{"id":2454605,"date":"2020-02-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-16T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=320988"},"modified":"2020-02-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-16T07:00:00","slug":"a-change-in-tune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/a-change-in-tune\/","title":{"rendered":"A change in tune"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Pings of incoming messages and digital notifications as two teens unpack the impacts of social media on their generation. Locals talking about why the HOV lane between Buttermilk and Basalt on Highway 82 is on the right side versus the left. Slides of skis over snow as two men explore what mining era reminders exist today on Aspen Mountain.<\/p>\n

These are a few of the new sounds the KAJX Aspen Public Radio station staff debuted over the past three weeks online and on-air as part of its recent drive to be more news-focused.<\/p>\n

But while the local public radio station and its leadership are gradually adding these new sounds in hopes of reportedly giving listeners what they want and better connecting with locals from Rifle to Aspen, they\u2019ve also subtracted some local sounds and voices as part of this new focus: the sounds of music and shows hosted by the station\u2019s longtime volunteer DJs.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 20, Aspen Public Radio debuted a new 2020 weekly schedule featuring more news and less music.<\/a> The scheduling change came three days after station officials told its roughly dozen volunteer DJs it was eliminating the bulk of its local and national music shows \u2014 except for the summer classical music programming hosted by Chris Mohr \u2014 in response to declining listenership.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile our programming has changed, our mission has not,\u201d the APR website states in response to the recent schedule changes. \u201cOur goal is to have a balance of local reporting and cultural coverage that complements our NPR news programming, so that we can continue to be one of the most relied-upon news organizations in the valley.\u201d<\/p>\n

But over the past three weeks, The Aspen Times alone has published roughly a dozen \u201cLetters to the Editor\u201d commenting on the APR programming changes, lamenting the loss of the local music shows and speculating why they were taken off the KAJX on-air schedule, highlighting the fact that many locals still have questions.<\/p>\n

DATA BEHIND THE CHANGES<\/p>\n

To help locals better understand the more news-focused 2020 schedule, which features several additional renowned national and international journalism offerings, APR staff posted a list of questions <\/a>listeners may have about the recent changes with staff answers on the station website.<\/p>\n

Prompts like \u201cWhy are you changing Aspen Public Radio\u2019s format?\u201d and \u201cWhy is the music going away?\u201d were answered with responses emphasizing that the station will have classical music programming in the summer and is following the direction its \u201cextensive research of audience reports, ratings, surveys and listener testimonials\u201d point, which is reportedly toward more news and information programming.<\/p>\n

Since its initial story published Jan. 20, The Aspen Times has sought to learn more about the specific listener data and decision-making process behind APR\u2019s recent programming changes, reaching out to the station\u2019s executive director, Tammy Terwelp, directly and through her staff to schedule a follow up interview.<\/p>\n

Terwelp spoke with The Times on Friday, when she answered more specific questions about the APR 2020 schedule and how it was created.<\/p>\n

She emphasized the fact that the recent programming changes were based off years of data collected through APR listener and donors surveys, which mainly aligned with fundraising drives, dating back to 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery membership drive, we ask a donor if they listen to music or news and then we also ask people to give us a few sentences as to why you listen to Aspen Public Radio, and the overwhelming majority of those responses show that people listen to us for news,\u201d Terwelp said.<\/p>\n

The Aspen Times could not access the surveys directly or in-full, as Terwelp said some of the information collected is confidential and may jeopardize listener and donor privacy, but did receive some of the data highlights from APR staff via email.<\/p>\n

According to that provided data from one of the 2019 station surveys, when outright asked what listeners preferred, 80% of respondents said news, 2% said music and 17% said both.<\/p>\n

In 2017, a station survey found 89.69% of respondents listened to local news on APR, 94.85% to national news, 27.84% to jazz programming and 29.9% to classical music programming. And in 2016, a survey asked listeners: \u201cWhat prompts you to change the channel from Aspen Public Radio?\u201d Four percent of respondents said news while 46% said music programs, according to the data emailed to The Aspen Times.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the availability of so many other ways to get content, trying to serve two audiences is a constant push-pull. \u2026 This was a decision that needed to happen,\u201d Terwelp said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know Aspen is a very different place, but these surveys here and the trends of the data is exactly what is trending everywhere else around the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

GIVING THE LISTENERS WHAT THEY WANT<\/p>\n

Terwelp, who has more than 20 years of public media experience, joined APR as its executive director just over a year ago after serving as the general manager at Colorado College\u2019s KRCC station in Colorado Springs for roughly four years.<\/p>\n

There, Terwelp carried out similar news-focused programming changes, bringing on more mid-day journalism programming, expanding the KRCC newsroom and modernizing the station, which resulted in cutting an award-winning local series called \u201cWish You Were Here\u201d in June 2016, as reported by the Colorado Springs Independent.<\/a><\/p>\n

She said based on her public media tenure, and in looking at local data then in Colorado Springs and now in Aspen along with national listener trends, the country\u2019s changing media landscape and multitude of ways people consume news and music is the driver of multi-format radio stations specializing their content in order to stay relevant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely looked at other trends and other stations who are split-format \u2026 it definitely was a combination of looking at what\u2019s happening locally and nationally,\u201d Terwelp said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Aspen changes, which it has pretty dramatically over the last few decades, I wanted to take both a macro-view and a micro-view of it, using all of that data to come to the decisions that we did. \u2026 I think any media trying to serve everyone, especially now because there are so many outlets, you end up serving no one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through APR\u2019s 2020 schedule changes specifically, which Terwelp said were \u201con the way there\u201d when she got to the Aspen station and supported by the station\u2019s board of directors, she feels station staff will be pushed to produce better local content and will ultimately better serve the valley community (see story page A6).<\/p>\n

As part of its efforts to better understand why APR\u2019s 2020 schedule is breaking from station tradition, The Aspen Times attempted to speak with APR\u2019s Board of Directors and Community Advisory Committee, reaching out to 11 members from both groups via phone, email and Facebook.<\/p>\n

The handful of members who responded, including Doug Carlston, chair of APR\u2019s board of directors, declined interviews and pointed to Terwelp as the station\u2019s spokesperson. Some members also suggested attending the upcoming community advisory committee meeting Tuesday and board of directors meeting Thursday.<\/p>\n

Carlston declined to speak with Aspen Times reporters and pointed to his \u201cLetter to the Editor\u201d<\/a> published in The Aspen Times as a reference for the board\u2019s involvement with and thoughts on the recent changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough we are moving toward a single format content, as the rest of public radio has over the past 20 years, it remains critical that a large part of our content be local in nature,\u201d Carlston wrote on behalf of the APR board in his January letter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis change was extraordinarily challenging, but years of data show that mixing music and information satisfies neither the music nor news-focused audience and that loses listeners over time as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n

mvincent@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pings of incoming messages and digital notifications as two teens unpack the impacts of social media on their generation. Locals talking about why the HOV lane between Buttermilk and Basalt on Highway 82 is on the right side versus the left. Slides of skis over snow as two men explore what mining era reminders exist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2454605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 15:16:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2454605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454605\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2454605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2454605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2454605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}