MUSEUM OF TELEVISION & RADIO SEMINAR SERIES, THE: SECOND ANNUAL RADIO FESTIVAL: DRIVE-TIME RADIO: CITY FOLK MORNING SHOW, WFUV-FM, NEW YORK {LONG VERSION}
Summary
One in this series of seminars conducted by The Museum of Television & Radio. In this seminar, presented in New York and moderated by Museum radio department manager Ken Mueller, the creative team behind Fordham University's WFUV-FM, discusses this public radio station's format -- a unique mix of folk, blues, country, rock, and world music -- and the genesis of its popular morning show, "City Folk."
Mueller begins with a highlight tape culled from a July 31, 1996, broadcast of "City Folk," featuring co-hosts Darren DeVivo and Amy Eddings. After the audio clips, the following panelists join Mueller on stage: development and marketing director Monique Fortune, music director Rita Houston, general manager Dr. Ralph Jennings, director of radio promotions for Razor & Tie Records Liz Opoka, program director Chuck Singleton, and radio personalities Darren DeVivo and Amy Eddings.
The panelists discuss the following topics, among others: their target audience for the "City Folk" morning show; the evolution of their format, which has attracted a prized demographic of educated and affluent 28-to-49-year-olds; the honing of their playlist in the last few years; the addition to "City Folk" of commercial morning show mainstays such as weather and traffic reports in order to compete with the commercial stations by filling the practical needs of listeners; the shifting of the show from an all-music format to a mix of music and talk in response to market research; how Eddings goes about selecting her news stories, which often cover issues -- such as the environment -- not discussed elsewhere; the differences between the morning music playlist and what is played during other parts of the day; the collective process of selecting the station's database of nearly ten thousand songs; the challenges, for Fortune, of heading development and marketing for the station; the balancing-act of running a public radio station in the 1990s, a time of dwindling government support; an outline of the percentages of support the station receives from Fordham University, state and federal dollars, underwriters, and listener-members; the symbiotic relationship between public stations like WFUV and independent record labels such as Razor & Tie Records; today's major commercial artists who received their first air play on WFUV; and the federal pressures that are making public radio behave more like commercial radio in a market-driven environment.
Questions from the seminar audience lead to comments on the following topics, among others: the importance of word-of-mouth advertising to the station; how digital radios with preset station settings have diminished the number of listeners who might discover WFUV -- as people don't "cruise" the dial anymore; how WFUV's inability to afford the purchase of the NPR news programming package ("All Things Considered," et al.) actually works in the station's favor by avoiding what Eddings calls a "monoculture" in how public news is being delivered across the nation and by maintaining the station's New York personality; an ongoing dispute with the New York Botanical Garden which has stalled the completion of a new transmission facility which would solve reception problems plaguing the station; the value of listener input; and how the station came to be known for playing "yak-herding music."
Details
- NETWORK: N/A
- DATE: November 1, 1996 Friday 12:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:33:38
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:46122
- GENRE: Seminars
- SUBJECT HEADING: N/A
- SERIES RUN: N/A
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Kenneth Mueller … Moderator
- Darren DeVivo … Panelist
- Amy Eddings … Panelist
- Monique Fortune … Panelist
- Rita Houston … Panelist
- Ralph Jennings … Panelist
- Liz Opoka … Panelist
- Chuck Singleton … Panelist