Public radio tunes out tough economic times

At WDAV in North Carolina, a public radio station that plays classical music, an on-air fundraising drive earlier this fall began sooner than most other public stations. As it turned out, that was an unfortunate bit of scheduling.

“That week was precisely the time Wachovia melted down and Bank of America saw its stock lose one-third of its value,” explained Ben Roe, the station’s general manager. “That also happened to be the week when gas prices hit an all-time high in our area. We put the drive on hold when the Dow slid 500 points.”

Peter Fretwell, the general manager of WWFM, another public radio station based in Trenton, N.J., that also plays classical music, had a similar experience. “Our timing was impeccable,” he said with a laugh. “We started our fund drive one day before the biggest one-day drop in the stock market. We were shooting for $230,000 before the end of the calendar year. So far I’ve got $105,000.”

With dire economic news seemingly at every turn, public radio appears especially vulnerable. The listeners out there tend to be a loyal bunch, offering their hard-earned dough to keep alive stations that provide lifelines for them to the arts and news.

But while the estimated 2.5 million donors to public stations nationwide culled from between 28 million and 30 million overall listeners may be cutting back, the news isn’t across-the-board depressing. And the situation is a tad more complex than Joe Champagne giving $15 rather than his usual $50.

“When the economy goes up and down, when the mood of the nation goes up and down, our listener support stays fairly predictable,” said Dana Davis Rehm, senior vice president for strategy and partnership at Washington, D.C.-based National Public Radio.

“About 50 percent of our money comes from listeners. The second biggest piece of the pie is corporate underwriting. That stream of revenue ... is most deeply vulnerable to shifts in economy.”

In and around Charlotte, which is WDAV’s territory and is home base to Bank of America and Wachovia, public radio is fairly stable, even though jobs have been affected in that area and retirees — many of whom are devoted listeners — have seen their 401(k)s dry up.

WDAV has an endowment to fall back on as well as listener and corporate sponsors. And there is a small grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a nonprofit entity created by Congress in 1967 to support public broadcasting. That funding model is roughly similar throughout public radio’s family of stations.

Defying the circumstances
In some cases, a station has defied the economic circumstances around it. “We have a strong station in Sacramento,” Rehm said, referring to Capital Public Radio. “That area of California is the hardest hit in terms of the economy and the number of foreclosures. They reported that the mood is subdued among listeners. Yet they had the greatest number of donations in their history, even though the average dollar gift is down about 10 percent. But more people are calling in.”

Scott Hanley is director and general manager of WDUQ in Pittsburgh, which has a dual format of news and jazz. He said the station is healthy despite the times, but a recent pledge drive that typically would go for 12 days instead was pared to eight. And yet, WDUQ still raked in $250,000, which was $10,000 more than its goal.

“Our underwriting is going well. And the Pittsburgh economy is in good shape compared to other places,” he said. “That being said, we’re not fat and happy, either. It’s a precarious time for any public radio station.

“We reduced our drive because we wanted to stop annoying our listeners. When the drive was almost two weeks long, that meant my staff was not doing its job. I’d rather have them do news reporting and talking to businesses about business support.”

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