Programs/Content

NPR drops Talk of the Nation, replaces with WBUR’s Here & Now

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This item has been updated and reposted with additional information. After more than two decades on the air, NPR’s Talk of the Nation will come to an end in June to make way for the newsmag Here & Now, which will be revamped under a new partnership between NPR and Boston’s WBUR-FM. Talk of the Nation will air its last episode June 28, ending a 21-year-long run. The call-in talk show has helped launch big names in public media, including original host John Hockenberry, This American Life’s Ira Glass and PBS NewsHour’s Ray Suarez. NPR Chief Content Officer Kinsey Wilson said the network decided to end Talk of the Nation because a newsmagazine might pull a bigger audience in midday.

Tech

NPR to pilot alerts for people with hearing disabilities

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NPR will test a system for delivering emergency alerts to individuals who are deaf or hard-of-hearing in Gulf Coast states under a contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The project marks the first attempt to deliver real-time emergency messages such as weather alerts via radio-broadcast text to those with hearing disabilities. Through the Public Radio Satellite System, NPR will relay emergency alert messages received from FEMA via the Radio Broadcast Data System to public radio stations in the Gulf region. The stations will broadcast the alerts to receivers that are able to display text messages. Volunteers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing will be alerted to the warnings by flashing indicators on their radios or by a bed-shaking device that can be triggered by radios.

Quick Takes

NPR’s Generation Listen launch a hit at SXSW

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NPR launched its new Generation Listen initiative in Austin, Texas, with a blowout bash March 11. The party, held in the midst of the South by Southwest Interactive conference, was part of the new ongoing effort to encourage listeners under the age of 30 to tune into public radio. Brian Stelter of the New York Times has a write-up of the event, which had Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me! host Peter Sagal, TED Radio Hour host Guy Raz and author Neil Gaiman in attendance.

Programs/Content

The name needs revamping, but podcasts are here to stay

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If you’re a public radio station without a plan for how to take advantage of the remarkably flexible and creative platform of podcasting — a platform that leverages your existing skills better than anything else in new media — you need to think again.

People

Dana Davis Rehm to leave NPR due to restructuring

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Dana Davis Rehm, NPR’s senior v.p. of marketing, communications and external relations, will leave the network May 6 due to a reorganization of her division under new Chief Marketing Officer Emma Carrasco. The restructuring is intended to “put more emphasis on marketing than on communications,” said NPR President Gary Knell in a Feb. 14 email to station leaders. “Though I have only known Dana for a little more than one year, I can’t think of anyone who has demonstrated a deeper commitment to NPR and public radio, or who better reflects our values,” Knell wrote. “As our longest serving head of Marketing & Communications, she has established effective communications strategies and practices and a built a staff that has given me confidence that we could deal with anything that might come our way.”

Rehm joined NPR in 2001 after serving as head of Wisconsin Public Radio.

Programs/Content

NPR will move production of Weekend ATC to L.A.

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NPR announced today that this summer it will move production of Weekend All Things Considered to NPR West, its production center based in Culver City, Calif. “Moving the show west will broaden and deepen our coverage and allow us to bring strong geographic diversity to our programming,” said Margaret Low Smith, senior v.p. of news, in a press release. “In addition, this plan gives us a new level of business and editorial continuity. By having a full team stationed at NPR West, we will be able to respond quickly if weather or a major news event incapacitates NPR headquarters.”

NPR said the move will give the show access to the Los Angeles area’s pool of program guests in the fields of science, technology, entertainment and international trade. The city’s ethnic diversity will also present a “whole new range of stories,” the release said.

Programs/Content

NPR targets younger listeners with four-city “radiotypes” campaign

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NPR has launched a three-month multimedia marketing campaign that aims to increase audience for stations in four markets around the country. The campaign runs the gamut of media, including billboards, social media and print, TV and digital ads. Participating stations are KERA in Dallas; WFYI in Indianapolis; KPBS in San Diego; and WMFE in Orlando, Fla. NPR chose the stations based on their opportunity to grow audience and their eagerness to work with the network, according to Emma Carrasco, chief marketing officer for NPR. They were also selected for geographic diversity.

Programs/Content

Jesse Thorn’s Bullseye moving to NPR

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More than six weeks after first announcing his arts-and-culture radio program’s exit from longtime distributor PRI, Jesse Thorn revealed the details of Bullseye’s new partnership on his Tumblr account Feb. 7. Beginning in April, the program will be distributed through NPR, with no break in carriage after the program’s relationship with PRI ends in late March.

Quick Takes

NPR’s Scott Simon to record pilot for mysterious new variety show

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Scott Simon, host of NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday, is holding a free taping of a pilot episode for an experimental radio variety show, Scott Simon’s Wonderful Town. The taping will take place Feb. 26 at the bar Bell House in Brooklyn, N.Y., where NPR’s pub trivia program Ask Me Another is recorded, and will feature comedian Jim Gaffigan, musician Julian Velard and other guests. Tickets are already sold out. NPR spokesperson Emerson Brown told Current the taping is “an experiment,” and that while Simon and the network’s programming staff are likely to tape one more event based on feedback from the Feb.

Quick Takes

Science Friday settles tradmark lawsuit over creationist Real Science Friday

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The production company behind NPR’s popular Science Friday has reached a settlement in its trademark infringement lawsuit filed against Colorado preacher Bob Enyart and his show, Real Science Friday, which has now been rebranded Real Science Radio, the National Center for Science Education reports. In a Dec. 28 letter to the court, Manhattan-based Sciencefriday Inc., the company behind the show heard on more than 300 NPR stations, and Bob Enyart Inc. said a settlement had been reached but terms of the deal were sealed. The main visible concession seemed to be name change of the show. The lawsuit was filed in the Supreme Court State of New York, County of New York in Manhattan Nov.

Programs/Content

NPR makes ATC hosting changes

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NPR today announced changes to its roster of co-hosts for All Things Considered. Audie Cornish, who had been guest-hosting during Michele Norris’s leave of absence, becomes permanent co-host of the NPR newsmag. Norris will return to work next month in what NPR describes as an “expanded role” — host and special correspondent. She will produce in-depth profiles, interviews and series as well as guest-host on NPR News programs. Norris stepped out of her prominent on-air role in  October 2011 to avoid any potential ethical conflict in covering the presidential race; her husband Broderick Johnson had taken a job as a senior adviser to President Obama’s re-election campaign. Cornish has been a host and reporter for NPR since 2006.

People

NPR, Frontline cited for 2013 duPont-Columbia Awards

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Public media outlets were cited for six 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards, announced today by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. NPR received three awards, with one given to reporters Deborah Amos and Kelly McEvers for their coverage of Syria. “NPR’s series of daily news reports about the conflict in Syria was wide ranging, balanced and in depth,” the announcement said. “Veteran foreign correspondent Deb Amos provided critical context and explanation in her reporting that helped listeners understand the complex sectarian and regional factors at play. Her reporting from inside Syria at the scene of a massacre and the capitol Damascus documented spikes in violence.”

“Correspondent Kelly McEvers brought a focus on individual stories that made the conflict real in human terms,” the citation said.

Tech

Full speed ahead for Public Media Platform

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After two-plus years of planning and prototyping a shared hub providing easy access to digital content from across public media, partners in the Public Media Platform will begin building the new technical system next month.

People

NPR adds two journalists to new race, ethnicity and culture unit

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NPR has added two journalists to its six-person race, ethnicity and culture unit backed by CPB and preparing for launch in the spring. The network hired Gene Demby, a Huffington Post editor and founder of the blog PostBourgie, as blogger and correspondent; and Shereen Marisol Meraji, a Marketplace reporter and former NPR producer, as a reporter. Demby started PostBourgie in 2007 and continues to contribute to the group blog, which covers race, class, gender, politics and other subjects. In 2009 the blog won a Black Weblog Award for best news/politics website. Demby also worked for the New York Times for six years as a writer and news assistant. In 2011 he joined the Huffington Post, where he managed the Black Voices channel through its launch; he also reported for the channel and served as its senior politics editor for much of this year.

Quick Takes

NPR looks to get onto gift lists with unique ‘Sale-a-bration’ promotion

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NPR fans will get a new chance to get up close and personal for the holidays Dec. 14 and 15, when the network will open the doors of its Washington, D.C., headquarters to the public for a two-day NPR Shop Warehouse Sale-a-bration. The event, the first of its kind, will allow visitors to buy official NPR merchandise for deep discounts, enter NPR Shop raffles and meet and mingle with some of public radio’s stars as they give live talks and performances. The lineup of NPR personalities will include Susan Stamberg, Ken Rudin, Guy Raz, Scott Simon and Carl Kasell, with a live performance from NPR Music’s Alt.Latino co-host Felix Contreras as well as a live taping of the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast.

Programs/Content

StoryCorps launches newest project – Military Voices Initiative

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For the next year StoryCorps, the public radio group collecting and presenting life stories told between family members and friends, will undertake a new initiative to record oral histories of veterans and active-duty members of the armed forces serving in  Iraq and Afghanistan. The Military Voices Initiative, or MVI, plans interviews of more than 2,000 people, enough to produce more than 700 stories. Funded by CPB and the Boeing Company, MVI is StoryCorps’ eighth initiative focused on a specific ethnic community or news event.  The Griot initiative, for example, collected stories of African-American family life. Some of interviews conducted for MVI will be broadcast on NPR’s Weekend Edition while the entire collection will be housed at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. CPB and StoryCorps, a nonprofit founded by indie radio producer David Isay, officially launched the initiative Dec.

System/Policy

WBUR entering Cape Cod market with purchase of WMVY

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Boston NPR news station 90.9 WBUR-FM is wading into the Cape Cod resort market and going toe-to-toe with WGBH’s network of stations with its planned purchase of 92.7 WMVY-FM on Martha’s Vineyard. WBUR is buying the Tisbury, Mass.-based station for an undisclosed amount from Housatonic, Mass.-based Aritaur Communications Inc. The sale is expected to close in early 2013 pending FCC approval. Now broadcasting an adult alternative format, WMVY, known as mvyradio, will switch to WBUR’s news format, reaching up to 60,000 listeners with a 3,000-watt signal. The market includes Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and coastal towns including New Bedford, Fall River, Falmouth and Westport. “We believe that the islands, Cape Cod and SouthCoast are important parts of the community we cover and serve,” said WBUR General Manager Charlie Kravetz, in a statement.

Public Media Policybase

NPR Underwriting Credit Guidelines, 2012

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Retrieved from NPR.org Nov. 25, 2012
Underwriting credits acknowledge organizations which fund public radio programming. Federal law mandates this identification and further allows for the non promotional description of the sponsors products and services. The following guidelines assist NPR and its underwriters in developing credit language that complies with FCC and IRS regulations for non-commercial broadcasters.NPR underwriting credits must contain:
The legal name of the underwriter, to be read immediately after the standard opening phrase, “Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and…
Credits may also include the following:
Non-promotional, value-neutral, descriptions of organization, products and services. Names of operating divisions and subsidiaries.

Development

Sponsor churn, ebb in digital cut into NPR’s bottom line

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With one of its biggest corporate sponsors pulling back from a multiyear underwriting commitment, NPR has an uphill climb to rebuild its sponsorship revenues from 2011, when the network’s sales reps reeled in enough deals to set a new earnings record. High turnover — or “churn” — among its corporate clients, and the pullback of companies that spend the most money on advertising, cut into NPR’s bottom line in the fiscal year that just closed. After netting $2.4 million in profits in 2011, largely on robust sponsorship sales, the network aimed high for 2012. But sales fell far short of projections. For fiscal year 2012, which ended on Sept.