December 2, 2004

WYSO continues to operate with a budget in the red

By Diane Chiddister

Last week Tim Tattan, the WYSO Public Radio program director, resigned from the station. The move left WYSO short-staffed at a time when it is also facing aging equipment, a declining listener base and a large deficit.

Tattan declined to comment on his resignation for this article.

Interim WYSO General Manager Joe Colvin said in an interview this week that Tattan left to take a new position in the Seattle area.

Asked about the station’s health, Colvin said that WYSO “is in very good shape, largely because of what Tim has done. He’s contributed greatly to our on-air sound, and without his work we wouldn’t be where we are.”

However, according to Arbitron figures obtained by the News, WYSO’s listenership has steadily declined since 2001, when the station enjoyed a peak in its listener base.

In the fall of 2001, the Arbitron figures show, average quarterly listeners per hour, or AQH, was about 2,300, compared to 2,000 in fall 2002, 2,100 in fall 2003 and 1,600 in spring 2004. In addition, in the fall of 2001, the cumulative number of persons, or the total reach of the station, was 52,000, compared to 48,900 in the spring of 2003 and 48,500 in the spring of this year, according to the Arbitron numbers.

The station’s average quarter hour share in the fall of 2001 was 1.9 percent, compared to 1.8 percent in the falls of 2002 and 2003 and 1.4 percent this fall, according to the Arbitron figures. The station’s cumulative rating was 5.8 percent in fall 2001 compared to 5.2 percent in fall 2003 and 4.5 percent this fall.

Colvin decline to comment on the Arbitron figures, though he did say that Arbitron numbers are private and not for public knowledge. However, the station currently publicizes its fall 2001 Arbitron figures on its Web site.

WYSO also faces a large deficit, according to Colvin’s June report to the Antioch University Board of Trustees.

At that time, the station’s deficit was about $86,000, although it will probably end up higher, according to Antioch University Vice Chancellor Glenn Watts, who said the books have not been officially closed for the last fiscal year.

At the end of the 2001–02 fiscal year, the station was in the black, according to the report to the trustees. However, the deficit rose to $123,474 at the end of 2002–03. Former WYSO General Manager Steve Spencer projected a $20,423 surplus in the station’s 2003–04 budget, but the actual numbers indicate WYSO had an $86,108 deficit, a difference of about $106,000.

Spencer, who resigned from the station last winter, had projected that in 2003–04 WYSO would raise $470,000 in gifts and memberships and $308,500 in business underwriting. However, last year the station fell short of that goal, bringing in $404,000 in gifts and $190,446 in underwriting. In 2001–02, the station raised $415,000 in gifts and $274,025 in underwriting support.

In its most recent fall fundraiser, WYSO raised about $135,000, or about 92 percent of its goal of $150,000, according to Colvin. That number is down compared to the fall 2003 fund drive, which raised $193,000, and the spring 2003 drive, which brought in $187,000.

The past three years have been tumultuous ones for WYSO, beginning in the winter of 2002, when Spencer cut a significant number of the station’s long-running volunteer-hosted programs and replaced most of them with syndicated programming and adult alternative music. The move sparked protest from many listeners, some of whom joined together to form Keep WYSO Local. While the group’s initial goal was the restoration of the volunteer-hosted programs, it later expanded its concerns to include what some perceived as Spencer’s arrogant management style. The group sponsored alternative fund drives for WYSO listeners who wanted to support the station but did not support Spencer’s changes.

Critics of Spencer also charged that the station’s increased use of syndicated programming, which is very expensive, has contributed to WYSO’s financial problems.

WYSO was rocked by a number of resignations in the following years, as a series of employees left the station, linking their moves to Spencer’s management style. News Director Aileen LeBlanc resigned in the fall of 2002, and the development director, Melodie Bennett, and engineer, Steve Lutz, also left, citing difficulties with Spencer. In the fall of last year WYSO announced that Vick Mickunas, the music director and popular radio host, had resigned, although Mickunas insisted that he had been fired.

When asked if the station’s declining listener base and fundraising activities indicate that Spencer’s program changes may have been a miscalculation of audience preferences, Watts said, “It could be. I wouldn’t rule it out. It could be that some of the music we’re playing is not what people want to hear.”

But Watts also said that it takes a while for program changes to result in increased listenership. In the past, Spencer indicated that it could take 18 months to two years for station changes to reap the rewards of higher listenership.

Watts said that “there are a lot of variables” influencing WYSO’s problems, including the economic recession of the past few years and a political shift to the right. He cited a recent report from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that examined difficulties faced by public stations nationwide.

“A lot of stations are struggling right now,” he said. “WYSO’s problems are not unique.”

However, employees of two area public radio stations contacted by the News reported that they are doing better than ever. Cleve Callison, the general manager of WMUB in Oxford, said that funds raised in the station’s recent fall fundraiser were up 31 percent from last year’s drive and WMUB has experienced a steady increase in listenership in the past four years.

“We’re happy with the way things are going,” he said.

Nationally, membership in public radio and television stations has dropped, according to Don Scott, the director of marketing at WOSU in Columbus. However, Scott said, WOSU still maintains a balanced budget because its members are pledging higher amounts. And while the station’s listenership has remained static for a number of years, Scott said, in the past year it has gone up, possibly due to programming changes WOSU made about a year ago.

Whatever the problems plaguing WYSO, Watts said, “I’m worried. I think everyone should be. It’s not inherently clear what should be done to make it more successful.”

No major decisions at WYSO will be made until a new general manager is hired, Watts said. Antioch, which holds WYSO’s broadcast license, will begin a search process soon, he said. Colvin, a former member of the WYSO Resource Board, is retired and not interested in the position, Watts said.

Colvin said that the station does not plan to hire a replacement for Tattan at this point. Rather, the staff will share the former program director’s duties, and Colvin will take on some of Tattan’s responsibilities.

The station is now one person short, Colvin said. The current staff is Niki Dakota, music director; “Morning Edition” host Linda Nelson; business manager Jacki Mayer; development specialists Yana Davis and John Castonguay; and production director and evening host Ted Butz.

Last spring Antioch University announced the formation of a WYSO Task Force, which is charged with identifying strategies to help strengthen the station. Co-chaired by media professionals Nan Rubin of New York City and David Crippens of Los Angeles, the task force also consists of Antioch University McGregor President Barbara Gellman-Danley, Keep WYSO Local member Bob Grubbs, Antioch College alumna Catherine Jordan, Antioch College professor Chris Hill, Dietrich Deirieu-Schulze, who recently graduated from Antioch, and Mayer.

The Task Force has met with many WYSO stakeholders, including WYSO staff and Resource Board members, members of Keep WYSO Local and many listeners from Yellow Springs and the Miami Valley, Rubin said in an interview. While the group intended to issue a final report to the Antioch trustees in October, its work was delayed by the unexpected death of Crippens’s father that month. The group will continue its charge soon and plans to report to the trustees at their February meeting, Rubin said.

Key to WYSO’s future health is the question of who will oversee the station once Watts, who is stepping down at Antioch later this month, no longer has that responsibility, Rubin said.

The station’s current difficulties indicate that it has suffered from poor leadership in the past, Rubin said, and the task force sees as a priority ensuring that WYSO “be positioned in a way of getting suitable oversight.”