Programs/Content

Arun Rath joins NPR as Weekend ATC host

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Frontline and PRI’s The World reporter Arun Rath will join NPR in late September to host Weekend All Things Considered, which is relocating to NPR’s Los Angeles studios. Rath currently covers national security and military justice for Frontline, where he has worked since 2005. He wrote and produced three films for the doc series, with the most recent looking into war crimes allegedly committed by U.S. Marines in Iraq. Rath also reports on music for the PBS series Sound Tracks. Before joining Frontline, Rath worked as a producer for NPR’s On the Media and was a senior editor for Public Radio International’s Studio 360.

Programs/Content

NPR, APM join forces with mobile app Swell

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NPR and American Public Media are partnering with a new mobile app that curates talk radio and podcasts according to listener taste. Swell, which launched June 27, is the latest venture to bring digital radio programs to listeners through digital rather than terrestrial means.

Programs/Content

KCRW brings L.A. listeners closer to New York’s Latin Alternative Music Conference

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Los Angeles radio station KCRW is offering special programming and music downloads in conjunction with the Latin Alternative Music Conference in New York City, July 9–13. DJ Raul Campos, host of a weeknight show on KCRW, will broadcast from New York July 11 and 12, bringing “the sights and sounds of New York” to his listeners. The LAMC, he said, “is where it’s at” for people who enjoy Latin alternative music. The LAMC has grown since it started 14 years ago, according to Campos. “It’s getting bigger, stronger, more diverse,” he said.

System/Policy

DEI rebrands as Greater Public to reflect new goals for membership, collaborations

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ATLANTA — DEI, the membership organization that supports development and fundraising work at public radio stations, has changed its name to Greater Public. President Doug Eichten announced the change during the opening session of the Public Media Development and Marketing Conference, which runs through Saturday at the downtown Omni Hotel. “[T]he nature and pace of change in the media landscape now is so dramatic that we believe our industry is at a true inflection point,” Eichten said. “Greater Public is committed to providing new levels of leadership and resources for public media organizations to move forward.”

The new name signals Greater Public’s intention to broaden its membership to include more public television stations and to develop collaborations among different types of public-service media organizations, including nonprofit news outlets. It also plans to produce special offerings in leadership development and training, including for lay leaders who serve on station boards.

Quick Takes

Grech ousted as WLRN news chief

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Dan Grech was dismissed as news director for the reporting partnership between the Miami Herald and WLRN-FM on Monday. WLRN General Manager John Labonia told staffers and other pubcasters in an email that Grech “is no longer with WLRN Miami Herald News, effective immediately. A national search will be conducted to identify a replacement.”

Labonia is away from WLRN this week and could not be reached for comment. Grech joined the station as news director in February 2010. Previously, he spent a year as the Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton, where he taught “The New Age of Audio Journalism,” the university’s first audio production course.

Development

Donated cars bring big bucks to public stations

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The vehicle donation process that plays out from the donor’s first phone call to the check’s arrival at the station is opaque and can involve a number of for-profit and nonprofit companies that take 20 percent or more of the sale price in fees.

Programs/Content

North Carolina stations collaborate on shared programming service for African-American audiences

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Three North Carolina radio stations that serve African-American listeners are collaborating to create a statewide jazz service and drive-time news and public affairs programs in a bid to boost audience while sharing costs and resources. The National Federation of Community Broadcasters is facilitating the project, which includes WFSS in Fayetteville, WNCU in Durham and WSNC in Winston-Salem. The stations currently air dual formats of jazz with news/talk during drive time, and all are licensed to historically black schools — Fayetteville State University, North Carolina Central University and Winston-Salem State University. “We’re all located on HBCU [historically black colleges and universities] campuses, and we have very similar offerings,” says Elvin Jenkins, g.m. of WSNC. “So it just made sense.” Discussions among NFCB and the stations began in October 2012.