Southern California Public Radio in Pasadena will now refer to its radio station KPCC as LAist 89.3.
The public broadcaster announced the rebranding Tuesday. In a press release, it said the change is intended to coordinate its presence on-air, online, on social media and at in-person events.
SCPR will continue to use KPCC as the radio station’s call letters but will otherwise use the LAist brand across its public-facing divisions beginning in “coming weeks,” according to the release.
“Unifying under a cross-platform LAist brand ensures that news and resources are easily accessible, meeting people where they are: on the radio, online, on mobile devices, in person and on-demand,” the organization said in the release.
After SCPR acquired digital news site LAist in 2018, it added LAist.com to its portfolio but maintained the website KPCC.org as well. With the rebranding, KPCC.org will become LAist.com/radio, according to a spokesperson.
“A cross-platform approach will be the tip of the spear of our evolution, and a powerful unified brand is table stakes to future-proof our mission,” SCPR CEO Herb Scannell said in the release.
Correction: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this article incorrectly said that KPCC.org content will move to a section of LAist.com. KPCC.org will become LAist.com/radio.
KPCC should have asked its listeners what they thought about changing its name to LAist before they did it. I think KPCC would have discovered that your listeners don’t like the change. Some people may not like ANY name change. But that is not case for me. The name LAist, specifically the IST sound of the name, is not pleasing. It not only sounds presumptuous, but it just sounds like an unnecessary add on.
What a dumb rebrand. So now listeners need to remember two names for this station? KPCC call letters carry more weight and actually mean something. What does Laist mean?