The Bryant Park Project

Nov 05, 2007 by Bryan Schott

KCPW debuted The Bryant Park Project earlier today, and reaction has been...well...mixed.

I thought I'd talk about some of our reasoning behind the change, and invite your feedback.

Listenership to public radio is in decline all over the country. The public radio audience nearly doubled over the last decade, now it looks like it's on the way back down. That's not good news. Public radio has to do something to better address the news appetite of new listeners. It can't be all Morning Edition and All Things Considered. That's why NPR added Day2Day in the midday. That's why NPR developed Bryant Park. That's why other morning shows are on the horizon.

Bryant Park is different. It's supposed to be. It's not Morning Edition. If it tried to emulate one of the most successful programs on NPR, it would be doomed to failure. Some of you don't like the style. That's fine. We can't be everything to everyone. But you can't say it doesn't have substance. Just this morning the show talked about the crisis in Pakistan, interviewing the publisher of a newspaper there about the crackdown on the press, the writer's strike in Hollywood, the Clorox purchase of Burt's Bees, the Madeline McCann disappearance, a global warming summit for college age kids and the latest space shuttle mission. That's not "morning zoo" content (as some of you have put it). That's solid substance you expect from NPR.

We're not the only station in Utah where you can get Morning Edition. By the time 8am rolls around, you've had the chance to hear the same story 5 times in Salt Lake City. That's why we made the change - to give you a true alternative in the morning.

Think of the change this way. NPR is like the Winter Olympics (stay with me here). Morning Edition is the downhill...an established and respected part of the event. Bryant Park is the snowboarders...new, exciting and attracting a different audience. Both fit well under the same umbrella.

I invite you to keep listening to the show. I'd really like to get your thoughts as this program evolves. Leave them below or send them to me via e-mail.

That is all.