Northern Colorado Business Report & KUNC.

The Northern Colorado Business Report shows that not all KUNC-FM antenna news is necessarily good news. Read the entire story from NCBR here.

To get suggestions to improve your reception from KUNC, follow this link. Or you can email KUNC by following this link.

'the latest 'word," from Michael Roberts.

Michael Roberts of Denver Westword has more from Former Colorado Public Radio Board Member, Frances Koncilja. Read about CPR's plan for HD radio in Vail, Colorado here.

KCFR News Wins Award from PRNDI.

Colorado Public Radio's KCFR News Initiative wins an award from Public Radio News Directors Incorporated. First Place, Interview: Remembering Sex-Change Pioneer Dr. Stanley Biber. Listen to the entire story here. Congratulations, KCFR News!

From PRNDI: At its annual conference in New Orleans, PRNDI announced the winners of this year's PRNDI Awards. This is the only national contest recognizing outstanding public radio news reporting at local stations. The contest covers work produced in 2006. A total of 87 awards were presented to 34 stations at the PRNDI Awards Banquet on July 21 at the Royal Sonesta in New Orleans. The full list of winnners is below.

Read the entire list of winners here. The file is in Microsoft Word format. Our thanks to an anonymous reader (and poster) for this news and for the audio link to the story on the CPR website.

Joanne Ostrow Blogs about KUNC & CPR.

Joanne Ostrow of The Denver Post, blogs about KUNC and Colorado Public Radio here.

Read some more of Joanne's recent columns here.

Want HD-Quality Rado? Then Widen the Stream!

At what bitrate does your local public radio station stream? In other words, is it at 128 kbps (kilobits per second), also referred to as CD-quality audio? Is it faster and better than CD-audio quality sound; like at 192 kbps? Or, is it substantially slower, at speeds around 20, 32 or 48 kbps? If that slow, how good does the audio sound--what is its quality? Does it sound muffled or compressed at low bitrate speeds? You bet it does!

Also, does your station stream its broadcast in MP3, Windows Media Audio, Real Audio or Ogg Vorbis content? If so, can you download you stations streams or podcasts to your portable music player? How do these podcasts sound to you? High quality? Low quality? How much high-quality downloadable content is available?

Is HD radio really the answer? Here is a link to an inexpensive JVC-brand HD-radio for your car, from Circuit City, and here is a link to the Cambridge Soundworks 820 HD Radio from Etronics.Com (remember, installation may cost extra). Before installation, shipping & handling, and tax charges, BOTH of these HD-radios would cost you $500 total!

Colorado Public Radio Blog advises that you withhold $500 IN TOTAL from your Colorado Public Radio subscriptions for this year, and the next, and the next, and the next . . . so that you finally can afford buy new HD equipment for your home and your automobile when CPR switches off and sells off all their legacy AM stations in Denver (1340-AM), Boulder (1490-AM), and Pueblo (1230-AM).

Expect HD-quality audio content delivered to you in the ways you already listen to public radio, and to the fully digital equipment you already own! Save your money for a new computer, MP3 player, I-Pod, or I-Phone--not for an HD radio. So, how much of your public radio subscription--how many years--are you willing to withhold?

KUNC-FM News from Public Interactive.

Read about and listen to some recent KUNC-FM news stories here; a distribution service provided by Public Interactive.

Also, read some more about Public Interactive, an applications services and content provider here.

Lourdes Garcia-Navarro at KAJX-FM, Aspen.

The Aspen Times reports here that National Public Radio's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro "is in town in support of Aspen Public Radio's Summer Fund Drive. She is replacing NPR's Liane Hansen and Neal Conan, who postponed their appearances."

Garcia-Navarro, just back from Jerusalem and Baghdad, will speak on politics and the military, social life and international relations of these two centers of turmoil. Born in London, Garcia-Navarro has lived and reported from the United States, Colombia, Afghanistan, Israel, Iraq and the United States. Her home now is Mexico City.

Tickets are $10 and are on sale at the Wheeler Opera House box office. They also will be available at the door the night of the talk.

--Press release provided by the The Aspen Times.

The Huffington Post & Aspen Public Radio.

Susan Saywers of The Huffington Post mentions The Aspen Ideas Festival and Aspen Public Radio right here.

Journalism: From The Pew Research Center.

The Project for Excellence in Journalism: Understanding News in the Information Age, from The Pew Research Center.

Read the Radio News Rountable discussion here. What were these experts saying about localism more than a year ago? The Pew Foundation has done loads of research on many subjects that pertain to public radio news, entertainment, and media (in general). Is your local public radio station reading what the experts have to say on the subject? If they are reading this research, are they acting upon it? If not, why not?

"Ruby Hill" Comments on CPRB.

Ruby Hill comments on Colorado Public Radio Blog, and Jimmy James responds in the comments section. Thanks, Ruby!

Ruby Hill said...

If you're really interested in comparing and contrasting the budgets and compensation for 501(c)3 organizations like public radio stations, a very useful resource is Guidestar.Org. They allow you to access the IRS 990 forms that all non-profits must file each year.

Also included on the 990 Forms are the salaries and benefits for at least the top five individuals earning more than $50,000. The IRS doesn't care if you're paying your staff less than that.

Here's some of the salary info Ruby gleaned from GuideStar this evening:

In the case of KUVO, there was only one person on the station's payroll that earned more than $50,000 in 2005. By sharp contrast, the other public radio broadcaster in Denver, Colorado Public Radio (CPR), had 17 individuals earning that much or more in 2006. The top six accounted for over $750,000 in salary and benefits. If one includes the classical music announcers heard via the Classical Public Radio Network (based in Denver and in LA, and heard in other markets nationwide), the number of individuals earning more than $50,000 jumps to 24 [total], and the salary and benefit number jumps to $1,250,000.

Ruby looked at the [Form] 990s for some other public broadcasters too. In no case did Ruby find the disparity in salaries and benefits as dramatic as those between KUVO and CPR. WGBH's [Boston, MA] salaries were somewhat higher than CPR's, but not significantly so. Those that were listed [higher], were primarily for the TV station. Any of those salaries would be totally defensible given that they are paid to producers of some of the best programs that PBS has to offer. Like NOVA, This Old House, etc. KCRW's [Santa Monica, CA] salaries were either the same or lower than CPR's which Ruby found surprising, given the number of programs that KCRW produces in-house. Minnesota Public Radio's salaries were on par with or perhaps slightly higher than what CPR paid, but once again, Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) produces far more original content than does CPR. Other than a daily interview show, CPR produces no original content. Ruby believes the Classical Public Radio Network final production work still takes place at Boise State Radio and not in Denver, unless things have changed.

Ruby think it's fair to say from these examples that by and large, public broadcasters are relatively cost conscious and extract as much value as possible from each and every dollar they have at their disposal. Some of the salaries are far too low, considering the demands and responsibilities the jobs require. Others, while less than what might be available in the commercial sector, are at least livable. It's only when one enters the realm of Colorado Public Radio do the salaries get out of whack.

--Ruby Hill

July 29, 2007 1:13 AM