Use It Or Lose It

Public Radio: Use It or Lose It
Nicholas Johnson
The Gazette, April 9, 2022, p. 5A
I love radio. Always have. AM, shortwave, an amateur license, working for National Public Radio, and FCC.

Today’s NPR and Iowa Public Radio employees are the airwaves heroes in our civil war to save democracy.

Because 18-year-old Iowa Public Radio is currently celebrating its centennial, a little history is in order.

The first cross-Atlantic “wireless” transmission was 1901. Soon radio amateurs were building transmitters – as they have created communications innovations since. Launching communications satellites, bouncing signals off the moon, and making phone calls with hand-held radios long before your first smartphone.

Once their Morse Code gave way to the human voice the tussle began. Like Steve Martin’s Saturday Night Live routine, folks pointed to the talking box and asked, “What the hell is that?” Both the Navy and phone company fought for control.

Iowa’s President Herbert Hoover, as Secretary of Commerce 1921 to 1928, led the way, as homes with radios went from 300,000 to 10 million. Thirty stations became 618. The chaos of signal interference required regulation.
[Photo: wikimedia; accompanying text: "Photo of an American family in the 1920s listening to a crystal radio. From a 1922 advertisement for Freed-Eisemann radios in Radio World magazine. The small radio is on the table. Crystal sets work off the power received from radio waves, so they are not strong enough to power loudspeakers. Therefore the family members each wear earphones, the mother and father sharing a pair. Although this is obviously a professionally posed, promotional photo, it captures the excitement of the public at the first radio broadcasts, which were beginning about this time. Crystal sets like this were the most widely used type of radio until the 1920s, when they were slowly replaced by vacuum tube radios."]

Many nations responded with non-commercial-only, public (though not government) national broadcasting networks. Most famously, Britain’s BBC.

Congress called them “public airwaves,” but gave the FCC power to select and license private individuals’ use of them in “the public interest.” Hoover opposed “advertising chatter.” Even licensees urged “advertising in radio be absolutely prohibited.”

As commercialism took over radio, the push-back created “educational, non-commercial” stations. FCC’s first woman commissioner, Frieda Hennock, a Ukrainian, is credited with the reservation of educational TV channels. In 1945, the FCC reserved educational FM channels.

In 1911 engineering students and faculty at the University of Iowa got their “training school license,” 9YA, for their “wireless telegraph.” By 1916 free course material was broadcast in Morse Code. Later full licenses were granted for WHAA (1922) and WSUI (1925). By 1933 W9XK (later W9XUI) provided education via TV. WOI has similar history.

NPR began in 1971, and IPR in 2004 – the first step in a cutback in state support of Iowa’s university-licensed stations. This year the Board of Regents began the transfer of all broadcast licenses and property of university stations to IPR.

The Legislature no longer funds our universities to the extent it once did. (Now $389M less than 20 years ago, notwithstanding increasing costs.)

Meanwhile, the Golden Dome of Wisdom echoes with, “what have the universities done for us lately?”

Former UI President Sally Mason observed there are Iowans in “pockets where we may be less favorably viewed … a lot of them are west.” You think?

How sad the universities had an irreplaceable, invaluable statewide network of 26 stations – a public relations firm’s dream -- that could have told their story and won over legislators by helping small towns. University administrators, regents, legislators and governors failed to see its value.

It was “use it or lose it,” and now they’ve lost it. Happy Centennial.

Nicholas Johnson, a former FCC commissioner, lives in Iowa City. mailbox@nicholasjohnson.org

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Sources
My amateur radio license. N0EAJ, Aug. 20, 2027, https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchLicense.jsp

Working for NPR. Although I have never accepted payment from NPR, and thus would not be considered an "employee" in that sense, my involvement has included providing daily reports, and an hour-long special, regarding RAGBRAI, reports from presidential conventions on how the media covers conventions, and uncounted opinion pieces over the years.

History of radio, general. Erik Barnouw, three-volume “A History of Broadcasting in the United States.” A Tower of Babel (to 1933), vol. 1; The Golden Web (1933-1953), vol. 2; and The Image Empire (from 1953), vol. 3

“History of Radio,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_radio

Wireless in 1901. “Italian physicist and radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi succeeds in sending the first radio transmission across the Atlantic Ocean …. The message–simply the Morse-code signal for the letter “s”–traveled more than 2,000 miles from Poldhu in Cornwall, England, to Newfoundland, Canada.” “First radio transmission sent across the Atlantic Ocean, December 12, 1901,” This Day in History, December 12,” History, Feb. 9, 2010, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/marconi-sends-first-atlantic-wireless-transmission

Early amateurs. “The radio hobbyists, soon to be called radio amateurs, or ham operators, … were among the first to transform their hobby into the earliest broadcasting stations, and felt it was only proper they should be entrusted with radio’s future.[19] (Footnotes are to referenced sources in Nicholas Johnson, “Radio as Mysterious Miracle” in “The Origins and Future of Radio,” August 23, 2015, https://www.nicholasjohnson.org/writing/OriginsAndFutureOfRadio-150823.htm

Amateurs’ innovations. “Ham Radio History,” ARRL (American Radio Relay League), http://www.arrl.org/ham-radio-history

“The radio hobbyists, soon to be called radio amateurs, or ham operators, provided most of the early improvements in radio – as they continued to do with electronics generally throughout the Twentieth Century.[18] (Footnotes are to referenced sources in Nicholas Johnson, “Radio as Mysterious Miracle” in “The Origins and Future of Radio,” August 23, 2015, https://www.nicholasjohnson.org/writing/OriginsAndFutureOfRadio-150823.htm

Steve Martin’s routine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l5tpY6SXMc

Navy and phone company control. “There was little agreement as to what radio was, how it could be used, and who should control it. The Navy, having used and advanced radio technology during World War I, understandably saw radio as a form of military equipment properly controlled by them – with wireless telegraphy’s ability to provide rapid, where telegraph wires were not an option communication, between ships, and ship-to-shore.[15] Telegraph companies argued that anything called wireless telegraphy was obviously still telegraphy, and a private business inappropriate for military or other governmental operation.[16] Telephone companies, with comparable certainly, saw radio as an obvious extension of their businesses – and even more so once radio started to be used for broadcasting programming. After all, as early as the 1870s telephone companies in the U.S. and Europe were distributing music and other entertainment programming over telephone wires -- what we today might call cable radio.[17] The radio hobbyists, soon to be called radio amateurs, or ham operators, provided most of the early improvements in radio – as they continued to do with electronics generally throughout the Twentieth Century.[18] They were among the first to transform their hobby into the earliest broadcasting stations, and felt it was only proper they should be entrusted with radio’s future.[19] (Footnotes are to referenced sources in Nicholas Johnson, “Radio as Mysterious Miracle” in “The Origins and Future of Radio,” August 23, 2015, https://www.nicholasjohnson.org/writing/OriginsAndFutureOfRadio-150823.htm

Hoover, as Secretary of Commerce. “Secretary of Commerce (1921-1928” (5), “Radio regulation and air travel” (5.1), “Herbert Hoover,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Hoover

“Hoover's tenure as Secretary of Commerce heavily influenced radio use in the United States. In the early and mid-1920s, Hoover's radio conferences played a key role in the organization, development, and regulation of radio broadcasting. Hoover also helped pass the Radio Act of 1927….” Id., “Radio regulation and air travel” (5.1)

“Secretary Hoover went ahead with at least a frequency allocation scheme to bring a little order out of chaos and signal interference.[25]” Footnote links to Erik Barnouw, A History of Broadcasting in the United States, vol. 1, pp. 121-22, in Nicholas Johnson, “The Origins and Future of Radio,” lecture transcript, August 23, 2015, https://www.nicholasjohnson.org/writing/OriginsAndFutureOfRadio-150823.htm

Homes with radios. “Between 1923 and 1929, the number of families with radios grew from 300,000 to 10 million,[109].” “Radio regulation and air travel” (5.1), “Herbert Hoover,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Hoover

30 (1922) to 618 (1930) stations. “United States Broadcasting Station Totals[2],” chart in “Radio in the United States,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_in_the_United_States#cite_note-2

Signal interference -> regulation. “Secretary Hoover went ahead with at least a frequency allocation scheme to bring a little order out of chaos and signal interference.[25]” Footnote links to Erik Barnouw, A History of Broadcasting in the United States, vol. 1, pp. 121-22, in Nicholas Johnson, “The Origins and Future of Radio,” lecture transcript, August 23, 2015, https://www.nicholasjohnson.org/writing/OriginsAndFutureOfRadio-150823.htm

Other nations’ public networks. e.g., Sweden, Sveriges Radio AB (“The company – which was founded as AB Radiotjänst … on 21 March 1924 – made its first broadcast on 1 January 1925 ….”) Sveriges Radio, History, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sveriges_Radio

Japan, NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai) (“NHK's earliest forerunner was the Tokyo Broadcasting Station (東京放送局), founded in 1924 …. Tokyo Broadcasting Station … began radio broadcasts in 1925. The three stations merged under the first incarnation of NHK in August 1926.[6] NHK was modelled on the BBC ….”) NHK, History, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHK#Radio_broadcasting

BBC. “The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the national broadcaster of the United Kingdom. Headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, it is the world's oldest national broadcaster, and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees ….” “BBC,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC

Congress and “public airwaves.” “It is the purpose of this chapter, among other things, to maintain the control of the United States over all the channels of radio transmission; and to provide for the use of such channels, but not the ownership thereof, by persons for limited periods of time, under licenses granted by Federal authority, and no such license shall be construed to create any right, beyond the terms, conditions, and periods of the license.” 47 U.S.C. Sec. 301

“The public interest.” “if the Commission, upon examination of such application and upon consideration of such other matters as the Commission may officially notice, shall find that public interest, convenience, and necessity would be served by the granting thereof, it shall grant such application.” 47 U.S.C. Sec. 309(a)

Hoover “advertising chatter.” Then-Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover's oft-quoted objection was, "It is inconceivable that we should allow so great a possibility for service [for news, for entertainment, for education] to be drowned in advertising chatter." Herbert Hoover, The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Cabinet and the Presidency 140 (1952), quoted in Erik Barnouw, A Tower in Babel: A History of Broadcasting in the United States 96 (1966). (See, “Public Radio's Self-Inflicted Wounds,” FromDC2Iowa, Nov. 11, 2008, https://fromdc2iowa.blogspot.com/2008/11/public-radios-self-inflicted-wounds.html)

Licensees’ opposition to advertising. The licensees’ Recommendation III.E. provided, "It is recommended that direct advertising in radio broadcasting service be absolutely prohibited . . .." Report of Department of Commerce Conference on Radio Telephony, Rad. Serv. Bull., May 1, 1922. See Nicholas Johnson, "Forty Years of Wandering in the Wasteland," Federal Communications Law Journal, May 2003, p. 521, 527-28, n. 17, https://www.nicholasjohnson.org/writing/masmedia/55FCL521.html. (See, “Public Radio's Self-Inflicted Wounds,” FromDC2Iowa, Nov. 11, 2008, https://fromdc2iowa.blogspot.com/2008/11/public-radios-self-inflicted-wounds.html)

Frieda Hennock, first woman FCC. “Frieda Barkin Hennock (December 27, 1904–June 20, 1960) was the first female commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission and a central figure in the creation of an enduring system of educational television in the United States.” Frieda B. Hennock, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frieda_B._Hennock

Hennock Ukrainian. “Born in Kovel, then in the Russian Empire, now in Ukraine, the youngest of the eight children, she immigrated with her family to New York City in 1910 and became a US citizen in 1916 (in later life, she retained her fluency in Yiddish and continued to pray daily).[1]” Ibid.

Hennock educational TV. “Frieda Barkin Hennock, the woman credited with establishing educational television in the United States …. Returning to her work at the FCC, Hennock renewed her efforts on behalf of educational television. When the FCC's Sixth Report and Order was issued on April 11, 1952, it included 242 specific channel reservations for non-commercial television. Even though channels had been reserved for non-commercial use, Hennock realized that getting educational stations on the air was crucial in preserving those reservations…. Two years later [than 1953], when her term expired in mid-1955, over 50 non-commercial license applications had been filed and 12 stations were on the air.” “Hennock, Frieda B.,” Encyclopedia.com, https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/hennock-frieda-b-1904-1960

Reservation educational FM. “On May 24, 1940, the FCC had announced the establishment, effective January 1, 1941, of an FM radio band operating on 40 channels spanning 42–50 MHz, with the first five channels (42.1 to 42.9 MHz) reserved for educational stations ….” [1] “On June 27, 1945, the FCC announced the reassignment of the FM band to 80 channels from 88–106 MHz, which was soon expanded to 100 channels from 88–108 MHz.[6][7].” “List of the initial commercial FM station assignments issued by the Federal Communications Commission on October 31, 1940,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_initial_commercial_FM_station_assignments_issued_by_the_Federal_Communications_Commission_on_October_31,_1940

“Commercial broadcasting is licensed only on channels 221 through 300 (the upper 80 channels, frequencies between 92.1 and 107.9 MHz), with 200 through 220 (the lower 21 channels, frequencies between 87.9 and 91.9 MHz) reserved for non-commercial educational (NCE) broadcasting.” “FM broadcasting in the United States; History,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FM_broadcasting_in_the_United_States

“In 1945, in recognition of the differing needs of educators and commercial broadcasters, FCC policy had set aside 20 FM radio channels for educational use.” “Hennock, Frieda B.,” Encyclopedia.com, https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/hennock-frieda-b-1904-1960

UI’s 9YA license. David McCartney, “Old Gold: WSUI Radio Marks a Century on the Air,” Iowa Magazine, March 13, 2020, https://magazine.foriowa.org/story.php?ed=true&storyid=1930

“WSUI,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WSUI Google search: History of radio at University of Iowa

Morse Code education. “Wireless Education Latest Undertaking,” The State University of Iowa News Letter, vol. 2, no. 8, Nov. 18, 1916, http://wsui.info/historicArchives/lessonsByWireless-Nov%201916.pdf

“WSUI,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WSUI Google search: History of radio at University of Iowa

WHAA and WSUI. “WSUI,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WSUI Google search: History of radio at University of Iowa

Educational TV. “WSUI,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WSUI

NPR origins. “WSUI,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WSUI

IPR origins. “Iowa Public Radio was created in 2004 by the Iowa Board of Regents ….” “Our History; About IPR,” Iowa Public Radio, https://www.iowapublicradio.org/about-ipr “Iowa Public Radio Final Report,” Bornstein and Associates, Nov. 2004, https://web.archive.org/web/20070925223230/http://www2.state.ia.us/regents/Meetings/DocketMemos/04Memos/dec04/FinalReport.pdf

Board of Regents transferring stations. Grant Gerlock, “Board of Regents Proposal Would Transfer Broadcast Licenses from Universities to Iowa Public Radio,” Iowa Public Radio,” Feb. 15, 2022, https://www.iowapublicradio.org/ipr-news/2022-02-15/board-of-regents-proposal-would-transfer-broadcast-licenses-from-universities-to-iowa-public-radio

Andrew Wind, “Board of Regents initiates asset transfer to Iowa Public Radio,” The Courier, Feb. 27, 2022, https://wcfcourier.com/news/local/education/board-of-regents-initiates-asset-transfer-to-iowa-public-radio/article_6a3615a8-3998-5549-8670-914047f6038c.html

Decline in legislature support. Adjusted for inflation, the $506M appropriation in 1999 would be $875M today. In fact, the 2022 appropriation was $486M -- $389M less than 20 years ago, notwithstanding the increases in costs. “This fiscal year’s allocation of just over $486 million is nearly $20 million less than the state gave to public universities in 1999 — not adjusted for inflation. To put that into scale: $100 in 1999 would have the same buying power as about $173 in 2022.” Katie Akin, “Proposed GOP budget for state universities is less than 20 years ago,” Iowa Capital Dispatch, March 27, 2022, https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2022/03/27/proposed-gop-budget-for-state-universities-is-less-than-20-years-ago/

Sally Mason “less favorably viewed.” "U of I's Mason on Other Topics," Des Moines Register, February 11, 2013 (reproduced in, “Self Help for a Helpful University,” FromDC2Iowa, March 1, 2003, https://fromdc2iowa.blogspot.com/2013/03/self-help-for-helpful-university.html)

26 stations. “This statewide public radio network (a total of 26 stations) ….” “Our History; About IPR,” Iowa Public Radio, https://www.iowapublicradio.org/about-ipr

Things universities could have done. See, e.g., "Are the Iowa Universities' Stations No Longer 'Educational," April 2, 2013, https://fromdc2iowa.blogspot.com/2013/04/are-iowa-universities-stations-no.html (with embedded, “Public Universities Not Using Radio Well,” The Gazette, March 28, 2013, p. A5);
“Self Help for a Helpful University,” FromDC2Iowa, March 1, 2013, https://fromdc2iowa.blogspot.com/2013/03/self-help-for-helpful-university.html;
"War On Sabbaticals Casualty of Iowa Public Radio; Universities Should Use Their Stations to Tell Story," December 13, 2010, https://fromdc2iowa.blogspot.com/2010/12/war-on-sabbaticals-casualty-of-iowa.html;
“Public Radio's Self-Inflicted Wounds,” FromDC2Iowa, Nov. 11, 2008, https://fromdc2iowa.blogspot.com/2008/11/public-radios-self-inflicted-wounds.html

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Tags: amateur radio, BBC, centennial, educational stations, FCC, Frieda Hennock, Herbert Hoover, Iowa, IPR, NPR, radio history, regents, Sally Mason, University of Iowa, WOI, WSUI

Self Help for a Helpful University

March 1, 2013, 11:00 a.m.

See also on this topic: "Are the Iowa Universities' Stations No Longer 'Educational," April 2, 2013; "War On Sabbaticals Casualty of Iowa Public Radio; Universities Should Use Their Stations to Tell Story," December 13, 2010; "Commercializing Non-Commercial Radio; IPR's 'Enhanced Underwriting,'" November 19, 2010

A University That Wants to Be Helpful . . .

One of the things that we’ve spent some time with ... is looking at pockets where we may be less favorably viewed, and that’s where I’m going to spend a lot of time and attention. A lot of them are west.

I need to do the best job I can to deliver a message that says we are a university that wants to be helpful to the entire state.

-- University of Iowa President Sally Mason
"U of I's Mason on Other Topics," Des Moines Register, February 11, 2013

. . . Back In Its Own Backyard

Oh, you can go to the East
Go to the West
But someday you'll come
Weary at heart
Back where you started from

-- Billy Rose, lyricist, "Back in Your Own Backyard" (1928); Lyrics from eLyrics.net

As interpreted by Dean Martin:



You can probably understand why a blogger who went to the East (Washington, D.C.), went to the West (Berkeley, California), and 30 years ago came back where he started from (Iowa City), and then named his blog "FromDC2Iowa," would perhaps choose those lyrics.

But what does "back in our own backyard" have to do with the University of Iowa's problems?

Because I can imagine how Jon Stewart would describe the UI dilemma on "The Daily Show":

"You're what? You're trying to figure out how to get the University's story to the people of Iowa and their elected representatives?!" And then, mugging, raising his voice, and looking incredulous, But you OWN a statewide radio network that blankets the state with 21 frequencies, broadcasts 24/7/365, reaches 200,000 opinion leaders, and is worth tens of millions of dollars!! Why aren't you using THAT?"

(The FCC's Web site lists the licensee for WSUI-AM as THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA and for W0I-FM as IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY. Bear in mind, these are licensed to be "educational radio stations," with the special privileges that status carries. [Photo credit: WSIE-FM.]

WSUI, originally 9YA, was one of the first radio stations west of the Mississippi when it began broadcasting 100 years ago this year, in 1913. Ironically, it was soon doing what I am now advocating -- using the facility to bring information about the University to the people of Iowa. WSUI was also an early innovator in the use of educational television, video broadcasting from the University's classrooms in the 1920s, if I recall correctly. "Early History of WSUI." And see, "Statewide Iowa Public Radio Service," Engage the Audience: Iowa Public Radio Annual Report, 2011, p. 11, and "About Us," Iowa Public Radio.)

In fairness, we've tried everything to get our message to Iowans except for using our own radio stations. We hired an extraordinarily well-paid Vice President for Strategic Communications. We have a Faculty Engagement Corps, a traveling busload of faculty sent out to discover that there is more to Iowa than "the People's Republic of Johnson County" -- while demonstrating for our fellow Iowans how human professors really are. We have a Web page, numerous publications and news releases.

We've even tried commercials during our football games:



An irony you may have missed in that fast moving bit of video is the fraction-of-a-second portrayal of one of Iowa's most distinguished, accomplished, and energetic professors: Dr. Jerald L. Schnoor. (Among a great many other things, Jerry holds a chair in the College of Engineering, is a professor of both Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Occupational and Environmental Health, Co-Director of the Center for Global & Regional Environmental Research, Researcher in the Center for Biocatalysis and Bioprocessing, and Editor-in-Chief of the Environmental Science and Technology Journal.)

Why the irony? For two reasons. (1) Unlike the University itself, Dr. Schnoor is using radio broadcasting to serve the people of Iowa; and (2), because the University's use of its own radio network (for university purposes) is lying fallow, he has had to use a loose network of over 200 commercial radio stations to carry his broadcasts.

I sometimes listen to the radio in the middle of the night. On one occasion, when I'd already heard the BBC's news two or three times, I started scanning the commercial stations and caught one of his one-minute "programs." When I asked him about them, he was quick to credit Iowa State Senator Joe Bolkcom for his early participation in the idea, and journalism students who help with production. But it's Professor Schnoor's voice and energy and commitment to the environment that radiate along with those broadcasts.

Now in its fourth year, recent items included "No Plastic Bag Ban for Iowa City," January 7, 2013; "Drake University Aims to Become a More Sustainable Campus," January 14, 2012; "Des Moines Gets Greener," January 21, 2013; Governor proposes plan to reduce [Iowa's impact on the Gulf of Mexico's] dead zone," January 28, 2013; "Sierra Club complaint leads to cleaner air in Iowa," February 4, 2013; and "University of Iowa Uses Local Pine Trees as Biofuel," February 11, 2013. This project's Web site, where you can find both audio and transcripts of the programs, is "On the Radio," Iowa Environmental Focus. (The home page for Iowa Environmental Focus, of which "On the Radio" is but one of many projects, is Iowa Environmental Focus: Environmental News and Analysis with an Iowa Focus, A Project of the University of Iowa Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research. The Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research has its own story well worth telling.)

But it is not the point of this blog entry to discuss environmental policy, Dr. Schnoor, the Iowa Environmental Focus activities, or the content of recent broadcasts from its "On the Radio" project. The point is that this project is proof that Iowa's state universities not only can, but in the case of Iowa Environmental Focus already are, demonstrating, with radio, what it means to be, in President Mason's words, "a university that wants to be helpful."

To "deliver a message that says we are a university that wants to be helpful," or to run 30-second commercials during football games reminding viewers that the University of Iowa is engaged in at least some additional activities elsewhere than in its hospital or on the football field -- and that, by the way, we really think we're a pretty great university -- is not going to cut it. It's not messages, or commercials, or information and brags (e.g., "About Iowa", and "Facts at a Glance"), that the University needs to win the hearts and minds of Iowans -- any more than our drone strikes are winning the hearts and minds of Pakistanis and Afghans. ("Home Grown Drones," February 16, 2013.)

As Alan Jay Lerner's lyrics to My Fair Lady's song, "Show Me," put it (albeit in a somewhat different context):

Never do I want to hear another word
There isn't one I haven't heard
. . .
Say one more and I'll scream

Sing me no song, read me no rhyme
Don't waste my time, show me

Those Missourians to the south of us are not the only ones who say, "show me."

So, let's show 'em. What do we have to show? How about starting by our reviewing one of our Web pages that is already available but seldom viewed, with its seven categories of "Resources for Iowans"? Better yet, the expanded "A-Z Resources for Iowans" list of over 140. Almost every one of those is a story to tell, along with some specifics as to how Iowans can go about benefiting from it.

I've posted on this blog my own evaluations of Iowa in general and the University of Iowa in particular from time to time; portions of them may also be of some use in explaining how we can be, and are, helpful to the rest of the state. They may also be helpful in providing those UI faculty, staff and students who come from out of state (or whom we are urging to do so) additional insight into their new home. "Taking the Bloom From My Rose; Another Perspective on Stephen Bloom's Iowa," December 16, 2011; "'We're Number One!' What's Your City's Ranking? And Why Rankings Are Silly," December 22, 2011; "What Do You See . . . When You Look at Iowa," December 27, 2011.

A few years ago I urged the University to abandon its old black-and-white "news releases" for a full-color Web page/email delivery more like what the big boys use in the 21st Century. I doubt that suggestion had any impact on anyone, but we now have a format more to my liking -- and hopefully that of other Iowans and the news media. Of course, much of the University news in "Iowa Now" is by, for and about UI faculty and students. But not all. It wouldn't require that much additional effort, staff and money to pluck the stories of relevance to all Iowans, those describing the help we're offering them and how they can get it, and put them into an additional "publication" we could send to the county weeklies all across the state.

When I was a Washington official I was a fan of Sarge Shriver, who was somehow capable of running both the Peace Corps and the War on Poverty for President Johnson. One of the very successful things he did in winning congressional support for his programs was a model I used then, and the University of Iowa could use (more than it does now) with the Iowa Legislature. The announcements of newly accepted Peace Corps volunteers came, not from his office, but from the office of the Member of Congress from whose district that volunteer came. The President, and Shriver, would of course notify ahead of time, and include, Members whose districts they would be visiting. I, or a member of my staff, would notify Members before I would be doing TV interviews, making speeches, or otherwise involved in their districts, and ask if there was anything I could do for them while I was there. (President Johnson told his presidential appointees that the most important appointment they would ever make was their congressional liaison.) Presumably, Iowa legislators would be equally appreciative of such attention, and county weeklies would (at least some of the time) be interested in running news about local residents with UI ties.

In fact, it turns out we have quite a bit of information about the University's presence in Iowa's 99 counties, available through our "Outreach" Web page. To try it out, I picked "Ida County" in northwest Iowa, because that was home for my mother's side of the family (and where a cousin and his wife still live). It's closer to Nebraska and South Dakota than Iowa City, and one of Iowa's smallest counties; with a population a little over 7,000 it ranks 92nd out of Iowa's 99 counties. And yet even Ida County is receiving services from the University of Iowa -- whether its residents are fully conscious of that fact or not.

Alumni: 80% of Iowa's dentists, 50% of doctors, 47% of pharmacists are UI educated; 80% of the 300-plus school districts have UI-educated teachers and administrators. Ida County has 62 Iowa alums, including 4 teachers/administrators, 2 doctors, 2 pharmacists, and 1 dentist. There are 19 undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Iowa from Ida County.

Health care: at The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, 191 Ida County residents; from the UI Outreach Specialty Clinics and UI Home Care (a visiting nursing program), 14; and the State Hygienic Laboratory at the University of Iowa performed 311 tests in Ida County.

President Mason correctly notes, as quoted above, that there are "pockets where we may be less favorably viewed, and that’s where I’m going to spend a lot of time and attention. A lot of them are west."

So what do we do about that?

Let's start by putting up some repeaters (cheap radio signal transmitters) in western Iowa, sufficient to put a signal from what is now Iowa Public Radio over the 35 westernmost counties. And don't tell me we can't afford it, when we seem to have multiple multi-million-dollar construction projects underway almost continually. We're not talking about additional studios and staff here, just some relatively cheap repeaters.

There would then be no limitations to what we could program -- except for the limitations of our own imaginations. We might start with one-minute informative pieces about those 35 counties (like the information, above, from Ida County), rotated throughout the week or month. I'm not talking about eliminating NPR programming like "Morning Edition," "All Things Considered," or "Talk of the Nation" from the stations, or the Iowa-oriented news programming the talented but overworked staff is already doing. I'm just suggesting at least some one-minute bits, analogous to what Jerry Schnoor is doing, for starters. Not brags about how great the University is, or scholarship that few listeners would even understand, let alone find engaging or useful. Stories conveying information about existing UI programs and services some of their neighbors are already using, and that they might find helpful.

Ideally, what I'd like to see would be some interactive programming focused on Iowa's small towns' challenges. Bring together the expertise of the University of Iowa, Iowa State, and University of Northern Iowa with remote feeds, along with selected officials and opinion leaders from one or two towns, and broadcast the discussion over the radio. Maybe as a series; maybe as a one-off on various topics, with different experts and towns. Let the towns' people pick the topics; what would they like help with from this "helping university"? Cleaning up rivers and streams? Building tourism? Providing entrepreneurial opportunities, or jobs -- especially for the young folks now leaving town? Using streams to generate hydroelectric power? Attracting doctors, teachers and other professionals? Installing, and optimizing the healthcare, educational, and other benefits of broadband Internet access? How to make their local school boards, and administrations, more effective? The potential topics are virtually endless.

Trying to do this by involving all Iowans with conferences, travel, lodging and food expenses, would be a nightmare to organize and probably far more time consuming and expensive than anyone would find acceptable. Doing it over a pre-existing radio network is essentially incremental-cost free (aside from the time of the participants). And once the word spread, any Iowan interested in the topic could follow it with a radio in a tractor, shop, kitchen, car, while walking, or wherever else that listening -- and calling in their questions and comments -- is consistent with whatever else they're doing.

The positive impact could be multiplied further if the state's major newspapers could be encouraged to provide background material, coverage, and follow-up online and in their hard copy editions. Certainly some of the discussions could be incorporated into K-12 and undergraduate instruction.

Some say this is a lost cause. I must confess, I have been talking and writing about this for years with no indication much of anyone was even listening, let alone responding; e.g., "Public Radio's Self-Inflicted Wounds," November 11, 2008; "Commercializing Non-Commercial Radio; IPR's 'Enhanced Underwriting,'" November 19, 2010, embedding Nicholas Johnson, "The Commercialization of Non-Commercial Radio," The Prairie Progressive, December 2010, p. 2 (distributed November 17, 2010); "War On Sabbaticals Casualty of Iowa Public Radio; Universities Should Use Their Stations to Tell Story," December 13, 2010.

However, with the recent departure of Iowa Public Radio's CEO, Mary Grace Herrington, Jens Manuel Krogstad, "Iowa Public Radio CEO is Fired," Des Moines Register, February 26, 2013, this is an opportunity for the University of Iowa, and the Board of Regents, to rethink how this precious asset can be put to better use.

The point is that when a public university owns, and has access to, a statewide network of radio stations that any broadcasting company would kill to own, and it feels the need to better communicate to the people of its state, one would think radio broadcasting would be one of the first things it would turn to as at least a partial solution to its problems.

It is, after all folks, a solution that is "back in your own back yard" -- as now explained by Billie Holiday (1938):

As interpreted by Billie Holiday (1938):

You'll find your happiness lies
Right under your eyes
Back in your own backyard

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Public Radio's Self-Inflicted Wounds

November 11, 2008, 8:15 a.m.; November 12, 2008, 7:25 a.m.; November 18, 2008, 7:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m. (Robert Dana's op ed column; comment on Daily Iowan story); November 20, 2008, 6:30 a.m. (The Gazette editorial); November 21, 2008, 11:30 a.m. (shock and awe from UN support)

"Dead From Prairie Lights" -- The Sequel

[Editorial cartoon credit: The Press-Citizen's talented Bob Patton; "Prairie Lights, Unplugged," Posted November 11, 2008, 4:05 p.m. CST, published November 12, 2008, p. A18.]

November 21: "Shock and Awe": The IPI terrorists have dug in and show no signs of being moved by the surge of support for "Live From Prairie Lights."

They've left the show's supporters no option but to appeal to the United Nations for assistance. Thankfully, notwithstanding the UN's obligations in the Democratic Republic of Congo at the moment, UNESCO has not only responded to the supporters' appeal, but done so with dispatch. Chris Rhatigan, "Iowa City a 'City of Literature;' First American city designated by UNESCO," Iowa City Press-Citizen, November 21, 2008, p. A1:

"The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, has designated Iowa City as the world's third City of Literature. It is the first American city to be awarded with the distinction. It also becomes part of UNESCO's Creative Cities Network, which includes major world cities like Berlin, Buenos Aires, Seville and Montreal."

If this UN bunker-buster isn't enough to shake some sense into Iowa Public Radio, I've been told the "Live From Prairie Lights" supporters have already received some positive response from the feelers they've sent out to the Vatican regarding possible intercession by the Pope. (And see, Mary Harrington, "Iowa City Named World's Third City of Literature," The Daily Iowan, November 21, 2008, p. A1 [headlined in the print edition as, "IC Officially Literary; Iowa City is now a City of Literature, Joining Just Two Others Areas Globally"].

Hopefully the IPI "senior team" will come to recognize the distinction, eventually pressed upon our President and his approach to his unprovoked invasion of Iraq, between steadfastness of purpose and dumb-stubborn.

IPI Senior Team: Bring back "Live From Prairie Lights" and this blog will award you a "Hats Off Award" for maturity. Otherwise, if you won't respond to the United Nations you're going to be confronting God Herself.

November 20: The "coalition of the willing" expands, and "the surge" presses on against the terrorists of IPI, with The Gazette's editorial this morning:

They told us this could happen, but it hurt when Iowa Public Radio announced last week it had canceled “Live from Prairie Lights” after an 18-year run. It’s just the kind of change listeners feared when state regents announced the merger of Iowa’s university radio stations a few years ago.

We understand programming changes will continue as Iowa Public Radio works to serve a statewide audience, but we want public radio decision-makers to remember it’s the local content that makes the public’s stations special. . . .

“Live from Prairie Lights” was uniquely Iowa City and uniquely Iowa — the kind of show we can’t buy on syndication and the kind of show that can only be supported by a public station.

IPR can’t base all its programming decisions on bringing 100,000 listeners to any given show. It also must support shows that can’t exist anywhere else. . . .

Editorial, "Keep the local in Iowa Public Radio," The Gazette, November 20, 2008, p. A4.

November 18: Like Treasury Secretary Paulson's bailout plans, the loss of "Live From Prairie Lights" is the theft that keeps on giving -- faceless, bean-counting bureaucrats, without consultation, steal our valuable, local, public radio program, but thereby stimulate a vigorous community discussion and re-commitment to our literary traditions. So, for the latest in the saga of "How many IPR Executives does it take to screw 'Prairie Lights,'" Robert Dana joins the team of Iowa's Poet Laureates who are modifying Eleanor Roosevelt's advice and lighting candles while cursing the darkness. Robert Dana, "Nothing else like 'Prairie Lights,'" Iowa City Press-Citizen, November 18, 2008, p. 9A ("[C]anceling this historic, intelligent show in favor of lighter fare with more listenership seems to be just one more step in the commercialization and general dumbing down of Iowa Public Radio. . . . Put simply, the present brain trust of IPR has no real sense of the literary value of Iowa City, of the University of Iowa and its writing programs or of 'Live from Prairie Lights." Nor of its pervasive influence in Iowa and elsewhere in the world. Or IPR knows and really doesn't care, preferring to believe in dollar signs and statistics.").

And, speaking of lighting candles, the following comment appeared this morning on The Daily Iowan's site in connection with its earlier story about the cancellation:

"posted 11/18/08 @ 1:24 AM CST

"This is really unfortunate. I first caught Live from Prairie Lights back in the mid-90s when I was living in Arkansas - the show used to be syndicated in a handful of markets around the country, and I never missed it. I ended up living in Iowa City for about 5 years, and attended maybe 50 or 60 readings live. Since leaving, I catch the show almost every week via the Internet.

"I can only hope that this isn't some harbinger of the end of Prairie Lights as well (I still wear my now very faded T-shirt proudly). I'll light a candle tonight for the independent book sellers everywhere."

November 12: Yesterday's blog entry, below, inspired by Iowa Public Radio's cancellation of "Live From Prairie Lights," dealt with the history of educational radio in general and WSUI in particular, the original mission of these stations, and what I believe to be the unfortunate consequences of decades of deviation from that mission -- for which the death of "Live From Prairie Lights" is only the latest example.

Given the rather substantial amount of interest in the subject, including the number of hits on the blog yesterday, I'm going to retain it as today's entry as well.

Since then, in addition to Bob Patton's editorial cartoon, above, the Press-Citizen has entered the fray, again, with a lengthy and thoughtful evaluation of its own: Editorial, "A chance to do more with Iowa City's strong literary relationships," Iowa City Press-Citizen, November 12, 2008, p. A18, noting, among other things, the irony of the literary program's cancellation "At a time when UNESCO is almost ready to designate Iowa City as a 'City of Literature.'" (And see this morning's letter, Judy Hendershot, "IPR No Longer Serving Our Needs," Iowa City Press-Citizen, November 12, 2008, p. A18.)

It might also have mentioned in this connection the local "Stories Project." I (and the Project's leaders themselves) have serious questions about it. Nicholas Johnson, "Tell Me a Story: The Stories Project," August 30, 2008. So I don't mean this reference to be either "endorsement" or "opposition." But it is further evidence of the extent to which local residents think of themselves as a literary community, and would like others to think of them that way as well.

Yesterday's blog entry focused on Iowa Public Radio's Jonathan Ahl (check out his blog at http://ahlthingsconsidered.blogspot.com/) simply because his was the name associated with the cancellation in the press. At 12:07 p.m. yesterday he added a comment, below, explaining that the decision was, in fact, made by the "unanimous IPR senior team." It's not clear to me whether that makes the program's death sentence better or worse in terms of the concerns I and others have raised, but it's certainly understandable why he would not want to take Ahl of the responsibility for it.

At 2:32 p.m. he added another comment, below, saying, "To be clear, I agree with most of the philosophies and positions that you lay out in this blog."

As the Press-Citizen reports, however, agreement with "philosophies" is unlikely to be translated into a reassessment of IPR's pragmatic dilemmas or program preferences.

I am not a radio program creator or producer, but as a listener it seems to me there is a distinction between what I will call the category of "magazine programming," such as NPR's "Morning Edition" and the afternoon "All Things Considered," and IPR's "The Exchange" and "Talk @ 12," on the one hand, and what I will call "subject specific programming," such as "On the Media," "Car Talk," and "Speaking of Faith." It is noteworthy that, after a quick look at the WSUI schedule I don't see any subject specific programming being produced by IPR -- except for "Live From Prairie Lights." And now that is to be cancelled. If this is more than a coincidence it might be something the "IPR senior team" would want to rethink some time.

As mentioned in yesterday's entry, below, the BBC runs circles around American radio -- NPR as well as commercial -- by any and all measures, so it may not be totally useful to choose it as a benchmark. But it's nonetheless both fair and relevant to note that among the BBC World Service's 58 programs listened to by citizens around the world on all continents is its literary program, "World Book Club."

Coming up with a program format that is both sufficiently substantive to avoid embarrassment for an "educational" radio station, and sufficiently interesting to hold an audience, is not easy. I don't mean to pretend that it is.

But it is inconceivable to me, given Iowa City's resources, that it would be impossible to come up with a successful program with a literary focus.

Distinguished writers from around the world are in residence as part of the UI "International Writing Program" -- indeed some of them are on the Press-Citizen's op ed page this very morning. More writers are here for the "Iowa Writers Workshop" two-year residency program. There are other writers who make Iowa City their home. There are the professors who work with these programs. There are the authors whom the book publishers are happy to send here to speak, sign, and sell books -- formerly as a part of "Live From Prairie Lights." Most of the heavy hitter lecturers who are brought to campus are also authors. There are innovative programs teaching writing -- a need throughout Iowa's schools -- in our K-12 schools, and university (including our law school). There would be reports on the progress of the "Stories Project."

As I say, it is inconceivable that there is not somehow, some way, to draw upon all of these resources (and the more creative ideas from those whose profession it is to come up with creative programming ideas) to come up with a successful literary program from one of the world's few, and great, "cities of literature."

In the 1930s most radio programs were broadcast before live audiences -- as are some videotaped situation comedy TV shows today. "A Prairie Home Companion" and "Michael Feldman's 'Whad'ya Know?'" are two examples of that old model carried by IPR. The only locally produced audience radio shows that immediately come to mind are Ben Kieffer's "Java Blend" -- and "Live From Prairie Lights." So that's another reason why killing "Live From Prairie Lights" will be a significant loss in the IPR offering.

Here is the blog entry as it appeared yesterday morning, November 11:
__________
Jonathan Ahl, Iowa Public Radio's News Director, arrived in Iowa from out of state less than four months ago. However, he feels he already knows enough about Iowa, Iowa City, and the University of Iowa's role in the history of broadcasting, to kill one of the most uniquely creative and educational radio programs to come out of this literary community: "Live From Prairie Lights." Peter Gustin, "IPR kills 'Live from Prairie Lights,'" Daily Iowan, November 10, 2008, A1.

"Live From Prairie Lights" was a community event -- whether you went to the talk while it was being broadcast, or listened from home. It got folks into an independent bookstore (as distinguished from Wal-Mart's book selection or those of the chains). It gave authors and publishers a little more of a chance to make it in this electronic age. It gave readers a chance to meet the authors, buy their books, and get their autograph, in a social setting where they could visit with neighbors with similar interests.

Of course, once the likes of Jonathan Ahl decided that a program that included "live" in its name could just as well be taped and broadcast at off-peak times, needless to say the program lost some of its allure and role in the community and in the world of books.

Its recently announced death is reminiscent of the fate of the news anchor, in Paddy Chayefsky's 1976 movie "Network": "Howard Beale, the first person in the history of television to be killed for bad ratings."

For that is apparently the crime that prompted Judge Ahl to unilaterally hand down the death sentence for this extraordinary program. See Jeff Charis-Carlson, "'Live from Prairie Lights' no longer," Iowa City Press-Citizen, November 10, 2008, p. A11 (an interview with Ahl). For a contrary view see this morning's op ed column, Marvin Bell, "Some dim bulbs at public radio," Iowa City Press-Citizen, November 11, 2008, p. A9.

WSUI-AM was not only one of the nation's first educational radio stations, it was one of the country's first radio stations, period. ("WSUI had its beginning in 1919 in the basement of the University of Iowa Physics Building. Starting with the operation of a 10-watt transmitter under the call sign 9YA, the station is the oldest educational broadcasting station west of the Mississippi River, making the University of Iowa a pioneer in public broadcasting.") Not incidentally, the University of Iowa also played a major role in the early development of television.

Educational AM radio stations, and subsequently those located on the FM frequencies we set aside for "educational" FM stations (such as KSUI-FM) were to have four characteristics:

1. An extension of the educational mission of the university, providing educational programming for Iowans who are not, as well as those who are, enrolled as students

2. Local programming, drawing from, and designed to serve, the needs, tastes and interests of its community of license

3. Stations operated under the supervision of, and financially supported by, their licensees: a university or other educational institution

4. Programming and announcements devoid of ties to commercial institutions or commercialism

This Friday, November 14, will mark the 86th anniversary of the first broadcast from the BBC. The man who set its tone, and served as its director-general from 1922 to 1938, Lord John Reith, "envisaged an independent British broadcaster able to educate, inform and entertain the whole nation, free from political interference and commercial pressure." "History of the BBC."

The BBC has, for the most part, held fast to that mission over the years. Its "World Service" radio remains, today, not only one of the best but sometimes the only, source for American listeners looking for in-depth reporting of the really important stories not only from Europe, Asia, and Africa, but from America as well. From "Global Business" to "From Our Own Correspondent" the BBC really has no equal.

WSUI, or rather 9YA as it then was, was already on the air when Lord Reith's BBC began broadcasting.

During the 1920s Iowa's own Herbert Hoover, then Secretary of Commerce, called a series of "radio conferences" in Washington that laid the foundation for what became the standards applied by the Radio Commission of 1927 -- ultimately to become the Federal Communications Commission in 1934.

Of course we went about the structuring and regulation of the broadcasting industry, and the ultimate creation of "educational broadcasting," in our own uniquely American way. But there was a remarkable level of agreement around the world as to the potential, and responsibility, of broadcasters.

Take the matter of commercialization.

Then-Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover's oft-quoted objection was, "It is inconceivable that we should allow so great a possibility for service [for news, for entertainment, for education] to be drowned in advertising chatter." Herbert Hoover, The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Cabinet and the Presidency 140 (1952), quoted in Erik Barnouw, A Tower in Babel: A History of Broadcasting in the United States 96 (1966). Apparently the broadcasters and other members of the first Radio Conference agreed. Their Recommendation III.E. provided, "It is recommended that direct advertising in radio broadcasting service be absolutely prohibited . . .." Report of Department of Commerce Conference on Radio Telephony, Rad. Serv. Bull., May 1, 1922. See Nicholas Johnson, "Forty Years of Wandering in the Wasteland," Federal Communications Law Journal, May 2003, p. 521, 527-28, n. 17.

WSUI once broadcast classes, live from lecture halls on campus (including my father's popular "general semantics" course). Such use of WSUI was, presumably, considered a part of the University's mission of providing education, for free, to those well beyond its campus.

WSUI's operations were financed by the Iowa Legislature and University of Iowa -- not commercials ("corporate underwriting"). As legislators and university administrators increasingly failed to see the value of this asset, they cut its funding (and, not incidentally, later sold off WOI-TV in Ames). With no alternative, programs were increasingly interrupted to pitch products and services -- not to mention "week-long commercials" ("pledge drives") begging for funds.

Before the arrival of National Public Radio the programs were in large measure of necessity, as well as by design, "local." Now the distinctive local qualities of WSUI, WOI and KUNI, and their sister stations, have been deliberately destroyed with the creation of something called "Iowa Public Radio" run by faceless and heartless bureaucrats who know little of these stations' history, mission, and contribution -- and seemingly care less.

Killing "Live From Prairie Lights" is only the latest evidence of the extent to which those entrusted with responsibility for the protection, preservation and healthy growth of this precious if fragile institution have increasingly failed it over the years.

(As evidence that we're not doing much better with today's technology, the ability to deliver education "online" -- an idea I pushed to no avail 25 years ago for the UI -- see Erin Jordan, "Professors collect big bucks for online classes," Des Moines Register, November 9, 2008. I fear the "solution" now in place carries with it as many difficulties as the supposed "problem.")

Ratings

"Ratings" are an appropriate metric for commercial broadcasting, stations in the business of selling their audience (the product) to the advertiser (the consumer) at a cost-per-thousand (audience members) in an effort to maximize profit.

They are not an appropriate metric for educational, expressly "non-commercial," radio.

Public access cable television programming had to deal with the same issue. Some programmers in the early days, not to mention city and cable company administrators, wanted to create network-entertainment-style programming and measure its contribution by ratings. They came to see that there were other values from community-members-created video programming than mere audience numbers -- including such things as conversations among retirement home residents at various locations around an urban area, church services thereby available to shut-ins, the ability of the fire chief to hold remote "staff meetings" with all of a community's fire houses, or even smoke detectors in cable subscribers' homes connected by cable television (that could, not incidentally, reduce fire insurance rates for a community by as much as 50%).

Should C-SPAN be canceled because its ratings are less than those for ABC's "Dancing With the Stars"? Of course not. It serves an entirely different purpose. So it is with educational radio stations. They're not in the business of selling their audiences to advertisers and their programming should not be evaluated by administrators as if they were.

I have two major points to make about ratings -- illustrated, you will not be surprised to discover, with two stories.

CBS' "60 Minutes." Early in its history CBS executives wanted to cancel "60 Minutes." Why? Well, of course: "bad ratings." As an FCC commissioner I had no right or power to be dictating network programming. But I knew a hit when I saw one, and encouraged the network to stick with it, give it time. What happened? Here's how the program's executives relate the history today:

60 Minutes, the most successful broadcast in television history, celebrates its 40th anniversary in September 2008. Offering hard-hitting investigative reports, interviews, feature segments and profiles of people in the news, the CBS News magazine has been the number-one program a record five times. It also finished among Nielsen's annual top-10 list for 23 consecutive seasons - a record never even approached by another program. 60 Minutes finished the 2007-08 season as the most-watched news broadcast, making Nielsen's weekly top-10 list 16 times over 33 telecasts.

The program has won more Emmy Awards than any other primetime broadcast, including a special Lifetime Achievement Emmy. It has also won virtually every other broadcast journalism award, plus 15 Peabody awards for excellence in television broadcasting. In the last year, 60 Minutes has won all of the major awards: four Emmys, a DuPont-Columbia University Silver Baton, a Peabody, an RTNDA Edward R. Murrow award, an RFK Journalism Award and a Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists.

60 Minutes was created in 1968 by Don Hewitt and premiered on CBS September 24th of that year.

"Program Facts," CBS' "60 Minutes."

My point is obviously not that if only we'll stick with "Live From Prairie Lights" long enough it will someday have ratings equivalent to "60 Minutes." So what is my point?

The moral of this story is simply that hasty executive decisions to cancel shows (or murder Howard Beale) for "bad ratings" often become self-inflicted wounds. And if that is sometimes true for commercial broadcasting it is certainly true for educational broadcasting.

I never had that many conversations with Richard Nixon. He was not my favorite president. But I recall, in connection with this "Live From Prairie Lights" flap, an insight of his that stuck with me over the years. We were talking about media power in general, and public broadcasting in particular, when he said, "Do you realize that I can reach more people from the smallest radio station in Mississippi than if I were to speak in the local stadium?"

It influenced my accepting invitations to appear as a guest on what were then the TV networks' late night talk shows. In order to reach as many people as would see one of those shows, I calculated, I'd need to speak to a room-full of people at 8:00 a.m., 9:00 a.m., and every hour throughout the day, five days a week, 52 weeks a year -- for three hundred years!

The Daily Iowan, linked above, reports that "Live From Prairie Lights" has an audience of 1600. As Marvin Bell writes this morning, linked above, it may be far more than that. Audience measurement is a notoriously inexact science, especially when dealing with listeners in fairly small markets. But put that aside.

Jonathan Ahl told Jeff Charis-Carlson, also linked above, that another of the reasons for the program's cancellation was the cost of its staff. This is a staff, I should note, of primarily one: Julie Englander.

OK. Now for the comparison.

I am a big fan of the UI Lecture Committee's efforts in bringing headliners to our campus. (Disclosure: I used to do a lot of public lecturing myself through the Leigh Lecture Bureau in New York and Princeton.)

We often get audiences of 1000, 1500, or more to attend these lectures in the IMU ballroom. The lectures are free to the audience, but not cheap for the committee. Lecture fees of $10,000 to $25,000 are common. We paid, I believe, $35,000 for Karl Rove.

You get my point, right?

I don't know what we're paying Julie Englander, but I can't imagine it's many multiples of a single lecture fee. And how many people are we reaching? Roughly what we reach with a public lecture. And what do we have to pay these "lecturers"? Zilch, nada, zero.

How many professors do we have who are lecturing to 1600 students at a time?

Utilizing another technology, we are apparently paying them $280 per online student.

If Julie were paid $280 for every member of her 1600 audience for whom she is "teaching literature," she would be pulling down $448,000 per semester.

By university standards for class enrollment -- or even public lectures -- 1600 is an enormous audience.

Any way you look at it -- by the numbers, from the perspective of history, or with the application of a little common sense -- canceling "Live From Prairie Lights" is a dumb move from what Marvin Bell calls "a dim bulb." "And that's all she wrote."

Let's hope it's not "Ahl he wrote."

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