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