KASU Station Activity Summaryfiled February 12, 2015 with CPB

KASU Station Activity SummaryFiled February 12, 2015 with CPB

Overall Goals/Community Outreach

KASU has a goal of serving Jonesboro, a growing community in transition whose issues include land use planning, street planning, zoning, public transit, police-minority relations, crime, green spaces, biking and jogging routes, urban design and educational challenges. A second goal is to serve other communities within our coverage region -- the northern Mississippi Delta and the eastern Ozarks – whose issues include industrial farming and its effect on the environment, literacy, poverty, the drug trade and other rural crime, and heritage tourism.

We identify these issues through personal conversations and social media interaction with members, listeners, community leaders and our colleagues on the campus of Arkansas State University (our licensee).

We report on the identified issues via a news department that consists of two staff members; we are planning to hire a third newsperson. Our major newscasts on 91.9 FM and on the kasu.org stream are inserted in NPR’s Morning Edition (5 a.m. to 9 a.m.), and aired on an extended afternoon report beginning at 3:06 p.m.

KASU posts world, national and local news on our web site. Our Facebook page and Twitter feeds receive comments from visitors and followers. We have gained new listeners because of these social media. We receive about 800 weekly likes on KASU’s regular Facebook page and we have over 2500 followers on Twitter. Development director Mark Smith and Production Engineer June Taylor administer these services.

We have gained visibility and new listeners for the station by hosting live concert events for the community (over 20 events in 2014). KASU is a partner with the major performance hall on the ASU campus – the Fowler Center -- and two downtown Jonesboro music venues, the Foundation of Arts and The Arts@311. We also partner with the Collins Theater in nearby Paragould.

KASU has reached out to followers and performers of local music with Arkansas Roots, a new Monday through Friday noon hour program. The program’s two basic purposes, in addition to entertainment, are (1) to educate residents about the musical heritage of Arkansas and (2) to broadcast the creative output of active musicians in the region. The Arkansas Roots Facebook page receives comments and “likes” from people who are, and aren’t, familiar with the station. Syndicated audience research shows that the majority of Arkansas Roots listeners are casual listeners of the station as a whole. We solicit CDs and MP3s from musicians across the state and we’ve received an impressive array of genres: Americana, blues, bluegrass, classical, country, jazz, and rock. We don’t guarantee that every submission will be played; our program director Marty Scarbrough, who co-produces Arkansas Roots with the station manager Mike Doyle, previews and selects music to be included on the program.

Short-form local content appears on 90-second community calendar announcementsthat are broadcast three times daily, at 6:43 a.m., 8:20 a.m. and 3:48 p.m. At the end of these announcements, listeners are directed to the KASU website where

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they can click on the ‘Events’ button and view the latest community calendar postings. Visitors to the website can submit news events for the website; those events are screened for acceptability by Johnathan Reaves, a reporter-anchor who directs the Community Calendar.

Collaboration

KASU participates in a cooperative news effort with other public radio stations in our region -- KUAR in Little Rock, KUAF in Fayetteville, KTXT in Texarkana, and WKNO in Memphis -- to share and exchange news stories that are shared on an FTP site. We download and broadcast relevant news for our region from these other participating stations and we frequently share our stories on the site for use by other participating stations.

As a licensee of Arkansas State University with a presence on the main campus in Jonesboro, KASU frequently invites professors and campus officials to our studios for live and recorded interviews about their areas of expertise in response to local, national or world events or to promote campus events of interest to our listeners. This is particularly true for arts events such as concerts, plays and art exhibits. We also reach out to the branch campuses of ASU and to other colleges in our area including Arkansas Northeastern College, Black River Technical College, East Arkansas Community College, Mid-South Community College and Williams Baptist College.

KASU is a partner with four local arts organizations: the Foundation of Arts, the ASU Fowler Center, The Arts@311, and the Collins Theater. Through combinations of cash plus barter exchanges, these organizations promote their activities with underwriting support announcements on our station. KASU receives ads in printed programs and rental time for musical productions that we make available to our members, underwriters and the community at large.

KASU has an ongoing partnership with the Food Bank of Northeast Arkansas. During each of our semi-annual on-air subscription drives, we offer our contributing members the opportunity, in lieu of receiving premium gifts, to designate support for the Food Bank. At the end of each drive, KASU purchases a number of meals from the food bank based on the number of requests from callers. This has been a popular premium option with members.

KASU launched a new Coffee House Concert series in 2014, presenting four concerts at The Arts@311 in downtown Jonesboro. Americana, Rockabilly, Jazz Fusion and Blues/Country were featured. We obtained sponsorships for underwriting the performances and the venue charged admission at ten dollars a person to benefit the station and the Arts at 311, both non-profits.

Another partnership, with underwriters and the Collins Theatre in nearby Paragould, Arkansas, results in Bluegrass Monday. Every fourth Monday, we host a touring bluegrass group from the region that attracts between 300 and 500 concert goers to the Collins. This arrangement has been ongoing for several years and supports

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KASU’s bluegrass programming on Sunday afternoons. The host of that show is KASU program director Marty Scarbrough who also emcees the monthly live concerts at Collins and the annual United Cerebral Palsy bluegrass benefit show.

Bluesday Tuesday, another venture made possible by underwriters, was a monthly blues concert at the Newport, Arkansas Country Club open to everyone free of charge. Unfortunately this series ended in August 2014 because the Country Club began to require a rental fee which we were unable to pay.

At the aforementioned concerts, KASU’s manager, program director and development director handle emcee duties. They and other staff members interact with the audience during breaks between sets and before and after the concert. We receive comments about our on-air programming and our community outreach efforts from these interactions. The KASU web site includes information about these community concerts, posted by administrative assistant Karen Kender.

The KASU news team – Greg Chance and Johnathan Reaves -- regularly covers city council and country quorum court meetings, visits local civic club meetings, such as Kiwanis and Rotary, and reports on community activities and events. They interview the leaders of area non-profit services about services and events. The station has good contacts in local and county government, public utilities, and law enforcement, as well as local and area school officials, for newsgathering purposes.

With membership on the ASU Museum Advisory Council and the Delta Symposium Roots Music Committee, station manager Mike Doyle is involved in helping to promote music tourism and heritage scholarship in the area. Doyle is also active in the University Rotary Club of Jonesboro. KASU’s corporate relations/underwriting director Doreen Selden serves on the business network committee of the Jonesboro Chamber of Commerce and attends many of their events including Business After Hours and Downtwon Jonesboro Association networking opportunities.

KASU is a member of four Chambers of Commerce in the communities of Jonesboro, Paragould, Newport and Batesville. We set up information booths and visit with attendees at three annual Business Expos, in Jonesboro, Batesville and Paragould. We have gained some underwriting support from the contacts made at these events where we also meet some of our listeners and members.

Impact/Effects

The most notable and measurable effect of our 2014 programming was the reaction to Arkansas Roots, our own locally produced midday music show. A comparison of our 2013 and 2014 listener behavior reports from the Radio Research Consortium, interpreting Arbitron ratings, showed that the estimated average noon hour audience increased from 500 listeners to 1500 listeners after the program was launched.

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In the autumn of 2013, KASU was broadcasting NPR’s news magazine Here and Now from 12 noon to 2 p.m. The fall 2013 noon hour audience analysis showed that approximately 200 of the station’s core listeners, 200 moderate listeners and 100 light listeners comprised the estimated audience of 500.

When KASU launched Arkansas Roots in December 2013, we shifted the NPR program Here and Now to the 1 p.m. to 3 p.m slot and inserted the new local music show from 12 to 1 p.m. The fall 2014 audience estimate showed 1500 listeners, broken down as follows: 200 core listeners, 800 moderate listeners and 500 light listeners to the station as a whole. This indicates that Arkansas Roots is attracting audience members who didn’t previously listen to the station in the noon hour. The Arkansas Roots Facebook page averages about 600 likes a week.

On February 5th, 2015, our local Northeast Arkansas Humane Society posted this message on its Facebook page: "Arrrgggghhh! It seems like it's something every week! Our kennel radio died and we need another one. Does anyone have a radio/cd player that you would want to donate to the shelter dogs? As part of their kennel enrichment, we play soothing music for them to help relieve stress and reduce barking. Their favorite is actually listening to NPR!"

We shared this on our FB page, and when KASU member (and underwriter) Dr. Sheila Hellman saw it, she bought three radios and donated them to the animal shelter, so all the animals could enjoy KASU.After we shared that story on the KASU page, the Humane Society posted a picture of two relaxed kitties, with the caption: "Listening to NPR on the new radios just chilled them smooth out." We thought this was a great story and a tribute to our listeners who respond to community needs.
Just before Christmas 2014, a passenger train appeared in Jonesboro, parked on the tracks next to the university and our studios. This was an unusual sight, as Jonesboro typically only gets freight traffic. Our Morning Edition reporter-host Johnathan Reaves was able to share with our listeners that this special "Santa" train was decorated with lights and was providing a special treat for families of veterans in the form of a short train ride in luxury passenger cars and a visit with Santa for the kids. Johnathan got a tour of the train and posted photos of his tour on our Facebook page. The story made more people aware of this program for veterans' families, and answered questions about the unusual appearance of a passenger train in our town.

Diversity of programs and audiences

KASU broadcasts 90 hours of music each week, encompassing the following genres: classical, jazz, blues, bluegrass, Americana, Celtic, folk, rockabilly, rhythm and blues, pop, rock and country-western oldies, American songbook pop standards, and world music.

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Eighteen hours of each week’s musical programming is pre-recorded locally produced content. The KASU staff produces Arkansas Roots (all genres) We Wanna Boogie (rockabilly, pop and country oldies), Down Home Harmonies (bluegrass) and Music from the Isles (Celtic.) The other music programs offer high quality content, presented by knowledgeable, passionate KASU volunteers. The programs are described below, beginning with our longest running volunteer-produced program and continuing through the newest.

Since 1986, KASU volunteer and local folklorist Dr. Bill Clements has produced programs of regional and international interest. Our weekly 30-minute program “Tradition” teaches listeners about the wide diversity of American traditional music. “Tradition” is broadcast Sundays at 11:30 a.m.

Bill’s two-minute “Calendar Lore” highlights world cultures by focusing on different areas of folklore such as rituals and beliefs, food culture, and history that are tied to a specific date. Calendar Lore airs weekdays at 8:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. and complements academic programs at Arkansas State University such as the Heritage Studies doctoral program and courses offered at the Arkansas State University Museum. Dr. Clements is a professor emeritus of folklore at ASU.

Local blues performer, promoter and producer “Hairy Larry” Heyl hosts “Something Blue” -- Northeast Arkansas’ longest running local blues radio show-- on KASU Saturday nights at 10:00. Larry features on-location recordings of local performers that capture the musical heritage of the Jonesboro area, from country and rockabilly to blues and jazz. This Chicago native moved to Arkansas 45 years ago and discovered something that many locals didn’t know or took for granted—this region is tremendously important in the history of music. “Something Blue” was launched over 20 years ago.

Sonny Burgess, a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, is in his 10th year of hosting the two-hour weekly music romp, “We Wanna Boogie,” Sundays 5-7 p.m. on KASU. A Sun Records artist of the 1950s, Sonny performed and/or toured with Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and scores of mid-to-late 20th century greats. He continues to perform and tour today in the U.S. and Europe with original members of his legendary band, the Pacers. We are proud to have him as a KASU volunteer and supporter. His producer and co-host is June Taylor, KASU production engineer.

Local travel writer Jere Repass writes and delivers “Come Away With Me,” a travel feature of three-minute length broadcast twice weekly, on Thursday afternoons and Sunday mornings. This station volunteer shares with our listeners how it feels to be in the house where Jesse James was murdered; to understand what would make Loretta Lynn sing about being a coal miner’s daughter; to appreciate how special it was to hear one of Ray Charles’ last concerts.

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Jim “The Generator Man” Drennon hosts one of the most unique programs on radio, “Blues Where You Least Expect It” Saturday nights on 9:00 on KASU. A typical program might feature music tracks from Andy Griffith, Bill Cosby, Marilyn Monroe and Cyndi Lauper performing blues or related material. Jim started hosting in 2008.

Another station volunteer is Larz Roberts, a member of the media department faculty, who was born in the same town as blues icon B.B. King, Itta Bena, Mississippi. Larz’s program “Rhythm and Grooves” spotlights “black hits and hidden treasures” from the 1950s and 1960s, when early rhythm and blues transitioned to soul music. The program is broadcast from 8-9 p.m. Saturdays.

Mike Luster is the producer and host of Hand Crank Radio, a program of music that he describes as “hand made music for hard-hit folks.” The roots music of the Woody Guthrie-Carter Family-Jimmy Rogers Depression era is coupled with today’s Americana tracks from artists like Jason Isbell, Billy Bragg and Gillian Welch.

This narrative has described the unique local programs that are designed to serve a diversity of tastes. KASU doesn’t have hard data on the ethnic diversity of our audience but our programming lineup attempts to serve a range of ethnicities.

KASU news reported on and/or made community announcements about Black History Month events, Martin Luther King Day events, Cinco de Mayo festivities, the annual International Food Night and the Mideast Studies Night at ASU-Jonesboro, the annual Soul Food Dinner in Jonesboro, local literacy classes and efforts, and local Spanish classes offered by the Hispanic Center.

The impact of KASU’s Community Service Grant

KASU has six on-air staff members and seven volunteers who produced an estimated 936 hours of music programs, 100 hours of news and public affairs, and 72 hours of arts and culture features in 2014. The staff members are paid employees of Arkansas State University and the volunteers are, well, volunteers. We could not fill an entire schedule of high quality programming seven days a week, 24 hours a day, without financial support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The CPB grant allows us to provide well-known national public radio programs of news, discussion and music. This includes insightful, civil discussion programs -- The Diane Rehm Show and Fresh Air; comprehensive news magazines like the flagship NPR programs Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and the new joint venture of NPR and WBUR, Boston: Here and Now which has received positive comments from listeners. Without the grant, we could only offer limited NPR programming. Without the grant, the quality of our music offerings would go down because it is practically impossible to find competent local hosts for classical music in this area. Performance