Great radio content comes from the big radio companies and single-station operators. It comes from all-news stations, sports stations, and music stations. Our mission is to find that great content and share it with our thousands of daily headline subscribers. Alyssa Feuerer is the Marketing Director at 88.9 Radio Milwaukee. After she read our spotlight on 1010 WINS Monday, she reached out and shared a terrific story about how her radio station is producing great, and unique content, in the city of Milwaukee.
88Nine is an independent radio station focused on emerging music, but they also develop meaningful content to promote a positive community built around inclusivity and optimism. And through this creative series the radio station is expanding its reach by using other platforms.
Feuerer says during October/November of 2016, the station launched a special content series called National & North. “The concept is that National Ave and North Ave are two of the longest streets in Milwaukee that run through very culturally and racially diverse neighborhoods, and we wanted to create a story that promoted empathy amongst our neighbors and broke down barriers, regardless of where they live. Milwaukee has been known to be one of the most segregated cities in our country, so this was rooted in a deep purpose of opening our listeners minds and hearts.
The execution of this series was to play off of the “36 Questions to Fall in Love,” developed by social psychology researcher Arthur Aron. Participants ranged from widows, to immigrants, to entrepreneurs. The station asked them questions, and captured the very raw, human emotion that unfolded during each individual’s conversation. An interesting component about how we produced this series is that we stayed true to the nature of the exercise. Instead of our producer simply asking the subject the list of questions, the subjects asked the producer the same questions. This allowed for a much more real and open dialogue to occur with both individuals agreeing to be open and vulnerable.
Feuerer says Managing Producer & Community Partnerships Manager Nate Imig and Video Producer Laura Kezman were responsible for putting the series together. We spoke to them at length about this project.
Radio Ink: Why did the station decide to do this?
88Nine Radio: 88Nine reaches a new generation of radio listeners with an entertaining and adventurous series of public affairs programming. Radio Milwaukee seeks to reflect Milwaukee — its music, its people, and its values — in what we put on air and online. We want to show our commitment to bringing out the good in our community, with the intention of showing that Milwaukee is changing for the better. Our community stories are one of the many ways that 88Nine delivers meaningful content to its listeners to bring more awareness, empathy, and interest in the community. Our stories are meant to educate, inform, and motivate our listeners to be more aware and get involved.
Radio Ink: How was it received by your listeners?
88Nine Radio: Research we’ve conducted tells us that our community stories are the second most important reason our listeners engage with Radio Milwaukee (following the music). This series aired October-November 2016, during a pretty tense time in our city (and country), and we received so many responses from viewers that this provided “something real” during the conflicting election coverage. We reached nearly 20K people with each video we shared online.
Radio Ink: How did it help your relationship with the local community?
88Nine Radio: After the series aired, we then hosted a live discussion at our studio to bring together the eight participants, conduct a discussion panel, and create empathy in real time. After the discussion panel, we asked our 70+ attendees to pair up with a stranger and go through some of the “36 Questions” together to experience this moment first-hand. It was overwhelmingly emotional, heartwarming, and so positively charged.
Radio Ink: Why is it important for radio to do special reports like this?
88Nine Radio: We’re redefining the reach of radio by expanding to more than one platform. For our stories to truly reach our audience in a way that is authentic to the intention of the project, we are delivering a multi-platform experience. Radio is uniquely positioned to bring listeners this type of content due to it being a very personal medium; it’s one to one. Breaking the barrier of strictly sound, video allows us to build on that personal foundation and provide an opportunity to look into the eyes of the people we feature and vice versa.
Radio Ink: Why was radio the perfect medium to pull something off like this?
88Nine Radio: The personal nature of radio allows for a unique intimacy in storytelling. The sound crafts the story in the listener’s mind, from the inflection of their voice to the way someone speaks to even the silences, the audience is able to infer a lot of information based on these audio cues. Then being able to go further by providing a visual with video, it allows the listener to have their perceptions challenged.
Radio Ink: Do you have plans to do additional stories like these?
88Nine Radio: Absolutely. Telling stories that speak to the heart of what connects us and makes us human is at the core of our mission as a station. We consider ourselves to be well-positioned within the Milwaukee community to tell these stories on air and online, and even on site in our multipurpose community space that is open to the public. Production is already underway for 2017, including unpacking the complicated system surrounding foster care and adoption and revealing the personal stories within, and the hot-button issue of segregation in our city.
Check out the 88Nine series HERE.
Reach out to Alyssa to congratulate her and the 88Nine team on a job well done at [email protected].
Are you making great radio? We want to hear about it. Send all the details to [email protected]
