NPR not facing an existential crisis

KPBS-FM’s programming chief is not happy with how his station’s network was depicted by the Wall Street Journal.

A June 17 article painted NPR as a sinking network with an aging and shrinking listenership. Young audiences with podcast preferences were cited as a culprit.

“The sky is not falling,” says John Decker, KPBS-FM director of programming. “We are not facing an existential crisis.”

The Wall Street Journal article was inspired by the retirement of Garrison Keillor, 73, who walks away from Prairie Home Companion this weekend. KPBS-FM and some 300-plus other non-commercial public stations carry the weekly music-and-storytelling old-timey folk-fest that Keillor created 41 years ago. Keillor’s last show, to be taped Friday (July 1) at the Hollywood Bowl, airs Saturday and Sunday on KPBS-FM.

“That article was a bit of an insult to every radio listener over the age of 50,” says Decker. The article “…is to imply is that you don’t matter once you turn 50. That’s the difference between commercial and non-commercial radio. Old people matter to us and they want to know what’s going on.”

Besides, says Decker, half of KPBS-FM’s total audience (it's the sixth most popular SD radio station) is under 45.

“Commercial stations are chasing after the 18–24 year olds,” says Decker. “That’s not our business. Every person over 50 matters…. I thought [the Wall Street Journal] author was being a little irresponsible. The Wall Street Journal’s average reader is, what, in their 50s or 60s, I’m guessing?

"If anyone had an aging problem I would say it was the Wall Street Journal. It is irritating to middle-aged or older people to tell them they don’t deserve a place at the table. They know we are there for them.”

The WSJ piece noted how Prairie Home’s current 3.2 million national audience is down almost ten million from ten years ago, and its future remains unclear after singer/mandolin player Chris Thile begins hosting October 15.

(Thile, 35, was born in Oceanside, and met his future Nickel Creek bandmates playing at That Pizza Place in Carlsbad in 1989. Prairie Home Companion will air Keillor reruns this summer until he takes over.)

Decker, who says he has met Thile, is optimistic about Prairie Home with its new host and has committed to Prairie Home with Thile for at least one season.

“I say that knowing Chris faces a steep learning curve. I hear great things about him.” Yet, as the programming boss, Decker says, “I am not afraid to pull programs that don’t gather an audience.”

Decker says he got grief last year when he moved Fresh Air with Terry Gross from the afternoon time slot it held for decades to 8 p.m.

“There were a lot of very, very unhappy people, but the audience was dwindling. Now it’s doing just fine in that [8 p.m.] time slot.”

And then there’s Car Talk, the show that still airs twice each weekend on KPBS-FM even though one of its two hosts has been dead for two years.

“That is a show whose numbers are declining and it will eventually be off,” says Decker about the reruns. “But it still has an audience of people who did not hear those shows the first time around.”

Car Talk ran for over 25 years, creating over 1200 episodes.

“It is a delicate balance," says Decker. "We are contemplating our options.”

Decker’s attitude about podcasts differs from NPR’s vice president of programming, who, according to the Wall Street Journal, wrote a memo asking its hosts to not push their podcasts on their NPR shows.

“NPR doesn’t promote podcasts,” says Decker who adds that KPBS does. “Cinema Junkie knocked it out of the park,” he says of the popular podcast created by KPBS movie critic Beth Accomando. “It is doing extremely well.”

He says Incoming, a KPBS-created podcast featuring veterans' stories told in their own words, starts its third season this fall.

"The real challenge is how to do something that is unique to local listeners. Yes, we need to figure out how to increase our presence in the podcast arena. But really good podcasters don’t grow on trees. Beth had done film reviews for us for a long time.”

Isn’t podcasting a hard way to generate revenue?

“I don’t know anybody who is making any money at producing local podcasts,” Decker admits. The KPBS-FM bottom line according to Decker: “We remain committed to local news and information.”

I note that the only local broadcast outlet to give immediate coverage to the recent Borrego Springs earthquake was commercial radio station KOGO-AM.

“Oh, you mean the one at one in the morning?... We do not rush to chase ambulances or fire trucks.”