Current (https://current.org/tag/radiolab/)
After learning they were separately pursuing stories on the pioneering label and its founder, producers Joe Richman and Jad Abumrad decided to share tape and research.
The master of entertaining listeners while explaining complex topics is working with a “new mafia” of media creators.
Krulwich said his decision to retire was not because “anything bad has happened, more like the opposite.”
A podcast coloring book is now a thing.
A former NPR exec brings three radio producers to the digital media company.
What we’ve been reading this week.
After a four-year run, science correspondent Robert Krulwich’s blog on NPR.org, Krulwich Wonders, will end Sept. 30 as the network seeks to cut costs. “NPR (in the form of a super-top executive) sat me down and, after four years of generously supporting this blog, told me it can’t anymore,” Krulwich wrote in a blog post Wednesday. “It needs to cut costs and — you know the phrase — it has chosen to go ‘in new directions.’ So at the end of this month, Krulwich Wonders will no longer appear on NPR’s website.”
Plus: the FCC’s to-do list grows, and podcast listening rivals radio among some consumers.
Plus: Scott Nourse joins PBS Digital, and the Radiolab guys visit Colbert.
Inconsistent loudness among public radio shows frustrates listeners and poses challenges for technical staffers.
In an effort to position itself as a national brand in public radio, New York’s WNYC is launching an ad campaign likening its programs’ listeners to Netflix-style binge watchers. The Smartbinge campaign will consist of targeted digital ad buys and a landing page on WNYC.org to encourage listeners from around the country to listen to substantial amounts of WNYC programming. Other elements include Twitter hashtags, geotargeted Facebook ads, paid search results and sponsored blog posts. WNYC is spending around $200,000 on the campaign, working with creative and public-relations teams Cataldi Public Relations and Eyeballs. As WNYC increases digital offerings with streams and a mobile app, it has its sights set on an audience beyond New York.
• Detroit’s WDET-FM staged the New York premiere Friday of The Pleasure of Sound, a documentary featuring Radiolab’s Jad Abumrad. In the short film, shot in Detroit in 2013, Abumrad and musician Matthew Dear discuss music and creativity. WDET will launch a crowdfunding campaign to cover distribution costs for the film in May and plans to distribute the documentary free to interested community organizations and pubmedia stations for screenings. The Pleasure of Sound previously screened in Detroit as part of a fall 2013 installation at the Museum of Contemporary Art. • NPR appointed Mark Memmott as its new standards and practices editor Thursday. Memmott is the founder of the Two-Way breaking-news blog and co-author of NPR’s 2012 ethics handbook.
• The U.S. Supreme Court has set a date for ABC TV v. Aereo, a challenge to the startup service that allows subscribers to watch TV programs over the Internet via miniature antennae. Oral arguments are scheduled for April 21. Though ABC brought the lawsuit, filed in New York and Boston, PBS and New York’s WNET are also among the parties claiming Aereo violates copyright law. • Ken Burns participated in his first Reddit Ask Me Anything session Tuesday as part of the promotion for his new app. He laid out the planned release schedule for his next decade of films: The Roosevelts in September, A History of Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies and Jackie Robinson in 2015, Vietnam in 2016, Country Music in 2018 and Ernest Hemingway in 2019.
WNYC is among the media outlets that are working to extend that domain to include members of their audiences, tapping into communities of independent gadget builders who are part of the so-called “maker movement.”
Programs produced by Chicago’s WBEZ, New York’s WNYC and Miami’s WLRN won awards from the Third Coast International Audio Festival, handed out Oct. 20 at the organization’s Filmless Festival in Chicago.
Alabama Public Radio will eliminate Public Radio International shows from its schedule, dropping This American Life and The World, reports Tuscaloosanews.com. Director Elizabeth Brock said the decision was based in part on budget concerns. APR will fill the gaps left in its schedule by adding Radiolab and an additional hour of All Things Considered.
Producers of the program have made public the full list of questions they had originally emailed to their interview subject for the controversial piece.
An interview that went awry for Radiolab sparked an outcry from listeners and an unusual apology from a show unaccustomed to accusations of insensitivity. Current spoke with Jad Abumrad, Kao Kalia Yang and WNYC about the controversy.
WNYC, the producer of public radio’s Radiolab, has found “no reason to believe” that frequent contributor Jonah Lehrer’s appearances on the show are “compromised.” Lehrer resigned from The New Yorker Sunday after Tablet magazine revealed that he had made up quotes attributed to Bob Dylan in his book Imagine: How Creativity Works. Here’s the full statement from WNYC:
Jonah Lehrer has been a regular contributor to Radiolab as an “explainer,” making technical science more accessible and bringing much needed meaning to new scientific research. He has been a lively and compelling voice and has helped make the history of science come alive for listeners. We are deeply saddened by the news this week about such a talented and valued colleague.
Ellen Weiss, the NPR News chief who took the network’s blame for the Juan Williams affair, has joined the Center for Public Integrity as its executive editor as of Oct. 3, the watchdog newsroom announced. The center is headed by one of her predecessors at NPR, Bill Buzenberg. “Ellen Weiss is one of the best and most creative news executives in the business,” he said in a news release. CPI hired three other top editors, including Christine Montgomery, the center’s new chief digital officer, who was managing editor of PBS.org for two years while it expanded and then sharply reduced its online-news plans.