How One Community Radio Station Created 10 Podcasts in 4 Steps

On September 30, 2013 KKFI 90.1 FM, a community radio in Kansas City operating for over 25 years, rolled out a way for listeners to follow archived shows using a simple, common approach. This article outlines the steps for other radio stations to do the same.

Despite the trend of decreasing subscribers to printed newspapers there is still  strong interest in radio listening, though as many as 40% of people now choose a digital device instead of an AM/FM radio. The station realized that to connect with listeners we needed to move radio content to digital spaces like the website and podcast outlets.

KKFI has for some time streamed the live radio signal to the Internet, enabling computer and mobile listeners to tune in from these devices. But many listeners asked for access to copies of the public affairs shows after the original broadcast.

The radio station used a combination of paid and donated labor to develop an efficient and low-cost way to archive radio programs, in fact, a total of 10 radio shows now archive their shows on a weekly basis. Since the station turned up the podcasts five months ago radio show hosts have uploaded 240 archives with listeners downloading shows 4500 times. The top archives were a Local Environmental Issues Call-In Show with Richard Mabion on November 25 and an All Souls Forum episode on immigration and the costs of war on November 13, both garnering about 200 downloads.


Project Goals


KKFI distributed programming control to individual radio producers/programmers from the station's inception in 1988. This means each host or DJ plans, produces and promotes their own show. There are over 70 locally-produced radio shows, though only 14 news and public affairs shows. KKFI has focused on news and public affairs shows for podcasting to this point.

Did I mention all radio programmers are volunteers? In order for the podcasting project to be successful, each programmer would need simple instructions and a quick method to upload their audio archive files. KKFI realizes the significant time each person commits to their radio show; we did not want to increase the burden.

Promote, promote, promote! Another important success factor was providing automated methods to share the audio archives on the KKFI website, Facebook Page, Twitter feed, and, most importantly, to the Apple iTunes Store, the single-most followed audio directory available. Each social media outlet informs listeners about new audio archives or provides listeners a link to download from the website or from iTunes. RSS feeds are available from the website or from iTunes for listeners to subscribe to their favorite radio show.

How KKFI Developed 10 Audio Podcasts


1. Develop a new WordPress website.

KKFI launched a new WordPress website in July 2012, and prominently featured the weekly show episodes of both national and local programs. WordPress was selected for it's popular, open-source code, and easy-to-deploy content management features. KKFI contracted with a local web developer to build and brand the site for $10,000, about 200 hours of paid labor, along with 200 hours of donated labor to coordinate the launch and gather content. 

The web developer built custom content types for Programs, Programmers and Program Episodes. The combination of these content types form the foundation of the website and audio archive. Without publishing Program Episodes the station could not have built the audio archives and podcasts.

2. Select Blubrry PowerPress WordPress module and Media Services.

The station researched various WordPress plug-in modules to integrate the audio archives in the website, but decided on Blubrry's Powerpress plug-in because it connects with their Media Services. Selecting a podcast media services outlet was important to making it easy for programmers to archive (upload) their audio files and reducing the load on the KKFI website. Blubrry Media Services provides 500 megabytes of archive space per month for $500 per year. This arrangement allows KKFI to host 10-20 weekly episodes using Blubrry. Leave a comment if you are interested in the details of the station's Powerpress configuration.

This image shows how the Blubrry Powerpress plug-in module for 
WordPress is integrated on the KKFI website.

3. Train radio programmers on digital content creation.

The station documented instructions to create program episodes and upload audio archive files on the KKFI website, and conducted several training sessions at the radio station. See "A Programmers Guide to Episodes and Audio Archives on the KKFI Website" (PDF).

4. Automatically push content from the website to Facebook and Twitter.

To ensure that all new program episodes and audio archives are pushed to KKFI's Facebook Page and Twitter feed in a timely fashion, the station looked for RSS feed services to automatically share content. We selected RSS Graffiti, which offers a free service, and Twitterfeed, a similar service for feeding Twitter.

Both services were easy to use and have performed reliably. Each offered a simple setup and configuration approach: create an account on their site, then add your RSS feeds to the account.

RSS Graffiti administrative interface to push an RSS feed 

to a Facebook Page.
The results of the feed give Facebook fans an easy way to follow public affairs programs and listen to audio archives. This arrangement sends about 5-10 updates to the KKFI Facebook Page each week so as to not overwhelm the station's 10,000 followers.


KKFI sends updates of Program Episodes to Twitter using Twitterfeed's service. Twitterfeed can send updates to other social media outlets like Facebook and Linkedin, but the station elected to only feed Twitter.


Here's what the feed produces in KKFI Twitter account. Each update from the feed includes a link to the episode so listeners can get more information about the show and drive people to the website.


Results - Increased Website Traffic and Audio Archives

How do you measure the impact a community radio station has on the local community? Since KKFI went on-air 25 years ago the station has maintained a vision to connect with underserved communities in the Kansas City listening area. The station has not sought to increase listenership in ways that commercial stations or large public radio stations do. KKFI offers programming tuned to community issues, music, culture and arts, and towards that end does not use Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) ratings to influence programming decisions.

The vast majority of funding comes from listeners during three on-air fund drives and two special events, a holiday online auction and an on-air band auction. Station employees and volunteers realize the importance of increasing the number of listeners, but has re-invigorated the focus on community impact during a strategic planning effort in 2013.

In order to keep the station focused on connecting with audiences that have moved from the traditional radio broadcast spectrum to digital spaces, KKFI has concentrated on archiving audio, as well as developing a range of social media outlets, including a YouTube Channel -- to direct people to the website, the primary space for information about radio programs and station news.

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