeners and underwriters (Witherspoon & Kovitz, 2000). OTHER VISIONS FOR PUBLIC RADIO
Public radio supporters also point out that the underwriting messages that support NPR and its affiliates are different from the advertisements found on commercial radio in terms of tone, content, placement, and function. Underwriting credits are generally placed at the beginning and end of a given segment of programming, a stark contrast to the frequent and regular assault on the eardrums that commercial radio listeners face every day. Public radio's news and information personnel try to maintain "firewalls" between their jobs and those in the underwriting and development departments; ideally, then, the influence that corporate sponsors exert on program content is diminished (see "NPR's underwriting," 2000). Also, the return on investment to business sponsors is somewhat less direct in public broadcasting. The main goals of underwriters are visibility and image enhancement; federal regulations prohibit underwriting messages that contain value judgments or overt inducements to purchase any product ("Federal," 1992). Given all of these distinctions, the public radio industry cannot easily be classified as a typical commercial enterprise. Its audience researchers have borrowed some analytical tools from commercial broadcasters and have used them to help focus programming more tightly on public radio's core audience. The programs that the audience gets, however, are demonstrably different from sponsor-driven shows designed to include regular blocks of 15, 30, and 60-second advertisements. Arguments that the nexus of audience research and niche-marketed programming at NPR should nullify the network's claim on federal funds are interesting, although often phrased in a manner that is less than productive. True, the network's coveted core audience comprises less than 10% of America's overall radio audience. It is also difficult for NPR's most ardent supporters to demonstrate causal relationships between the airing of NPR programs and "good things that happen in their communities" (Mitchell, personal communication, August 15, 2001 ). But even if critics prevailed in a bid to end the network's Congressional appropriations, one significant point remains: There is little evidence that today's public radio broadcasters would voluntarily return to programming practices commonly used in the days when income from listeners and underwriters was much less significant. Indeed, the last
It is clear that National Public Radio provides a valuable service to members of its well-educated, socially conscious audience. How, then, are public radio executives to answer persistent criticisms about pandering to this audience with content that belies a sense of "creeping commercialism?" At the same time, how can these managers make sure that the delivery of their particular brand of public service, in the form of local and national programs, remains a viable option financially? Jack Mitchell (2001) has argued that public radio should neither market its wares in the crass, profit-oriented manner that commercial broadcasters often do, nor build its program schedules around lofty ideals that please some program producers, but are intellectually and aesthetically irrelevant to most Americans. Instead, he proposes that the industry embark on a difficult, centrist strategy that "skirts the edges of the marketplace, but does not rise above it" (p. 419). Specifically, he offers several signposts for public radio that would proclaim its value as "a positive, conciliatory, and educational force in communities and the nation" (p. 420). First, the industry should remain a not-for-profit operation and reject partnerships with, or financing from, for-profit entities. Second, public radio should participate in the Internet, while rejecting the gold-rush mentality of the commercial e-world. Public radio must, in Mitchell's view, continue to make its programs available to everyone, without discrimination and without cost (although programmers should not hold the illusion that they can speak effectively to all Americans). Finally, public radio should strive to present a diversity of views and voices, especially from people who normally do not have the chance to express themselves through the media. In other words, the system should present programs, from time to time, that listeners would not normally expect to hear (Adapted from Mitchell, 2001 b, pp. 419-420). These views represent the best and noblest thinking of people who are determined to make the public radio system better by working within its present-day institutional structure. Other strategies exist for people who think NPR and PRI have become too brand-focused and wish to hear programs other than those designed for the industry's core listeners. One possible scenario is that listeners might be able to convince their local public radio stations to develop a variety of new
84 Journal of Radio Studies/Vol. 9, No. 1, 2002 program streams. In many large and medium-sized cities, two or more traditional public radio stations have already agreed to offer different formats. In Boston, for example, WBUR-FM has cornered the market on public radio news and information, while WGBH focuses more closely on cultural fare. In Madison, Wisconsin, the local NPR operation has separate stations for talk shows and a mix of news and classical music. They are joined in local programming by WORT-FM, one of the nation's leading community radio stations. The number of public radio listeners, and, hence, public radio supporters, is sufficient in these markets to justify the existence of multiple program streams. Problems remain in less-populous areas, where the limited potential for listener revenue and underwriting contracts is a strong impediment to expansion. However, some forward-thinking managers have observed that advanced digital telecommunication links (such as T1 lines) between the central headquarters and regional hubs of statewide radio networks already have enough capacity for the transmission of several new program streams. The factors that have prevented this innovative use of technology from taking off thus far include a dearth of original programs, local talent, and dedicated funding. 11 People who like noncommercial radio, but do not care for NPR programming, might also seek out and support community radio stations-small scale operations that focus rather intensely on the informational and cultural needs of local audiences. A number of organizations have come to the fore in anticipation that internal problems at Pacifica Radio, once the prime source for community radio programming, might continue indefinitely. They include the Grassroots Radio Coalition ("Grassroots," 2001 ), Free Speech Radio News ("Free," 2001) and the Live Wire project (Live, 2001 ). Another possibility for those who might enjoy small-scale, community focused radio is the emerging Low-power FM (LPFM). With transmitters limited to 100 watts, LPFM operators are truly committed to service at the neighborhood level. Existing broadcasters have worked with members of Congress to severely limit the rollout of this new service. 12 If it takes off, however, LPFM could supplement community stations as a viable broadcasting alternative ("Low," 2001; "The microradio," 2001 ). One public radio executive thinks the emergence of LPFM is a symptom that people who are not part of the industry's vaunted core audience "don't think that public radio is a place where their voices can be heard." Jeffrey Dvorkin, NPR's Ombudsman and former news chief, contended that U.S. public radio has become too mainstream. "We've looked to our ratings and our core audiences," he says, "and I think that it's important to figure out ways of opening the doors to those [other] people, so that public
McCauley/NPR & THE BOTIOM LINE 85 radio really is a reflection of the public interest" (Dvorkin, 2000, p. 10-11). In summary, one can hardly blame NPR for the manner in which it has achieved its present state of financial well-being. Today's network is not the same service proposed by its founders in 1970, but these people did not fully anticipate that politics and economics at the national level would one day force them to seek a substantial amount of money from the private sector. Subtle compromises in programming have certainly been made in the name of securing funds from listeners and underwriters; considering the track record of the U.S. government in providing adequate support of any kind, strategies aimed at financial self-sufficiency seem most appropriate. The prospect of multiple program streams offers some hope that people dissatisfied with the traditionally small array of public radio formats can hear more of the content they like, without the need to turn to commercial fare. Perhaps the mainstream public radio industry will come to embrace this vision for the future and make room for community and LPFM stations as well. As new delivery systems come into play, one hopes that farsighted station managers and lawmakers will work to guarantee more space on the airwaves for NPR and all other noncommercial broadcasters. Notes 1
For mention of contemporary critiques, see Farhi, 2002; Freedman, 2001; and Mccourt, 1999. For other critiques during the past 16 years, see Cohen & Solomon, 1993, p. 233; Fisher, 1989; Fox, 1991; Katz, 1989; Lee & Solomon, 1990, pp. 17, 8586; Porter, 1990; Rowland, 1993; Rowland, 1986; Ryan, 1993; Solomon, 1995, p. 19; and Zuckerman, 1987. 2 This statement is based on an Excel spreadsheet entitled, "Public Radio Support by Source," (2001 ). The spreadsheet, prepared by the Station Resource Group, is based on data supplied by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 3 Data for this section comes from four sources: (1) Profile 2007, NPR Audience & Corporate Research (NPR audience 2001a), based on the MRI National Survey, Fall 2000; (2) The Public Radio Tracking Study, Trend Report, Winter-Fall 1999, Walrus Research, Audience Research Analysis web site (http://www.aranet.com); (3) Audience 98: Public Service, Public Support, Audience Research Analysis web site (http:// www.aranet.com); and (4) The VALS (Values and Lifestyles) (VALS, 2001) Segment Profiles. SRI Consulting Web site. Available: http://www.future.sri.comNALS/types.shtml 4 David Giovannoni of Audience Research Analysis based this conclusion on statistical studies designed to uncover causal links between public radio listening and a host of demographic variables. The baseline variables were age, gender, and race-factors that do, to some extent, account for some people's propensity to listen. When educational attainment is added to the mix of variables, the ability to predict public radio listening improves dramatically. Public radio listeners may fit a general profile based on age, race, gender, income, and occupational choice. When all possible relationships are examined, however, it becomes clear that the primary variable that predicts which people will listen to public radio is their level of educational attainment. See Audience, 1999a, p. 24.
86 Journal of Radio Studies/Vol. 9, No. 1, 2002 5
The stories included in this brief analysis are available through the NPR web site. Morning Edition stories are archived at (http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/ cmnps01fm.cfm7prgid=3); All Things Considered stories can be found at (http:// search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnps01fm.cfm7prgid=2). 6 NPR's initial success in extending the brand of its top newsmagazines also led to the creation of two other shows. Weekly Edition, which featured a compilation of the best stories from the prior week, debuted in 1998, but was canceled in November 2001 because of poor ratings, low station carriage, and a realignment of NPR's news priorities (Audigraphics, 2000; Current, 2001 ). Alf Songs Considered, a multimedia program featuring the music played during All Things Considered, was introduced in early 2001 and is still offered through NPR Online (Janssen, 2000b). 7 This figure increases slightly when listening to programs produced and/or distributed by Minnesota Public Radio, Public Radio International, and other noncommercial organizations is taken into account. 8 For more on this conception of public service broadcasting, see McCauley (1997) and Blumler (1992). 9 For discussion about a similar dynamic at PBS, see Hoynes (in press). 10 This statement is disingenuous, in part, because commercial broadcasters receive a huge government subsidy by paying only a tiny fraction of gross revenues (probably less than one percent) in return for their place on the electromagnetic spectrum. See McCauley, 2001, p. 523. 11 These comments come from a recent conversation with the manager of one statewide public radio system who asked not to be identified. 12 Top engineers and lawyers at the FCC question NPR's openly stated opposition to LPFM, because microradio stations would likely have no impact on the technical operations of existing public radio stations. If an individual LPFM station did show an adverse impact of this kind, it would not be able to maintain its license. These comments come from the author's discussion with the above-mentioned sources at FCC headquarters in Washington, DC, on June 9, 2000. The interviewees asked that their names be withheld, as a condition of engaging in candid conversation. References AOL, NPR Team for News. (1999, July 19). Electronic Media 18(29), 28. About weekend Alf Things Considered. (2001 ). NPR Online. Available: http://www.npr. org/programs/WATC/inside Arbitron ranks Public Interactive 131h; First streaming media rating service tracks top 25 webcast networks. (2001 ). Business Wire. Available: http://main2.infogate.com/ content/content.php?feed=bizwire&catkey=$catkey$&uniquelD=98 Audience Research Analysis. (1998). Power perspectives for national programs & local formats. Available: http://www.aranet.com Audience Research Analysis. (1999a). Audience 98: Public service. public support. Available: http://www.aranet.com Audience Research Analysis. (1999b). Power perspectives for national programs & local formats. Available: http://www.aranet.com Audigraphics. (2000). Statistics on listing to public radio formats and programs, based on spring and fall 2000 Arbitron ratings, Persons 12+. Supplied by David Giovannoni, Audience Research Analysis. Bailey, G. (2000). The Public radio tracking study, Trend Report, Winter-Fa// 1999. Walrus Research. Available: http://www.aranet.com Blumler, J. (Ed.). (1992). Television and the public interest: Vulnerable values in West European broadcasting. London: Sage. Broadcasting. (1979, July 16). Rewrite written off. 24.
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88 Journal of Radio Studies/Vol. 9, No. 1, 2002 Giovannoni, D. (2001 a). The business of public service. Keynote address for the annual Public Radio Development and Marketing Conference, Phoenix, AZ, July 11, 2001. Available: http://www.aranet.com Giovannoni, D. (2001 b). The thinking behind strategic audigraphics. Opening remarks at training the trainers, a seminar by Audience Research Analysis, Chantilly, VA. Available: http://www.aranet.com Grassroots Radio Conference, 6. (2001 ). KG NU-FM web site. Available: http://www.kgnu. org/grassroots6/index.html Habermas, J. (1989). The structural transformation of the public sphere. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (Original work published 1962) Henry, N., with Howard, L. (1981, December 7). Going private in public. Newsweek, pp. 105-106. Holt, R., & Mandra, C. (2000). How NPR webifies its programming-And you can, too. Current Online, Originally published in Current, October 30. Available: http://www. current.org/stream/stream020npr.html Holt, S. (1995). Transcript of tape recorded interview by author, Washington, DC, August 23. Michael McCauley NPR Oral History Collection. National Public Broadcasting Archives, College Park, MD. Hoynes, W. (in press). The PBS brand and the merchandising of public service. In M. McCauley, B.L. Artz, E. Peterson, & D. Halleck (Eds.), Public broadcasting and the public interest. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. Janssen, M. (2000a). University fires manager after opera dispute. Current Online. Originally published in Current, March 20. Available: http://www.current.org/rad/ rad005wvtf.html Janssen, M. (2000b). ATC 'buttons' find newfound fame on eclectic web-only music show. Current Online. Originally published in Current, April 4. Available: http://www. cu rrent.org/i n/i n006asc. htm I Jarvik, L. (1995). Transcript of tape recorded interview by author, Washington, DC, August 11. Michael McCauley NPR Oral History Collection. National Public Broadcasting Archives, College Park, MD. Job Postings. (2000). Minnesota Public Radio web site. This job posting is no longer available online. In September 2000, it could be found at: http://acccess.mpr.org/job _postings/postings/258_brandmgr.shtml Jobs and Training at NPR. (2001 ). NPR Online. This job posting is no longer available online. In early 2001, it could be found at: http://www.npr.org/about/jobs/index.html Katz, H. (1989). The future of public broadcasting in the U.S. Media, Culture and Society 11, 195-205. Kigin, T. (1998). Transcript of tape recorded interview by author. St. Paul, MN, May 28. Michael McCauley NPR Oral History Collection. National Public Broadcasting Archives, College Park, MD. Klein, N. (2001, May). Remarks made in the plenary address for Democratic Communications in a Branded World, an international conference of the Union for Democratic Communications. Ottawa, ON, Canada. Kling, W. (1995). Transcript of taped interview with author. St. Paul, MN, July 26. Michael McCauley NPR Oral History Collection. National Public Broadcasting Archives, College Park, MD. Klose, K. (2000). Transcript of taped interview with author, Washington, DC, June 7. Michael McCauley NPR Oral History Collection. National Public Broadcasting Archives, College Park, MD. Lee, M., & Solomon, N. (1990). Unreliable sources. New York: Carol Publishing Group. Lewis, D. (1995). Transcript of taped interview with author. Washington, DC, August 15.
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