Marketplace Features

Listen to Part One in RealAudio

Have you been paying attention to the sound of public radio over the last few years?

Research shows that there are more frequent breaks for sponsors, that they're growing longer, and that more than a third of public radio's listeners are unhappy about this trend.

We thought that we should listen to how we're sounding, explore whether what some critics have dubbed "creeping commercialism" in public radio is really a problem.

We convened a board of journalistic advisors not affiliated with public radio and hired veteran independent producer Sandy Tolan to listen to the state of our medium. In his first piece, Tolan asks whether your beloved programs are becoming "commercial public radio."

Tolan: On an November day in the White House East Room 32 years ago, President Lyndon Johnson gathered the leading lights from the Carnegie Commission on Public Broadcasting and made an historic announcement.

Johnson: "I have asked you to come here and be participants with me in this great movement for the next century, the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967."

Tolan: The act of Congress LBJ signed that day echoed the sentiment of the time, when the Great Society was designed to lift up fellow Americans. Publicly funded media was a response to what the critics of the time called the "wasteland" of commercial broadcasting. The vision to was to promote a free discourse among citizens, free from government and commercial influences.

Johnson: "It will be free and it will be independent and it will belong to all of our people."

Tolan: But the vision was never fully funded, and soon public broadcasters were relying on listeners with disposable income, which is why you hear this:

[Sound of pledge drive]

Tolan: But this kind of fundraising hasn't paid all the bills either. And now, as the industry grows and the portion of federal support has declined to 14 percent, corporate money is flowing into the vacuum.

[Underwriting montage]

Tolan: Today, at the end of each hour, you might feel like you're in a shopping mall in a ritzy neighborhood. Some stations run four or five breaks per hour.

Tolan: It's still nothing like commercial radio, a $13 billion industry, 30 times bigger than public radio, with ads running up to 18 minutes per hour, compared to perhaps five minutes of underwriting on public radio. But, no doubt, there are more underwriting spots than ever, they've gotten longer and they're getting into new territory.

[Plastic surgery underwriting clip ]

Tolan: The Federal Communications Commission doesn't call these commercials. Companies can't say, "go buy this," they can't name a price, so technically they're not ads. Public radio people like to use the highfalutin term, "enhanced underwriting."

[Nuclear technology underwriting clip]

Tolan: This all began when President Reagan pushed for funding cuts in public broadcasting, but allowed stations to become more commercially appealing to underwriters by adding an address, a phone number, product information. A decade later, when House Speaker Newt Gingrich tried to eliminate federal funds, many in Congress implored public broadcasters to be more entrepreneurial. Corporate and foundation money now accounts for nearly a quarter of public radio budgets, more than double that of the Reagan days. Corporate dollars pay salaries, build new studios, and make possible local and national programs, including more than a third of the budget of the program you're listening to. After all, we all have to pay the electric bill.

[Marketplace theme music]

Tolan: With GE, Marketplace didn't just land another corporation, it crossed a big line: running GE's musical jingle every night on the air.

[GE jingle part of theme]

Tolan: Jim Russell, founding producer and general manager of Marketplace Productions, says that may have stirred up some public radio insiders, but he says listeners understand.

Russell: "In the course of ten years of doing business we've had a total of under two dozen letters or complaints about GE. It simply doesn't produce the public outcry. Is it advertising? It's a kind of advertising; it's image enhancement.

Tolan: And the corporations have a very good idea who they want to appeal to. And guess what? Market data tells them, it's you. For years, as my assistant will tell you, public radio researchers have been determining what kind of cars you like to buy...

Assistant: "Well, Sandy, they prefer Volvos, three to one over Cadillacs."

Tolan: And what newspapers and magazines you like...

Assistant: "The New Yorker, Bon Appetit, Audubon, Smithsonian, Conde Nast Traveler..."

Tolan: The size and price of your television screen...

Assistant: "They tend to be small, and cheap."

Tolan: All essentially your lifestyle numbers. This is combined with information on your values: you're a lot more likely to join a human rights group than the average person, or an arts association, or give to charities, or vote. And through all this a profile emerges, of an upper middle class, educated, laptop-buying public radio consumer.

Assistant: "You mean, 'listener'..."

Tolan: Which is then delivered by sales staff...

Assistant: "You mean, 'development' staff..."

Tolan: To potential sponsors.

Assistant: "Underwriters."

Tolan: Public radio stations use this profile so they can raise money to pay for the programs you like to hear, and pay themselves a salary. And me, too, so I can get paid for telling you this story.

Tolan: But there's a problem. Or at least, it could become a problem. Some listeners are annoyed by all these messages. Others worry business support may force programming changes. Leslie Peters of public radio's Audience Research Associates says these listeners have a malady, called underwriter anxiety.

Peters: "Forty-four percent, or nearly half, of public radio's audience is anxious about underwriting. People have not decided they're going to contribute less as individuals. But they have told us that, in the future, they may contribute less if there are more underwriting spots from businesses on the air."

Tolan: No one is sounding big alarms yet -- for some the near doubling of public radio's audience in the last decade is reason not to worry. Others wonder if the audience would have grown even more without all the underwriting. I didn't have to go very far to find someone who did stop giving -- just next door, to my neighbor, Dan Connell.

[Sound of entering Dan's house]

Tolan: Dan in some ways embodies public radio's idealized demographic. He and his wife Debbie like good food and wine, they travel, buy books and CD's, tend a nice garden, and they're civic-minded -- Dan even started a grassroots political organization. And, he no longer gives money to his old public radio station, WBUR in Boston.

Connell: "Frankly, when I started hearing 800 numbers being given out along with thank yous to the corporate sponsors, it seemed to me that they had gone over the line; they were now commercial radio and there was no more need for my kind of contribution. So I stopped."

Tolan: I tell Dan that WBUR relies on listeners like him for half of the station's income. But for Dan, that argument no longer works.

Connell: "Public broadcasting had been a sanctuary for me, but it no longer feels like it. Once they're going to take specific product sponsorship, then I just think that it doesn't matter to me in the end what percentage we're talking about. They're a commercial medium now masquerading as a non-profit."

Tolan: "You would be someone with an acute case of underwriter anxi--"

Dan: "I'm not just anxious I'm pissed off. It's irritating to listen to this."

[WBUR underwriting break]

Christo: "I do have evidence that there is some anxiety. And that's a very important issue to me."

Tolan: Jane Christo is general manager of WBUR, a Boston powerhouse with bigger audiences than most local commercial stations; they're consistently in Boston's top three for afternoon drive time. The station pulls in more than $18,000 a day in corporate underwriting. Yet Christo's listeners are the backbone of the station. And even though Dan's decision to stop giving is not typical, Christo is struggling to respond to the research that tells her there could be more Dans in her station's future.

Christo: "That's of great concern to me. And we will change; we will do whatever we need to do."

Tolan: Jane could be preparing herself for a day when her underwriters would be required by law to say less. That's what her Democratic congressman, Ed Markey, has in mind.

Markey: "Commercial public broadcasting is an oxymoron, like 'jumbo shrimp.' It can't be both at the same time. We created the public broadcasting system to be different from the commercial broadcasting system. To allow it to be infected by creeping commercialism will ultimately lead to its own destruction."

Tolan: So now, just four years after encouraging public broadcasters to be entrepreneurs, Congress may consider outlawing enhanced underwriting altogether. Ed Markey and Republican Billy Tauzin, key figures on the House Telecommunications Subcommittee, may soon introduce a bill that would do what my neighbor Dan would like -- once again, limit underwriting to just the name -- no 800 numbers, no Web sites, no product information. Long a champion of public broadcasting, Ed Markey says it's time stop the commercialism now.

Markey: "Dan is the canary in the mineshaft. He's one of the first who is breathing the tainted commercial air that's starting to emanate from the public broadcasting system.

Seymour: "I think Mr. Markey is the canary."

Tolan: Ruth Seymour is general manager of KCRW in Santa Monica.

Seymour: "With such friends who needs enemies? You could kill public broadcasting if he passes that kind of legislation."

Tolan: KCRW is considered one of the most aggressive marketers in public radio. The station offers its own MasterCard, works members-only sneak previews with local movie houses, and pitches sweepstakes -- a laptop, a trip to Rio, a six-star European art cruise. The core of this new income generation is underwriting, which Ruth Seymour says has become more and more important to her station's survival.

Seymour: "If all you were allowed to say is 'we would like to thank so and so for their support,' period, end ...we would lose a lot of underwriters. I would say probably more than 50 percent."

Tolan: But research shows most listeners have a good opinion of businesses that underwrite. For some companies, just the mention of their name is worth a lot. For that WBUR's Jane Christo disagrees with colleagues like Seymour.

Christo: "I really think most of our underwriters, if they all had to do less, that most of our large underwriters, particularly, would stay."

Tolan: Unlike most of her colleagues, Jane Christo supports the Tauzin-Markey Bill. The bill would also increase federal revenues to public broadcasting by 60 percent. But for Ruth Seymour, that's a carrot she's not willing to bite on.

Seymour: "A sixty percent increase? We should all live so long. Not in my lifetime."

Tolan: Key public radio figures have been going to Capitol Hill to express their concerns about the underwriting provisions of the Tauzin-Markey bill. Initial estimates suggest even with the federal funding increases, millions of dollars would be lost if companies could no longer give product information. Some believe more federal money could be a step backward. Fresh in their minds are past attempts to kill funds for public radio, and the direct criticism of public radio programs from the floor of the Senate. Many public broadcasters are slow to warm to Markey's reassurances that those pressures, and the chilling effects they could have, are all in the past. They say it may be better to build a diverse funding base, including big infusions of corporate dollars. NPR Weekend Edition host Scott Simon.

Simon: "I frankly don't like to hear some of the funding credits I hear. Let's put it this way: I find them indistinguishable from ads. But I say this as someone who has a vested interest in getting them on the air, certainly. To provide the kind of programming hour after hour, excellent programming, that we've provided for the past fifteen years, takes a lot more money. And we have to figure out ways of raising it and for the moment this is the way we do it. And it's hardly a perfect system."

Tolan: No one is sure where the line is -- when public radio will sound clearly too commercial. For some, like Dan, the line's already been crossed.

Tolan: I'm Sandy Tolan for Marketplace.