Fine-Tuning a Public Trust
Kevin Klose, the new president of National Public Radio, seems to know where he wants to go. After two months on the job, he has begun to figure out what’s missing from NPR, the much-esteemed network that’s noted for its mix of news icons like “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered”; cultural fare, ranging from the classical “Great Performances” to “Jazz Set With Branford Marsalis”; and quirky, offbeat programming like “Car Talk.”
For one thing, Klose and his colleagues are talking about turning the recent hourlong nightly impeachment wrap-up show into a regular feature.
Something like Ted Koppel does on “Nightline” perhaps? “The ‘Nightline’ analogy has not escaped my interest,” Klose said recently by phone from Washington, though he cautioned that “it’s too soon to even call it an idea. It’s just something we’re starting to talk about.”
On a broader scale, while Klose utters what has fast become his mantra--that NPR is “a public service, a public trust and a national treasure”--he also suggests that there are some audiences that could be better served. In a nutshell--though he tends toward elaboration rather than the quick verbal hit--they are women, minorities and younger audiences.
“There are some places we should be looking to go,” he said, “and we will be looking to go. There are strong women’s voices and perspectives throughout our programming. I’m wondering if there aren’t programs specifically that have to do with those kind of cultural issues, societal issues.”
Asked who or what he has in mind, Klose said that he didn’t yet know. “But I’m wondering if the programs we offer fully represent or respond to all the issues that are out there. If you look forward into the century beyond, the Digital Age and the way it is developing, there are going to be many new forms of communication and information sources. We want to be there.
“There are many kinds of audiences that I think we should be interested in--and are interested in. In addition to women, I think we need to see how we can service and have contact with younger audiences, and culturally more diverse audiences.”
NPR, with 13.5 million listeners across the nation, does not keep statistics on an overall demographic profile, just individual program statistics. “Morning Edition’s” audience has a median age of 47. It is 44.4% female, 7.2% Latino, 6.7% black. “Performance Today” has about an equal number of male and female listeners and a median age of 54.4. “Jazz Set” has a 30.8% black audience nationally, 15.4% Latino, 41.3% female, and a median age of 51.4.
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“If you look at the Arbitron profiles, you’ve got to revere and want to strengthen our contact with that core profile,” Klose said. “But you also have to ask yourself, ‘Are there other communities of Americans whom we can reach and should be reaching in new ways?’ Communities of racial minorities. I think we need to look further than we’ve looked so far.”
There is nothing specific as yet, he said, just “general discussions, interesting discussions.”
That sort of diplomatic touch should come as no surprise to those who know Klose, or of him. At 58, the Harvard-educated executive with several books under his belt is a mix of journalist and bureaucrat. After a 25-year career with the Washington Post--Moscow bureau chief (1977-81), Chicago-based correspondent (1983-87) and deputy national editor (1987-91)--he moved to government. He became director of Radio Liberty in Munich, and from 1994-97 served as president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Inc.
His last post before NPR was as director of the U.S. International Broadcast Bureau, responsible for the Voice of America, Worldnet Television, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting and broadcast support for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia.
Klose’s diplomatic skills could come in handy as he oversees a $70-million budget and a network of 607 member stations with competing interests--big outlets and small, urban and rural, community stations like KCRW-FM (89.9) and those tied to educational institutions like KPCC-FM (89.3) at Pasadena City College.
KCRW General Manager Ruth Seymour says Klose’s background meshes with the needs of NPR. “He couldn’t have run those [broadcast] services without a great sense of diplomacy. Now he’s having to preside over more than 600 stations who never can agree on anything. We’re a little like the Israeli parliament here. Six people, seven opinions.”
Brenda Pennell, general manager of KUSC-FM (91.5), who was one of the half-dozen members of the search committee that helped select Klose, said his journalistic and broadcast experience, combined with his “bone-deep commitment to public service,” made him stand out.
Seymour met Klose last month in San Diego when he attended a meeting of California public radio managers. There Klose pledged that NPR’s election night coverage would not summarily end at 10 p.m. on the West Coast, as it did last November, but would continue as necessary into the night.
NPR’s new chief grew up with radio. His parents, Woody and Virginia Taylor Klose, were radio producers and writers whose show “Red Hook 31” was broadcast from the family farmhouse in Red Hook, N.Y. in the Hudson River Valley.
“We’re a big, complicated group of creative people,” he said of NPR, “and we’ve got a lot of issues, and if we talk about it all the time, that’s fine.” Asked how he intended to handle competing station interests, he laughed heartily and said: “I grew up in a big family--one of six. I’ve got a boarding house reach.”