Two years ago Iowa Public Radio was in turmoil. There was a change in leadership and a hole in the budget, a difficult time for an organization that relies on the support of listeners.
During this hour of Talk of Iowa, host Charity Nebbe talks with Myrna Johnson, Executive Director and Mary Kramer, Chair of Iowa Public Radio’s Board of Directors. According to both leaders at IPR, a lot has changed in the last two years.
“When I walked in we were spending at an unsustainable level. In the past 18 months, we’ve done a great job of increasing fundraising and holding down costs. We are on track. We were doing a lot of deficit spending but couldn’t continue to sustain that,” Johnson says. “I’m confident we will balance the budget in 2016.”
In addition, the network has launched a new app for tablets and smart phones in addition to a new 24 hour music stream.
Iowa Public Radio’s Program Director Katherine Perkins and News Director Michael Leland also join the conversation to talk about plans ahead for coverage of the 2016 Iowa caucuses.
“We are beefing up our web presence for this go around of the caucuses. We have created a web page, and you can go there and search by candidate. Our goal is to have at least one speech from each of the candidates, so that you can read it as well as listen to it,” Perkins says. “We’re also hoping to do some work with voters who have been doing the caucuses for years and those who are new to the process.”
