Freed from CNN restrictions, Brown tries two pubcasting gigs
Former CNN anchor Aaron Brown returns to broadcast journalism with two pubcasting programs — a pilot for a weekend public radio series produced this month by KJZZ in Phoenix and the upcoming season of Wide Angle, PBS’s international documentary series.
The Wide Angle gig is a summer assignment for Brown, who left CNN in 2005 when the cable network cancelled Newsnight, the flagship evening program that he anchored, and replaced it with Anderson Cooper 360°. He wasn’t released from his CNN contract, which prohibited him from giving interviews or returning to television, until last summer. Last year he became a professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Arizona State University.
The onetime Seattle TV newsman worked as a reporter and weekend anchor for ABC News before joining CNN on Sept. 11, 2001, and anchoring the network’s 9/11 reports from Manhattan.
Brown was among the potential pubradio talent considered by the Launch Production team of producers scouting for CPB’s Public Radio Talent Quest, according to Mary Beth Kirchner, a member of the Launch team and e.p. of The Aaron Brown Show. Because Brown was already a well-recognized broadcast journalist, and the quest’s goal was to cultivate undiscovered talent, “we agreed it didn’t seem right to put him into this contest,” Kirchner said. “But it was a good reason for the conversation to begin.”
KJZZ, now Brown’s hometown station, immediately signed on to the project when Kirchner began assembling the production. Joining her in building a show around Brown are Sean Collins, an NPR veteran and creator of Talk of the Nation; Emily Botein, a senior producer of The Next Big Thing and Stories from the Heart of the Land; and writer Lori Leibovitch, a member of the PRTQ Launch team.
“It’s fun to figure out how to translate Aaron’s brand to public radio,” Kirchner said, “and how you go from a nightly news presence to a once-a-week, timely news show.” The pilots, which aired on KJZZ May 2 and 10, aimed for a Western sensibility that features Brown’s “very direct, provocative” perspective on important news stories of the week, she said. “He is not afraid to be himself” and has an edgy, irreverent sense of humor.
Based on her long radio experience, Kirchner believes Brown possesses a rare skill. “It’s very hard to find people who can sit in the host chair and ask questions, be themselves and mention things that reflect their own lives,” Kirchner said. “That’s a part of Aaron that’s endearing for me.”
During the May 2 pilot, Brown described his aspirations for the series to a music consultant: “I’d like this to be a place for interesting conversation for interesting people about things that matter — but not necessarily things that only exist on the front page.”
Streamed audio of both pilots is at aaronbrown.kjzz.org. KJZZ invites feedback on both shows from pubradio programmers and plans to share them with potential series funders this summer, Kirchner said. Under her best-case scenario, The Aaron Brown Show would launch as a national series in January or April.
“It’ll take awhile, but hopefully not too long,” Kirchner said. “There’s a window of time where people like Aaron or [PRTQ finalist and comedian] Julia Sweeney are available and ready to go. They come from worlds where things move quickly.”
Brown makes his first appearance as host of WNET’s Wide Angle July 1, as the international affairs series starts its seventh season on PBS. As host, Brown will introduce films and interview experts about the issues raised.
Brown’s “incisive ability to interpret world affairs is a perfect complement to our mission—to draw on front-page news and underreported stories from around the world to help Americans better understand how these issues impact our lives,” said Pamela Hogan, e.p. of Wide Angle.
Web page posted May 12, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Current LLC
