Page 299 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

| Nat onal Publ c Rad o

radio on the local and national levels has adopted audience research methodolo-
gies developed by commercial broadcasters. Consultants and focus groups are
used for decisions on programming, audiences are “managed” and packaged for
advertisers, and more and more stations have replaced volunteers with employ-
ees. Third, public radio increasingly defines audiences through ratings, which are
also used by the commercial broadcast industry. Public broadcasters can’t quan-
tify “service” as commercial broadcasters can quantify profits, yet ratings pro-
vide them with a numerical basis for decision making. In theory, ratings indicate
popular preferences; in practice, they provide proof of demographics to potential
sponsors. As a result, public radio increasingly resembles its commercial coun-
terparts. As NPR and its affiliate stations increase efficiency in an uncertain envi-
ronment, these measures undermine the very reason for their existence.

PuBliC radio international
Although many people view NPR as the primary organization for public radio in the United
States, Public Radio International (PRI) actually distributes more programming to stations.
PRI was founded in 1982 as American Public Radio (APR), a consortium of stations located in
large markets—Minnesota Public Radio, New York’s WNYC, Cincinnati’s WGUC, San Fran-
cisco’s KQED, and KUSC in Los Angeles. These stations, which produced much of their own
programming, chafed under NPR’s control of programming distribution. APR’s first program
was Minnesota Public Radio’s A Prairie Home Companion, which initially was rejected by
NPR. The program subsequently became one of public radio’s major successes.
Rather than providing a complete schedule of programming, as did NPR, APR offered
individual programs to public radio stations on an exclusive market-by-market basis. As NPR
focused on news following its near-demise in the early 1980s, APR became the largest sup-
plier of cultural programs in public radio. In response to a threatened antitrust suit from APR,
NPR began “unbundling” its programs, offering them as groups, in 1987. However, APR
offered producers more money, and many popular NPR programs, such as Mountain Stage
and Whad’ya Know, jumped to APR distribution. Costs for the most popular programs rose
dramatically for stations at a time when many of these stations were hard hit by declines in
federal and state funding.
In 1994, reflecting its broader goals and growing collaboration with the BBC, APR changed
its name to Public Radio International and began producing as well as distributing program-
ming. PRI continued to draw listeners through programs such as Marketplace, which at-
tracted corporate funders and reflected public radio’s increasingly close ties to business. PRI
has distributed many of public radio’s most notable programs, yet these programs come at a
high cost. By offering individual programs to stations, PRI introduced marketplace economics
into the public radio system. While this move may have led to greater competition and, ar-
guably, more diversity, critics have noted that PRI has devoted most of its efforts to reaching
upscale audiences through classical music and business-oriented news and public affairs
programming, relegating the less popular “conscience” items to NPR and other sources.