For a variety of reasons, 2024 has been a banner year for the news/talk radio world. But at KTAR News 92.3 in Phoenix, Program Director Martha Maurer knows there’s a balance between heavy election coverage and other news items that matter to Arizonians.
The state will continue to have a spotlight on it as it’s a swing state and the Senate race pitting Ruben Gallego (D) against Kari Lake (R) could ultimately decide the balance of power in that chamber of Congress.
In the midst of all of that, there are still important issues playing out in The Valley that matter to KTAR listeners. And Maurer says if it’s important to them, it’s important to the station.
“I think it’s important because, again, we’re going back to the issues,” said Maurer. “I think there’s always going to be an interest in politics. At the same time, we can’t forget other top stories. The school board meetings, the city council meetings, and voting on things that affect us the most. So if you can find a balance, if any station can find a balance, do that. I think that’s only going to make your community stronger, and it’s going to hopefully help your station, and our stations, gain that trust, keep that trust from the community.
“Let’s also not forget about the importance of community and all the events that we can put promotionally and community-related as radio stations to connect with the audience on a more personal level.”
Many stations sat down early in the year, or even last year, to formulate their coverage plans for the 2024 election season. And why wrenches have been thrown left and right into those plans, Maurer says KTAR has essentially been in election mode since the conclusion of the 2020 race for the White House.
“I don’t really think we ever began a process of covering elections. Arizona has been a very unique state, as you may know, since 2020 I think there has been a big focus on the state’s elections, not only on the federal level and who Arizona votes for federal office, but very consistent at the local level as well,” she said. “Following the 2020 election and the loss of Trump, as well as the loss of some MAGA-type candidates in the state, it led to a highly controversial recount and the cyber ninja controversy. So over the last four years, I don’t really feel like we’ve kind of stopped.
“And even after 2022 with some of our state races, it has just been a continuing pendulum of election coverage. Lots of lawsuits that are still continuing today. And so preparing for 2024, it was clear to us that Arizona was going to continue to be in the spotlight. So preparing for it, we said we’re already committed to being the place where our audience can get the latest on all sides of all issues, of all situations. And so creating our plan for this year really meant putting an intentional spotlight on all things that would impact voters in Arizona … Overall, it was our goal was to be the destination place and the destination media company for folks to get everything they needed, not just on radio, but through all of our platforms and channels.”
Election integrity has been a hot-button issue in The Copper State. KTAR has dedicated news resources to covering the issue while branding all of its election coverage with the “Arizona Votes” banner. And those two categories have become staples in the station’s commitment to news coverage.
“Those two pieces of it — the election integrity part of it, and then just the covering of anything political in the state — is one of the main pillars of what our news department, both on the news and the talk side, are focused on, on our daily coverage,” Martha Maurer said. “So just like the others are, the economy, education, water access, homelessness became a big one as well in the last few years, those are the kinds of pillars that we’re always intentionally covering outside of breaking news. So having a pillar for election integrity, and ‘Arizona Votes’ coverage, it keeps us on top of it constantly.”
It would be easy to believe that KTAR audiences might have grown weary of constant election talk and coverage since the conclusion of the 2020 race. However, Martha Maurer shared plenty of evidence showing their consumers are still interested in the coverage.
“We held a reaction show, a talk show, following the most recent presidential debate. The debate at Arizona time started at 6 PM and ended around 7:45 PM,” said Maurer. “We started our reaction show with our PM drive talk show immediately after. It ran through 9 PM and we had more than 6,000 people watching on YouTube at that time. So at an evening time slot where we normally wouldn’t have a live show after 7 PM, that’s just one example of there is an appetite for it.
“Whether it’s fatigue or not, we still have to do a good job at covering everything else that is not political or elections related. But we also know that Arizona has a very important role in the country … being a battleground state has been really an important one for the federal races as well. So while it could be looked at as fatigue by others, we’re committed to making sure that we’re covering it without putting aside the coverage that we still owe our community on all the other pillars that I mentioned.”
Martha Maurer shared that KTAR remains committed to serving the Phoenix community, and covering all sides of the political realm, not just the conservative approach many in the industry take. She shared that having a community-focused ideal will always stay at the top of the station’s priorities.
“As a station, we have a commitment to the community,” she said. “It all really starts there. In local media, we all talk about how local journalism is important and at the end of the day everything we do is to inform our community. At Bonneville, we have a specific goal to inform, celebrate our communities and families and to lift them up. And the way to lift them up is by providing to them what they need to know. So I don’t look at it as ‘We need to stay down the middle,’ because we don’t. Because our talk products are designed to go in different directions.
“But as a voter, and speaking to voters in Arizona, independents make up the largest voting block in the state now. We can’t forget that … I think we need to look at what the makeup of the state is. That’s how we look at things.”
Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
