WASHINGTON — One of the lessons CUNA learned in launching its“Home & Family Finance” radio program is station managers aremore likely to respond to requests for air time if they come from alocal credit union rather than a big name, Washington-based tradegroup.

This is according to Mark Wolff, executive director of the radioprogram and senior vice president of communications at CUNA. InSeptember 2006, the association launched the weekly show on 30stations around the country through Radio America, a 20-year oldnetwork with more than 500 affiliated stations.

Since its debut, the program, which airs on Sundays at 3:00 p.m.EST, has expanded to 40 stations and recently partnered with theAmerican Forces Network to bring the program to military personneloutside the continental United States, including bases in Europe,the Middle East and the Pacific.

“We found that local credit unions can make the initial contactwith a radio station with better results than CUNA doing it,” Wolffsaid. “Radio personnel are more likely to respond to the localcredit union. We've adjusted our marketing efforts to involvethem.”

Still, the national program is accomplishing what it was set outto do: to use CUNA's personal finance resources to promotefinancial education and help strengthen the credit union brand.

Wolff is quick to point out that the show “is not an infomercialfor credit unions.” A wide range of speakers have spoken oneverything from cashier check fraud to pre-nuptial agreements. Butif listeners get new exposure to credit unions, that's finetoo.

“We're trying to strengthen the bond of trust people have withcredit unions for money matters,” Wolff said.

Radio America airs the program in several key markets includingWashington, Albany, Boston, Memphis, and St. Louis. The majority ofthe stations, however, are heard in smaller communities that arenot ranked by Arbitron, the media firm that measures radioaudiences, Wolff said. The CUNA program's total listening audiencefor all 40 stations is more than six million.

“We found that some stations dropped us due to format changes[such as] going from talk to music,” Wolff said. “We lose some butwe gain some. For a show that airs on the weekends, it's doingpretty good. One of our goals was to get into the D.C. market andto members of Congress and we've been able to do that.”

Indeed, the Federal News Radio with its federal employeeaudience, airs CUNA's program on Mondays.

To accommodate those who like to download shows and listenlater, CUNA and Radio America began podcasting the Home &Family Finance show through iTunes, Podcast Alley, Odeo, and otherpopular podcast library sites last fall, as well as on RadioAmerica (www.radioamerica.org) and CUNA's own Web sites(www.cuna.org).

The program is hosted by Paul Berry, a broadcast journalist withmore than 30 years of experience. The expansion of the program ontothe American Forces Networks brings Berry full circle. He firstreceived broadcast training with the American Forces Armed ForcesRadio and Television Service (of which AFN is a subsidiary), whilestationed in Vietnam.

“We made a quantum leap forward through the partnership with theAmerican Forces Network,” Wolff said. “If you go around militarybases, you'll see that [military personnel] are being preyed uponby predatory lending. They've very vulnerable. Many of these youngenlisted folks need basic financial education. We like to thinkwe're helping an audience that can use it.”

The funding for radio airtime is typically not cheap. To helppay for the costs, CO-OP Financial Services and national sponsorsVISA, WesCorp, and Cabot Creamery Cooperative have stepped up topay for the weekly program. Wolff would not say how much it coststo produce and air the radio lineup.

Still, experts from all walks of life are carving time out oftheir busy schedules to speak on the program. RepresentativeCarolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), who recently introduced the CreditCardholders' Bill of Rights (H.R. 5244), was on in February. Topofficials from the IRS and the Office of the Comptroller of theCurrency have spoken on the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance programand fraud, respectively. Stephen Brobeck, executive director of theConsumer Federation of America, spoke in late February on consumerdebt and savings and NCUA Board Member Gigi Hyland stopped in todiscuss financial consumer hotlines. Wolff said he would like tohave more policymakers on the show.

It takes about 10 days to produce a show, said Marta Trinkl, theradio program's producer. CUNA's Center for Personal Financestaffers are a key resource for finding show topics. Once a guestis lined up, the show is taped at Radio America's headquarters inArlington, Va. Typically, two shows are taped back to back. Wolffsaid because of Trinkl and Berry's expertise, rarely do they haveto redo a taping.

For now, there are no plans to take the show live and receivecall-in questions. However, during the last five minutes of thecurrent format, Berry will read e-mailed questions for the guestspeakers to respond to.

“About a year ago, we did a show on love and money,” Wolff said.The show focused on “blending the two money personalities andadjusting to working as a couple. One woman talked aboutpre-nuptial agreements and economical ways to have a wedding.”

To reach an even wider audience, in September 2007, CUNA startedproducing its “Home & Family Money Minute,” where quick moneytips are dropped into popular weekday programs such as during theMichael Reagan talk show. Some of the higher-profile weekdayprograms have listening audiences that top the four million mark,Wolff said.

More live feeds similar to those that will take place at thisyear's Governmental Affairs Conference, the Texas and Ohio CreditUnion leagues' annual meetings, and WesCorp's Future Forum are alsoplanned. Credit unions are being encouraged to put a link to theprogram on their Web sites. More than 800 credit unions subscribeto CUNA's magazine, Home & Family Finance Resource Center,Wolff noted.

“In the first year, we wanted to get the show up and running andflowing smoothly from week to week,” Wolff said. “Our biggestchallenge was it proved to be harder to expand into morecommunities. We found a number of leads that just didn't panout.”

That hasn't deterred the program's mission, Wolffemphasized.

“We found that if we involved more credit unions, it might workout more. Our goal now is to expand listenership.”

–[email protected]