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New York Public Radio layoffs

I would imagine the biggest NPR members are being hit the worst. It seems it is national ad dollars which are very weak this year, and those are the dollars all the syndicated programs and podcasts rely on. WNYC produces several national programs, perhaps most notably RadioLab.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
I would imagine the biggest NPR members are being hit the worst. It seems it is national ad dollars which are very weak this year, and those are the dollars all the syndicated programs and podcasts rely on. WNYC produces several national programs, perhaps most notably RadioLab.
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Also notable and well-respected products of WNYC Studios: The New Yorker Radio Hour, On The Media, and Freakonomics. Heard around the country on many NPR affiliates.
 
Part of the problem stems from when DJT made a number of changes to the tax code. There was a change to the alternative minimum tax, which meant that most people had to give a LOT more to charity and non-profits like their local NPR stations than before in order to see any kind of tax benefit or writeoff. Congress then passed legislation that applied for a few years and allowed most everyone to claim up to $300 in monetary donations to non-profits, but even that went away in recent years. While many may still do give from their hearts, I've also heard a number of non-profits and charitable organizations including NPR stations say that the amount of donations they took in decreased once people could no longer take a writeoff or get any real benefit on their taxes.

My local NPR station kind of got caught in a downward spiral where donations and giving decreased, which resulted in their making some unpopular programming changes and eliminating some staff, which then resulted in more listeners being unhappy and decreasing their giving, which then resulted in more changes and less local programming, which caused more listeners to walk away, which caused......
 
It seems that the large staffs of WNYC and other major public radio stations are not sustainable, as public interest in radio wanes, and listening to podcasts is on the rise.
 
Barry said:
It seems that the large staffs of WNYC and other major public radio stations are not sustainable, as public interest in radio wanes, and listening to podcasts is on the rise.
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Except the layoffs specified in the OP are in the podcast division.

the WNYC Studios podcast and syndication arm, will layoff 12 percent of its staff.
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So the problem has nothing to do with interest in radio, or even podcast usage. It has to do with the pre-roll advertising that is used in the podcasts. This exact same problem affected NPR earlier this year, causing to layoff 10% of their staff. This exact same problem affected the big radio companies, that invested heavily in podcasts and digital, and were hit hard by the advertising depression.

www.insideradio.com

New York Public Radio To Cut Workforce By 12%.

New York Public Radio, which operates news/talk WNYC-AM/FM, classical WQXR, WNYC Studios, New Jersey Public Radio, and Gothamist.com, will cut its workforce by 12%. CEO LaFontaine Oliver cites a “free
www.insideradio.com www.insideradio.com
 
Barry said:
...as public interest in radio wanes, and listening to podcasts is on the rise.
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I've seen the opposite, especially from stations producing good, local content... even among republicans/trumpers who don't typically listen. I've netted a member or two simply because of my effort at local content, who told me they wouldnt donate/become a member otherwise
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
I've seen the opposite, especially from stations producing good, local content... even among republicans/trumpers who don't typically listen. I've netted a member or two simply because of my effort at local content, who told me they wouldnt donate/become a member otherwise
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And just like the resurgence i saw 5-6-7 years ago for more traditional/classic country sounding stuff, im seeing it for public radio lately when people realize how fair, indepth, thorough and balance their NPR member station news is with so much going on in the world right now
 
I'm sorry to hear about the cuts at NYPR -- it's always sad to see folks lose their jobs.

I realize this probably isn't a large part of their budget, but given their budget struggles, I am curious why NYPR continues to operate WNYC-AM.

WNYC-AM simulcasts WNYC-FM for all but 3 hours at night on weekdays (9p-midnight). There's less simulcasting on weekends, but even then, they air the same programming for over 16 hours on Saturdays and 12 hours on Sundays. Does the AM provide coverage of parts of the NYC metro that the FM does not? (It wouldn't appear so from the coverage maps.) Is there some argument (other than sunk cost) that I'm missing for keeping the AM?

Sorry if this is a dumb n00b question, just honestly curious.
 
jlalande said:
I'm sorry to hear about the cuts at NYPR -- it's always sad to see folks lose their jobs.

I realize this probably isn't a large part of their budget, but given their budget struggles, I am curious why NYPR continues to operate WNYC-AM.

WNYC-AM simulcasts WNYC-FM for all but 3 hours at night on weekdays (9p-midnight). There's less simulcasting on weekends, but even then, they air the same programming for over 16 hours on Saturdays and 12 hours on Sundays. Does the AM provide coverage of parts of the NYC metro that the FM does not? (It wouldn't appear so from the coverage maps.) Is there some argument (other than sunk cost) that I'm missing for keeping the AM?

Sorry if this is a dumb n00b question, just honestly curious.
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Not too many years ago, the answer would have been that there are places that have reception problems with the FM signal, so the AM was a backstop. Counter-intuitively, the area close by the Empire State Building was one of them (Chelsea, lower Midtown, Turtle Bay, etc.), not because they couldn't get a signal, but because all that RF power coming off the ESB wreaked havoc with the front ends of cheaper, consumer-grade radios. (My wife used to live just a few blocks from ESB, and she could pick up her landline phone and listen to WPLJ.) In those days, WNYC's transmitter and towers were right across the East River in Queens, so even with a relatively weak signal, it covered that area adequately. And there were millions within its signal contour, so even a small percentage of listeners was still a lot of audience by the standards of most smaller markets. But today, given all the noise and interference in the atmosphere, and the fact that WNYC-AM now shares a transmitter site and towers with WMCA in the Meadowlands of New Jersey, there probably isn't any real need for it to exist. (But I could say that for all but a half-dozen of the most powerful stations still on the air in the NYC market, though the owners and listeners to the others might disagree about which half dozen.)
 
RadioGuy1864 said:
Alternatively, who would buy it? And for how much? EMF and the other religious broadcasters want no part of AM, so who's left?
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Maybe WCCO, out of spite for their decades-long feud with WNYC when they were both on 830 kHz.

(WNYC wanted to go 50 kW full-time; WCCO complained about interference, and in retribution petitioned the FCC to upgrade their power to 500 kW. Ultimately it was settled by WNYC moving to a 10 kW signal on 820 kHz.)
 
Sure, there are a few areas where WNYC 820 AM can be picked up where WNYC-FM 93.9 can't. Even though it simulcasts most of WNYC-FM's important shows, the AM does act as a home for some alternate content. And as said above, in the ratings, it's one notch above WEPN-FM 98.7, and one notch below WOR 710, iHeart's AM talk powerhouse in NYC. So New Yorkers are listening, either due to signal problems from the FM or to hear the alternate programs.

It's interesting how the two stations run. One newscaster does the breaks on both stations. Even when they're not simulcasting the rest of the hour, by :59, they are both in sync. So the legal I.D. always says both stations, even if they will be separated again once the hourly news and station promos are wrapped up.
 
Gregg. said:
Sure, there are a few areas where WNYC 820 AM can be picked up where WNYC-FM 93.9 can't. Even though it simulcasts most of WNYC-FM's important shows, the AM does act as a home for some alternate content. And as said above, in the ratings, it's one notch above WEPN-FM 98.7, and one notch below WOR 710, iHeart's AM talk powerhouse in NYC. So New Yorkers are listening, either due to signal problems from the FM or to hear the alternate programs.

It's interesting how the two stations run. One newscaster does the breaks on both stations. Even when they're not simulcasting the rest of the hour, by :59, they are both in sync. So the legal I.D. always says both stations, even if they will be separated again once the hourly news and station promos are wrapped up.
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The way most clocks for NPR programming are built is 59 after is 1 minute stations can take, then the id at 00, preview for that hours program then news at 01
 
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