Who Listens to 91FM?
Each week, 334,000 local listeners tune in, which is more than a 20% increase over the year before. The largest block of WHYY listeners, 45 percent, is between the ages of 35 and 54. Interestingly, the audience is perfectly split 50/50 between men and women, although men listen for 7.5 hours each week, while women listen for 6.5 hours.
-- Derrick Pitts, Chief Astronomer,
"I cannot work without 'Click and Clack' from Car Talk. I listen mainly for their humor,...and Marty Moss-Coane is one of the best local talk show hosts around. I learn so much from 91FM. It's essential listening every day."
The Franklin Institute Science Museum and co-host of 91FM's SkyTour and SkyTalk
WHYY's breath of FRESH AIR Goes global
WHYY-FM's best-known personality is interviewer extraordinaire Terry Gross. Her daily program, Fresh Air, is heard nationally by more than 2.5 million people each week, a 13 percent increase from last year. The program was presented on more than 220 public radio stations, an 11 percent increase over the previous year. In addition, fans from around the world use the Internet to listen to her conversations with the best and brightest in every field. These fans include a new member from Stockholm and a teacher in Taiwan who plays the program to help his students learn English. Also, through a special agreement, the Japanese magazine English Network publishes Terry's interviews in print and on CD for English language students.
Programs That Keep Listeners Tuned to 91FM
WHYY-FM is one of the most respected stations in the National Public Radio (NPR) system. This winter, 91FM completed its multi-year conversion to an entirely "news, talk and information" format.
While 91FM's goal is to present the best programs to our community, WHYY takes radio's intimate nature one step further. To encourage two-way communication, listeners are offered the opportunity to call in daily with questions and comments for Radio Times, Voices in the Family, A Chef's Table and Sky Tour, all of which are produced by WHYY (see page 9).
Listeners are faithful to the weekday mainstays, including Morning Edition, Talk of the Nation, Marketplace, The World and All Things Considered. Especially favored are WHYY's local productions, Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane and Fresh Air with Terry Gross.
Car Talk, Whad'Ya Know?, and A Prairie Home Companion entertain and inform listeners on their weekend rounds. Selected Shorts and Ira Glass' This American Life keep the storytelling tradition alive. Sound Money and Tech Nation help consumers stay up to date with finance and technology.
Notable special programming included The Vegetable Chronicles, Presidents' Summit: Follow-up, New Year's Eve Coast to Coast and Beyond Affliction: The Disability History Project.
This year, 91FM brought on new Radio Manager Anna Kosof, whose plans for fiscal year 1999 include opening the station to more voices from the public and becoming even more of a community presence. Plans call for a new local gardening show, collaborative productions with 91FM News and Radio Times, a cooperative broadcast venture with reporters from the Philadelphia Inquirer, more remote broadcasts from the community and increased coverage of New Jersey.
Above left: Brothers Tom and Ray Magliozzi (a.k.a. "Click and Clack") host the humorous advice show, Car Talk. Right: A Chef's Table, hosted by Jim Coleman, executive chef of Treetops at the Rittenhouse Hotel, is a popular weekly feature on 91FM. In fiscal year 1999, some of his programs will be packaged for national broadcast.