Put down the tote bag and pick up a pint.
That’s what three public media stations — in St. Louis, Philadelphia and Birmingham, Ala. — want audience members to do as they aim to engage with their communities by cracking open a (pubmedia-themed) cold one.
With punny names and creative flavors, the stations are each branding ales this year in partnerships with local breweries.
Station leaders say the partnerships give them a chance to form connections with local breweries, who not only have their own stories to tell but can connect journalists with community members they might not otherwise know. The beers create opportunities for events, put branding on cans and generate a little revenue.
The events and creation of the beverages also give stations the opportunity to engage in staff bonding and make their brands a little quirkier.
About 15% of public radio listeners said they have “great experience” with beer, compared to 2% of all U.S. adults, in a 2024 MRI-Simmons audience study that NPR shared with Current.
Almost half of NPR member station listeners drink beer, the study found, which is 20 percentage points higher than all Americans. They’re also more likely to buy nonalcoholic, imported or “super premium” domestic beers.
Two broadcasters, Nine PBS in St. Louis and WHYY in Philadelphia, are celebrating their 70th anniversaries with ales. Nine PBS’ “70, Ale Yeah!” beer inspired WHYY’s upcoming This Is Fresh Ale. This is the first beer for WHYY, the second for Alabama’s WBHM and Nine PBS’ sixth.
‘Really more about community spirit’ than revenue
Nine PBS has a longstanding partnership with 4 Hands Brewing Co., but the station hasn’t sponsored a beer since 2021’s Unmute Yourself.
Nine PBS CEO Amy Shaw said the station wanted to bring the partnership back in celebration of the station’s 70th year of broadcasting.
Initially, the station used the beers as a membership opportunity, asking viewers to donate in exchange for a vote on the name or flavor of the beer. Now, a portion of the revenue made from 70, Ale Yeah! goes to Nine PBS, Shaw said.
“For us, it’s really about covering the cost of 4 Hands and covering the cost to do the work that we’re doing,” she told Current. “But it’s really more about community spirit.”
Beer is a big deal in St. Louis, home of Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch, which was bought by Belgian brewing company InBev in 2008. Anheuser-Busch still dominates the brewing industry in the city, but in 1990, Schlafly Brewing Co. led an effort to legalize microbreweries in Missouri.
In the following two decades, dozens of microbreweries were born — including 4 Hands, who partnered with Nine PBS to create an American blonde ale with a special ingredient, blueberry juice.
But Shaw said Nine PBS’ partnership with 4 Hands was deeper than St. Louis’ beer history.
“I mean, beer is such an important thing,” she said. “But 4 Hands has grown to be the second-largest craft brewery in St. Louis. Really, for us, it’s the fact that they’re so community-based. Their Citywide IPA has put back [$300,000] into nonprofits.”
‘Something fun to celebrate’
WHYY’s This Is Fresh Ale is just “a little extra boost,” said Elspeth Everhart, the station’s digital membership manager.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a huge revenue generator,” Everhart told Current. “It’s more just like doing something fun to celebrate WHYY and Fresh Air, because it’s the 70th anniversary of WHYY’s radio broadcasting.”
The Philadelphia broadcaster is opting for a more traditional flavor profile, but the choice of a 70-Shilling beer is a nod to WHYY’s 70 years on the air.
Everhart, who came to WHYY with a background in the beer industry, said she’s more of a beer “traditionalist.” The 70-Shilling is malty, low-alcohol Scottish ale.
The beer hasn’t been brewed — or even announced — yet. But WHYY has written up an agreement with Attic Brewing Co., a woman-owned craft brewery in Philadelphia’s historic Germantown neighborhood. The station is hoping to host a beer party in October to celebrate the anniversary.
The idea for the beer came when Hilary Kissinger, WHYY’s senior social media producer, was looking at social media campaigns other stations did for their anniversaries. Coincidentally, Nine PBS, then known as KETC, was born the same year.
Nine PBS “had great social for the beer collab and the naming contest, which I thought was really interactive and fun, and we kind of took half of each of those things,” Kissinger said.
WHYY is looking back through the years and doing a bracket challenge where the audience will vote on their favorite era of public media by remembering old hosts and past programs in collages posted online weekly. The audience can vote for their favorite of the week’s two decades, and the winner will continue to the next round.
‘A way for us to get out there’
In Birmingham, Ala., WBHM cooled off this summer with a light and refreshing sour ale. GM Will Dahlberg said the Top of the Hour Sour, the station’s second beer, was a good incentive for people to show up at the station’s events.
“Will it make a ton of money for us? No,” he said. But it’s a way for WBHM to raise a little money and reactivate the station’s volunteer advisory Junior Board, which Dahlberg said was essentially killed by the pandemic.
TrimTab Brewing Co., one of the top-rated craft breweries in the city, is known locally for its experimental sours. With plum and lemon flavors, the Top of the Hour Sour is no exception. The brewery used an Alabama-grown malt to connect the beer to its home state.
Andrea Miller, business manager at Gulf States Newsroom based out of WBHM and a member of the station’s Junior Board, said the partnership is a two-in-one deal for listeners.
“You get a great beer out of it, and you’re also getting to support an organization,” she told Current.
The beer fits right into WBHM’s News and Brews event series, where the station meets community members monthly at a brewery or coffee shop. It gives the station an opportunity to engage with people who live outside Birmingham but are still within the listening area.
“It’s just a way for us to get out there,” she said.
When WBHM held an event in Jasper, 45 minutes outside of Birmingham, people thanked the station for “coming to our little town,” Miller said.
“I wasn’t necessarily expecting a lot of people to show up,” she said. “It was really great to see that supporter base in rural cities as well.”