Listening and Supporting Is Not Just For Public Radio Members, It’s for Stations, Too.

In the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism’s social journalism program, we (Gloria Medina, Bettina Figl, Colin-Pierre Larnerd, and I) were tasked with design thinking our way to a proposal on how WBEZ can do a better job at serving their audience for the ultimate purpose of increasing membership and securing a greater and more reliable stream of funding.

How Public Radio Works

The national public radio network in the United States is made of up 860 public radio stations across the United States. Together they serve all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia, the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the territory of Guam.

The organization that produces 130 hours of programming per week for those local stations is NPR. Each of those local affiliate stations pay millions of dollars to NPR for that programming.

In order to afford this as well as other operating costs like their own original reporting and programming, local stations like WBEZ (Chicago), WNYC (New York City), and KQED (Northern California) raise money through corporate underwriting, donations, events, and memberships.

Public radio stations in the U.S. (Source: Andrew Fuller/The Atlantic)

Our Methodology: Design Thinking

For those unfamiliar with design thinking, it is a process that puts the end user at the heart of project development in a way that sets aside ego. It begins with a deep understanding of the end user’s needs. It’s not sympathy. Its empathy — the experiencing of the feelings and thoughts of another. When designers can really relate to what the end user is going through, they can identify ways to provide a better experience or product.

Here is where being humble comes into play. The designer’s ideas should be presented in all of their imperfection at every point in the design process because it’s the end user who’s ultimate approval they are seeking.

So we started our endeavor by doing what journalists should be able to do best — listening. We approached people with headphones in their ears in cafes, subways, and train stations, asking them what they were listening to. (I know — annoying, right?)

We asked questions like “What is your relationship to the voice you hear coming through your headphones?” and “How can public radio prove as worthy of your money as they are of your time?”

What we found was that public radio listeners wanted to better understand and connect with their public radio station. On the other hand, we determined that a few weeks of pestering unsuspecting commuters was not enough of a listening exercise as design thinkers.

Our solution to both the listeners’ needs — and our own as design thinkers — is the WBEZ Bash.

Our Proposal

WBEZ Bash is a roaming block party that will hit all of Chicago’s neighborhoods. It’s an opportunity for listeners to see how public radio and their community intertwine.

WBEZ Bash will make public radio listening a more comprehensive experience.

WBEZ Bash programming is not just an opportunity for face time with hosts. It can help support the neighborhoods by running community problem solving workshops and showcasing local food and music.

It’s not just about hosting panel discussions. The point is to empower changemakers in communities to envision better futures.

One specific piece of feedback we received is that radio feels old-fashioned. A mobile WBEZ museum in the back of a tractor trailer can walk listeners through the history of WBEZ in their community and show them what the future of the industry holds.

For WBEZ, these events will be an opportunity for public radio to have a presence in every community, even those that are not filled with the average public radio listener demographic.

By coming down from their broadcasting towers, public radio stations can make a real difference in their cities.

That’s our sincerest intention — that WBEZ find communities that are not avid public radio listeners and figure out ways to serve them better. In some neighborhoods, WBEZ Bash will be a roaring success. In others — not so much. That is the point. It’s an opportunity to not just support the communities they serve but listen intently to them, too.

There is as much to gain in understanding of public radio’s role in a community from an insatiably vocal community as there is from an apathetic. Both may even mean the same thing: that we need to do better.

See the slides pictured as they were presented to WBEZ here.