A staff departure ruffles Seattle's popular and public KUOW-FM
Longtimer Ken Vincent quit the NPR station and talked about it, and that touched off other complaints that KUOW is moving down the path of blandness.
Cutbacks have roiled commercial broadcasters and newspapers, but Seattle's public radio station, KUOW-FM (94.9), has long been a place of calm, quality, and financial stability.
But that perception ended early this month with the departure of longtime host and reporter Ken Vincent, who publicly complained of compromises in station programming, inadequate compensation, creeping commercialization, and needless meddling in how announcers speak. Program Director Jeff Hansen "is totally taking the art out of it," said Vincent, whose career dates back to the legendary progressive commercial station KZAM-FM in Seattle.
The departure of any one staffer doesn't necessarily mean much. But at least some saw signifiance in the fact Vincent's departure came after longtime morning host Deborah Brandt left last winter.
Complaints tend to focus on Hansen's programming changes in the past couple of years.
Neither Hansen nor General Manager Wayne Roth have been reached by local media writing about the episode. A station spokesman said comment would have to wait until they returned next week.
Vincent detailed a number of changes under way – cutbacks to arts programs, elimination of The Writer's Almanac, a shift to more on-air comments from listeners rather than longer interviews, and a relentless effort to trim sentences. So it's no longer, "You're listening to KUOW. I'm Ken Vincent. It's 10:40. And the temperature outside is 54 degrees." It's now, "KUOW. Ken Vincent. 10:40. 54 degrees."
To an ordinary listener, this may seem a trivial grievance. But to Vincent, it's part of a pattern of draining personality and intimacy from the broadcast. Some see an attempt at making different hosts interchangeable and shifting from longer treatments to quick takes on topics, weighted to listener call ins.
If change is under way, it's coming slowly, at least to this listener, and it's certainly not driven by a sense of crisis. KUOW, by any measure, is a success.
From a modern suite of offices and studios in the University District, the station enjoys incredible reach and influence, especially on political leaders who know its listeners pay attention and vote.
Seattle newspapers might be losing readers, but KUOW is gaining audience, up 12 percent in 2006 for a total of 351,000 people who on average listen for eight hours a week. Last March, KUOW placed first in the winter radio ratings, the first time a public station has done so in a major market.
Ditto with finances. Operating support grew by 12 percent to $8.1 million.
While publications and commercial radio are trying to do more with less, KUOW acquired an AM station in Tumwater and an FM station in Tacoma. KUOW pushes content into HD radio, the Web, and iPods.
The gains in audience and money also come with prestige. Each year, KUOW wins a slug of awards, including a Peabody in April for reporter Ruby de Luna. The staff has a number of stars, including Steve Scher and Marcie Sillman.
So is there a problem?
I love KUOW, but you can only take so many programs on rain barrels or obscure politicians in British Columbia. If changes are under way, a focus on listener call-ins and the elimination of adverbs seems wrongheaded. Better to focus on finding ways to inject more energy and ideas into the broadcast. Tell me about how Portland deals with growth and traffic. Get me a truck driver to talk about life without the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Make a point about challenging conventional wisdom in our one-party town. For the Friday journalists roundtable, too often a bland soup, how about a visit from a reporter with the Puget Sound Business Journal?
So much about journalism is bad news. KUOW is the last best place. This listener is not looking for a revolution, just a surprise once in a while.
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Comments:
Posted Tue, Aug 28, 2:16 p.m. inappropriate
Missing Writers' Almanac and Pronouns: I will miss Writers' Almanac, which always brightened my afternoon, besides marking the hour and letting me know my liberal arts education was incomplete.
I know I shall also miss the verbs, pronouns and conjunctions in the announcer's speech. Public radio has always been known for its sonorous quality, and now they want us to enjoy staccato? It's like being told, "You need another jolt of coffee." Maybe we do, but I'd rather not, thank you.
Posted Tue, Aug 28, 5:05 p.m. inappropriate
Typical non-natives corrupting our local treasures: I pledge $94.90 to KUOW if they fire Jeff Hansen's non-native-seattle butt outta there. (next-up: KCTS has lost its local flavor too)
Posted Tue, Aug 28, 7:46 p.m. inappropriate
Why is commercial radio not copying KUOW?: It seems so obvious: a commercial station with interesting thoughtful talk.
Btw, Brewster forget Crosscut, as it is. This format won't work. Go manage the programming of a commercial radio station. Or even better, add a radio station to Crosscut. You'd find lots of investors for that. You have a wide-range of interest and good taste; you could give KUOW a real run, Most of the stuff they have is syndicated, anyway. You personally are just as good an interviewer as anyone on KUOW.)
Anyway, locally, KIRO starts to do it -- Dave Ross is excellent -- but it has too much suburban frat-boys hosts like Dori Monson (nothing personal Dori, you seem like a nice guy) and that late- afternoon duo, whatever they are called.
KUOW is NOT successful (at least by me) because it lacks ads. (KING-FM used to have them and they were tastefully-presented and totally benign; anyway -- KUOW has ads.)
I listen to KUOW because even though a lot of it is liberal piffle, it's the best we have going. Alas. When KUOW is the best we have. Sad.
Posted Wed, Aug 29, 7:55 a.m. inappropriate
KUOW Story Part of Long-Term Trends, Complainer Culture: I spent eight years in public radio, starting as a volunteer at KSOR-FM in Ashland, Ore., and ending as a reporter/producer at the Minnesota Public Radio station in Rochester, Minn. Though some of the details are different, the complaints about KUOW and public radio programming can be traced back to deregulation of broadcasting ownership and the cutbacks to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that started in the Reagan Administration in the early 1980s. Reagan wanted not-for-profit stations off the public teat, in large part because many of the stations -- largely owned by colleges and not-for-profits -- had left leanings.
In response, over the years, many stations and NPR moved their programming content toward the political center and they spent a lot of time and money polishing their style to make it more palatable to the mainstream. Both elements boosted the potential for increases in membership and corporate dollars, because government support slowly dried up. It's been a highly successful formula, as KUOW demonstrates. In other words, if public radio hadn't changed, it might've died or worse--become irrelevant.
The programming and style changes at KUOW are examples in this long process of mainstreaming public radio. Making individual programming pieces and hosts interchangeable has been happening in commercial radio for at least a decade, if not longer. Seen in context, the changes make a certain historical sense.
That doesn't mean I like the changes. This clipped, staccato style is noticeable, which is very BAD in radio. The whole point of a programming stream is that it should be seamlessly integrated into a person's daily experience. When it sticks out, it makes the listener uncomfortable, and they miss the content. Radio is an intimate, conversational medium. You can't have a "conversation" with someone. who. is. speaking. like. a. machine. gun. Imagine that kind of visit with a good friend over a coffee at Starbucks. It makes me tense just thinking about it.
And there's one important detail about media culture on the inside that's almost never discussed: media workers of all stripes are the world's most skilled complainers. I've worked in newspapers, radio, online media, and free-lance in magazines. If there's anything that media people have in common, it's that they are workplace grousers of the highest order. If they can bitch about something, they will. There are more prima donnas and whiners in newsrooms per capita than Hollywood, in my experience. Their issues may be valid, but they will always take their griping to an emotional level that makes celebrity temper tantrums look like sober conversation.
Posted Wed, Aug 29, 1:41 p.m. inappropriate
Music From the Swing Years!: If it wasn't for this show, which I've been a fan of forever, the overwhelming majority of my NPR listening would be via KPLU. I keep expecting KUOW to cancel it. In fact, lots of the shows I really used to like on public radio, like Music from the Hearts of Space and Radio Reader, are long gone.
Posted Wed, Aug 29, 8:39 p.m. inappropriate
All fluff all the time: It takes a lot to get a compulsive public radio listener like me to shut off my local station. Congratulations KUOW -- you've done it. The only time I tune in these days is when I'm stuck in traffic. I find that the bland format is an effective sedative. Ironically, the locally produced shows are among the worst. The call-ins, the gimmicky topics, the endless fluff stuff--it's not only mind-numbing, it's dirt cheap to produce. Now if they would just stop sending me membership renewal notices. It's been years guys, take a hint. I'll save my dollars for KBCS and KPLU, thanks.
Posted Thu, Aug 30, 10 a.m. inappropriate
All fluff all the time - correction!: I decided to try KUOW this morning since it's been awhile. First hour of Weekday, a discussion with WA state AG. No hard hitting questions, but not bad overall. Second hour, "What's in Your Fridge?" Time to turn the radio off again. At least they didn't ask Rob McKenna what's in his fridge!
Posted Thu, Aug 30, 11:09 a.m. inappropriate
Maybe this why: I have greatly reduced my KUOW time.
The Swing Years, ABSOLUTELY!
The Writer's Almanac, YOU BET!
BBC at 3 AM, sure what with its much better, not dumbed-down content.
BUT:
Open Source, gag me with a spoon since the host is never properly prepared for the discussions.
To the Point, no no what with the childish topics and poor preparation of the host.
The Beat, it has lost any consistency and direction it MIGHT have once had.
Call in programming, nope. Cheap, stupid topics, no effort to do.
There is lots of room for re-improvement here...
Posted Thu, Aug 30, 11:18 a.m. inappropriate
It's NPR thats to blame: I think the local station does an admirable job, Steve Scher is probably the best host of a local show in the country.
Other programming choices could be improved in my opinion, but I'm not inside so it's difficult to know what pressures they are under.
What really dives me nuts is NPR, every day it seems to be turning into Now Promoting Republicans. The reporting has become completely unhinged from
any concept of 'balance"
Posted Fri, Aug 31, 7:37 a.m. inappropriate
RE: It's NPR thats to blame: "Now Promoting Republicans" is a catchy phrase but it is not a reality-based statement. Our local KUOW is totally liberal and the only conservatives it ever shows are either also statist or are so stupid as to give anything non-liberal a bad name. KUOW has absolutely NO thoughtful conservative commentary, and while I agree that there is not much thoughtful conservative commentary available anywhere, there is some; but you won't hear on it KUOW, which serves its market well with un-challenging pablum.
The problem is not that KUOW is "liberal" (I'm a liberal, for god's sake) but that it is smug and self-satisfied.
I hope that doesn't sound too harsh but that's what I hear; KUOW is a perfect fit with the P-I and Seattle Times.
Posted Fri, Aug 31, 9:35 a.m. inappropriate
RE: It's NPR thats to blame: I completely agree, my point is that the national NPR 'news', All Things Considered and Morning Edition are either very slanted or completely lame in their execution.
Posted Sun, Sep 16, 8:54 a.m. inappropriate
Keep the Canadian Updates: I don't want to let pass Corr's dismissive view of KUOW's occasional spots featuring a reporter who summarizes political and other recent events in British Columbia. I always appreciate these reports, when I happen to hear them, as I know embarrassingly little about our neighbors to the North. This is the kind of story KUOW should be doing, just as much as stories about our neighbors to the South. Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland, or B.C., Washington, and Oregon all face common issues such as growth, transportation, immigration, global trade, and use of natural resources. We are interdependent and, to some degree, competitive with each other. KUOW's stories fill a role not well-served by other local media