Lyle Muller is executive director and editor of the Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism-Iowatch. Photo: IowaWatch reporter/digital analyst Lauren Mills (left) and co-founder Stephen Berry (rear, center) talk on the ‘Your Town’ program Aug. 19, 2014, with Jay Capron (right) on KXIC radio in Iowa City, IA, one of 21 radio stations airing the IowaWatch Connection program. In addition to airing the IowaWatch Connection on Sunday mornings, KXIC features IowaWatch on ‘Your Town’ the third Tuesday of every month. Credit: Lyle Muller/IowaWatch.

Iowa radio stations participating in a statewide, experimental Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism-IowaWatch weekly radio show say they like the show enough to tell others about it. That’s the indication from a recent survey to determine the show’s value to the stations.

“Well done,” one station program director wrote about the show, called “The IowaWatch Connection.” The show launched with the support of an INNovation Fund award from Knight Foundation and the Investigative News Network.

“I like having the show on air and would continue it as long as it’s produced,” wrote another.

The feedback is important as the almost 5-year-old Iowa Center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative and explanatory news organization, tries to secure funding to continue the program.

“The IowaWatch Connection” launched on July 4, 2014, to spread the center’s in-depth reporting to a statewide radio audience. The show aired on 17 stations until Oct. 6, 2014, when an 18th station joined the network. By Nov. 20, 2014, 21 stations were airing the program – 20 in Iowa and one run by a high school radio station in suburban Chicago using the program for educational purposes. Fourteen of the 17 radio outlets airing the program during all or most of its duration responded to the survey.

Stations gave the program an average score of 9.31 out of 10 for content and technical quality. Respondents said the radio programs’ strongest aspects are timely and in-depth reports, knowledgeable experts as sources, and having a variety of topics that are “close to home.”

All but one of the 14 responding radio outlets use weekly promos we provide for our program, giving IowaWatch additional attention during the week.

All but two of the 14 use audio cuts we provide for insertion in daily newscasts leading up to the program. Three stations reported using audio cuts with news stories online.

Yet, the stations overwhelmingly are not interested in paying for the program, or for sharing advertising revenue if we give them time midway through the program to sell ads. Two said yes, but that response would not sustain the program.

IowaWatch radio station coverage map includes most of the state. 

Almost all of the stations do not measure their audience, but we estimated that 18 radio stations in 18 Iowa communities would reach just shy of 100,000 listeners. That is in addition to the 1.01 million potential readers we reach when an IowaWatch story is published by the right combination of newspaper partners that regularly share our stories. This reaches our goal for the radio program of exposing an audience of 1.1 million to IowaWatch and its stories.

The survey results provide a positive story for underwriters, and they complement other positive aspects of our programming, including:

• Radio stations want to air the program over a long period of time. This means an underwriter can rely on stability and commitment from the media platform to deliver the underwriter’s message.
• We run this program in a professional manner and have in a short time established a good reputation and good relationships with affiliated stations.
• The show is appealing because it is timely, in-depth, has good and knowledgeable experts as sources, and covers a variety of topics of interest to local audiences.
• Radio stations heavily promote “The IowaWatch Connection” during the week.

We also cover most of Iowa, have a network of well-known stations with strong local followings, and a relatively inexpensive cost for reaching listeners in our coverage area. Whether “The IowaWatch Connection” continues is a financial decision, but it’s clear from a programming perspective, that it has impact and is worth sustaining.