Listeners of WSUI-AM 910 may have been surprised
in recent months to hear a morning program similar
to the station's Iowa Talks call-in program but with
a distinct flavor of...Iowa State University?
Yes, that definitely is ISU's Talk of Iowa, coming
through WSUI's airwaves from WOI in Ames. Since July
28, WOI's call-in program has been broadcast daily
on WSUI from 9 to 10 a.m., while WSUI's program,
now also called Talk of Iowa to avoid confusion,
is broadcast on both WSUI and WOI from 10 to 11 a.m.
It's the first joint arrangement in the nation between
public radio stations involving daily programs, says
Dennis Reese, WSUI program director. Reese and Dave
Becker, WOI program director, conceived the cooperative
effort after National Public Radio canceled a program
in the 9 a.m. slot on WOI. Becker, scrambling to
fill the vacant slot, called Reese—whom Becker met
when he was a student intern at WSUI.
WSUI, KSUI raise record-breaking $216,000 during
fall fund drive
Public radio stations WSUI-AM 910 and KSUI-FM 91.7 raised an all-time high of
$216,000 during their October fund drive through listener contributions.
“The drive is an opportunity to connect with our listeners,” says
Kaitlynn Lewis Voigt, marketing manager. ”It's a time to celebrate what
we do here and how important our listeners are to our team. They make our radio
stations thrive.”
The fall fund drive culminates in a weeklong, on-air campaign where listeners
call in and pledge their annual support of the stations. More than 100 volunteers
worked throughout the week to answer phones. WSUI and KSUI rely on semiannual
drives to support almost one-third of their annual operating budget.
“Our focus this drive was to reach out to new potential contributors while
celebrating the impact of our current donors,” Voigt says. ”They
really do make a difference and showed us again that they believe in public
radio.”
by George McCrory |
“As we talked, Dave had the idea: ‘Couldn't we broadcast our Talk of Iowa from 9 to 10 a.m. and then Iowa Talks from 10 to 11?’” Reese
recalls. ”I
thought it was a great idea. I'd love to take credit
for it, but that's not where the credit belongs.”
Becker says he can't claim credit, either.
“At a planning retreat last spring, WOI manager
Bill McGinley wondered aloud about merging our efforts
on Talk of Iowa to take advantage of our collective
resources and maybe build a bigger show,” Becker
says. ”My contribution was to race back to my
office and call Dennis to say, 'We want to air your
talk show, whether you want ours or not.' I was just
thrilled that he said yes.”
To carry off the change, WSUI had to order a second
Integrated Services Digital Network receiver that
allows the station to create a high-quality audio
link between Iowa City and Ames. That was the easy
part. It was another problem that caused some soul-searching,
Reese says.
“To carry Talk of Iowa in the 9 a.m. slot,
we had to cancel The Connection, which had been a
fixture here for years,” he says. ”WSUI
had been the first station outside the Boston area
to carry the program, and we were a test market for
how well it would run nationally. It was popular
with some of our listeners and we were happy with
it. So we really had mixed feelings. You hate to
lose an excellent program, but our schedule was jam-packed,
so to add this program we would have to drop something.”
Reaction for the most part has been positive, Reese
says.
“Some listeners have said that ISU's programming
is too 'land-grant,' not intellectual enough for
the Iowa City market,” Reese says. “But
Iowa City residents are calling both programs.”
Katherine Perkins, longtime host of the ISU program,
says she has been getting quite a few calls from
eastern Iowa that offer “a little different
perspective.”
“Each station is bringing its strengths to
the forefront in these programs,” she says. “The
University of Iowa has a state-of-the-art teaching
and research hospital and some of the best writers
in the world. We emphasize our science and technology
and extension topics. The programs give us a chance
to reach wider audiences.”
For example, listeners recently heard author Larry
Stone talking about his biography of Iowa naturalist
Sylvan Runkel on the ISU segment, followed by WSUI
host Dean Borg talking with University of Iowa Hospitals
and Clinics pediatrician Eva Tsalikian and ophthalmologist
John Sutphin about growth hormones and vision.
On another day, WOI's segment featured a group of
Iowa 4-H representatives discussing whether the organization
is still relevant today, followed by WSUI host Ben
Kieffer interviewing Benjamin Hunnicutt, professor
of leisure studies in the College of Liberal Arts
and Sciences, about how to “take back the time” from
excessive work and reclaim leisure activities.
WSUI's popular Talk of Iowa Live from the Java House,
which airs at 10 a.m. Fridays, continues to be part
of the new schedule and is broadcast to WOI listeners
as well. The program features live music, conversation,
and interviews with University experts on various
topics.
Several WSUI staff members host the University's
Talk of Iowa segments, including Reese, Borg, Kieffer,
Nancy Hagen, Barney Sherman, Al Kern, and Gayane
Torosyan. Reese says they've been “energized” by
the change and are putting more time into preparing
for their programs, knowing that they'll be heard
statewide and beyond. These segments are broadcast
to parts of Iowa far beyond WSUI's usual 150-mile-radius
daytime listening area.
ISU has three stations broadcasting the programs:
AM 640, which is heard statewide and in parts of
the Dakotas, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin,
and two FM stations in Carroll and Fort Dodge.
“We're picking up the corners of Iowa now that
we didn't reach before,” Reese says. “I've
been getting calls from places I've never heard of,
even though I thought I was something of an expert
on Iowa geography—Correctionville, for example, over
by Sioux City. This is exciting for our station.”
Since the new arrangement began, communication between
the two stations' staffs has expanded, Reese says.
“We have agreed to share the services of a
new PRI (Public Radio International) Capitol Hill
news bureau, which will send news stories from Washington,
D.C., that are relevant to Iowans,” he says. “We
will be able to ask the bureau to contact Sen. Tom
Harkin, for example, and ask him a specific question.
We would never have been able to afford that on our
own.”
Another probable outcome will be regular appearances
on Talk of Iowa by ISU President Gregory Geoffroy
and UI President David Skorton. Reese says the stations
intend to invite the presidents to come on the show
regularly to talk with callers. Gov. Tom Vilsack
was a guest of WOI in the first week of the new arrangement,
and that also is likely to continue, Reese says.
Becker describes the collaboration as a “win-win” situation
for both stations. While the cooperative agreement
is working well, there are no plans to expand it
into other areas of programming or to create an “Iowa
Public Radio” type of joint organization, Reese
says.
“IPTV (Iowa Public Television) covers the whole
state—that's different. We've been separate. If you
look at Minnesota Public Radio or Wisconsin Public
Radio, they're statewide. We're different. And while
we have two hours a day now when we'll be together,
the rest of the time WSUI and WOI will be doing their
own thing.”
by Anne Tanner
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