Spokane Public Radio has a long history of reporting regional news, going all the way back to its founding in 1980 when one person manned the news department.
Now there are two full-timers, Owen Henderson and Doug Nadvornick, along with Monica Carrillo-Casas, the Murrow Fellow SPR shares with the Spokesman-Review. SPR will add a reporter in June, details to come soon, as the replacement for local news host Brandon Hollingsworth. SPR also employs part-time reporter Steve Jackson and part-time news hosts Kyrsten Weber and Tom Lee.
General Manager John Decker hopes with the uncertainty of funding for public broadcasting that SPR will be able to continue growing our emphasis on local news.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity
John Decker: Local news is what makes us unique, right? There are lots of media organizations in Spokane and the Inland Northwest, but what we provide as an organization is a long history and roots in this community. We're one of the very few locally owned radio stations. And news, information in the arts is what makes us special. I mean that in a good way, not in a pejorative sort of way. I mean that in a way that is news sets us apart. It's the secret sauce that makes us successful and makes us valuable to the audience. Our success is measured in audience service, in community service, not so much in dollars and cents, although they help, certainly, keep the lights on.
Our future, our past, our present, and our future is going to be our ability to be of service to our audiences here in this area. And what I see is an opportunity to grow on our news reporting and our news service to our audiences.
Doug Nadvornick: Where are the biggest challenges to that?
JD: Well, these days we have lots of challenges. Everywhere you look, you see a challenge for public media. And you know, it's the same, I should say, and to be charitable to our commercial folks, there's a lot of challenges on the commercial side, too, because there's been a lot of shifts away from broadcasting, a lot of shifts away from use of terrestrial radio and TV stations.
There's a shift in the media market, in the advertising market. More and more is going on to the digital platforms. However, I think it's fair to say, and I don't know the exact number, but it's fair to say that the amount of money that goes into radio advertising or advertising on radio is still considerably higher than what it is on the digital sphere. So the challenges that we face really are from a monetary perspective, right?
We have relevance challenges, too. And the way we solve the challenge of being a relevant and very engaging local organization is to find good people to hire and to add them to our staff and turn those smart decisions into local content, local news and service that our audiences can use.
For public radio, we are chronically underfunded. Stations like ours are chronically scrambling to make sure that we have enough money to keep everybody paid and the lights on and the transmitters going. I mean, that sort of seems to be a through line for the public radio history. And it really doesn't change with us. What faces us as well here at Spokane Public Radio specifically is our need to move into that on-demand digital world, where I think we all would agree that we're not doing as much as we could. And there's some opportunities there.
DN: News has traditionally been a very competitive business, but there's been more of a move toward collaboration these days. Do you see local news being a more collaborative sort of effort than it has been in the past?
JD: I do. I think that collaboration is a tide that lifts all boats. I used to, many years ago, be a little bit more protective because I felt like what public radio did or public media did on the news side of things was very protective and we really didn't want to share it.
But to be honest with you, because there's been a significant diminution of local journalism in the communities that I know and here in Spokane as well, that how are we going to be altruistic and serve this community without collaborating? And for us, it looks like collaborating with the local publications, perhaps other radio or television stations, certainly with the folks up at KSPS, is a possibility as well. I think we just need to be open for that because as we work together, we then serve a greater number of people.
Currently, Monica (Carrillo-Casas) is part of a collaboration that we have with the Spokesman Review, which happened before I got here, which I think is brilliant. I think it's terrific because her work, as good as it is, ends up on two publications or two platforms, theirs and ours. And together, we reach a lot more people than we, Spokane Public Radio, would alone or they, the Spokesman-Review, would reach alone.
DN: Anything that I didn't ask that you think is important here?
JD: Yeah, I'll say this, that the way I see the future for Spokane Public Radio is not one or the other, not just news or just the arts, right? And I think that's important for us to remember because this station has a long history. It has a legacy of doing both. And I see it as my professional goal and our goal here at the station is to do, is to grow both of those avenues, the news and on the arts side.
I think our most acute need is in the newsroom. I would love to see more people in the newsroom providing more service. On the arts side, it's as important. It's just not as needy at the moment, but I can see a time where we're looking for ways to add a little bit more of a journalistic perspective on the arts for news audiences, which I think is going to open up a lot more opportunities to be in front of audience members and, as I mentioned before, be on demand, because I think that we need to look to the future.
As we build for today, we look to the future and look for ways that we can just be on every platform we can possibly think of for the audiences to find us.
