July 8-14, 2004

loose canon

WHYY-FM's Performance

by Bruce Schimmel

Why does the audience for National Public Radio continue to grow, while listener support for its local outlet, WHYY-FM, remains stagnant?

That's the question behind Amy Webb's cover story this week. "The Cost to Know WHYY" suggests how questionable underwriting from corporate, foundation and government funders is undercutting the radio station's credibility.

But while these practices may offer one explanation for the station's disenchanted audience, there's another reason for its overall poor performance. WHYY radio — once a national leader — is ailing because it is being starved by its affiliate television station.

Today, Philadelphia's public radio news station pulls in fewers dollars per listener than three-quarters of all other NPR news affiliates in the nation.

Philadelphia public news radio ranks the lowest of all major cities — trailing Chicago, Boston, NYC, Detroit and San Francisco. It even garners less support per listener than stations in most smaller markets — Scranton; Buffalo, N.Y.; Ypsilanti, Mich.; and Peoria, Ill.

In fact, you'd have to go to Omaha, Neb.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Binghamton, N.Y.; and Elkhart, Mich. — not exactly NPR-friendly territory — to find a public-radio station that is supported less by its own listeners.

Now, it may come as a surprise to many that WHYY-FM is so poorly supported. After all, this is the place that created an undisputed jewel of public radio, Fresh Air.

Fresh Air was created over 20 years ago, and the good news is that much of that talent is still at WHYY. However, the management and the money needed to incubate similar fresh radio is gone.

When Fresh Air was created, the radio station had its own station manager. It also had a full-time news director. Now WHYY-FM has neither.

WHYY executives may extol the virtues of media convergence. But it's worked out that the radio station has been cannibalized by the TV station. In combining radio and TV, radio has undeniably suffered — especially in the kind of local programming that brings in listener dollars.

In the 1980s, WHYY-FM offered three hours of regional news daily: two hours of Fresh Air (then a local cultural magazine) as well as a daily hour of local news.

Currently, WHYY-FM's only significant daily local program, Radio Times, is an interview/call-in. And despite its name, Radio Times is now rebroadcast on WHYY television — which hurts its radio audience and frankly makes for mediocre TV.

Why is WHYY-FM failing? With less local programming comes little community support. Even avid public radio listeners are disinclined to pay more when they are getting so much less.