WQPT viewership rises, but membership falls

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By David Burke | Monday, October 20, 2008 9:51 PM CDT | () comments

After a major programming overhaul designed to trim its budget, WQPT-TV officials say that viewership is up for the Quad-City-based public television station.

But the station’s membership has dropped by more than one-fourth, members of the station’s governing board were told Monday.

WQPT general manager Rick Best told the Greater Quad-Cities Television Corp. that although specific numbers could not be supplied by a consultant, he was told that viewership has increased from year to year. In June, the station adopted a new, money-saving programming strategy that dropped some PBS series and shows still others on at least an eight-day delay.

Business manager Cathryn Lass said, however, that those numbers are not showing up in membership, which dropped by 28 percent from September 2007 to September ’08.

The station had set a goal of 250 new members by the end of the year, but Best said the economy is not working in WQPT’s favor.

“We’re hitting a time when it’s extremely difficult,” he said. “But we’re not alone.”

Getting rid of some PBS programming is another reason for the loss, he said.

“There were people we had lost because certain programs had gone away,” he said.

Friday nights, which include reruns of “Sherlock Holmes” mysteries, have the highest viewership, Best was told.

The station is continuing with its strategic plan, which includes increased local

programming.

A children’s exercise program, offered in conjunction with area YMCAs, will begin taping in January. Funding already has been secured for a weekly roundtable of local media representatives.

That adds to a local show

on healthy cooking and the weekly interview program “Perspectives.”

“My goal, ambitious as it may sound, is to have something local Monday through Friday in that 7-to-7:30 p.m. time slot,” Best said.

The longtime magazine program “Life & Times” is on hiatus, he said. Repeat segments are being used to fill in, he added, with that show’s personnel at work on a special celebrating the station’s 25th anniversary. That is scheduled to air Nov. 6.

Several board members said the local programming was needed.

“I think if you’re going to survive, you have to give the public a reason to tune to (Mediacom cable) Channel 10,” Duncan Cameron of Bettendorf said.

David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com.