CAB Public Forum - March 2024

Pillar

Comment / Observation

Key Takeaway

WQXR 

Everything at NYPR has been monetized; concerts used to be free when part of NYT

QXR already does quite a bit of free programming; always worth considering who it isn’t reaching and why. 

WQXR

Station should do anything it can to get people to consume classical music in the borough. 

A theme that emerges fairly quickly in this conversation is that Queens is very *very* overserved by its arts ecosystem. What they want from the station is not more reasons to go into Manhattan, but reasons to bring the city into Queens to help support the arts ecosystem in Queens. 

Gothamist

More paper coverage on Queens in Gothamist

This comes up in other parts of the listening area, but Gothamist coverage in Queens is seen as being overly fixated on crime. As will be discussed later, our Gothamist readers in Queens supplement their Gothamist consumption with Hellgate and The City but they generally find the latter two more reflective of the borough as a whole. 

WNYC; WQXR

It would be great to hear different stories of immigrant families and immigrant artists that settle in different areas in Queens and also highlights of different areas across borough that can convey an idea of different communities and cultural pockets across borough 

Queens’ character as “the World’s Borough” is something listener partcipants want to be centered in their coverage of the borough. This is important to consider with respect to podcasts and community outreach (see later suggestion of Jaeki Cho.) 

WNYC; WQXR

Since Pandemic, Queens has focused a lot more on its own cultural programming, eg: Queens Rising. Hundreds of events are happening during Queens. All high quality, even for somebody who consumes a lot of culture. Good use some more audience. We’ve got some hot neighborhoods. 

This goes back to original point that Queens has already arrived culturally but unlike a lot of Brooklyn insitutions (BAM, BRIC, TFANA, St Ann’s Warehouse), they aren’t yet pulling in audiences from Across the City. Worthwile to consider how culture and arts coverage (not just QXR, but Morning Edition and All of It) can 

WNYC; WQXR; Greene Space

Several venues that we’re suggested: CultureLabs in LIC; Black Spectrum Theatre in St Albans; PS-1; Terraza 7; QED; Frank Sinatra School; Museum of the Moving Image; Kupferburg Center at Queens College. 

Id. 

WQXR

I listen ten hours a day to Q2 and WQXR and only thing he hears is Parthenia Ensemble. Throw congestion pricing on that, you have no reason to go to Manhattan

QXR’s Queens listeners want the station to leverage its reach to bring listeners to them and supporting Queens institutions for Queens listeners. 

WNYC

More real science programming on WNYC: climate crisis. What people don’t know is what its nature is, what it’s science behind it is. Science Friday is good program. Radiolab is little too cute and too entertaining. 4:30- 5:30am: BBC Unexpected Elements. Apparently, WHYY Broadcast two hours. 

We didn’t hear quite the same level of detail about local climate impacts in Queens as we have in other parts of the listening era but this is the first time we’ve heard a more general critique of climate change programming on the station. 

WNYC

Would be great if WNYC could do some coverage on process Department of City Planning is leading in LIC. Would be great to hear from members of community to hear their perspective and the character of the neighborhood and preserving what would make western queens unique. 

Have we done any coverage of this? A lot of what goes on at the Community Board level is Planning-related and it’s on peoples minds. But how much are we talking about this on the air. And with respect to LIC: Brian invested an enormous amount of coverage into the Amazon HQ2 fight. This story is the epilogue of that and it has an obvious tail from previous station coverage. 

WQXR

NYT has done four major articles on music, specifically jazz at Flushing Town Hall, at Armstrong House, as well as other parts of Northeast Queens but they all had one refrain: but they can get audience traction. 

See earlier points about Queens’ cultural resources already being well established. What can station do to bring more audiences to them? 

WQXR

Flushing Town Hall and Queens College have really upped its came as far as performance. 

Id. 

WQXR

Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning has monthly event with Jazz Gallery in Manhattan

Id. 

WNYC;

WQXR

Listeners are very hyperlocal on the ground, founds out a lot of stuff just from talking to neighbors. 

A number of forum participants knew each other from other community and arts contacts (and found their way to the forum by different channels.) Word of Mouth is invaluable across our listening area but ironically (given the size of the borough) has unique valence in Queens. 

WNYC; WQXR

People don’t really come to Queens because they don’t know what’s going. Amplify focus in Queens but among Queens 

Id. 

WNYC;

WQXR; Gothamist

With so many different neighborhoods, have to find ways to find common pockets of conversation 

Id. 

WNYCWQXR

Pandemic-era programming in streets is still happening. 

Is this still happening? Is there a partnership opportunity here? 

The Greene Space

Existential question is trying to get people to go to concerts. Where do they get their news? They here about what’s happening in the Greene Space. Why can’t Greene Space run same program off site? 

There was overall more resistance to Greene Space events within this group of listeners in part bc of: a) distance and b) sense that Queens has own venues and institutions that they would rather support instead. 

The Greene Space

You hear about Greene Space all the time but nothing about Queens venues

Id. 

WNYC;

WQXR

Manhattan is really yesterday

Putting aside the truth of this, this is a very real sentiment among listeners in the borough who consume a lot of cultural events. 

WQXR

Christine – QXR is thinking more of CultureLab partnership. Which listener describes as great resource for community. 

“Partnerships, Partnerships, Partnerships”

WQXR; Gothamist

To the extent WQXR and Gothamist can establish partnerships with better known organizations. “And here’s something for our friends” so that smaller groups can get more recognition

“Partnerships, Partnerships, Partnerships” 

WNYC

Look at this systemically from an infrastructure POV: Queens Economic Development Corporation (QEDC)’s job is to amplify and attract eyeballs and skin in the game to virtually every single entity and institution that has been mentioned on this call. 

Possible partnernship contact for recruitment. And other station content. 

WNYC

QEDC is part of Queensboro President’s Office. He throws a lot of energy into venue (this is QED?) 

Multiple Queens listeners spoke very fulsomely about this specific contact. Worth pursuing. 

WNYC

Western Queens has got sex appeal but we swing a little further into Addisleigh Park 

“Half of Queens is East of Flushing.” Addisleigh Park is an obvious choice for areas in Deep Queens where we can be going further, given history 

WNYC;WQXR

Addisleigh Park: this is major, it can attract people; past Jamaica. 

Id. 

WNYC;WQXR

Queens Memory Project has partnered with Voelcker Orth Museum in Downtown Flushing. They attract a lot of people

See earlier point about venues in the borough. Whereas is Queens Memory going? How can we deepen that partnership?

WNYC;WQXR

There are venues that are undernourished, not underresourced. NYPR would do those spaces a favor by highlighting one here, one there. 

Venues in borough are not simply partners for performance, but partners for community outreach. 

WNYC;

WQXR

Look at the transportation nodes: Long Island City; Jackson Heights; Flushing; Jamaica. Both Jamaica and LIC are both accessible from Brooklyn. Not that hard to get to. 

This is actually not a point about transportation coverage, but about accessibility to venues in the borough to other parts of the city. They want more audiences, and they believe we can help them. (NB: nobody on the call appeared to be directly affiliated with any of the venues mentioned.) 

WNYC;

WQXR

Give people two good reasons to go: music and food. 

As Recipe Swath showed, food-programming or community-based programming with a food angle, is something that has unique valence in Queens. 

Gothamist

Gothamist Queens Coverage is very crime-focused. Get there is general sense of media is fearmongering. Hard to find specific Gothamist article that isn’t specifically about NYPD. 

See earlier point about Gothamist. 

Gothamist

Read Hellgate a lot now and they do a lot of weird hyperlocal coverage; wish they saw more of this from Gothamist. 

Hellgate is already serving an unmet need in the borough (and often does some very penetrating reporting on the Station.) Are they partnership opportunity and what can we learn from them, content-wise? 

Gothamist

If one doesn’t wish to know about something, any mention of it is anathema. The City and Hellgate are consistently giving Gothamist a run for their money. 

Id. 

Gothamist

Contribute to Hellgate bc they give lens to a wide range of subject matter; gave to Hellgate bc wanted to see if that would be a motivation to have real opportunity to do hyperlocal coverage

Id 

WNYC;

Gothamist

Were in presidential election cycle; next year is local election cycle: great opportunity to identify decision makers. Interview Donovan Richards: what are you doing in terms of both giving money, supporting and amplifying that arts drive the engine of the totality of the community, not only to the converted. 

The borough president are on Lehrer quite a but, but are there ever tailored conversations about the arts? Do they even have much say here? 

WNYC;

Gothamist

Downtown Flushing is still the crossroads of the borough, where more people intersect the totality of the borough. And in that precinct they have seen the highest in FBI-indexed crimes across the board. You can’t overlook that. But here is where conversation with borough structure acknowledging that there is impediments.

This conversation was in the context of crime coverage; station’s coverage is deeper and more contextualized, but it is the only storing we’re telling about the borough?

WNYC; Gothamist

People go to Hellgate, The City, and QNS for hyperlocal content, not Gothamist. Gothamist, though in depth, is for places for hyperlocal content in other boroughs. 

See earlier point about Queens coverage in Gothamist. 

Podcasts

Station could really use podcasts as megaphones to amplify and attract more listeners, sponsors, even if its criticized for being a narrow cast. 

There’s an obvious slippery slope dynamic to doing borough-specific podcasts, but if there’s one borough that’s uniquely suited to it: it’s Queens. 

Podcasts

Podcast that hones in on one aspect of one Borough and expose it to much larger audience in unique and vibrant, whether it’s the arts, politics, food in that borough. 

This listener described this in sidebar as: “Micro Manage A Borough A Month”...drill down deep into one fascinating story about a given Community within a Borough and shed light on how that story illuminates a whole Borough's Tale. Maybe we don’t want to “Micro Manage” or even do something monthly, but this is might be a useful frame to consider for podcasts that are thoroughly rooted in the local. 

Podcasts

QEDC used to have a podcast (but it might have been more like a YouTube channel). Appeal to podcast approach for Queens listenership is having niche for audiences that don’t get audience at larger platform. It’s a matter of choosing the folks that people would listen to. 

“Choosing the folks that people listen”. See below point on Jaeki Cho. 

Podcasts

Jaeki Cho grew out of Queens content and launched into larger coverage of food insecurity. 

This is a very popular content creator who’s coverage grew out of, and is still largely centered in, Queens food culture and food insecurity. If we’re in interested in a name in the borough to partner with, every listener in the call spoke very fulsomely of him. 

Podcasts

There’s an accessibility aspect that you don’t get for broader media: starting with someone known locally or starting 

Id. 

General

Air quality reports; put temperature in perspective of climate change; Dew Point is important: why don’t we talk about it? 

Insofar as the station doesn’t have a meteorologist, it’s worth considering that Michael effectively plays that role for the station and that weather coverage could be deepened a little. 

General

When Liz Kim does the Q&A with Brian about mayoral news conferences, sometimes it gets very uneasy but it’s important to the listener: this is the stuff of real journalism; the real sign of a mission-driven station. 

Listeners experience the station as they are, where they are; how power is lived and expressed in NYC is an enormously complex story without a defined beginning or end. Listeners respond to journalism that does right by that complexity and isn’t afraid to ask difficult questions. This is very central to the station’s identity of itself; important to note how this manifests as listener experience.