Doubling Down: How Waco Public Radio Rebuilt Its Membership Base

Guided by a strategic partnership with Four Columns Marketing, KWBU doubled its contributing members and rebuilt its budget from the ground up.

Nonprofit Media / Public Broadcasting

The Work

Four Columns built KWBU a comprehensive plan centered on what made it different. The brand positioning focused on three unique value propositions: local, ecumenical, and communal journalism — a gap Four Columns identified as both underserved in Waco and squarely in KWBU’s wheelhouse. Initial strategy work also encompassed a buyer-journey framework mapping its audience from unaware to fully invested and a tactical roadmap spanning on-air promotion, organic and paid social, live events, and website recommendations. 

From there, the first change was messaging. Four Columns rebuilt the language KWBU used to ask for support, shifting from a generic funding appeal to various message streams built on equity, trust, and community ownership. That was paired with branded Canva templates and a social media playbook that gave KWBU’s team the structure to run its own channels consistently. Four Columns also provided guidance on formatting KWBU’s content for search and AI-assisted discovery. Beyond digital channels, Four Columns advised a series of local activation campaigns, including popups at farmers markets and other high-traffic community spaces, to put KWBU in front of the people already inclined to support it.

Not long after the strategy engagement began, KWBU lost a significant portion of its funding, pushing the station into a real financial crisis. Rather than start over, Four Columns and KWBU leaned further into the partnership already in place, with ongoing design support, quarterly marketing consultations, and continued execution and refinement of the original plan. KWBU’s team took every recommendation seriously, from the rebuilt messaging to the SEO guidance, and did the work of putting it into practice. That combination of steady expertise and dedicated follow-through is what transformed the station despite financial setbacks. When KWBU’s longtime president retired at the end of 2025, Four Columns stayed on as an in-kind underwriter partner to help KWBU through the leadership transition and beyond.

KWBU’s contributing membership doubled in a single year, growing from 626 members in September 2024 to 1,226 by September 2025. That growth traces directly back to the messaging system Four Columns built, paired with consistent, on-brand execution across every channel KWBU’s team touched.

Beyond membership gains, the implemented social media strategy gave KWBU increased visibility across multiple channels. KWBU’s Meta performance surged, with a 197% growth in followers, and content interactions and visits both up 100%. A 2.4K% increase in link clicks was evidence that its audience wasn’t just growing, it was engaging in meaningful ways. Online growth, alongside the significant number of new contributing members, moved KWBU’s budget from the red to the black for the first time in years. None of it happened by accident: KWBU’s team took Four Columns’ strategy and ran with it, executing the SEO guidance, the social playbook, and the messaging system with the kind of follow-through that made the numbers possible.

KWBU has since expanded its team and hired its own Digital Marketing Strategist. Thanks to the foundation laid by Four Columns, its in-house capacity continues to grow, expanding its marketing efforts year by year. The station works with Four Columns on an ongoing basis for design support and strategic consulting, a relationship that has evolved from a single marketing plan into a long-term, trusted advisory role.