Maine Public Radio improves its service

Making changes to Maine Public Radio’s schedule has been a much more thoughtful process than has been suggested by many in this newspaper.

We are continually trying to refine our schedule to increase the value of it to our listeners, while satisfying the needs and wants of our membership. Our goal is to serve our most loyal audience better. That audience – 125,000 listeners from all parts of Maine – has been consistently tuning away from Maine Public Radio at specific times, in search of other programs on other stations. Weekday and Saturday afternoons are two of those times.

In fact, listener loyalty, a statistic we use to measure listener satisfaction, drops by almost 50 percent during weekday and Saturday afternoons.

There is no attempt to “attract a new breed of public radio listeners,” as Bruce Kyle and others have insisted. Maine Public Radio is dedicated to serving as many Maine people as it can, most of the time. We are not so foolish to believe we can be everything to all people, given the fact that we have the challenge of serving a large and diverse population as the only statewide public radio service. Therefore, we are committed to quality programming that our collective listeners and members not only demand, but use. Overwhelmingly, our listeners are asking for more news, information and a variety of music programs, and we are responding. The needs of public radio listeners change, and so should we.

And we must be doing something right with our programming. Our cumulative listenership has grown. Our membership has grown. We continue to rank at the top of the list of public radio stations of similar market size around the country in terms of audience service. As was pointed out in Gordon Bonin’s article (“MPR’s silencing of opera hits sour note with listeners,” BDN, Dec. 1), we cannot risk driving listeners away from our six radio stations across the state for extended periods. Our research shows that the use of Maine Public Radio by our most loyal listeners and supporters plummets during weekday and Saturday afternoons.

Classical radio is still an important part of our schedule. In fact, Dave Bunker is the only “live” classical host in Maine who regularly presents live concerts on his program. Clearly, we continue to be very committed to classical music, despite what Bruce Kyle claims in his recent column (“Public Radio saves northern Maine from rhythm, noodles,” Nov. 23) and the claims in a recent editorial (“Public and the radio,” Nov. 25). Classical music will still represent well over half of our schedule – 69 hours per week, seven days a week, and Dave Bunker will still offer it during those important weekday morning hours.

The Metropolitan Opera has a loyal, but very small audience who is passionate about this icon of radio. Ironically, I am among them. Indeed, my dog Erda, is (aptly) named for a minor character in “Wagner’s Ring Cycle.” However, since the audience – and consequently Maine Public Radio’s service – has been dropping Saturday afternoons, we have been asking for years that the Met allow us to offer the opera at another time. One when fans could still enjoy it and other listener/members would not be driven to other stations.

We are not alone in this effort. Other public radio stations across the nation have made this request in an earnest effort to retain the opera in their schedule. As we have said throughout this schedule change announcement, Maine Public Radio will seriously consider returning the Met Opera to its schedule should the Met allow us to broadcast it at another time.

Unfortunately, the Bangor Daily News has conveniently left out some important information that we have repeated to its reporters in regard to where people can go to get more classical music or opera. Starting this month, the Met Opera will be audio streamed on the Internet. By 2001, classical music and opera will be available via satellite to 200 radio stations in the United States and Canada, and to those listeners with special receivers. There are several options now, or in the very near future, for listeners to receive this type of unique programming.

We know we will never be able to please all of Maine Public Radio listeners and that people generally dislike change. But we are committed to offering the quality news, information and music that our most loyal audience demands. Let’s check on the consequences a year from now, I think most people will be surprised about the positive effect of these changes.

Rus Peotter is the vice president for marketing and development at Maine Public Broadcasting.