Programs/Content

KCRW brings live Morning Becomes Eclectic performances to YouTube

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Select musical performances from KCRW-FM’s signature show Morning Becomes Eclectic are now streaming live on YouTube. The Los Angeles station kicked off the new feature Sept. 17 with a six-minute song from the U.K. buzz band King Krule; until this month, KCRW posted only prerecorded performances on its channel. Created in September 2006, KCRW’s YouTube page has 44,000 subscribers and has received more than 35 million views worldwide — including four from within Vatican City. The most popular single video, Gotye’s live version of “Somebody That I Used to Know,” has about 16 million views.

Programs/Content

Colorado stations help raise $1.1 million in flood relief

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Broadcasters across Colorado, including several public media stations, raised $1.1 million Sept. 18 during Colorado Flood Relief, a live fundraiser. Torrential rains caused the massive flooding, which began Sept. 9. Floods have destroyed some 1,800 homes so far, with property losses statewide estimated at almost $2 billion, according to Reuters.

Programs/Content

With Jazz Night, WBGO and NPR Music will take fans into venues to listen, watch and chat

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NPR and WBGO-FM in Newark, N.J., are teaming up to produce Jazz Night in America, a series of radio broadcasts paired with live, high-quality video webcasts of jazz performances from venues across the country. The series will debut in April 2014, said Anya Grundmann, e.p. of NPR Music, who discussed the project with jazz programmers during a Sept. 18 conference session at the PRPD conference. Videos will stream on NPR’s and WBGO’s websites, and stations will be able to install a video player platform on their own sites to present the webcasts with their stations’ brands prominently displayed. The series will mark the most prominent visual presentation of live jazz performance in U.S. broadcasting since CBS presented concerts in the 1950s, said Josh Jackson, v.p. of content at WBGO.

Programs/Content

Pacifica’s financial woes drive Free Speech Radio News to shutter production

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The financial stranglehold on Pacifica is taking down Free Speech Radio News, a progressive news show that relied on the five-station network for the bulk of its operating costs. The show, airing weekdays on 100 stations, will close production Sept. 27 and lay off its staff, a core of part-timers and an international network of nearly 100 stringers. Owed nearly $200,000 in back payments by the California-based Pacifica Foundation, FSRN’s board of directors decided Sept. 13 to shutter the program, holding out hope that FSRN could be revived under a different production model.

Programs/Content

PRX teams with Center for Investigative Reporting on Reveal series

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Public Radio Exchange is adding a new weekly show to its development slate —  Reveal, a joint production with the Center for Investigative Reporting. The hourlong series will be hosted by Al Letson of State of the Re:Union and feature investigative stories generated by CIR. The partners plan to develop relationships with other investigative organizations and news stations to bring in additional reporting. Reveal is scheduled to hit the air next year, so PRX and CIR are producing a pilot to be distributed to stations next week. Details about the reporting to be presented in the first show are under wraps, but CIR and PRX officials described it as an original national investigative piece dealing with veterans’ issues.

Programs/Content

Localism emphasis poses risk

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Of all the complex and potentially fateful decisions faced by public radio program directors as they navigate the emergence of multiplatform distribution, one of the most significant is the drive to “go local” and produce more local programs, especially news and information. This push signals a strategic shift for public radio, with potentially enormous consequences for growth or decline. Audience 2010, one of a series of landmark research reports on programming trends published in the previous decade, reported that much of the credit for the growth of public radio listenership could be traced to a shift “away from local production toward network production, away from music-based content toward news, information and entertainment.” That shift was extraordinarily successful, representing two decades of impressive audience expansion and financial growth at a time when other parts of the radio industry struggled. Now, it appears that program decision-makers are changing course. But why would dozens of stations move off the path that worked so well and choose another approach that, viewed through the lens of audience research, would seem to be both more costly and less powerful in attracting listenership?

Programs/Content

Flatow moves Science Friday to PRI distribution

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Science Friday, the weekly NPR series hosted by Ira Flatow, is pairing with Public Radio International in a new distribution deal to take effect in January 2014. The agreement calls for Science Friday, a signature element of NPR’s science coverage since its 1991 launch, to continue as a weekly radio broadcast under PRI distribution. In addition, Flatow and his producers will collaborate with PRI series The World, The Takeaway and Studio 360 to develop multi-platform content around science topics. “We’re excited to work with PRI to expand their science and technology coverage,” Flatow said in a PRI news release. “PRI shares our vision of serving the public by telling compelling stories about timely issues.

Programs/Content

With credits gone, NPR’s off-mike staffers get silent treatment

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NPR ended the practice Aug. 30 of crediting the off-mike staff behind the scenes of its newsmagazines, citing evidence that the lists of names cue listeners to tune away. The network had been considering the change for some time, said Margaret Low Smith, senior v.p. of news. In addition, credits could not accommodate all staffers, so those named “ended up being a select slice of people,” Smith said. And stations aren’t always consistent in crediting their own staffs during the newsmagazines.

Programs/Content

Wits introduces social club in advance of fourth-season launch

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American Public Media’s Wits is introducing a “Social Club” for fans as producers prepare to launch the show’s fall season. For $35, fans become members for the fall 2013 and spring 2014 seasons and gain early access to tickets for live performances of the variety show, hosted by John Moe and recorded in St. Paul’s Fitzgerald Theater. They also receive a 10-percent discount on up to four tickets per show and other perks. “Social media has been embedded into Wits’s DNA, so a social club seemed like a natural fit,” APM spokesperson Tara Schlosser told Current.

Programs/Content

KUSC broadcasting classical show from Santa Monica beach

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KUSC host Rich Capparela has taken his Friday show to the beach. Starting Aug. 23, the Los Angeles classical station personality Rich Capparela began hosting the Friday edition of his weekday show from his home studio in Santa Monica, with a view of the Pacific Ocean. Airing 4–7 p.m., KUSC at the Beach takes listeners into the weekend with music and information about concerts and events in the region. “The afternoon show with Rich has always been a great way to wind down after a busy day,” said Bill Lueth, USC radio v.p. “A classical show with that beach frame of mind sounded especially relaxing.”

Capparela has had a studio in his condo since 1991.

Programs/Content

Nashville-based radio music show heads to public television

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Music City Roots: Live from The Loveless Cafe, a weekly radio show and HD webcast featuring roots, alt-country and Americana music from Nashville, is heading to public television as a 13-episode series showcasing performances from its 2012 season. The show will be released for pubTV broadcast Sept. 5, presented by Nashville Public Television and distributed by American Public Television. Carriage commitments from 75 stations so far includes major markets such as WNET in New York and WGBH in Boston. In each episode, emcee Keith Bilbrey — a former Grand Ole Opry announcer — welcomes musicians to a 600-seat barn at the Loveless Cafe, built in 1951 and locally famous for its homemade fried chicken and biscuits.

Development

Sharp staff cuts at Pacifica’s WBAI aim to save station

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Pacifica has laid off the entire news department of WBAI-FM and almost all paid staff effective Monday in an effort to keep the cash-strapped New York outlet solvent. Pacifica Interim Executive Director Summer Reese made the announcement on WBAI’s air Friday afternoon. Reese told listeners that she had arrived at the station by cab directly from negotiations with the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which represents WBAI staff. “We have not been able to fully recover  . .