CPB announced today that it has awarded Southern California Public Radio in Los Angeles $1.8 million to support the One Nation Media Project, which will focus on reporting and programming for and about Latinos and other people of color in the Los Angeles area.
As one element of the project, SCPR will expand The Madeleine Brand Show, its locally produced morning newsmagazine, into a national two-hour show “with a focus on the Latino and other ethnic communities/interests/issues,” according to an SCPR job listing. In addition, SCPR will launch “three distinct online channels,” says the CPB release, each hosted by a dedicated journalist. The channels will cover emerging communities, public education and criminal justice.
The grant will also support a series of live events that will explore issues affecting Los Angeles. SCPR is holding the first event tonight. All in the Familia: L.A. Latino Business in the 21st Century will feature a conversation about how the involvement of younger generations is changing the city’s Latino-owned mom-and-pop businesses.
SCPR, a sister organization to Minnesota’s American Public Media, has explored expanding service to Latinos with CPB backing in the past. In 2006 it conducted research that informed the creation of the now-defunct L.A. Public Media (Current, July 20, 2009). The broadcaster considered collaborating with Fresno-based Radio Bilingüe as the service developed but eventually withdrew from the project.
Am I missing something… are Latino Public Radio Network or Latino Public Broadcasting involved? I am always mystified at how these CPB investments are just “made,” seemingly without the input of existing CPB-funded organizations that could contribute so much.