Some Bridges

Last February, New York Times writer Charles McGrath pointed to the success of public radio in contrast to the ever-shrinking government support for public television in a piece titled Is PBS Still Necessary? in which he reported public radio now boasts some 30 million listeners, up from two million in 1980. Or, 28 million listeners in 28 years.

Even despite the current recession, many of the stations I talk to each week reported record or near-record fund drives this Spring. Non-comm Triple A KTBG is one such station, where listenership, member dollars and community interest continue to improve in defiance of economic forecasts and cultural trends.

I flew into Kansas City International airport last month for a weekend trip, and after presenting myself at the rental car desk, promptly fainted when the lady informed me gas was running at about $4.28/gallon. I have rarely driven since moving to Manhattan, and still remember gas being less than a dollar a gallon when I arrived in Missouri only seven years ago. After peeling myself off the floor, I set off on the 45-minute trip east in my less than glamorous Kia Rondo to my alma mater, the University of Central Missouri, which owns KTBG.

It was about 11am when I arrived at the station. The sounds of Wilco were drifting through the speakers, and the place was deserted. Kind of like when I was a student working here seven years ago, I thought. Wrong: I’d soon learn this was just an unnatural lull. In addition to the paid staff, there are a record 19 students working at the station this summer. That’s about twice as many as worked there during the school year when I was a student.

I first landed in Warrensburg, Missouri on January 1, 2001, which I later learned was the very same day Jon Hart returned to his hometown to program the station after 23 years in Kansas City proper. At that point, it was actually a jazz station, KCMW, and had previously operated as a classical station, never having raised more than about $12,000 in either capacity during a single fund drive. Jon actually worked there originally as a high schooler (and was fired five times) and had now arrived back with the ambitious goal of transforming the station into a viable and valuable cultural commodity with little in the way of resources. I, meanwhile, was looking for a reason to stick around for the summer and thought: “Hey, being a DJ could be fun!”

By my count, there were nine of us students working there that first summer, and virtually all of the others have long gone on to non-broadcasting careers from law to teaching math. Some of us were in it for a “cool” (i.e. non-Pizza Hut) job, while others just had severe cases of audio visual nerdiness. Not one of us was there for the love of jazz. There was no real station image to embrace, no events or community initiatives. But over the summer, our enthusiasm for the job expanded exponentially as we were all let in on one big secret: at summer’s end, our underachieving little jazz station would flip formats to something called Triple A.

We held weekly meetings about what exactly that meant, while Jon built a music library from scratch using his own and our personal CD collections, including us in aspect, from picking core artists to station branding. Within a few short months we had new call letters, a logo, a music library, and most importantly real enthusiasm for our air shifts.

On August 1, 2001, 90.9 The Bridge signed on with “Some Bridges” by Jackson Browne, and the change was instant and palpable. Listener feedback was overwhelmingly encouraging (in fact, one such listener named Leslie ended up marrying Jon and working at the station, so she must have really liked the change). That very morning, five or six promising new students showed up to volunteer their time, almost all of whom have gone on to broadcasting or music-related careers. Very quickly, we became a noticeable force in the Kansas City market, with steady presence at area concerts, while little by little, each fund drive proved we were on the right track. It was tremendously exciting to be a part of a success story being built on nothing but passion and hard work, and I’m happy to say that since I left the station in 2004, things have continued to improve dramatically.

I recently spoke to my former colleague David Houghton, now sound engineer and web and promotions manager, who described a plethora of new initiatives that most recently includes their first summer concert series in Kansas City. The Bridge has also been streaming for the entire life of the station, offers a podcast series as well as an archive of all in-studios, and has recently launched a YouTube page to gain more exposure for artist visits.

Most significantly, KTBG membership has increased by a minimum of ten percent every year since the format change. In March, the Bridge had its best-ever fundraiser, reaching the pretty unrealistic goal of $59,000 set by the CPB: a 60 percent increase on the previous record, qualifying the station for a significant grant.

“This radio station represents a community, and it felt to us only fair to let the community know what we were facing, and let them tell us how strongly they wanted us to move forward. It was like a vote: do you want us to take a little step forward or a huge step backward? This is the beginning of the story. Now, we have to work hard to justify all of the donations that people made,” said Hart.

Monday’s New York Times featured a piece about those worst affected by raising gas prices. They are, of course, those people in rural America with a lower income and higher dependence on gas. But despite this trend, and the current economic recession, Bridge listeners are among those 30 million public radio listeners who still find enough value in their station to dig a little deeper in their pockets and continue to contribute.

–Julia Clarke

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