Traffic gridlock isn’t yet a problem up here on the far edge, but it’s coming and we regularly need unseen yet heard guidance to get from here to there. And getting from here to there up here almost always means an automobile, one Minneapolis city council member’s grand personal rapid transit (PRT) dream notwithstanding. The unseen yet heard guidance many of us rely on in the Twin Cities is KBEM radio‘s traffic updates every 10 minutes during the daily rushes. I have multiple routes for my 7-mile commute (oh, how I miss the days of my one-flight commute) and I rely on KBEM to tell me which one is viable today, and plan my leave times accordingly.
All of that’s coming to an end, though. After 15 years, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT) has decided to end its funding of KBEM’s traffic reports. The US$418,000 the station gets from MNDOT each year is fully one-half of the station’s operating budget. If you think that sounds like a lot, consider that the traffic update airtime at even the bargain-basement rate of US$50 per hour is worth US$1.3 million annually. KBEM is a nonprofit public radio station; commercial stations in the Twin Cities market charge between US$100 - US$600 per minute.
Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be much of a story—things are tough all over and most states are cutting their budgets drastically. But KBEM is all about community service. The radio station, based in a local high school, is one of the better jazz outlets in the country and provides broadcast training for 150 students each year and offers hourly news updates from metro-area schools that involve some 400 public school students.
Last week the Minnesota Senate Transportation Committee debated whether or not to restore the MNDOT subsidy. A one-line funding restoration bill was introduced by Sen. Chuck Wiger (DFL-North Saint Paul) and Sen. Steve Murphy (DFL-Red Wing). Predictably, representatives from the outer-ring suburbs argued that the money would be better spent on new roads (in the suburbs of course).
Meanwhile, the unlikeliest of suspects came forward to offer major support. Clear Channel Communications, evil empire and owner of KBEM’s closest competitor, ponied up US$25,000 last Saturday. This is especially surprising given Clear Channel’s history of greedily devouring all competitors in any market it decides to enter.
Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), by all accounts, is one of the largest, wealthiest, and most successful public radio operators in the United States. MPR was at the forefront of the effort to replace New York public radio’s transmitter that was destroyed during the 2001 World Trade Center attack and as recently as last year, MPR executives hand-held Boston public radio managers through a financial recovery. Not only did MPR fail to offer financial assistance to KBEM, it didn’t even bother to send representatives to the Senate Transportation Committee’s hearing. When asked why by the Minneapolis StarTribune, a “station spokesman said the organization was busy with the launch of it’s new youth-oriented station….”
Last summer, Minnesota Public Radio emulated the business moves of Clear Channel when it acquired classical-music competitor 82-year-old WCAL from Northfield’s St. Olaf College for an estimated US$10.5 million.
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