FAQ - Part I / Part II |
Read our Rebuttal to the new KBCS Marketing spiel. |
Q: "Why can't KBCS stay the same? Why change anything?" • "We believe that as a non-commercial
community radio station, the primary
way we serve
our community is by providing
programming that people
listen to, and
that ultimately, they support financially.
In that
spirit of improving
community service, we’ve spent
years trying to best understand our audience
and how
they use KBCS as well as other
stations." • "The harsh reality facing KBCS is
similar to that facing other
community radio stations
in major
metropolitan cities. Today,
there are more
listening choices
than ever before. Right now,
on average, KBCS
listeners spend over 80% of their
time listening to other
stations. Additionally,
the
number of hours
our entire
audience actually spends listening
to KBCS when they do have us tuned in has declined
markedly:
about
30%
over the last
three years.
These
two crucial
measurements
give us a fact-based way of assessing
our service to the community,
as well as emphasizing
how
we could and should
serve our listening
community better by continually
assessing and at times modifying
the programming we
offer." • "Of course, we understand the way you listen to KBCS may be entirely different than what we just described. We also understand the deep sadness and frustration of losing a show that you’ve grown close to over the years. Again, we ask that you simply listen to the new programming we’ll offer, and then make up your mind." Q: "Where is the money coming from to pay the D.J.s?" • "As part of the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting’s
(CPB’s) Community
Service Grant, we're
spending money on programming
designed to
increase our service
to the community. That
includes annual programming fees to
Pacifica
for
Democracy Now!, Public
Radio International for
National Native
News, The Takeaway,
The
Sound of Young America,
and other annual affiliate fees. We're also using this grant for the
majority of compensation
to weekday music
hosts, with
a small amount
from listener support and
business underwriting
revenue. Staff producers
for Voices of Diversity
and One World
Report are
also compensated from
the CPB Community
Service Grant and a grant
from the Eastside Arts
Partnership." Q: "Why are you making these changes so quickly?" • "Although these changes
may seem sudden and
out of the
blue, we’ve
actually
been working
on this
process
for
a number
of years.
In hindsight, there
have been
parts of this process
that the KBCS staff
could have
done and
communicated
better.
But, we
firmly believe
that our
current and relatively
low level of service
to our audience coupled
with
the current state of
our membership and
economy warranted
(admittedly tough)
decisions to
be made. We’re
committed
to putting KBCS on
what we believe to
be a path
of
deeper community service
and resulting long
term financial sustainability." Q: "Why would you let go of having different programmers every day? Doesn’t that actually decrease the diversity on KBCS?" • "That depends. Do
you believe that
one person
is incapable
of offering
the same musical
diversity of
five different people?
KBCS is committed
to ensuring
the
new hosts will
continue to air music across
the
wide spectrum
of jazz,
folk, Americana,
and global
music." - Yes, I DO believe that one person is incapable of offering the diversity of five different people. That's what "diversity" means. While I enjoy the Caravan, I greatly treasure Al Barnes' familiarity with his specialty era and the diversity of his own collection, which includes things I cannot hear anywhere else and can't purchase either. And Joanie--she was there when the tracks she plays were laid down. And the Bud & Don and Bebop shows offer me education in music I know less about. By the way, I teach elementary-school general music, and it's my job to expose the children to as much diversity in music as I can--so I know how hard it is. - Yes, I do believe this. For example, most of the morning jazz folks are experts in their areas of jazz. If they covered each other's area, the depth of knowledge isn't there. • "In addition, we believe that by putting on more consistently hosted programming during key parts of the weekdays, we will in fact increase diversity of the KBCS community by attracting more current and new listeners to KBCS. Based on the experience of community radio stations in similar cities, we believe our listeners will ultimately spend more time listening to the station each day." Q: "Is this just the first step in the eventual homogenization and decreasing of diversity of KBCS programming?" • "No. Again,
KBCS
is committed
to
volunteers being a
key
part of the
radio
station (as DJs,
reporters,
producers,
and
in many
other
capacities). This
will
not change." • "By
increasing
public
affairs
programming,
we’ve
provided
additional
air
time
for
a
larger number
of
volunteers
to
participate
in
reporting
on
local
community
issues,
thus,
ultimately,
increasing
diversity
both
inside
KBCS
and
out.". • "One also needs look no further than our newest news and public affairs programming for diversity. From nationally syndicated progressive hip-hop public affairs with Davy D to our nation’s premier African American thinker Michael Eric Dyson, we are most definitely increasing the diverse ideas on the airwaves." Q: "How was this decision made? Isn’t KBCS owned by the community? Why wasn't I asked?" • "Over
the last
three years,
KBCS has
undergone a
rigorous process
to better
understand our
audience and
to formulate
a cohesive
strategic plan.
This has
involved hours
of interviews,
volunteer and
community meetings,
hundreds of
random street
corner surveys,
as well
as extensive
consideration of
when and
how KBCS
listeners currently listen to us. This work has led us
to the new programming we’ll
present next
month, programming we believe will
offer deeper service
to our listeners." - I'm wondering what the word "member" means, if they're not even consulted about decisions like these before they're made. Your "extensive process" seems to have missed me, and I've been a contributor to KBCS for many years (and you obviously know how to find me, since you sent me this email)! • I'm an all-day listener, and a loyal contributor, as I have been for the past five years. Unfortunately, I was not asked what changes would better serve me as a listener. I listen to your station for the music, period. I listen for the variety from day to day and from show to show. In taking several volunteer dj's off the air, you are reducing my access to variety. In taking Daily Planet off the air, you are taking away a major part of my exposure to music created in other parts of the world. In substituting news and talk for Daily Planet, you are forcing me to spend the last two hours of my workday in silence. Since you didn't ask me, you don't know that I purposely don't listen to news, because it just depresses me. Since you didn't ask me, you don't know that the daytime music provides my work atmosphere and helps my productivity by keeping me mentally motivated. - I am greatly saddened by the upcoming changes, and see them as a step toward further homogenization of the airwaves. IF anyone had asked me for my opinion, I would have pointed out that KBCS offers one of the only sources of non-commercial entertainment and enlightenment that is easily available to someone in this area. I can't stand NPR, because of the repetitie nature of the news broadcasting and the watered-down political correctness of the music offerings. I won't listen to commercial radio because of, well, the commerciality. Now that KBCS is joining the homogenized world of "commercially viable" radio, there's nothing left for me to listen to. - Go ahead and send your rah-rah messages of how this will "better serve" your listeners. As for me, apparently my opinion doesn't count; at least, it was never considered because no one actually asked me. • "Along
with providing
programmers detailed
information about
the KBCS
audience, we
continue to
offer training
and evaluations
for on-air
hosts in
an effort
to continually
improve the
quality of
our programming
as well
as help
each volunteer
understand the
priority of
serving the
audience. • "We
understand
that
your individual
KBCS listening
habits
may
in fact
deviate from
what we’ve
described
for
the average
listener
to
this station.
We hope
you’ll
recognize
the impossibility
of a
station like
ours being
able to
ask every
single
one
of our
listeners
for
specific
opinions
on what
we should
air. Given
our resources,
we’ve come
as close
to that as we could by using
our broadcast
signal, website, public
surveys,
as well as community meetings
and years
of audience data. |
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