KPCC trying techniques “rarely employed” in pubradio to double audience

Bloomberg Businessweek is reporting that Southern California Public Radio executives are using business tactics “rarely employed in the tame world of local public radio to create a megastation they hope will one day beam its signal from Santa Barbara to San Diego.” SCPR’s stations currently reach 14 million listeners, but its board hopes to nearly double that to 25 million. “If we can buy a station, we will,” says Gordon Crawford, chairman of SCPR’s board of directors. “Where we can’t, we’ll build translators to boost our signal. This is a new business model for public radio.” KPCC was a struggling Pasadena City College station a decade ago, the story notes; now, its 24 directors include “such media heavy hitters” as Jarl Mohn, former chief executive officer of E! Entertainment Television; Fox Sports TV Chairman David Hill; and Louise Bryson, a former Lifetime Movie Network executive.