(00:00:00) And good afternoon. Welcome to another ask the president addition of midday here on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Gary eichten next Thursday. Minnesota Public. Radio will be 37 years old. It was back in January 22nd 1967 when we went on the air in Collegeville. So today to mark that occasion Minnesota Public Radio President Bill Clinton has come by for one of our periodic ask the president programs your chance to find out more about what we do at Minnesota Public Radio why we do it and also suggest some things that we should think about doing in the future. Let's get started. If you have a question or a comment for Minnesota Public Radio President Bill Clinton, give us a call or Twin City area number is 6512276 thousand 6512276 thousand if you're calling from outside the Twin Cities, you can reach us toll-free and that number is One eight hundred two four two two eight two eight or spiffy new thing here is you can now send your questions to Us online. Just go to our website, Minnesota Public Radio dot org, Minnesota Public Radio dot org and then click on send a question and we'll get your question on the air as many as we can Bill. Thanks for coming by today. It's (00:01:21) nice to be here. I was just thinking 37 years ago you and I were both 10 years old and we were starting the fish station. (00:01:29) It's amazing that they allowed us to do that at the age of 10 or less the what you got an unexpected go. We I guess Minnesota Public Radio got an unexpected birthday present really (00:01:41) Foundation. We did the e/m Pearson Foundation. I think is the one you're referring to which decided as many people have read decided to to close down and distribute its funds to institutions that it's had supported over the years. We were not one of the institutions that they had regularly support. It but I was very pleased to see a quote in one of the newspapers where the trustees said that they decided to add Minnesota Public Radio because of the service it provides to the community. So it was a half million dollars that goes into the e/m Pearson Foundation fund of our endowment and it's for the permanent support of Minnesota Public Radio and it'll provide about $25,000 a year in annual income, which is terrific. Mmm. (00:02:28) Some people have heard this story. But it Bears repeating I think would you remember for us what the first day of broadcasting was like at Minnesota Public (00:02:38) Radio? Well, I remember that it was supposed to We were supposed to go on the air at about 6 p.m. The station was at st. John's University. There was a minor right up in the st. Cloud Times announcing that the station would go on the air. It actually went on the air I think about 9:00 p.m. The technology Didn't work the way it was supposed to and by 9:00 p.m. It was embarrassing enough that someone had taken a tape recorder to the transmitter with the Cleveland Orchestra live broadcast that had an announcer on such and just plugged it directly into the transmitter. So it sounded terrific but it was it was bailing wire and Band-Aids at that point in time the next day it worked and it's worked pretty well ever since then but it was kind of a rough (00:03:28) start and why Collegeville again hardly the media epicenter of the (00:03:33) world. It was the the foresight of the then president Coleman Barry and the members of the st. John's Abbey Community who said we want to reach out beyond the institution as the traditional Benedict and roll has been in a community. They used to 1500 years ago. They would have had orchestras and artists and composers. They can't afford that. Contemporary times but Coleman said what would be a way of reaching out from this University to the people in the community? And we decided that radio would be a good way to do it. The first station was at st. John's and it was a combination it was before there was a national public radio, but it was a combination of classical music interesting discussions that we could find from various places around the country Jazz from Norman J O'Connor in New York and lots of lots of interesting eclectic pieces that got people interested enough to see the potential and to get behind it to support it to grow it until it became What it is today, whether now 35 transmitters in the state of Minnesota serving, I think almost every square inch of this (00:04:53) state they'll cling is our guest this our special edition of midday. This is ask the president day on midday or chance to get your questions about Minnesota Public Radio answered two ways to do that. First of all, we course traditional call in lines. All of our lines are busy. So don't dial right now, you'll just get unhappy with us wait a couple of minutes for some of the lines to clear. But our number is six five one two, two seven six thousand or the toll free number is 1-800-218-4243 sessions online go to our website, Minnesota Public Radio dot org and then click on send a question and let's get started with an online question bill that came in actually before the program. One of many on this subject of this is from Sherry and Minneapolis. Sherry says, I'm a big fan of wait. Wait, don't tell me why is it only? It once a week now instead of twice as it used to be and then the second half of her question since the show is only on once a week. Why is it always the one that gets preempted as it was (00:05:56) today? There's always a conflict isn't there our program director Eric nickel Mo's somewhere around behind me and I'm sure he'll have an answer for us in a couple of minutes as to why it's only on once a week, but it is it's a tattoo. It's at a time period where we would like to be able to do more local programming on Saturday. This is a time when we know a lot of people are available that aren't available during the week and I think over the next few months, you'll see us expanding live local programming in this time slot, which is not good news for wait, wait, don't tell me fans, but they'll perhaps be another place that it'll be found in the schedule (00:06:35) Chris. So your question, please how much does it cost per hour m per day to run, Minnesota Public Radio. (00:06:43) Chris if I had a calculator I could tell you that it costs about 47 million dollars a year. We are on the air. You see this you can't just say 24/7 because 24 hours a day 7 days a week isn't quite right. We have a new service. It's on 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We have a classical music service that's on 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We have something called classical 24 which feeds programming out all over the United States to communities that can't afford their own announcers. And so they broadcast our service that's 24 hours a day 7 days a week and then there are probably a dozen or more National programs that we feed that we produce on top of that. So it's it's about 48 more than that. It's about Well, it's about four times 24 hours a day 7 days a week / about 47 million dollars in you'll have your answer. (00:07:45) All right, Leroy your question, please. Yes, I am. Mr. President. I have two questions actually as I thought about it one is why are they why are we playing music on the news station? I mean, why doesn't that go and stay on on the music station? And the second one is when you guys decide to pick up were not have programs. Is it just marketing Market data that does that or do you guys actually take input from the from the members and if so, if not, why not? And if so, when does that happen? (00:08:22) Well, the second part of your question, we can enormous amount of response in something we called numberless new services and if you've never accessed that you should do it either online or you can call them directly and they keep track of every comment and those comments are sir. Related among all the program staff the program staff makes their judgments based the professionals and they make their judgments based on their analysis of what program is serving the largest part of the audience most effectively. Sometimes that's a question of should should Car Talk proceed sound money or follow some money or would it be better if upper area Home Companion were in that time slot and you've got to figure out what is the best mix that works for our audience the second part of the question Gary do you remember was (00:09:16) at the very well? Why is there music on the news flash? Because the new stage and let me let me add onto that and I'm trying to find the we had an online question with just the reverse question built one that is why is there any news on the music (00:09:31) station? Well, we again you've got this is not something I do on a day-to-day basis I used. 1968 or 69 but I'm just looking at the schedule here and we find things fitting into our schedule on the news station that are of a type of music that appeal to the kinds of listeners that listen to the news station. So for instance This American Life or fresh air will often feature an artist that that that has an attachment to music and we'll play some of that American Roots is another good example the Jazz image with Lake Hammond has been with us. I think almost as long as we've been on the air. Those are all programs that fit with our news interested audience. Now you could say well from 5 p.m. On Saturday night until almost 3:30 a.m. You don't have any news at 3:30 we go to the BBC, but we have Prairie Home Companion American Roots the Jazz image. We could do news through that period of time at some point in time. We might mean this is a news and information service and its intended to give you the best kind of information and give it to you at a time when its current and and make sure that you're in touch. We don't think the Saturday schedule for example is as good as it should be we're working on a program called public radio weekend, which will be a national program in which will be live for several hours on Saturday keeping you in touch with what's going on around the country and around the world. Now, it may have some music in it because we think that it's a nice idea for people to discover not only the news issues but the cultural life of the country as we go around and look at it and that's so it's sort of an explanation of how some of those decisions are (00:11:26) made. Let's see. Let's take another online question here. This is from cliff and Egan Cliff says I visited England over. The holidays and listen to Digital radio. The quality is excellent. When will MPR be introducing da be (00:11:41) well, we already have but you wouldn't have known it. We did it on our classical music station in the Twin Cities 99.5 for a test and we can tell you that we are as enthusiastic about it. As you are. The problem is there are until April or sorry until this January this this month when the Consumer Electronic Show occurred in Las Vegas there really weren't receivers available to listen to Digital radio, but we had gotten a prototype and we put it in a van and we drove all around the Twin Cities and it vastly improves the quality of the classical music signal the the what we call multipath the thrashing sounds you get when you pass through the buildings in downtown st. Paul or downtown Minneapolis over by the University of Minnesota campus or any of the other places where you have difficulty picking that station. Clearly all of that disappears. It's clear as a bell. It's higher Fidelity. It's got a lot of other advantages. We're very enthusiastic about it. And as soon as it's practical for people to receive it, we will be aggressively transmitting it on all of our stations carry. I've got one of the follow-up Eric nickel Mo who does pay clear attention to these questions says that we broadcast fifty three thousand eight hundred hours a week a week a week of programming (00:13:07) 53,000 per day per (00:13:09) week 800 of the country, right? That can't be right. It's a lot of hours got to be fifty three thousand eight hundred hours a year and it He just calculated those four different streams times 24 hours a day. So (00:13:22) alright Bill playing is here, Minnesota Public Radio president special ask the president program here on Minnesota Public Radio this Saturday chance for you to get your questions about Minnesota Public Radio answered now, we have a full Bank of callers. But if you're near a computer, you can send your question in online. Just go to Minnesota Public Radio dot org and then click on send a question Jeff your question for mr. Cling. All right, thank you. When you're in your new here staff meetings and you're deciding what type of program to broadcast how do you address the criticisms you get that? You're too liberal. You're not liberal enough that type of thing. You got nailed in the star Minneapolis paper again this morning that you're always too liberal. I like to think I'm intelligent enough to know the difference, but does this roll off your back or is this a (00:14:12) concern? Well, tell me what you think you listen to us. What's your (00:14:15) analysis? My analysis is that Spot on as far as you're giving both sides of a story and I'm thinking you're going out of your way to give both sides of the (00:14:27) story. I think you're exactly right and that's what we believe that we're doing. What what happens is that people sometimes don't want to hear any opinion that doesn't agree with their own opinion they'll tune in and they'll hear a commentator and we get the same criticism from conservatives that we get from from liberals liberals regularly write to us or call us and complain that we are too conservative and the same happens in Reverse. If you hear someone who has a point of view that is different from yours and you happen not to want to hear it you immediately jump to that conclusion. The majority of our listeners have been easily described. I think the way you describe yourself a interested in hearing what people are saying, I don't want to go through my life not knowing What anybody else is saying and assuming that I'm living in a in an environment? That's not a real one that everybody agrees with what what I think so as you listen to these stations, you will be purposely introduced to ideas the challenge your thinking it may not change your thinking but it will challenge your thinking and that's part of the value. We think of what we provide on these stations. So the question about the staff meetings the good news is that we are not being accused of being too conservative or too liberal on a consistent basis it day by day it flips back and forth from one side to the other and that leads us to believe that we are in fact fair and balanced but it is just a matter of the perception of who happened to hear one piece at any given time and not the other we couldn't have a so many people feeling that we're leaning one way or the other if we weren't pretty much going right down the middle (00:16:14) long-term Bill. Do you think that's what people want from? Radio news do you seems to be more and more and more people who want they either want their conservative radio station. They want their liberal radio station and they're not much interested in anything in (00:16:31) between. Yeah. I the certainly is a trend towards that really the master of it is Rush Limbaugh who has pulled together conservatives. You notice how often people will call in and say ditto. I think exactly the way you think and therefore we're together and here's my question. There is a new liberal radio network being formed and it presumably will head in the same direction but a hundred and eighty degrees apart. I think that's really unfortunate. I think it's not healthy. I think it doesn't prove it doesn't result in informed citizens are going to make good decisions about the future of the communities. They live in do you if you're going to listen to somebody who simply reinforces the same Concepts over and over and over and you don't challenge yourself, you know, then why bother to go to school why bother to to attend college why bother to have professors challenge your thinking why bother to read newspapers that that that fill you with with opportunities to read commentators all over the Spectrum if you're interested in a wide variety of views, which we hope one of the majority of our audiences, then we're right where we ought to be but there are large audiences of people gathering around single. Single issue networks, and I think that's too bad (00:17:58) too technical low technical questions reception related questions out of Southeastern, Minnesota, Angela and Winona says can anything at all be done? So we don't periodically lose K Zs e for days at a time and Darrell and Joan in Austin note that they elect to set their clock radio to the Austin station and sometimes nothing happens and they can't get a get an explanation. Well, we have nothing on the (00:18:27) air. We have 35 transmitters and then about another one to know 20 or so trance translators translators of little bitty booster stations. So Wenonah, for example, which is down in a valley our signal goes right over the top of the valley, but it doesn't go down in as well as it should we have a little booster in the valley to make sure you get it in Winona those boosters are Reliable as I wish they were we are in the process of replacing them. We just put a full power station in Austin Minnesota, which will transmit the news and information. That was number 35. We just put a new one in Brainerd, which was number 34. So we're getting there. The reason we don't move faster is that we can't the FCC is incredibly glacially slow in approving these applications. Sometimes it's years before you get the application approved as they approve them. The upgrading of those translators to full power stations will solve your problem. I'd be very surprised in Austin Minnesota to hear that the new news and information station isn't on the are solidly and consistently 24 hours a day job if it isn't call us because the only way we know we we do have we do have monitors here that electronically monitored the transmitters, but the best thing you can do is call up and say we've had problems listening and let us know where the problems are. We will attend to them more. Actively Jeff your question, please. (00:19:54) Hi. Thank you for having me on I want to first thank you for how important for providing the service out in Greater Minnesota. It's very important that I've lived in both the Twin Cities and in greater Minnesota and here in Greater Minnesota were restricted to MPR for public radio more or less and there are as I hear it almost all white voices on Minnesota Public Radio, and I'm wondering why the programming has gone in that direction and why we can't for example here an hour less of all things considered and pick up an hour of Tavis Smiley so that we can have a little more diversity on the MPR (00:20:29) schedule. Well, first of all, there are voices that you're misreading in terms of color. It isn't always obvious. I suppose what color a person is by how they sound since this is radio but to your bigger point of Tavis Smiley, we are carrying to have a smiley on the station that we work with in Los Angeles, and we're Watching to see how its performance goes there. I haven't talked to the programmers about what plans they have for it here, but it is in a test phase that is you may know is a very new program and it's getting its legs and we're we're watching it closely and testing it in LA (00:21:11) another online question from Scott who asks, what are the chances of adding news and information service to Roseau County currently, they get music says Scott, but I know many folks would like some news (00:21:28) Rosa is another one of the areas where we have applied for a transmitter and we're waiting for the FCC to approve it. Everything else is in place to build it. We just can't build it until the FCC allows us. So there is some signal coming in there from some of our other stations and I'm sure you're aware that If you work at it, you can pick it up. We'd like it to be stronger and Roseau. We'd like it to be stronger and Hinckley under there are few little pockets around the state of Minnesota that we still think it could be better in terms of the signal. If you're not receiving it. Well, let us know send an email to me or send an email to Don Creighton cre IG HT o ND Creighton at MP r dot org and let us know where you think the signal isn't as good as it should be because that'll help us determine how to improve it. But the the holdup is the regulatory process is nothing absolutely nothing we can do about it. We have a couple open the phone lines now, (00:22:33) if you'd like to call in a question for Minnesota Public Radio president Bell clanging the number six five one two, two seven six thousand. That's our Twin City number 6512276 thousand toll free number is 1-800-218-4243 course you can also send your questions in online. Go to our website, Minnesota Public Radio dot org and then click on send a question Richard. You're up. Next could lose more reminiscent question for you. Mr. Cling. And that is when I originally became a listener and I'm a constant one though is that you weren't scheduled you you good didn't you know every 15 minutes or half hour something like that? And that was kind of a nice thing A New Concept listen to something until the people had finished subject matter that they wanted. I realize you can't do that. No, since you're subscribed to so many other things but were awfully proud of new programs you have and speaking of faith is one of the Stellar no one's I think that you've spawned I guess that's all I have to say. (00:23:43) Well, thank you. I guess I would say the station is a little less free form than it might have been in its earlier days. But most of what we can tell from research is that that has been an improvement the audiences are rising and it seems to me they're Rising because the the programming is a little more consistent, you know, when you tune into the news and information service generally you're going to get news and information instead of an hour of classical music an hour of jazz followed by an hour of Opera followed by an hour of polka music or something else. It's pretty predictable. Which reminds me Gary we never did answer the question of the person who asked why we have news on the classical music service. Yes, and that goes back to September 11th. We felt that the news issues were so important at that time and in so many issues since then with the war in Iraq Etc that if you're listening to classical music you ought to have Those news breaks now. It's time goes on and the news of course. The election news is is hot the economy Etc. But we do have an alternative. We do have the news and information station right next door in most cities. So we'd be interested in hearing from you. If you like the hourly news breaks on the classical music service. Let us know if you think they interrupt the flow of the music or stop us from playing longer pieces or whatever. Let us know that as well. It's always interesting to hear just contact member listener services at Minnesota Public Radio. (00:25:16) I have a online question about another aspect of the programming on the music stations. This is from Gale and st. Paul why the decision to tantalize listeners with coming up announcements that don't tell you when you can step in the shower start vacuuming head out to the car. So on so forth. I hate it when an announcer says up ahead. We have the clock Symphony and it's not really Coming up for 45 (00:25:42) minutes. Well, you know that is a technique of the trade. It's called forward promotion. It is to Intrigue you to remain listening and I'm sure that it upsets everyone's routine periodically happens to me when I'm driving and I'm thinking that's going to be next and it doesn't come for 40 minutes, but it is there so it's you know, if we hadn't told you that you would have missed the clock Symphony all together and that's one of the the values of doing it. I just got a little message here that says that our news on classical music by the way is only on on weekdays during Drive times so you don't get it isn't there today for example, but if you have an opinion on a sled on that, let us know Jilly your question, please. (00:26:33) Oh, hi. My question is regarding the president's weekly radio address. I can't seem to find it anywhere. And do you carry it or would you consider carrying it? (00:26:42) Well, I assume you mean the other president. (00:26:44) Yes, the president of the country. (00:26:46) We often take elements of it in our newscasts. We don't carry it verbatim and the reason most often given for that. They're really two one is that the subject some weeks is more compelling than others and the other is a sort of a fairness issue of if you provide 10 minutes of time for the President should you then provide 10 minutes of time for an opposing view? And if you do that is that the best use of our broadcast time? I think I could make a case that it is at the moment. We tend to look at both the president's speech and the loyal opposition or disloyal opposition and see what they say. And if they say anything remarkable that isn't otherwise in the news we will put it into the newscast, but it's worth looking at Again, thanks for that. Comment. (00:27:44) Doug got us an online question Doug from Minneapolis as a question about executive compensation asking how much do you earn per year? (00:27:53) You know, I wish I could tell you that straight out. I think it's something in the $400,000 range, but that's a combination of the nonprofit Minnesota Public Radio and the for-profit Green Spring Company Green Spring is a series of companies. We started in the mid 80s for the purpose of earning money for Minnesota Public Radio their commercial for profit tax paying businesses and they work just like any other business you find in the region those businesses generate well over time they've generated hundreds of millions of dollars of value from Minnesota Public Radio. We may remember sold Rivertown Trading Company a few years ago for a hundred and almost a hundred and thirty million dollars that went into the endowment of Minnesota Public Radio. So it's there for the permanent support of MPR and we draw about four and a half percent off that investment every year. We operate the M and N Radio Networks and then 1330 in the Twin Cities. And when we have a very active magazine publishing group that does Minnesota monthly Midwest Home and Design. We're magazine the relocation guide and on and on and on it goes and that group of companies are they're all run by individual managers, but they all report to me. So part of what I'm compensated for is on that side of the Ledger and the other part is for running, Minnesota Public Radio on the nonprofit (00:29:23) side, Dan your question, please yes. I got a question on the programming times. It seems like I don't know because I'm a very very Avid listener and it seems like every two hours. It's the same program in the mornings. (00:29:39) You're right it is it's updated. Of course Morning Edition starts. I believe at 4 a.m. Or is it even three now, let's for I always hear it when it start. And and it is a to our production and by 6:00 a.m. If you started it for you've heard it if you wake up at 6, you're hearing it fresh. It'll be updated. Some reports will change the newscaster obviously new and fresh, but they do not produce completely new show with the assumption that most people are rotating through that part of the day. They're listening while they get ready to go wherever they're going work school or whatever. They stopped listening when they begin some other activities. It might be interesting to keep it fresh and new but it would cost three times as much and that would be (00:30:34) difficult internet a limb talked at all about the internet. How do you see that changing? What happens here on the radio? (00:30:41) It's an enormously effective adjunct to radio. We can say to you as you hear regularly. There's a there's more on that interview on our website. We just had a report on a fascinating production at the Guthrie that that's that's coming through is on I think last night and it was about the the tradition in the black churches of wearing hats. I think that I think it's called hats if I remember right fascinating we did about four minutes on the air and then they said you want to hear the rest of the history of this go to the website where you can hear it to click on it. Listen to it read it look at pictures. So it's becoming a really interesting tool the second thing that we're doing with it. And this is really important from my perspective. This is where our future lies on the news and information side. We have this very very knowledgeable audience all of you listening know something that we don't Know about something we're broadcasting if we decide to look at Healthcare education Transportation take your pick, you know something from some aspect of your life that we don't increasingly we're sending you emails and if we don't have your email address, I wish you'd make sure we did we're we're saying do you tell us what you know about the subject we're getting back not only really thoughtful information but we're getting back names of people who are experts that we didn't know about. So instead of a list of maybe three or four Specialists and transportation issues. We now have 600 we have I think over 400 in education and we can take those people. And bring them together, which we are beginning the process of doing with our news producers and reporters not to have a broadcast, but just to sit down and talk about the issues and learn from them. We can have you regularly emailing us not tips on news, but knowledge what you know about what's making the healthcare system work or not work what you think the agenda you know, who sets the agenda for the news for the day I can tell you that it's how it's set but it's not set with all of the options that we should have and we set it up because we don't know everything the more we know the smarter. We're going to be the higher the quality that we provide the greater the value to you as listeners. So the internet has enabled that two-way communication to occur. We're getting vastly more information than we can use but we're turning that around and feeding it back out on the web. So you'll get a four or five. Peace on the radio on some issue that's been informed by the knowledge of the audience and then we're pushing it back out to you with maybe half an hour of information on that same subject if you're really interested in it. I think that's going to be in a time when when other commercial media are consolidating at a rate unprecedented in the history of media in this country and you're finding larger companies owning more and more and more of the media and less and less interest in dealing with news and information issues and particularly local issues. I think this is going to place more responsibility on us and once you're listening and X having high expectations from us, we've got to be sure that we're right and this is a process we're using to make sure that we're right. So we're really excited about that. We've been out talking to people we've we've been testing it it works and you're going to begin to hear the results. Do you expect over time? (00:34:23) That the radio operation as such will diminish and importance perhaps even disappear altogether replaced by internet (00:34:32) service. No, I wish you know, it's too bad that everybody can't come and have as much fun as we have every day. We sat in a meeting of Technology people explaining to us what digital radios going to mean and how much more information can be sent out through the radio frequencies things that we never conceived of wheel is possible to send out more than one channel of audio at a time. So somebody who wants wait. Wait don't tell me instead of listening to ask the president can switch over and listen to that. It's possible to send data. It's possible to have your if you've got a GPS locator in your car that's telling you how to get to a location to send you traffic data that says even though the the navigator says you should go there don't go there because that streets been closed due to an accident or here. Music you're listening to or the weather or whatever. It's just it's fascinating to see what's going to be able to be sent out in broadcasting will always be exactly that broadcasting. It's going to reach large audiences of people and those audiences. Will be intrigued by what we broadcast to go to the more narrow casting of the web. It's sometimes we call it the Barker channel. It's kind of like the guy with the big megaphone standing outside the circus tent saying come on in and see what's in here radio will always say come on Ian. Here's what's available and then allow you to go to more specific sites on the web to get that content. So it's they work really well together and it's making what we do more exciting than I've ever seen it Flo your question, please (00:36:13) yes. First of all Kudos, you do a brilliant job and we are totally reliant on your station and the I'm particularly happy with the speaking of Faith programming that you've just launched and also the Democracy in America wonderful job very very proud to have Minnesota Public Radio do what it does now a suggestion, which I Launch before and followed your suggestions after a very nice letter from you about local programming. I did follow through however, nothing has changed. I think that we need that broadcasting but but I think Minnesota Public Radio needs to acknowledge that the local programming has a very very important place in our communities because let's read. Let's say for instance the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, we can't get any and that's just one issue. If we have some local programming around that issue. We can't get it broadcast on our MP our local NPR station. We could probably get on the country station, but we have no access to either a calendar and I understand that that may be forthcoming. I don't know or any kind of localized Focus where we can then become more engaged when you live. This is Rochester Rochester. Okay, and I think this is this is a gap in the OR at least it provides a pasta possibilities which are not yet being explored and well II appreciate okay. Let's see. Let's get a comment here. Okay, Bill, why not more local local programming on the local stations outside the Twin Cities (00:37:58) money. It's just plain money someday. I hope we'll be able to do more. We do more local programming on Minnesota Public Radio than any other public radio station in the United States. We have larger audiences for that local programming than anybody else, but we're not doing as much as we could everything you say is absolutely legitimate. I wish that we could be and when I talked about this public inside journalism concept of drawing knowledge out of the audience. We should be doing that just on issues in Rochester just on issues in Duluth. St. Cloud Fargo-Moorhead Etc. It's just not possible to do it all at once. We are in the in the early stages of a of a capital campaign to expand the production facilities here because we're standing on top of each other the building that we're Gary and I are sitting in is a wonderful Studio building but it was built in 1979 and we've outgrown it about five times over. We hope sometime in the next year that will be able to launch a project to expand the building put more Studios more production centers into it and in the process of raising that money to also raise money for both an Arts initiative and a journalism initiative to be able to take the public inside journalism concept further to be able on our classical side to connect the audience's of Around us which are enormous compared to the audience's that attend performances around the state of Minnesota and Link the more effectively with the Arts organizations, but all of that takes money and as public radio begins to be better understood. I think those numbers are going to rise. If every listener, you know, this sounds like number should we give every listener? We remember believe me all of the things you talked about and we would love to do would happen. But we so far haven't been able to convince all listeners to be supporters and until we get better at it or until those statistics of percentages rise in a we don't like it that one in six or one and eight listeners is actually a supporter will do an increasingly better job of that and and everything else will flow from it, but the simple answer to your question about Cool programming Rochester is money (00:40:32) speaking of money online question from Adam. And st. Paul who says I don't mind pledge drives as much as I do corporate underwriting and movie commercials on NPR any talk locally or nationally of doing fewer ads. (00:40:48) Well, you know, we just first of all, let me give you a statistic. We we get about as much revenue per year from ads as we do from membership. So it's a kind of a 50/50 split and we just had a study done on underwriting. Which told us a whole lot. This is this was a study that was done asking people how it was affecting their listening and the responses. We got back told us a whole lot. First of all people don't as a rule mind the underwriting announcements. They don't mind the wording as much as they mind the length. So we learn something from that shorter is better. Don't worry quite so much about the care of the wording in those messages. They understand that they're necessary to help support the programming service. Most people know that their legally authorized in a standard way in which public radio does its business. So I think you're going to see that they will be there. We will not be moving into commercial. Do you know that the average commercial station now spends 17 minutes an hour television and radio 17 minutes an hour with commercials. If you think about that and then you think about our underwriting announcements which are really quite brief. There's just simply no comparison. So we'll keep them low key the study also said by the way that they work more effectively than most commercials that for those Underwriters who are using underwriting announcements. They have an enormous impact on the audience because the audience is very loyal they listen to them. They appreciate the people who are supporting MBR and they have a greater impact as a message than almost any other way that you can put your message out. So It's a fact of life. It's a good one and we will keep in mind the your concerns that we not follow the track of commercial stations and turn this into a commercial 17 minutes out of every hour kind of thing. But it is with care. It's a key part of our budget and revenue support marlys. So your question for Bill Klein. (00:43:10) Yes. Hello president and Gary. I'm a longtime member of MPR and I'm also senior and so I listened frequently every day always and every person I am PR really has become like a family member. My comment is about accuracy and Reporting and responding to a comment or criticism. This goes back a wee bit. But I know you went back in history a little bit also, it was during just prior to the war and I was at a demonstration and counted because of Accuracy in reporting. I actually counted up to 200. I stopped at 200 people when I arrived home and had MPR on the report was that there were almost a dozen people at this demonstration. And so I you know felt really that was really despairing to hear that and so I called and left a message and didn't treat you know didn't have a return response and I tried a second time and I still didn't hear anything and I finally ended up deciding not to pay my dues until I heard and so I just want to say that I think it's so important that if we as members call in and leave a message that we have a response to that message. (00:44:31) Okay. Well, I wouldn't disagree with you as a matter of fact, my personal philosophy is that if we don't get it, right we will correct it. I have no ego involved in saying we're going To never make a mistake and we're never going to acknowledge it as some elements of the media have we want to be accurate? We want to be fair and if we get it wrong, we will correct it if if you sent in the kind of comment you're talking about in the story was somewhat out of date. It probably wouldn't have been corrected, you know, three four days later because people would have remembered what it was but I can tell you that the comment gets circulated and the reporters The Producers the the the content heads here read those comments and if we see any kind of a trend about our lack of accuracy and estimating crowds at public meetings or something like that, it gets raised and every effort is made to be more accurate on it next time around so on an important issue. If we make a mistake call us on it. That's why we have member listener Services. It's a staff of very good very smart people who know everything there is to know about this company when you call them. They not only will explain as much as they can. Do you about why we've done what we've done but they will write down what you say and it does get circulated and our objective is to get it right. (00:46:09) We were talking earlier about transmission difficulties in Southeastern Minnesota, and we just got an online question from Larry and Winona who says a comment how ironic that I can't ask the president a question since the station is currently once again off the air in Winona. (00:46:27) Thank you. Larry. We're going to on Monday have a little meeting about the Winona station and I can assure you that one of our Engineers is going to be dispatched on there to find out what it is that is causing that problem and frankly unless we hear from you. We just don't always know it so that's good to know (00:46:43) Clara your question, please. Angie work seen by (00:46:46) the way of this program so you can hear it. Later Larry. Go ahead Clara. (00:46:49) Hello. I am just calling to see if there would be any possibility in the in our Minnesota Public Radio of expanding I'm in st. Paul and of having more than only classical or news. For example, some of the syndicated programs that are out there such as not not what kind of things are you talking about like syndicated music programs like World Cafe or the salon Shamrock or (00:47:27) okay, actually we're looking at some of those as you know, we have or may not know we have some other transmitters in the Twin Cities their AM stations. We think maybe one of them might be a candidate for a public radio service at some point particularly. Once it becomes a digital station and it sounds like FM and it has stereo and in the music quality is good. And we agree with you that there is a whole genre of music particularly the world music as well as a number of programs that fit in together with that in this ehrlichman who is a very thoughtful Member of our programming team has been looking at a concept that is pulling all of that together and and and it's designed to appeal to somewhat younger audience than the news and information and classical music appeals to and someday you may hear it. But we agree with him. It's just at the moment there. It's a matter of time. You can't you can't effectively program a station if it's not consistent. So if we put a lot of of miscellaneous music into the classical music service, for instance, we will lose the classical audience fairly quickly. We've got to find another way to do it. We're looking for that (00:48:45) another online question bill. This is from Bob in Minneapolis. He says as a member, I received Minnesota monthly which by its articles and adds was clearly aimed at the very wealthy. It discouraged me from supporting MPR. (00:49:01) Well, it's a free gift you can sort of take it or leave it. It's produced by Minnesota monthly Publications. It is a for-profit company. It's in And Adam to make money and the money that it makes goes to Minnesota Public Radio and I can tell you that it's a significant amount of money coming to us from that Publishing Company. Some people like the magazine some people find Midwest home and design for example that comes with it into many households to be a really interesting magazine about Remodeling and and such but if it isn't to your liking you can tell us and we'll stop sending it or you can toss it. But I leave that to the people who run that company both the editorial and the and the and the ads that are appearing in that because my objective is to have them put out a quality magazine that adds value to them the the readers but also which makes its primary purpose which is to make money to support Minnesota Public Radio so that all of the things we're all talking About can be more effectively funded (00:50:12) Mike quick question here before I wrap up. Yeah. I'll try to make it fast. First off. It would be nice. If you could add one of those atomic clocks in the station that would add a little beep to the broadcast signal let people in cars know when to reset their clocks at the top of the hour. Secondly for those of us who are driving around going from Station to Station would be nice. If you could add something to your web page similar to MapQuest that would let us know. Hey, it's such and such a point change of station to such and such. You know, it helps not only from City to city in Minnesota, but also across the country (00:50:44) your it's all coming goes back to that discussion. I said we had Friday about technology something called RDS many people have a button on the radio that is already as they don't know what it means RDS will automatically track if you put in Minnesota Public Radio news and you drive from Rochester to Fargo, you'll automatically switch from Station to Station without having to know where they are if you're driving across the Train you put in NPR it will automatically switch to the stations that are providing NPR news. So that's coming and I think you'll see those kinds of special bells and whistles within the next couple of years on the new receivers that are coming out at about a minute left Bell. What (00:51:28) if you had to pick one thing, what would it be in terms of things? We should be doing better? What one thing. Should we be doing better here? (00:51:35) I come back to what I was saying earlier Gary, I think that as consolidation in the world of media occurs and you find that in Minneapolis st. Paul except for Hubbard broadcasting almost every station cable service newspaper is owned by a public company located somewhere else. We're going to see more of that you had Michael Pollan last Thursday. I think it was talking about more consolidation as that happens. If as Thomas Jefferson said if you're going to live in a democracy, You can only function if you are informed the Democracy functions when the citizenry is informed and I think our biggest challenge and what we've got to do better is to to respond to the people who are going to come increasingly to Minnesota Public Radio to get news and information because it just isn't economically advantageous for the other companies to do it. It's got to be done. Well, it's got to be done. Right and our concept of public inside journalism is showing us that we have an idea that really works and that's what's exciting me. Thank you, sir. (00:52:44) - our public radio President Bill Clinton joining us on this special edition of midday, by the way, all of your questions will pass them on to the to must cling and to the programmers here. Thanks for tuning in programming is supported by Hubert white a (00:52:56) premier men's clothing year since 1916 announcing the semi-annual down to nothing event featuring suits sport coats trousers casual apparel and shoes Hubert (00:53:06) white Downtown Minneapolis in the IDS Crystal Court your to 91.1 Cantor wfm Minneapolis. And st. Paul. We have a cloudy Sky. Well actually it's sunny now Sun's come out 31 degrees in the Twin Cities and it's supposed to be sunny the rest of this afternoon with a high about where it is in the low 30s tonight clear skies Colder Weather moving in with an overnight low tonight five above zero tomorrow sunny and substantially colder tomorrow than it's been today with a high only of 10 degrees above zero sign of things to come as we move into the new week on Monday Martin Luther King Day increasing cloudiness. And the warmest it will be on Monday about 10 degrees above zero pretty much more of the same on Tuesday.