Survey: What Are Your Media Habits?

Results from the 2010 Survey

Update 4/13/12: We have reached our maximum number of responses to the survey! Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to share your feedback.

As a Vermont Public Radio listener, you're probably aware that we've been working hard for the past couple of years to stay ahead of rapid changes in the radio landscape. I'm writing now to ask for your feedback. Our goal is to continue to provide the news, information, music, and conversation you want in the way that you want it, so I'm inviting you to share your input about technology in our annual survey.

Take The 2012 Public Radio Tech Survey

We'd like you to tell us how you use your conventional radio, Facebook, iPods, smartphones, tablets, streaming and the Web to stay connected to entertainment, news, and updates from VPR and other sources. Whether you use all these devices/platforms or not, we value your opinion.

Your responses will be kept completely confidential, and we will never share your personal information with anyone. We'll only use the information you provide to enhance our service.

It’s a fairly long survey, but your input is important to help us determine where to allocate resources.

Thanks in advance for your time and for your support of VPR.

Jonathan Butler
Director of Digital Services

Introducing The VPR iPhone App

We're pleased to announce that you can now download the VPR iPhone App from the iTunes Store. This is the easiest way to enjoy all your favorite VPR content on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

With just a couple taps of the screen, you can stream the live broadcasts of VPR and VPR Classical and hear the latest VPR Newscast and Eye On The Sky Forecast. You'll have on-demand access to the latest VPR News, Vermont Edition, VPR Commentaries and other Program archives along with the list of Station Frequencies and Program Schedules. There are even feeds of the latest VPR Blog posts, Twitter tweets, and even School Closings!

The VPR iPhone App is the most convenient way to enjoy your favorite VPR content and it's also the easiest way to engage with VPR and share stories from your neck of the woods. With the "Tell Us" feature, you can share text, capture images, and even record audio, then easily submit them to VPR for use in reporting, broadcasts, and online projects. Whether you're breaking news, sending feedback, or sharing a beautiful photo, we hope you'll use "Tell Us" and be part of the story.

Many listeners are wondering what about Android and Blackberry? We decided to start with an iPhone App because it's the most established, it's been the most requested by listeners, and because development is less complicated than apps for Android. However, we are looking into the possibility of developing an Android App and serving listeners on as many mobile platforms as possible. For now, the best solution for Android and Blackberry users is to use the NPR mobile apps here.

The VPR iPhone App was developed with our partners at PRX Public Radio Exchange. PRX is the group behind many of your favorite apps, such as the Public Radio Player, the This American Life Apps, and the new KCRW Music Mine App for the iPad. They're also the presenters of The Moth, one of the most popular new shows on VPR. The app was developed with support from VPR listeners and the VPR Journalism Fund.

There's more information about the VPR iPhone App here at VPR.net. We hope you'll download the app, give it a try, and let us know what you think.

How The Spark Exchange Saved My Roller Derby Career

On the program and on VPR.net, I'd been hearing rumblings about the new Spark Exchange. The concept is simple: bring together the listeners of Spark - techies and luddites alike - and have them help one another with their tech questions and answers.

As it happens I had a nagging tech question of my own, one I've been asking friends for months now. As the training director for Vermont's roller derby league, the Green Mountain Derby Dames, I've been desperate to get all of our drills into a database that allowed me to tag each drill according to what skills it helps to develop, so we can plan practices more easily, and make them more diverse and fun. So, I posted my question to the Spark Exchange, and wouldn't you know, 20 minutes later I had an answer! Evernote - an online service that allows you to save and tag photos, text, web pages, almost anything - would allow me to do what I wanted to do.

Well, that was easy! After a long weekend of posting and tagging drills, my skater coaches think I'm a genius, and I can feel my sanity returning already. Try out the Spark Exchange for yourself here.

Clearing Our Plate, Er....Dish

Many of us across the region were digging out of yesterday's snow storm, and VPR was no exception! In this picture, VPR's Sean LaRock clears snow off the satellite dish outside our Colchester studios. Even a small amount of snow or ice on our dish can disrupt our feed of NPR and other programming, so when the weather gets bad, our announcers keep a close eye on the dish to keep VPR programming coming to you! Stay warm!

(Photo courtesy of VPR's Aaron Kimball)

How Using the VPR Audio Player Saves Money

A listener wrote us recently and asked us how exactly using the VPR Audio Player sounds better and saves VPR money, as he's been hearing us report on the air.

The Audio Player saves VPR money because we pay for bandwidth streaming capacity and the Audio Player uses less bandwidth than listening to comparable MP3 streams in iTunes or Windows. Online streaming is like a utility, like electricity or gas, in the sense that the more we use, the more we pay. We offer 3 different bandwidth options for our MP3 streams at VPR.net: 24k, 64k, and 96k for VPR, and 24k, 64k, and 128k for VPR Classical. When listening via iTunes or Windows, listeners can choose any of these streams. When a listener chooses a lower bandwidth stream, such as 24k, she's streaming less audio data, therefore costing VPR less than the person streaming at 64k or 128k.

The VPR Audio Player offers only 2 options for each stream: a Low bandwidth at 24k, and a High bandwidth at 64k. Most listeners who use iTunes or Windows choose the higher bandwidth options (96k and 128k) because in general, the higher the bandwidth, the better the sound. For every listener who switches to the Audio Player from a 96k or 128k stream, we save bandwidth costs.

The other point about the Audio Player is that it sounds better. The Low options on the Audio Player are the same 24k MP3 streams offered through iTunes & Windows, so there's no difference there. However, the 64k High streams on the Audio Player are not MP3 streams, they're AACPlus streams. You can learn more about AAC, Advanced Audio Encoding, at Wikipedia, but basically AACPlus is an improvement on MP3 which sounds better than MP3 and uses less bandwidth. Our audio engineers and music director agree that the 64k AACPlus stream sounds better than the 96k and 128k MP3 streams, so we feel confident in claiming that it sounds better for listeners who switch over.

Originally, the primary reason for developing the Audio Player was that lots of listeners wanted to be able to stream online through the website without having to use iTunes or Windows Media. The fact that it saves bandwidth and sounds better were compelling reasons as well, but the demand we heard from listeners was primarily about the ease of use.

You can find the Audio Player in the top right corner of any page on VPR.net: look for the button that says "Listen Live". We hope you'll give the VPR Audio Player a try and tell us what you think, but we invite listeners to choose the player and stream that works best for them.

And no matter how you choose to listen, thanks for listening.

Covering the marriage debate

Covering same-sex marriage has given VPR News an opportunity to use all of our different media to tell the story.

We've had plenty of pieces on the air, of course, from legislative debates to personal stories. But we also took advantage of online.

We streamed legislative hearings and debates when we could. We posted to VPR.net when there were developments. One day, when Gov. Jim Douglas announced he'd veto the bill, Bob Kinzel put his cell phone on the podium next to his microphone.

We recorded the governor's statement in Colchester and posted the audio -- even though it wasn't quite of broadcast quality -- online until we could get the good material from Bob's recording.

And on that critical day when the Legislature voted to override the veto, we Twittered and updated and posted and aired every minute.

It's always exciting to be in the news business when a big news event is unfolding. It's even more fun when there are so many different means to get the news to listeners and readers almost instantly.

And our coverage continues. I recently went to a seminar at Dartmouth College during annual Law Week observances and recorded justices from three New England state supreme courts that have dealt with the issue. Audio of that session is online. And there's a story there, too.

Nate Herzog on VPR's Creative Technology

Great piece on VPR today by JDK's Nate Herzog in the Vermont 3.0 creative/tech blog. It's all about about how creative use of technology allows VPR reach more listeners - and allows listeners to interact with us.

You can read the article here. 

Have a great weekend!

Jamming at Champlain College

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the VPR table at the Vermont 3.0 Creative-Tech Career Jam last Saturday. It was a blast to meet so many enthusiastic listeners and talk with you about career opportunities at VPR. This is an exciting event that we'll continue to attend.

Until the next Jam, check out this video postcard by Seven Days on the Jam, and perspectives on Vermont becoming a creative-tech hotbed.