NPR steps up: will KUOW take the challenge?

It's oft joked in commercial talk radio, that 34% of topics are stolen from NPR.

Local news outlets- KIROFM famously- rely heavily on public radio news for ideas and stories.

("let them hear cake." photo: thanks KUOW).

NPR is making that even easier. They announced today a revamping of their web site and digital news delivery that will make their news product not only easier to access in all platforms, but will have more emphasis on text, supplying almost instant transcripts of broadcast pieces.

Let the stealing begin!

The New York Times reports that the digital expansion will include new mobile applications, and will be available in late summer. New tagline: “Always On.”

An iPhone application for NPR, the Public Radio Player, has just been released.

(Commercial radio has been fretting about Zune and iPhone's apparent refusals to put FM tuners into their hand-held hardware. They're also mired in doubts about how much their corporate masters will re-invest in radio or whether they're even willing to re-invest anything at all).

NYT:

Breaking news is already being posted faster, after a merger of NPR’s radio and digital news desks, and a regimen of Knight Foundation-financed digital training for NPR’s journalists. Searching for, sharing and commenting on NPR articles will be simpler, and free transcripts will be offered for the first time.

With the expanded text, less audio emphasis, more news, an easier-to-navigate format, NPR.org is hoping to compete for eyeballs with the big news sites like Yahoo News, New York Times, Drudge, and Huffington Post. NPR will, they hope, take more space in the  newshole, and be more available on more platforms.

Local stations could be left out of the equation. “It increases the pressure for stations to offer compelling and distinct programming,” said Jake Shapiro of Public Radio Exchange which works with stations to expand programming options, and developed the iPhone application. “There is definitely some anxiety about how easy these devices make the ability to shop around.”

Are you listening KUOW? Public radio seems to be above the fray in all this re-investment fretting, but  they shouldn't be.

 Seattle's most popular public radio has been caught for years in the amber of timidity posing as prudence. The difference in vision between the national network and the local station is stunning.

We listen to a lot of public radio, and have long bitched about this. It's not made us popular- it's  certainly damped down on the lavish Seattle media invites we expected to score after starting this prestigious blog.

Our complaints were always countered in the past by KUOW with the slightly arrogant "you can't argue with success," platitudes- and that held pretty well until the new metered ratings were announced.

KUOW plunged to no.12 in the market (from #1 or 2).

KUOW has been dawdling in the dead zone of HD radio and an irrelevant second station (KXOT) in South King County that's virtually a tree falling in the forest. (might simulcasting the mothership be a better idea?)

Local programming at the graying Seattle station has receded in the last few years with no Seattle-based shows other than the all-sizes-fit-one Weekday with Steve Scher, and the newsier but slightly unlovable The Conversation with Ross Reynolds.

(We've got to stick up for Weekday: where else on the radio can you get gardening tips during the week?)

Gone is The Beat, an arts-based afternoon talk show; replaced by syndicated fare and KUOW Presents, a pastiche of feature packages, odd bits, many of which are rerun from newscasts, other programs and scheduled unpredictably.

It's all very establishmentarian, and sitting on their prudently salted away surpluses, and their Boomer demographic, the station seemed to shrink even when they thought it was the hottest ticket on the radie-yo.

(Will station programmers re-light what was once a hot crucible for programming development? Remember Rewind? and The Works? There were many more shows back when KUOW  took some risk and invested in local talent? Bill Radke, John Moe, and Luke Burbank have gone on to bigger and better things... and all we've got is a Rewind t-shirt).

Will this station never grow or change? Now that the PPMs have found them ranked lower than shit-kicker stations, the robotic KJAQ, or KOMO with all the AM commercials, will management spend some of that considerable capital and take some risk?

Meanwhile, the KUOW web site is a stodgy, unapproachable mess. Weekday, and The Conversation have Facebook pages in lieu of active pages or blogs on the station site. because, we hear, of management's foggy, 20th century notion that a website should be a station brochure listing programs and schedules and that interactivity and traffic might attract viruses, irreverence, libel, extra expense, or god forbid... less than passive participation.

It's sad.

Comments

[Jonathan]

My 2nd-gen Zune has an FM receiver. I use it to listen when I'm running errands and not in the car.

(Disclaimer: most often I am using it to listen to TBTL. I typically stream earlier in the day, when I'm in one location for long periods of time.)

[Mark C.]

"compelling and distinct" ain't what I would call the programming on KUOW. There's a big vacuum in local news right now, why doesn't KUOW try, with all their resources and this leg up from NPR, to fill it? The Seattle Times doesn't get it, the Crosscut has no money or staff or readers under 60, the other attempts like the Post Globe are going away already. The radio and TV station sites are filled with pet stories and roadkill. There is still a chance for KUOW to be a relevant news provider on multiple platforms in this town.
Otherwise, It's gardening and Car Talk until we all die off.

[John Moe]

You got a Rewind t-shirt?!

[Walt]

"34% of topics are stolen from NPR."

That's bullshit, Michael, it's about 32%, the rest from Drudge and Huffpo

[joanie]

Morning KUOW is a snore. Some good evening stuff: Living on Earth, Alternative Radio (when they get new stuff), Diane Rehm)

I wish you'd stop with the ugly teeth thing. They are so gross.

Car Talk - just another comedy routine. I tired of it a long time ago. Same-o Same-o. Must be a guy thing. (with a few exceptions...)

[Marconi]

Wow, I never thought about it, but only TWO proprietary programs coming out of KUOW! That's an outrage.

When I was in Wisconsin last month they had full "in house" programing from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m (minus two hours for "Talk of the Nation"). That take flexibility, creativity and hard work to pull of a production schedule like that.

KUOW is limping, and Steve Shere is an Elmer Fudd, as far as I'm concerned.

[jvwalt]

Local pubradio stations have backed themselves into a corner in a couple of important ways that make inoffensiveness their top priority.

First, the NPR news/talk format is expensive, Local stations get big numbers by carrying the big NPR shows, but they have to send a lot of their fundraising dollars to Washington to fuel the mothership. That leaves relatively little money for local programming.

Second, for pubradio fundraising, TSL -- "time spent listening" -- is king. The longer an individual listens, the more likely s/he is to pledge. Local pubcasters don't want to do anything that might cause you to change stations. So they are loath to break up the expensive, high-quality national programming to insert local content that may be of lesser quality. And they are especially loath to try anything outside of the pubradio "sound" or anything more than about four minutes long. They gotta keep feeding the listeners what they expect.

The result is a big, successful, and profoundly risk-averse institution.