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Why is "Public Radio/Noncommercial" Considered a Format?

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Jean Luc

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This puzzles me. It seems public radio/noncommercial deals with how stations are organized and financed, not their content. Among stations which meet CPB's definition of public radio and qualify for funds there stations which are: News/talk (arguably the most prominent format), Jazz, Adult Alternative, Folk and the so-called "tent pole format" (usually news/talk in AM and PM drive, classical during midday and jazz at night). Other noncommercial (but not public) formats include religion and variety.

It seems that financial aspects unique to public or noncommercial radio are distinct but discussion of content issues (format) for public stations belong with the commercial stations with which they compete (the news oriented listener decides whether to listen to commercial all news radio or All Things Considered on the drive home from work).
 
I agree in part to the @Jean Luc post above. Especially with the recent administration change, that "format" forum has morphed towards the business of noncommercial educational radio as opposed the programming carried. We have a separate forum for noncommercial educational/LPFM stations. This is a more appropriate place to discuss the business end where the format forum should be focused more on the programming offered by NPR, APM, PRX, etc.

Stations that receive CPB funding do include stations that are not NPR members, but they are well organized stations that provide compelling local programming and will likely not have programming that promotes political or religious ideologies (which is not eligible for community service grants).
 
Michi said:
I agree in part to the @Jean Luc post above. Especially with the recent administration change, that "format" forum has morphed towards the business of noncommercial educational radio as opposed the programming carried.
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Because many non-commercial stations have variety formats or block programming that covers multiple "single purpose" format descriptors, it is hard to describe many stations. Even many NPR affiliated stations have widely different overall formats.

Not every non-commercial station has a remote studio overlooking Lake Wobegon.
Michi said:
We have a separate forum for noncommercial educational/LPFM stations. This is a more appropriate place to discuss the business end where the format forum should be focused more on the programming offered by NPR, APM, PRX, etc.
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Agreed. Perhaps all of the moderators should be a bit more active in moving posts that "belong" there to the proper forum. However, with the threat of government intervention in such stations and their program providers, this is also a national topic, particularly when "politics" is a main ingredient for the dish.
Michi said:
Stations that receive CPB funding do include stations that are not NPR members, but they are well organized stations that provide compelling local programming and will likely not have programming that promotes political or religious ideologies (which is not eligible for community service grants).
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What the reactionary right will question is where the borderlines for religion and politics lie. Somehow, I think those lines are painted this way.
 
Yes. We do have a political end and a business end of this discussion.
Political end: The current administration has heated up the CPB discussion again, taking jabs at underwriting, free speech, DEI, etc.
Business end: What do stations need to do react to these turns in events.
 
Michi said:
Yes. We do have a political end and a business end of this discussion.
Political end: The current administration has heated up the CPB discussion again, taking jabs at underwriting, free speech, DEI, etc.
Business end: What do stations need to do react to these turns in events.
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Both areas merit considerable discussion as both are about electronic media.

However, I am seeing far to many posts in which future events are predicted and projected. My crystal ball never worked, so I can't tell what the future has in store. I can comment on the latest actual developments in both station actions and gumm'int changes in regulations.

Let's all stay away from trying to be psychics.
 
Jean Luc said:
This puzzles me. It seems public radio/noncommercial deals with how stations are organized and financed, not their content. Among stations which meet CPB's definition of public radio and qualify for funds there stations which are: News/talk (arguably the most prominent format), Jazz, Adult Alternative, Folk and the so-called "tent pole format" (usually news/talk in AM and PM drive, classical during midday and jazz at night). Other noncommercial (but not public) formats include religion and variety.

It seems that financial aspects unique to public or noncommercial radio are distinct but discussion of content issues (format) for public stations belong with the commercial stations with which they compete (the news oriented listener decides whether to listen to commercial all news radio or All Things Considered on the drive home from work).
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I think the original poster is asking why our board is a catch-all for all those brands and nothing else... There's no political overtones in what they were asking...

It's not a format as you're describing it, but a catch-all for all of the above because when there were separate boards none of them had any use. Those stations have more in common than the others so they were combined in the early 2000s on here.
 
Is there a need for both the "Public Radio/Noncommercial" format board and the "LPFM and Noncommercial Educational Stations" board in the main forum section?
 
lanceventa said:
It's not a format as you're describing it, but a catch-all for all of the above because when there were separate boards none of them had any use. Those stations have more in common than the others so they were combined in the early 2000s on here.
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And like the never-ending discussions of format names for music stations (is it Hot AC or Adult CHR? And so on...) the naming of such formats is at best tentative when each station seems to be "just a little different" from the next one.

In most cases, format names are not used for on-air positioning; the most important use and the reason why Nielsen identifies formats in its customer reports is that ad buyers need to know what kind of station they are buying. Often agency buys are made in dozens of markets at the same time and the buyers have no precise knowledge of formats other than the label in the Nielsen reports.
 
I would say LPFM is a totally different animal from the full power NCE station. First, it's one to a customer. You have to have a local headquarters and there are requirements for how far from the tower board members can be. There's no requirement for a public file and different responsibilities for the Emergency Alert System. Additionally LPFMs don't run NPR simply because they can't afford the charges to run programming and CPB does not dole out dollars to LPFMs.
 
Miss Tuned said:
Is there a need for both the "Public Radio/Noncommercial" format board and the "LPFM and Noncommercial Educational Stations" board in the main forum section?
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Yes. But the latter one should be LPFM and Community Radio. And now is...

Also we never completed the adjustments to the format boards planned last summer. The formats of 2001 when most of those were created, don't fully address the state of radio now.
 
I'm inclined to think the way the larger non-commercial stations are used by their listeners is the common thread. As said above, most of the big Public Radio stations are affiliated with NPR. Some are all news, talk and info on weekdays. But a few play music in middays and nights, while still carrying Morning Edition in AM Drive, All Things Considered in PM Drive and fitting in a few other public radio weekday favorites, like Fresh Air, Here & Now, Marketplace and 1A.

Ratings listings often have NPR affiliates listed as "News-Talk," just like a WABC or a WMAL. I have to chuckle to myself. I can't imagine two radio stations being farther apart from each other than WABC and WNYC or WMAL and WAMU. Except for the fact that people on WABC and WMAL talk and do a few minutes of news headlines at the top of the hour, they have almost nothing in common with NPR stations.

I think we've successfully sorted out the "Hot Talk" format heard on WTKS-FM, WHPT and a few other stations. No listener would mistake Hot Talk for the Talk Radio stations that carry Hannity, Beck and Levin. And the same should be apparent for "Public Radio" stations like KQED, WGBH, WBUR, etc. They're also a different animal. If we manage to separate Oldies and Classic Hits or AC and Hot AC, we can keep these spoken word formats separate as well.
 
The ownership is a factor here when we talk about Public media. We tend to focus on States owning NPR and PBS affiliates via their state university systems as the license holder like California State University the owner of KPBS-TV, KPBS-FM in San Diego and CapRadio in Sacramento. In those cases everytime we hear about "defunding" NPR and PBS we always focus on how CPB is affected by these proposals and it sometimes run into PBS and NPR being dragged into drama that's happening on the affiliate and CPB levels.
 
When I hear "Public Radio/Noncommercial" (or just "Public Radio") as a format I think of NPR shows, such as "Morning Edition," "All Things Considered" and "Prairie Home Companion." "Noncommercial" on its own could include the college and variety formats as well.
 
kevtronics said:
"A Prairie Home Companion" / "Live from Here" was distributed by American Public Media (APM), not NPR.

American Public Media - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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True, but it was carried on many NPR stations. By NPR shows, I meant shows that are (or were, in the case of PHC/LFH) characteristic of the format of NPR stations.
 
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