Minnesota Public Radio more in tune with West Coast
Hoping he can bring the same success to the entire network as he has to its popular “Marketplace” program, Minnesota Public Radio this week promoted one of the show’s creators to nurture new series and help the company capitalize on its West Coast properties, including KPCC-FM (89.3).
As the new vice president of programming, “Marketplace” executive producer J.J. Yore said one of the first things he wants to do is get KPCC and Marketplace Productions working together to create national programs for Minnesota Public Radio.
The St. Paul-based network that’s home to “A Prairie Home Companion,” among other shows, established a western outpost in 1999 when it signed to manage KPCC for Pasadena City College. The following year, it bought “Marketplace” from the University of Southern California, where it had resided on KUSC-FM (91.5). Since then, the weekly audience for the sometimes-irreverent business-news show has grown from about 2.5 million to more than 6 million listeners. It airs weekdays on KPCC and KCRW-FM (89.9).
Yet despite their proximity -- both geographically and under the Minnesota Public Radio umbrella -- “Marketplace” producers and KPCC had not embarked on any joint ventures.
“Like every company that’s growing, they’re trying to figure out how best to connect the pieces,” Yore said of Minnesota Public Radio. “Every media company in the world is trying to do that. Look at AOL Time Warner.”
Before now, Yore said, Marketplace Productions and KPCC were focused on getting their own houses in order -- with the latter building a local news operation and the former working to increase its affiliates and audience.
“Now, we and they are in a position to figure out how to work together,” Yore said, and one of the first projects they’re trying to craft is a series that examines American pop culture. Since so much of that originates in Los Angeles, Yore said, it seems natural that the program ought to, as well.
“The commercial media cover pop culture tremendously. Public radio doesn’t cover it so much,” he said.
Bill Davis, president of Southern California Public Radio, the nonprofit that runs KPCC, said that although his station isn’t in the business of developing new national shows, it can offer Marketplace Productions its air time and audience to test-run new programs. “That’s an exciting combination,” he said.
Another project Minnesota Public Radio has in the works intends to solve one of public radio’s great challenges: how to retain some of its weekday audience on the weekends, when listeners basically tune in only for “Car Talk” and “A Prairie Home Companion,” Yore said.
A pilot for “Public Radio Weekend” aired on some stations in October and is slated for a fall rollout, with the variety show featuring short news and entertainment segments for a time-crunched weekend audience.
Minnesota Public Radio also is developing “Speaking of Faith,” a program that will examine how religion, spirituality and ethics affect individuals and societies, said Marcia Appel, the network’s chief marketing officer.
Tapping Yore to make the most of its L.A.-area holdings makes sense for MPR, she said. “We did make an investment when we purchased Marketplace Productions. There is an enormous amount of talent there. It gave us this hub of activity in the second major market in the country,” Appel said.
“It’s a terrible situation when a journalistic company becomes too insulated,” she said, but having Yore inject West Coast ideas, sources and talent into the network “allows us to have a broader perspective.”
Minnesota Public Radio’s sometime competitor, sometime collaborator, National Public Radio, opened a West Coast production center in Culver City last year to great fanfare -- even celebrating it with a comedic five-part radio play. The network said it wanted to diversify its sources and influences beyond Washington, D.C., and New York. “They also see this as a place that can help re-energize what they do,” Yore said.
Citing the adage that “a rising tide lifts all boats,” Appel said, “In some ways, having National Public Radio out there increases the vibrancy of the whole public-radio landscape.”
Format ventures beyond Mexico
It wouldn’t divulge its secret recipe beforehand, but when Spanish Broadcasting System changed formats at KFSG-FM (93.5) as last Friday turned into Saturday, it served up “La Sabrosa,” “the flavorful one.” Designed as an alternative to the Mexican regional music prevalent on Southland Spanish-language radio, the new station’s music and target listeners come from Colombia, Nicaragua, El Salvador and elsewhere, said Bill Tanner, the company’s executive vice president for programming.
The mix of Latin American popular- and dance-music styles includes cumbia, punta, roca, plus salsa and merengue, “which we categorize as the spice in the stew.”
“There’s a taste for it, and no one was serving it,” Tanner said. “People like to be entertained and related to, not only in their own language, but in their own customs. The thing we’re hearing most from people is, ‘It’s about time. I’m hearing music on this station I haven’t heard since I got here.’ ”
According to U.S. Census figures, about 72% of the 4.4 million Latinos in Los Angeles County have a Mexican background; Spanish Broadcasting hopes the new station will attract a share of the remainder.
“That means you can take an audience that’s 15% of the population, and that’s a tremendous number of people,” Tanner said.
KFSG had been a service of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel for 79 years. Spanish Broadcasting bought the church’s license in 2000 for $250 million, when the station resided at 96.3 on the FM dial. It then leased its own 93.5 frequency to the church for KFSG, but that lease expired Saturday.