mediacrit.com

By this summer, public radio listeners in Iowa will be listening to a new statewide Iowa Public Radio network.

The new network involves University of Northern Iowa stations KUNI (90.9 FM) and KHKE (89.5 FM) in Eastern Iowa, University of Iowa stations WSUI (910 AM) and KSUI (91.7 FM) in Iowa City, and Iowa State University stations WOI-AM (640) and WOI-FM (90.1) in Ames.

Each station will retain its on-air call letters, but will identify itself as part of “Iowa Public Radio” beginning sometime in summer 2005. The plan also proposes a future network affiliate station based in Sioux City to cover the western part of the state.

The State Board of Regents recently approved the plan for Iowa Public Radio, developed by public radio consultant Bornstein and Associates of Madison, Wisconsin.

Source: Iowa Public Radio Final Report, Bornstein and Associates, Nov. 2004

Bornstein and Associate’s vision for Iowa Public Radio calls for three programming services: The AM Information Network, the FM Information Network, and the Classic Network. Each of the three networks would be led by one or two flagship stations, and broadcast statewide.

The AM Information Network would be led by WOI and WSUI, and would feature state-oriented talk radio, with heavy use of listener call-in participation. The consultant’s report noted that this network would attract an “older and more rural” AM listenership.

The FM Information Network would be headed up by KUNI, and would be the “primary” service of Iowa Public Radio, with the broadest statewide distribution, reaching from KUNI’s service area in Eastern Iowa to Fort Dodge, Carroll and Osceola to the west and south. The FM Information Network would feature National Public Radio’s magazine news programs, such as “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered,” and would also generate statewide news coverage from reporters at all of the Iowa Public Radio stations. Programming contemporary music “perhaps like the KUNI night music programs” in the evening hours is suggested by the report, too.

The plan identifies WOI-FM and KSUI as the lead stations for the Classic Network, which will present locally hosted classical music, jazz, and syndicated specialty programs such as “A Prairie Home Companion.”

UNI’s two stations, KUNI and KHKE, are both in good position to merge their programming into the statewide network. It is likely that classical music station KHKE will serve mainly as the local transmitting station for the Classic Network, with Jacqueline Halbloom as the sole local personality. Automated service is not new at KHKE. State funding cuts of $250,000 in 2002 forced KHKE to move to a mostly automated broadcast.
In 2004, KHKE’s more powerful sister station, KUNI, changed to a news and information format featuring NPR news and talk programs, with veteran anchors Greg Shanley and Pat Blank still handling local news segments. KUNI’s present format is closely aligned with the FM Information Network role proposed in the Regent’s plan.

The rationale for a statewide public radio network is threefold, according to John Hess, station manager and director of broadcasting at KUNI/KHKE.

First, the stations at the three state universities “reached the end of their major growth cycle.” As all of the stations have matured in the past few decades, they can look forward to only “modest and incremental growth” in listeners and fundraising. The proposed statewide network would enable all of the stations to increase their audience and development base, he said.

Second, there is plenty of duplication and overlap with the stations, Hess said. All three station groups cover the same issues emerging from the Statehouse in Des Moines, and use the same wire services to develop their reports. In fact, in the past year WOI and KUNI have begun to share the efforts of their Statehouse bureau reporters to improve efficiency, he noted. The stations also overlap in portions their signal coverage areas, and thus compete for funds from some of the same listeners.

Third, a statewide network would enable the stations to offer a better service to Iowa’s public radio listeners, Hess said. “Here in Iowa we have three very distinct, highly successful public radio entities,” he said. “We want to integrate them, and don’t want them to lose their identities.”