By Ed Otte

To honor his decades of leadership at KUNC, the Community Radio for Northern Colorado Board of Directors established the Neil Best Future Voices Reporting Fellowship.

Best, president and CEO of the nonprofit and NPR-affiliate in Greeley, will retire this spring after a 48-year career at the station. He was named to his current position in 2009 after serving as news and public affairs director, program director and general manager.

The fellowship will be awarded to young journalists who will spend a year learning their craft under the mentorship of KUNC's nationally recognized news staff.

Best, 72, is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. During his tenure, KUNC has won numerous Colorado Broadcasters Association and SPJ Top of the Rockies awards for its reporting. The news staff won national Sigma Delta Chi awards in 2014, 2015 and 2018 for its news coverage.

KUNC began operations on Jan. 6, 1967, at the University of Northern Colorado. In 2001 the UNC Board of Trustees planned to sell the station to Colorado Public Radio. Under Best's leadership the Friends of KUNC quickly raised $2 million to keep KUNC an independent, community-licensed station.

When the station was housed in Carter Hall on campus, the KUNC call sign stood for University of Northern Colorado. After the separation from the university, the call sign became Uniquely Northern Colorado.

KUNC (91.5 FM) can be heard on different radio frequencies in 10 mountain communities and six Eastern Plains communities in addition to the Front Range, Boulder and Denver.

Tammy Terwelp, executive director at Aspen Public Radio, will succeed Best on April 5. She has more than 20 years of experience in public and commercial media. Community Radio for Northern Colorado includes The Colorado Sound (105.5 FM), a full-time music station, in addition to KUNC.

The following email interview was conducted in early March.

During KUNC's February Winter Membership drive Fresh Air host Terry Gross said "public radio took a hit" in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. How did the decline in listeners and sponsorships affect KUNC?

In the early months of the pandemic pretty much all media took a significant hit. From the inside one would think there would be a huge appetite for information, people wanting a better understanding of Covid-19. What is it, what is being done, what should I be doing? Instead, it seems so many people just withdrew, trying to internally come to grips with what was going on around them.

Public radio saw that begin to change in late spring as the election process began to ramp up and, as a society, we began to come to grips with the situation we found ourselves in as a result of the pandemic. To Terry's reference major metropolitan areas where so many listeners have (had?) very long commutes saw sharper declines in listening as large portions of the public radio demographic began working from home and, quite frankly, not listening to public radio.

At KUNC we were very fortunate in that we did not see a similar drop in listening. Our membership base remained strong. Two reasons. First, so many of our members support us with sustaining memberships, i.e., monthly donations that happen automatically. We did have some members who had to discontinue due to economic hardship, but that was more than made up by listeners joining us as new members during our on-air membership drives throughout 2020 and current members choosing to increase their support. While our coverage of the pandemic, both at KUNC and NPR, was not perfect, I do believe our audience found the focus on the science of the battle with Covid-19 to be worthy of listening to and supporting.

Like every media outlet our sponsorship income took a hit. For us there was a very large loss from live event sponsors who canceled all contracts with the various stay-at-home orders. At the same time, as most organizations re-examined their marketing budgets and made cuts, KUNC became a more affordable option to ensure marketing efforts continued, but at a reduced cost for organizations focusing on the long view. 

With changes in how people get their news, how is KUNC reaching its audience?

As I noted above, we had less of an impact because commute times in Colorado (hard to believe, I know) are not as long as in many major markets. Our ability to reach the audience during the pandemic is also part of the long-range recognition that the media world is changing. For at least two or three years we have marketed to our audience that smart speakers are the new radio. While you may no longer have a radio next to your bed or in your kitchen, your smart speaker is in essence, a radio. We are further investing in the digital world in various ways. If one goes back three or fours years ago our idea of digital was to take broadcast reports word for word and transcribe and put on the web page. But as we have learned how audiences use various platforms, we have learned that digital reporting requires a different treatment and our staff have adapted to better serve the digital consumers of our reporting. We also have invested in staffing whose entire focus is on delivering our reporting on digital platforms. 

How has the KUNC newsroom adjusted to public health restrictions in its newsgathering and reporting?

Like every news organization in the country, we made adjustments, but never closed the doors. We don't have the capability to move to 100 percent remote broadcasting from home. As a result, our hosts continued to be in the studios every day during the last year. We took a series of precautions to limit their exposure by having everyone who could work remotely do so. We also put into place procedures to sanitize the shared workspaces, i.e. broadcast studios. Gradually through the spring and summer months as we learned more about Covid-19 we began to adjust from doing all reporting remotely to making calculated decisions about expanding how we would go about reporting, based on the individual reporter's comfort level. There are still reporters I haven't seen in a full year now. Others are in the offices on a staggered basis to ensure significant social distancing and, of course, practicing respect for each other and the facility.

As with so many newsrooms ours is a collaborative effort. It has been hard not to have instant access to a colleague across the way as a sounding board. But I will note the staff has worked well to reach out to each other remotely and communicate. As much as I personally detest the Slack platform, it has been a great tool for the reporting staff and the editors to limit the amount of working in a silo which could be an easy byproduct of the pandemic and the work in-place restrictions.

KUNC, which has the largest newsroom - 21 reporters, hosts and editors - in Northern Colorado, focuses on regional stories. The Mountain West News Bureau, which includes KUNC, provides stories from public radio stations in Idaho, New Mexico, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. How does the news bureau partnership work? KUNC's Colorado Edition program also features stories from The Colorado Sun, BizWest and Chalkbeat Colorado. How does this arrangement work?

When KUNC left the University of Northern Colorado in 2001 our newsroom wasn't really a newsroom. We had one and a half positions defined as news staff, but they also were responsible for hosting 40 hours on air each week. My highest priority since 2001 has been to increase our ability to provide reporting of importance and relevance to the communities we serve. To do that, we have always needed to punch above our weight, budgetwise. Over the last 20 years we have always been on the look out for partners with which we could collaborate.

At the end of the day, it can't be an arrangement whereby one organization is the sole beneficiary. We have differing levels of collaboration. For example, the Mountain West collaboration involves public radio stations in seven states committing not only local reporters to the project but also jointly funding an editor who works with all the stations creating a cost efficiency for all stations while maintaining a commitment to the editorial process. Very differently, but with the same commitment to collaboration, KUNC and The Colorado Sun have worked on joint projects. And, yes, there is an element of cross promotion that occurs and benefits all of our working partnerships. 

Is public radio's financial format with listener fundraising campaigns and corporate and foundation sponsorships a viable business model for print journalism?

I really don't know enough about the economic dynamics of the print journalism world to adequately answer the question. One of my brothers worked as a print editor for many years and the last 20 as a freelance writer, and he asks me that question on a regular basis. My answer is that ship sailed some 40-50 years ago. As public radio evolved it has always depended upon community support from individual memberships. Hence, a mindset was created. Newspaper and news magazine traditions have been very different, and I can't predict if the pivot can be made.

My best guess is a membership model for traditional print newspapers is not substantial. At KUNC we have various levels of membership. Our Leadership Circle membership is $1,200 or more a year. While we greatly appreciate those who support us at that level, the vast majority of our members are nowhere near that level of giving. Compare that to what I pay for my various newspaper subscriptions. In every case nearly at what for KUNC is a Leadership Circle gift. The question I ask myself is can the appetite be found to achieve that level of support? Given the changing media consumption habits we are seeing the answer, at least in my mind, is very doubtful.

There is potential in my estimation for hybrid models. The Colorado Sun has been focused on what one might call delivering a very targeted product and developed a loyal base of subscribers. The Denver Gazette may also succeed. In their case benefiting from collaboration with a heritage print journalism organization and owner with very deep pockets.

Adaptation remains the key. Sadly, due to numerous factors, attempts to shift the funding model for local journalism may be coming too late. And I say that with great sadness. 

In addition to regional news coverage, KUNC also reports Colorado capitol and legislative stories in Denver and other statewide stories. Is this in response to listener requests or is the broader coverage driven by the newsroom?

Our news coverage is focused on Northern Colorado, from Julesburg to Steamboat Springs. What happens in the Denver area, both at the state capitol and beyond, is very influential across the entire state. To ignore those implications would be foolish and a disservice to the communities we serve. At the same time, there is vital reporting across the region that we also are focused on covering. To directly answer your question - the answer is yes. Our coverage is in response to listener interest as well as our organizational mission statement and commitment.

I would note that KUNC's CapCov of the state legislature and state government in general by Scott Franz is another example of our collaborative focus. Because of our geographic proximity and editorial strength KUNC is the lead partner with various other public radio stations located throughout the western part of the state to fund and share the reporting of the CapCov project.

Describe the experience in 2001 when UNC board of Trustees planned to sell KUNC to Colorado Public Radio?

Well, this could be a rather long story. I will try to summarize. Our staff found out on Feb. 8, 2001, the FCC license would be sold to Colorado Public Radio the next day. We reported the story at 3 p.m. that afternoon. The next day after hearing impassioned pleas from community members the UNC Board of Trustees said they would put out an RFP with a deadline of 5 p.m. Feb. 28. Twenty days in other words. During that very short time period a community group, Friends of KUNC, raised more than $2 million in cash. On March 1, it was announced that the license for KUNC would be sold to the friends group.

I could go on and on about how and why this volunteer group was able to achieve what one would have thought was an insurmountable goal. In reality, it came down to a belief in the importance of community. From the first ever million-dollar gift to public radio to the $5 gift broken out of a six-year-old's piggy bank the message was the same. The station had spent the first 33 years of its existence focused on serving the community. This was an opportunity to repay that commitment and move it forward.

As a broadcaster for the last 48 years and a forensic debater in high school and college I should have words to describe the experience. But even 20 years later I struggle to offer a description. I will simply say it was such an honor to be a small part of the community that came together during those 20 days and allowed us to continue and to grow service the last 20 years.

Where will KUNC be 10 years from now? 

The focus on presenting reporting that recognizes the importance of international, national and northern Colorado news will remain as it is today. Delivery systems will evolve over the next 10 years. Unlike some of my colleagues around the country I believe traditional broadcast towers will remain important. But there will be every increasing digital delivery methods.

The largest change that I foresee will be in how coverage is directed. Our tradition has been that editors and producers have made the decisions as to what stories are important, where to deploy reporting resources, how to cover events. I think it is fair to say most of that coverage was institutionally focused.

The future will involve a partnership, using a variety of tools which will be weighted to digital platforms, where the community helps the editorial staff determine what stories, what issues are relevant to our lives. That, I submit, will strengthen our society.

Ed Otte is SPJ's Region 9 Coordinator for Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming and a past president of the Colorado Pro chapter. He also is a member of KUNC's Front Range Advisory Panel.