New Hampshire Tax Challenge, Concord, NH 1999

Partners:

New Hampshire Public Radio

An estimated 30,000 residents, or more than 4% of the state's registered voters, used their computers to access the radio station's online calculator to see how proposed new tax bills would affect them.

In addition, NHPR used the site as a reporting tool, monitoring a Feedback Zone and interviewing some of the respondents for radio stories about the personal impact of various tax proposals.

The nine-month project not only gave citizens the facts and figures they needed to participate in a public-policy debate, but brought a large online audience to the network's Web site during daytime hours when its radio listener numbers are down.

Contact:

Jon Greenberg
Senior News Editor
New Hampshire Public Radio
207 North Main Street
Concord, NH 03301-5003
Phone: (603) 223-2435
Email: jgreenberg@nhpr.org

Shock Value, Concord, NH 2000

Partners:

New Hampshire Public Radio

NHPR used the interactive Web technology it pioneered with its Tax Calculator to give the state's citizens an idea of how electricity deregulation would affect their utility bills. The special "Shock Value" Web site, linking off the NHPR home page, served as both a primer on deregulation and a tool for figuring out how to save money after the state legislature deregulated electricity in May 2000. Users were invited to leave their email addresses so NHPR could notify them of new developments affecting their utility bills. The site also featured a bulletin-board discussion area where ratepayers could post messages that were automatically forwarded to an email box set up for state legislators on the deregulation committee.

More than 3,000 visitors came to the site, some driven by promos broadcast on NHPR stations, thus proving that radio can create a feedback loop with the Web. The experience helped institutionalize radio-Web integration at NHPR, and NHPR believes it helped forge a new relationship with listeners/users as a reliable source for palatable information on complex topics.

Contact:

Jon Greenberg
Senior News Editor
New Hampshire Public Radio
207 North Main Street
Concord, NH 03301-5003
Phone: (603) 223-2435
Email: jgreenberg@nhpr.org

The Voters' Voice, New Hampshire 1997

Partners:

New Hampshire Public Radio
The Keene Sentinel
The Portsmouth Herald
UPI of New Hampshire

Inspired by the success of its election year project, "Voter's Voice," New Hampshire Public Radio sought citizen participation in coverage of non-election issues through a series of "Citizens Exchange" meetings in different communities, in association with local newspapers.

The network began the project in early 1997, with a series of call-in shows from its Concord studios, where citizens asked questions of the new governor, their congressmen and senators and engaged in discussions of campaign finance reform, race relations and health care issues.

NHPR then took the show on the road. The first stop was the Nashua Public Library on May 12, where about 90 citizens participated in a forum with the governor. The forum was taped and aired the next morning and again the next evening. It was also broadcast on Media One and stories ran in the Telegraph. Later forums allowed citizens to question other key elected officials about a wide range of issues.

Mark D. Handley
President/General Manager
New Hampshire Public Radio
207 North Main Street
Concord, NH 03301-5003
TEL: (603) 226-0850
FAX: (603) 224-6052
EMAIL: mhandley@nhpr.org