Donna Quoted in CBS Marketwatch

[Donna Halper]

With thanks to the author, by whose kind permission this is quoted.

"Morning Edition's captive audience"
Bob Edwards flap points up traditional radio's problems

By David B. Wilkerson, CBS.MarketWatch.com
April 3, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Amid all the furor surrounding National Public 
Radio's treatment of Bob Edwards, the situation also says quite a bit about 
commercial radio's inability -- or unwillingness -- to provide the kind of 
in-depth news and analysis that could attract "Morning Edition" listeners 
looking for an alternative during morning drive time.

After all, the NPR listener base is well-educated and relatively affluent, 
and should certainly be attractive to advertisers. More than 13 million 
tune in to "Morning Edition" each weekday. Yet, commercial radio is not 
structured to lure some of those people away.

"I wonder if the NPR people have decided, 'We won't lose anybody [from 
'Morning Edition'], because, where are they going to go?'" said Donna 
Halper, a Boston-based radio programming consultant and broadcasting historian.

NPR said last week that Edwards, 56, who has hosted the show since its 
debut in 1979, would be ousted from that post in May. Edwards, who said he 
was surprised by the move, has accepted the role of senior correspondent at 
the network. Listeners have deluged NPR with complaints, and a Web site 
called Savebobedwards.com has garnered nearly 14,000 signatures as of late 
Friday evening.

NPR's commercial news competition

The only formats that offer regular news on commercial radio are all-news 
stations like 1010 WINS in New York or WWJ in Detroit, or news-talk 
stations, which feature hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage.

"Morning Edition" listeners are looking for a mix of political and cultural 
news, with stories that can last four minutes or more, told with nuance, or 
even wit.

"Commercial radio, especially in the morning -- its bread-and-butter period 
-- cannot do a 10-minute news story, because they have commercials that 
they have to break to every two to three minutes," said Michael Keith, 
adjunct associate professor of communication at Boston College.

"So the kind of depth and substance and detail that you can get on an NPR 
news program is pretty hard to replicate on the commercial end," Keith said.

Could the news-talk or all-news formats be tweaked to provide at least some 
of the "Morning Edition" vibe, even as an experiment? Maybe stories 
couldn't be six minutes long, but the coverage could be eclectic, erudite, fun.

Keith doesn't see it happening. "For commercial stations that are having 
success, why would they make room for it?"

Deregulation's role

Local commercial stations might find ways to do news stories that are 
innovative enough to provide competition for "Morning Edition's" audience, 
but two regulatory developments of the last 20 years make this impractical 
for most of them, experts said.

In 1985, the Republican-led Federal Communications Commission eliminated 
the Fairness Doctrine. The Fairness Doctrine stipulated: 1) that a 
broadcast station had to set aside a certain amount of airtime for issues 
of vital concern to the local community; and 2) that it had to provide a 
forum for a diverse range of opinions. The commission decided that the rule 
was no longer serving the public interest. An attempt to legislate the 
Fairness Doctrine into law was vetoed by President Reagan, and there 
weren't enough votes in Congress to override. President George H.W. Bush 
subsequently vetoed a similar attempt.

"Doing radio news is more than just ripping and reading from a wire. It's 
very expensive to produce," said Dwight DeWerth-Pallmeyer, director of 
communication studies at Widener University in Chester, Pa. "That's why 
after deregulation ... commercial stations eliminated their news 
operations, in many cases wholesale. Just completely gave it up.

"Because if you no longer had to do it," DeWerth-Pallmeyer added, "in terms 
of the public interest [requirements] ... then why would you do it? It was 
seen as something that just cost an enormous amount to do, and didn't offer 
enough in return."

The situation was further eroded, some say, by The Telecommunications Act 
of 1996, which lifted long-standing restrictions on the number of radio 
stations a company could own in a given market. It enabled a broadcaster 
like Clear Channel Communications (CCU: news, chart, profile) to amass more 
than 1,200 stations, and aided other big firms such as Viacom's (VIA.B: 
news, chart, profile) (VIA: news, chart, profile) Infinity Broadcasting, 
Emmis Communications (EMMS: news, chart, profile) and Cox Radio (CXR: news, 
chart, profile). (Viacom is a significant shareholder in MarketWatch.com, 
the publisher of this report.)

These massive station clusters are served by giant radio networks owned by 
many of these same conglomerates. Consultant Donna Halper says this has led 
to the homogenization of talk stations.

"The local talk show host is a dying breed," said Halper, "not because he 
or she isn't performing a service, but because for the conglomerates, it's 
just easier to syndicate Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and 
17 others, and then you don't have to hire anybody live and local."

Opportunity for Air America?

Air America, the new "liberal" radio network headlined by comedian Al 
Franken, could be one alternative for some of Bob Edwards' fans; indeed, 
the network tweaks NPR with a show called "Morning Sedition" in the 6-9 
a.m. slot, hosted by talk veteran Mark Riley, comedian Marc Maron and 
journalist Sue Ellicott. Franken's "The O'Franken Factor," a reference to 
his feud with Fox News Channel host Bill O' Reilly, airs from noon to 3 p.m.

Air America is certainly not trying to imitate NPR.

On Thursday, afternoon drive host Randi Rhodes had a heated exchange with 
Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader. Reacting to a poll showing 
that Nader could draw enough of the liberal vote to help President Bush 
defeat Democratic candidate John Kerry, Rhodes told Nader the U.S. can't 
afford to have him run for president. Nader hung up on her.

It was the kind of confrontation that would be right at home on Michael 
Savage's show, but unthinkable on NPR's afternoon drive program, "All 
Things Considered."

Air America is trying to be for left-wing and moderate listeners what Rush 
Limbaugh is to conservatives, DeWerth-Pallmeyer says.

"The political atmosphere right now is set up for that liberal network, 
because there's so much to talk about with Bush right now," he said. "It 
was like Rush dealing with Clinton. There was a lot to talk about. 
Remember, talk's a lot cheaper to produce than news -- you have a guy read 
the New York Times, and get on the air."

Halper says Air America might be a potent voice in the radio spectrum, but 
that for now, its over-the-air distribution on five radio stations -- 
including stations in the top three U.S. markets of New York, Los Angeles 
and Chicago -- is too small to make an impact (It will soon add a San 
Francisco station).

"The vast majority of the right wing talk show hosts are syndicated 
everywhere," Halper said. "And so if you want to start a new network -- and 
I don't care what your point of view is -- it's going to be tough to find 
places that will take you on. Because there just aren't a lot of openings."

Air America is also heard on XM Satellite Radio (XMSR: news, chart, 
profile), which has a fast-growing customer base of 1.68 million 
subscribers to its digital service. The company projects that it will have 
2.8 million subscribers by the end of this year.

In addition to Air America, XM also carries The Power, a talk channel 
targeted at African-Americans produced in conjunction with Radio One 
(ROIAK: news, chart, profile); Family Talk (in association with Christian 
programming specialist Salem Communications (SALM: news, chart, profile); 
and other news or talk channels.

XM is watching the "Morning Edition" situation, but has not announced any 
plans to directly imitate that or any other NPR show.

"Bob Edwards is a talented guy with a great reputation, and NPR is 
headquartered in Washington with us, so we're obviously aware of what 
happened," said Chance Patterson, an XM spokesman. "But I think it's too 
early to tell how much impact [Edwards' departure] will have on the listeners."

XM's rival, Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI: news, chart, profile), carries 
NPR and Public Radio International, along with other talk programming.

For listeners who do defect from "Morning Edition" next month, the most 
likely scenario is that many will drift to another public radio station in 
the market, perhaps a PRI outlet.

Whether commercial radio will ever find a way to appeal to that kind of 
person remains to be seen.