TOM RIELAND

I’ve been so lucky in my career to work at three amazing Universities. I spent six years at Ole Miss (University of Mississippi), where I completed a Master’s degree in Journalism and helped produce the football show and many documentaries about the state. Then, I spent 13 years at the University of Alabama, where I taught and directed their public TV and radio center. Since 2003, I’ve had an incredible time at Ohio State with WOSU.

There is that same feeling at every campus when it comes to the excitement of the opening game. You are undefeated and have high hopes. Now, at Ole Miss, our hope was just to win 6-7 games. Here, it’s a different story. Today, the parking lot at Fawcett Center at Ohio State, where WOSU lives, is packed with tailgaters wearing buckeye gear and those buckeye necklaces (poisonous, by the way) with OSU flags and tents everywhere. Ohio State kicks of its season with Marshall tonight at 7:30 pm. It seems very strange to open the season on a Thursday night, but we’ll get through it.

Whether its the oval at OSU, the quad at Alabama or the grove at Ole Miss, this is a time to gather and see old friends and tell old lies and cheer on your favorite team. I am hoping for the ultimate this year — a national championship game between my new favorite college team Ohio State and one of my favorite campuses in the world, #1 Alabama. That would be something.

So, enjoy a hotty toddy (Ole Miss slang) and Roll Tide and Go Bucks!

I happen to think it would be quite valuable to have FM radio receivers built into my cell/smart phone. The broadcast advocacy organization, NAB, thinks so too. This is an idea being discussed in the negotiations over performance royalties between the NAB and music label representatives. Radio and the labels are in favor, but the wireless and consumer electronics industries are strongly opposed and urging lawmakers to resist any requirement.

Radio serves as a crucial source of information during an emergency and the more access everyone has in those situations, the better. You can easily imagine the Internet shutting down or wireless coverage being overwhelmed during emergencies, but our radio signals bypass all that. I actually love that my iPod Nano has an FM chip and I listen to radio often while walking the dog. If the Nano can do it, cell/smart phones can as well. I hear the chips cost about a quarter.

The NAB group puts it this way….”In a society where cell phones and other mobile devices are increasingly ubiquitous, it makes perfect sense to have radio-enabled chips in these devices, particularly from a public-safety perspective.”

Someone at a recent Kiwanis Club gathering asked what the listening trends were for classical music in America. A 2010 report from Arbitron called Public Radio Today: How America Listens to Radio has the most recent data. Here are a few highlights:

- Classical Music stations have over 6 million listeners every week
- Classical listening skews older with 68% of listeners over 55 years of age
- Yet, the data shows Classical listeners are trending younger than the year before
- Listening to Classical stations had a growth spurt rising in share of listening from year before
- Listeners average nearly 5 hours of time spent listening a week

This bodes well, we believe, for our delivery of a new all-classical radio station to the Columbus market in fall!

A little over five years ago, WOSU 89.7 became the first radio station in Columbus to begin broadcasting in digital. What is called HD Radio had come to Columbus. Since that time, the number of area stations broadcasting in digital has grown and several have expanded their channel capacity. The list below is as inclusive as I could find of the digital stations in Columbus. HD Radio has run into many roadblocks, but I’m one who believes it still has a great future. I listen to HD radio throughout my home and look forward to having the service standard on my next car purchase. It is a free service, unlike satellite radio, and as more listeners tune in, more stations will invest in new programming.

WOSU is proud to provide quality choices in HD programming in crystal clear digital including our 89.7 FM main channel (soon to be all NPR News), an all-classical station at 89.7-2 (soon to be Classical 101), and a Triple A music format station, Capital City Radio at 89.7-3. Even my teenagers think its cool that WOSU is carrying Cap City Radio!

HD Radio Stations via www.ibiquity.com website - the BOLD stations are the extra stations you get with HD Radio:

Columbus, OH 104.9 WCVO-HD FM Contemp Christian Voice
Columbus, OH 610 WTVN-HD AM Nws/Tlk/Spt Clear Channel
Columbus, OH 94.7 WSNY-HD FM Lite Rock Saga
Columbus, OH 92.3 WCOL-HD FM Country Clear Channel
Columbus, OH 92.3-2 WCOL-HD2 FM New Country Clear Channel
Columbus, OH 1230 WYTS-HD AM Talk Clear Channel
Columbus, OH 107.5 WCKX-HD FM Urban Radio One Inc.
Columbus, OH 106.7 WCGX-HD FM Alternative Clear Channel
Columbus, OH 106.7-2 WCGX-HD2 FM Classic Alternative Clear Channel
Columbus, OH 97.9 WNCI-HD FM CHR Clear Channel
Columbus, OH 97.9-2 WNCI-HD2 FM tha block Clear Channel
Columbus, OH 93.3 WLZT-HD FM AC Clear Channel
Columbus, OH 93.3-2 WLZT-HD2 FM Talk - WTVN-AM Clear Channel
Columbus, OH 97.1 WBNS-HD FM Sports/ESPN Radio
Columbus, OH 97.1-2 WBNS-HD2 FM 1460 The Fan .
Columbus, OH 103.5 WJZA-HD FM Smooth Jazz Saga
Columbus, OH 106.3 WJYD-HD FM Gospel Radio One Inc.
Columbus, OH 105.7 WBWR-HD FM Rock Clear Channel
Columbus, OH 105.7-2 WBWR-HD2 FM Full Metal Racket Clear Channel
Columbus, OH 107.1 WNKK-HD FM Country Wilks Broadcast Group
Columbus, OH 107.1-2 WNKK-HD2 FM 90’s Alternative
Columbus, OH 820 WOSU-HD AM News/Talk The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH 89.7 WOSU-HD FM News/Clscl
Columbus, OH 89.7-2 WOSU-HD2 FM All Classical
Columbus, OH 89.7-3 WOSU-HD3 FM AAA - Capital City Radio
Columbus, OH 100.3 WCLT-HD FM Country WCLT Radio, Inc.
Columbus, OH 98.9 WXMG-HD FM R&B Oldies Radio One Inc.

More to come!

By now, many of you interested in public radio and WOSU in particular have heard of WOSU’s acquisition of 101.1 FM. If not, access the WOSU Press Release for more information. This is about listening to our membership and having the rare opportunity to find a way to serve their desires. We know the performing arts in this community are under stress, but we are convinced a strong, locally based, talent filled classical music station that is 24/7 will not only serve the needs of listeners, but bring more people to local performances and build a greater appreciation for all the performing arts in Columbus — from the Opera to the Symphony to the Ballet to the Jazz Orchestra. And, we’ll not just be premiering Classical 101 FM in Columbus soon, but also bringing online an all classical station, WOSB in Marion at 91.1 FM to serve the northern part of the Columbus market.

We also believe a journalistically sound local and NPR news station that is 24/7 on the FM band can serve this community with international, national, state and local news better than any other radio station in central Ohio. Of course, we are doing that already on WOSU AM, but now more people will have access to WOSU’s news and talk programming at 89.7 FM.

A passionate team of folks at WOSU, Ohio State and the community, along with advisors from well outside this community, from Denver to D.C., made this historic purchase possible.

WOSU radio came into existence in 1922 as one of the first educational radio stations in America. FM came on the air in 1949, even though there were few FM radios until the 1960s. WOSU added regional stations in an impressive partnership with four Ohio communities in the early 1990s…and now, in 2010, a new station is part of our network.

More to come about our programming plans soon. So far, the reaction from listeners has been extremely positive and, since we have a few months before the switch to all news and all classical, we have time to work through any concerns.

Finally, my deepest thanks go to our leadership at WOSU and to President Gee, Tom Katzenmeyer and Geoffrey Chatas at Ohio State, who so believed in our plan that they supported it from day one! We believe the greater Columbus community will support these efforts as well. As WOSU supporter and local performing artist, Christine Mortine says “This is Wonderful…Lucky Columbus.”

WOSU and other stations in the Columbus market will soon be involved in a rollout of mobile digital television — that’s where you can watch over the air programming on your enabled smart phone without surfing the Internet. WOSU will use a portion of its digital broadcast signal to link our programming to your mobile device. The pilot tests in Washington are showing some positive results according to TV NewsCheck’s report:

Among the findings:

* Viewers say they are excited about the potential of mobile DTV. On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 1 being “not at all excited” and 10 being “extremely excited”), initial survey participants rate mobile DTV as 7.1.
* Most viewing is happening “on the go.” Nearly two-thirds of viewing (63%) is being done “on the go,” compared with 44% happening at work or at school, and one-third (33%) of viewers say they tune in from home.
* Viewers are tuning in multiple times a day. Just under half of viewers say they watch one or two times a day. Just under 30% of viewers say they watch three or more times a day.

The trial involves about 150 consumers and nine TV stations in DC broadcasting 23 channels with dozens of free programs on specially-equipped mobile DTV receiving devices. Public television programming is among the channels provided. The service also includes interactive advertising, electronic program guides, closed captioning and emergency alerts…it also bypasses the slow Internet and goes straight to your mobile device.

The trial started in May with consumers equipped with a specially-modified Samsung Moment phone. This week, prototypes of the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 netbooks with built-in mobile DTV receivers will be deployed. Mobile DTV-equipped DVD players from LG Electronics and Tivizen receivers from Valups are next up. We’ll keep you posted.

One of the dominant football programs in the country will be joining the Big Ten Conference, but that’s not exactly why I’m excited about this move. Nebraska also has one of the prominent statewide public television and radio programs in the country, Nebraska Educational Telecommunications (NET) covering the Cornhusker state with news, information and entertainment. Their General Manager is Rod Bates, a national leader in public broadcasting and also a great colleague. The emails have been flying all weekend welcoming Rod to the family of Big Ten public broadcast organizations. Most of his colleagues in the Big Ten believe he owes us a free trip to Lincoln to watch our teams play the Cornhuskers (it has been 54 years since Ohio State played Nebraska).

What I’m constantly impressed about with NET is the amount local documentaries and other productions they handle in serving the entire state. By the way, catch how NET (Nebraska Educational Telecommunications) is covering this huge news in their state with radio reports from Lincoln on the change. Welcome to the Big Ten, Huskers (and don’t ask why its still the “Big Ten”)!

The lineup for this Wednesday night includes two performances you won’t want to miss and, of course, they also promote becoming a member to WOSU:

8pm-9:30pm: Straight No Chaser: Live from New York
9:30pm-11pm: 4Troops: Live from The Intrepid

Both groups will be coming to central Ohio and you can get special WOSU tickets to attend with your contribution to support all our programming. I had an opportunity to meet the 4Troops recently and they are awesome talents.

The 4Troops appear at the Midland Theatre in Newark on November 4th and Straight No Chaser is at the Midland on Sept. 24th. The Midland Theatre is an old refurbished beautiful Theatre. It was built in 1928, but as is typical with such theatres in small towns, it started to decay and was closed for nearly two decades. The savior of the theatre was Dave Longaberger of the Longaberger Company (whose large “Basket” HQ is right outside of Newark). The company spent some 8 million over 8 years to refurbish the Midland. It is worth the trip to Newark to see this gem of a theatre.

Tune in and let us know what you think.

A virtual meter setup by the crew at PBS Newshour is letting us track how much oil is leaking into the Gulf.

Depending on whose estimate you believe, just drag the slider bar and see how many gallons a day is going into the Gulf. Here is an excerpt from the blog from PBS “NewsHour” Interactive Editor Chris Amico, in which he expressed his concerns about producing the meter:

“It’s probably worth mentioning up front that at first, I thought building this thing was a bad idea. I thought it was gimmicky, and that it assigned specificity where there was none. I argued that any number we pick as the rate of spillage was almost guaranteed to be wrong, since the government, BP and outside experts were all changing their estimates and estimates varied so widely. Also, I didn’t think I could do it.

So the challenge was to build a tool that would do simple math, but had all the uncertainty of the situation baked in. Hence the slider. That way, we let users pick which estimates they believe, and the ticker shows them how much oil has leaked into the Gulf based on that figure.”

WOSU joined hundreds of other station representatives at the annual PBS Conference in Austin last week.  The mood was decidedly upbeat, despite the consistent economic issues facing both PBS and its 180 or so member stations.  Some of the optimism may come from the newest ratings info that PBS revealed — the 5% increase in prime time viewership in the past year to 118 million folks watching weekly — the jump in PBS Kids viewership by 19% and Masterpiece Theatre by 31% — and the jump in traffic to the www.pbs.org website. 

On the heels of PBS stations going dark in Michigan and Texas, there is still fear that other stations will fall off the edge.  Yet, PBS is working hard to be where the audience is increasingly going  — online and mobile.  You’ll see some new developments in those areas that strategically tie the national network of PBS with local stations like WOSU.

We’re impressed with the leadership Paula Kerger (picture at right)  and her leadership team continue to provide and hope we can all turn the corner soon.  By the way, one of the sessions had all of the CEOs from NPR, PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and APTS (the organization that advocated for PBS in D.C.) and wouldn’t you know that all of them were women! As one person said, perhaps that’s why all four organizations are getting along so well these days.