Proof the Web Works for NPR Listeners
On NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday,” the weekly quiz is one of the most beloved and listened-to segments. Last week, because of hurricane Katrina coverage, the program took the 40-minutes-after-the-hour spot off the air, telling listeners they could go to the NPR Web site to hear the week’s Sunday Puzzle and submit their answers for a chance to be on the air. I had wondered whether they’d get anything like a usual level of response (it seems to range from 400 to 2,000 correct answers each week, depending on the time of year (is it a holiday weekend …) and difficulty of the problem given.
Today, host Liane Hansen repoted that they had received “OVER 600 ENTRIES,” meaning that a lot of people went to the Web site and submitted their answers even though the quiz was never on air. I think this points to rather strong evidence that certain channels on the Internet are mass media and, done right, there are excellent ways of building cross-pollination between Web and broadcast that benefit both.