Will WETS Hurt It's Bottom Line Dropping Music from It's Weekdays?
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 10:40AM I just read an interesting article in the Johnson City Press about the 36 year old WETS Public Radio
station abandoning it's musical programming on weekdays. The weekend lineup will remain pretty much the same with "Car Talk," "Mountian Stage," and the prolific, yet deathly boring "Prairie Home Companion."
Here is the interesting bit of the article, a quote from program director Wayne Winkler:
“Today, people have CD players and MP3 players in their cars and are able to program their own music listening,” Winkler said. “We’re seeing that people are tending to use radio more for news and information, things they can’t program themselves.”
At first, I thought, "oh yea, that makes sense, people can listen to music ANY TIME, so they can concentrate on the original NPR programming."
But...
After tweeting a reply to Dana Watcher of WJHL a thought suddenly hit me, "WAIT...WETS COULD BE PUTTING THEMSELVES OUT OF BUSINESS!"
Wayne said it himself, “Today, people have CD players and MP3 players in their cars and are able to program their own music listening."
True, but not in the way he meant. His assumption is that people can listen to music ANY TIME on their mp3 players, therefore, WETS needs to provide NPR content that is unique and will, presumably, bring in more listeners because it can't be found anywhere else.
The flaw in this reasoning is that this is not true.
Are you ready for the dramatic reveal? Make sure you have iTunes installed and click this link!
The link above will take to you a podcast archive of nearly every Public Radio International show that is produced. The shows usually hit the internet within 1 - 12 hours of airing depending on the show.
This means that not only can listeners load up their mp3 players with classical music they can listen to any time they want, they can also load it up with the same NPR programs that WETS is airing in place of the classical music!
Don't have iTunes? Read on.
I love "All Things Considered," but I have to admit that I'm not interested in EVERY story they report. The solution? I can go online and listen to only the stories I am interested in at the All Things Considered website!
Listen to BBC World Service all day, not just for the couple hours WETS programs it.
Listen to Diane Rehm an hour after the live show.
You get the idea.
It was the locally produced shows like "Roots and Branches" and "Blue Monday" that gave WETS it's uniqueness. It gave us a reason to listen to their station. There was only one place to find these shows, and now they are gone. To their credit, they are keeping Studio One, an amazing local music show that airs Saturdays at 1pm, so there is still hope for some original programming.
Without original content, the only reason to listen to WETS is if there is live coverage of breaking news or something up to the minute and topical like school closings or ETSU specific information. There's no reason to listen to WETS when we can download and listen to their content along with the music they have abandoned and do it on our own schedule.
Suddenly, our ipods have become better programmed than our local NPR station!
Once people realize this, why would they donate their support money to the local WETS NPR station? They could donate to the national NPR organization that produces the content and more directly support the shows! Suddenly, WETS is left with a slim slice of the fundraising pie and that will have to hurt business in the long run.
WETS hopes you won't realize that their station's programming will fit on your ipod free of charge as they make this change. Their business depends on it.
Reader Comments (5)
Things must evolve I guess, but I feel like this is a sad day for Johnson City. I have listened to and loved WETS for many years now, and still will to some extent, but they will not be getting any more pledges from me as I like to keep it local. I can find better ways to spend my couple hundred bucks per year to help in our area than to give it to WETS, who has now essentially become a middle man for something I can get for free anyway, and for something that is not produced or focused on our area. If there is a petition to sign please send it this way, I would gladly hold signing events at both my South Side of town Businesses. I feel like I just got broke up with....
petition against the changes here:
http://www.petitiononline.com/WETS/petition.html
Thanks, Jamie! I'm totally on board with that. I've signed the petition!
Don't be surprised when the local TV stations disappear soon in favor for regional programming out of other states. The networks are going to wiggle out of affiliate responsibilities in favor of cable subscription money.
I agree - the original programming was the only reason I tuned in.
Sad day.
All your points are valid Mr. Brown. However I see the greater issue one of mostly abandoning the station's mission and larger purpose. The few weekend programs of local origin become token compared to the huge weekday losses. The one thing we cannot download via podcast, nor stream via internet, nor listen to on satellite radio is the voices of our neighbors, the local musician's efforts, the news of regional activities important to us and so much more. The one thing that cannot be duplicated by another source is localization. And if you do program your own music you lose the element of discovery. Someone else carefully studying all the incoming music and helping you to discover the previously unknown. If this were another privately owned business I might be merely disappointed. But this is an entity that is a public trust. ETSU should feel honored to have that placed in their hands. They should be protecting and help to grow what should be a unique and special service with an outreach to portions of a five state area. As I've noted in other places WDVX, WMMT and WNCW prove that prominently local programming can be financially viable. But the station must interact with the public to 'build its brand". It must put out the effort to EARN those pledges of financial support. It must leave the comfort of the studio and go out into the communities. It must engage the audience constantly. Not just twice a year at fundraising time.