Three Things for October 28, 2021

This week: The emotional connection of intimacy. Plus, one classical music station's strategy to bring more diversity to its service, and the resilience of the Triple A and jazz audiences.

First, welcome and thank you to the dozens of new subscribers who have signed up for this newsletter over the past few weeks. Special thanks to Fred Jacobs at Jacobs Media for the shoutout on Monday in their post about The New York Times development of a new app for audio journalism and storytelling.

THING ONE: Using the Superpower of Intimacy

I’ve always believed that one of the superpowers of radio is the intimacy of the medium.

In fact, two very diametrically opposed individuals, Rachel Maddow and the late Rush Limbaugh, actually agree on the idea that the power of the human voice brings a personal relationship that you don’t find with other media. It’s doubtful that I’ll ever quote Limbaugh again in this newsletter, but his comments about the power of radio go straight to the point.

“I’m talking about relatability, bond of connection: People understanding, getting to know each other, and having no doubt about what they’re hearing. It’s just the best if it’s done right, and it’s because you’re not watching anything at the same time that’s distracting you.”

A similar superpower has been extended to podcasting, where that intimacy may even be more intense given the listening experience is often done with earbuds creating an even greater personal connection for the listener.

If you’ve been reading bits of this newsletter over the past six months, you’re probably familiar with my encouragement for public media to embrace the idea of newsletters as a platform to build relationships and create an important funnel for growing membership¹. So a recent headline in a Digital Content Next blog post, The Newsletter Boom: Capitalizing on the Intimacy of the Inbox, captured my interest.

The post details how news organizations are embracing newsletters, particularly as the format has expanded during the pandemic. What seems to be more prevalent with this growing trend is the importance of creating a personal connection between the newsletter and the reader.

Last April when David Leonhardt was appointed to lead The New York Times’ flagship morning newsletter, he was given the title of “writer, host, and anchor.” For a newsletter that reaches the inbox of over 17 million subscribers, Leonhardt has the equivalent audience of some primetime news programs.

Are you beginning to see the intimate relationship we’ve had with our radio service with how a newsletter can serve an audience in the same manner? In a recent interview, Sarah Ebner, the Head of Newsletters at the Financial Times, told The Fix podcast Media Insider that “One of the amazing things about newsletters is that you build up that direct relationship with the writer and you trust them.”

Axios has been aggressive and enormously successful in building out its newsletter products, including expansion plans² into 25 local markets by next year. Ryan Kellett, the VP of Audience at Axios, outlined three basic tenets in the DCN post for news organizations to build loyalty from their newsletter products:

1. Create high-quality content on a frequent and regular basis

2. Consistency yields dependability yields loyalty

3. Create community-building capabilities

These principles should align well with our audio strategies, whether it’s via broadcast or podcast. For example, the Axios newsletter products bring a voice and tone that reflect its brand perfectly. Unfortunately, I think this is where public radio has struggled in our efforts to move from the intimacy of our audio “voice” to text-based content.

We might also learn more from other media and entertainment brands in how they relate to their audience/consumers. MBLM³ is a branding agency specializing in helping companies build greater intimacy between people and brands that drive performance and returns.

The firm has just released their 2021 Brand Intimacy COVID study⁴, where they use emotional science to study the emotional connections to brands. Ten different industry sectors are studied, including media and entertainment, which, according to MBLM managing partner Mario Natelli, is the most intimate industry in the study.

"These brands provide escape, comfort and instant gratification, all growing needs in our society today. With competition increasing, brands should find ways to deepen their bonds with users. This should not only be through introducing strong products, but by building stronger customer relationships, finding ways to connect."

The brands range from Disney, at the top of the list), with YouTube, Netflix, ESPN, and Hulu also in the top ten. For our sake, let’s not look too deep at the specific brands. Instead, what I find interesting in this study are the patterns that are consistently present, in part or whole, among intimate brands that identify the character and nature of ultimate brand relationships. These are:

• Fulfillment: Is the brand exceeding expectations, delivering superior service, quality, and efficacy?

• Identity: Does the brand reflect an aspirational image or admired values and beliefs that resonate deeply?

• Enhancement: Is the individual becoming better through the use of the brand—smarter, more capable, and more connected?

• Ritual: Is the brand ingrained into daily actions—more than habitual behavior? Does the brand become a vitally important part of daily existence?

• Nostalgia: Does the brand focus on memories of the past⁵ and the warm, poignant feelings associated with them?

• Indulgence: Does the brand create a close relationship centered around moments of pampering and gratification that can be either occasional or frequent?

These patterns then lead to three different stages that MBLM sees as vital since they identify the depth and degree of intensity in the relationship between a consumer and a brand. Those stages are:

SHARING: when the person and the brand engage and interact. There is knowledge being shared, and the person is informed about what the brand is all about, and vice versa. At this stage, attraction occurs through reciprocity and assurance. Should the relationship advance, it would evolve to bonding. Should it decline, it would likely cause disengagement fueled by indifference.

BONDING: when an attachment is created, the relationship between a person and a brand becomes more significant and committed. This is a stage of acceptance and the establishment of trust.

FUSING: when a person and a brand are inexorably linked and co-identified. In this stage, the identities of the person and the brand begin to merge and become a form of mutual realization and expression. Fusing, according to MBLM, is the most advanced stage of Brand intimacy.

Using these criteria, I would define public radio’s relationship with its core audience in the “fusing” category. This can be reflected by the strong Net Promoter Score for public radio in the Jacobs Media TechSurvey 2021.

Ask yourself where your organization fits into these criteria? Chances are, the stronger bonds that your audience has for your service (“fusing”), the more time they will be spending with you, and the more likely they are to financially support the work you do. It’s an excellent exercise to explore.

THING TWO: Seattle’s Classical KING FM’s Commitment To Diversity

KING FM recognizes that the music we refer to as “classical” comes from a predominantly white Western music tradition and was written for the church or commissioned by wealthy, white patrons. Despite the brilliant work of composers and performers of color, classical music remains predominantly white, as a result of its history and structural racism. There is still much work toward change for all of us in the field to undertake.

That is the opening paragraph to a statement from Seattle’s Classical KING FM’s CEO Brenda Barnes posted last year to the station website that went on to provide an overview of the station’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

There has been a significant amount of media coverage over the need for change in the world of classical music, ranging from building a culture of racial equity and inclusion in classical music organizations to how classical music is presented on public radio stations.

For KING FM, the Commitment to Diversity statement on the website was the first step in an effort built into the organization’s strategic plan completed late last year and designed to guide the station through 2025.

KING FM is not alone in this effort. Earlier this year, Current reported on the work at All Classical Portland with its Recording Inclusivity Initiative. This effort is designed to address the gap of classical music composers and musicians from underrepresented communities that make it into the concert hall and onto the airwaves.

From the Recording Inclusivity Website

Many other classical music public radio stations are also embracing this need for change to bring more diverse composers, performers, and hosts on-air and seek to increase the diversity of audiences that tune in for classical music on-air and online. Like many stations, as a start KING FM has increased the number of performances featuring women and composers of color and performers of color to at least one per hour.

What I like about the approach of KING FM is that this is not a special initiative or project. Rather, it is built into its strategic framework with a clear commitment to real and lasting change.

One of the first steps the station took in implementing its strategy earlier this year was to hire Quinton Morris as an artist scholar in residence to create programs featuring composers of color. The programs air multiple times on KING FM and are offered free of charge to other classical stations across the country. In addition to the radio broadcasts, the station has also produced several videos showcasing performers on a YouTube channel.

Another innovative effort is the development of an Announcer Fellowship Program to ensure the station has a diverse pool of applicants for open positions in announcing and production. In a conversation with KING FM CEO Brenda Barnes last week, she shared that the fellowship program will help build a pipeline of diverse talent that classical music radio desperately needs.

The station is also committing to do formal research of BIPOC audiences in Seattle to better understand how, why, and when they listen to classical music. By gaining a better understanding of audiences of color, the station is striving to bring the benefits of classical music to a broader and deeper audience.

This is a smart and courageous strategy from the station that involves some element of risk. If you spend any time at a station that plays classical music, it doesn’t take long to know how fickle the audience can be when it comes to the music selections. In the diversity statement from last year, Brenda wrote the following:

Radio, as a medium, works best when stations have focused formats. Listeners, even those with eclectic tastes, want consistency, so they know where to turn for the specific music or news they are seeking. Part of our specific focus is to make the Western classical music tradition we program meaningful to anyone who listens. There are documented physiological and psychological benefits to listening to classical music, and we want to make those benefits accessible to everyone. Our goal is to make our station a warm, welcoming place for people of all backgrounds and cultures to explore music with us.”

KING FM is creating a great model for other classical music stations to follow, and it will be gratifying to watch this unfold.

THING THREE: The Summer Recovery and the Resilience of Triple-A and Jazz

In last week’s Three Things we shared some top-line results for several public radio news and classical music stations while also showing the recent increase in out-of-home listening to radio.

We have another chart below from the RRC tracking the total market weekly cume⁶ in PPM markets going back to the last pre-COVID sweep quarter (Winter 2020). The summer quarter has traditionally (pre-COVID) been a period with some reduced listening because of vacation travel. We saw some of this despite the continued increase in commuting that took place over the summer. As a result, cume was basically flat from Spring to Summer 2021.

Weekly cume is still down about 5% from the Winter 2020 quarter before the shutdown but is up about 2% over Summer 2020.

The data shows a slow return of audiences tuning into radio although the next six months (Fall 2021 and Winter 2022) will be an important measure of whether audiences fully come back to AM/FM. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, some tracking of a group of Triple-A stations and the Urban Alternative service The Drop show the continued strong performance of these stations over the past 18 months. The RRC noted back in June that several Triple-A stations have been doing better throughout the pandemic than they were before COVID-19.

I want to highlight Rocky Mountain Public Media’s Urban Alternative service, The Drop, steadily growing market share in Denver. While still small, this innovative format has more than doubled listening going from a 0.3% share in April to a 0.7% share in September with a weekly cume of 75,900 listeners. The station began broadcasting on 104.7 FM in Denver in February, adding to its webstream and HD Radio stream, which has helped grow the audience for the station. In addition, CPB’s recent announcement that it is investing $1.3 million in grants to expand the Urban Alternative in Milwaukee, Jackson, MS, and the Twin Cities shows the positive momentum for this format.

Finally, while there aren’t many public radio stations still offering jazz full-time, those that do are also maintaining audiences throughout 2021, with a few of these stations at or near a 2% share in September.

The general steady market share for these Triple-A, UA, and jazz stations over the past 18 months is a testament to the local connection that these services provide to their communities. Through various research studies, we’ve learned that over the pandemic, people have turned to radio for a connection and emotional attachment that Spotify and other streamers can’t provide to people. These are good lessons for us as we move to the next normal.

Thanks for reading.

1. PMJA sponsored a good webinar this week on newsletters. It’s worth a look.

2. Axios has also launched a paid membership program that will be something to watch going forward.

3. Pronounced Emblem.

4. During summer 2021, MBLM, with Praxis Research Partners, conducted an online quantitative survey among 3,000 consumers in the United States. Respondents completed a 20-minute survey that delved into the emotional connections that consumers have with brands across 10 industries: apps & social platforms, automotive, beverages, consumer goods, fast food, financial services, health & hygiene, media & entertainment, retail, and technology & telecommunications).

5. These are often brands a customer has grown up with.

6. Please note that this is for ALL of AM/FM radio, not just public radio.