What Does Success Look Like? KUSC’s Story

KUSC in Los Angeles has made a lot of changes recently. They hired Gail Eichenthal as Program Director, and they are putting energy and vision into their fundraising and programming. I asked KUSC producer Brian Lauritzen to catch us up on what they’re doing. Here’s his report…

Step Into Your Own Personal Concert Hall
by Brian Lauritzen

If classical music radio is really dying, don’t tell those of us at KUSC Los Angeles. Oh, we’re aware of the high-profile demise of some major market commercial classical stations recently—one of them was right here in LA—but, in most of those cases public radio stepped in to fill the void. I strongly believe in public radio as the best way to present classical music over the air. I’ll save my reasoning on that subject for another time, though. For now, let me tell you about KUSC.

In metro Los Angeles (LA and Orange counties), KUSC is the #1 public radio station based on average listeners. If you add audience from our translators in Santa Barbara, Thousand Oaks, and Palm Springs KUSC is also #1 in total weekly audience. Considering we’re up against not one but two NPR news stations, that’s quite an achievement. (By the way, KUSC is the #1 full-time classical public radio station nationally in both average audience and total weekly audience.)

So, what’s the secret to KUSC’s success? Part of it is simply that we cast a wide net with listeners from Los Angeles to North San Diego County; from Santa Barbara to Palm Springs. But just because there are a lot of people out there, doesn’t mean they will automatically tune in. There are some 50 FM stations in the LA metro area—plenty of diverse competition on the dial in a diverse city.

Marty’s post a couple weeks ago brought up an interesting debate about syndicated versus local programming. KUSC has chosen to tip heavily local. All of our weekday hosts are local; only a few hours at night and on the weekends come from syndication. We produce more than 50 concert broadcasts per year including the entire seasons of the LA Opera, the LA Chamber Orchestra, and Orange County’s Pacific Symphony (all Pacific Symphony broadcasts are live); approximately 25 concerts by the LA Philharmonic from Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl; as well as two new concert series we’ll be starting this summer: Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra and Piano Spheres, a series of solo piano recitals of mostly contemporary music.

As producer of many of these concert series, I strongly believe in the opportunity such broadcasts offer to performing organizations, musicians, and listeners alike to extend the concert hall experience beyond the concert hall. Sadly, so many things keep people away from live performances. Concert broadcasts do not and should not replace an evening out, but thousands of people can’t get out 50-60 times a year. Many can’t afford even one pair of classical concert tickets a year. And with the infamous traffic in the nearly 5,000 square mile Greater Los Angeles area, simply getting to a concert can be enough of a challenge to keep people at home.

Through concert broadcasts, radio grows audience sizes, introduces classical music to new audiences, takes them behind the scenes with the musicians, and perhaps encourages someone to attend a classical concert in person for the very first time.

KUSC has placed itself on the scene at many of Los Angeles’ most important concerts. Through KUSC, listeners can be plugged in to the Southern California performing arts community. That connection is a huge reason why KUSC has been so successful in recent years. It’s certainly not the only reason—we have fantastic local hosts who provide interesting and provocative presentation of classical music 24 hours a day—but our commitment to broadcasting full-length classical concerts is a service our listeners have told us (both with their comments and their dollars) they value.

We continue that commitment this weekend with live broadcasts by the LA Philharmonic and Music Director Designate Gustavo Dudamel, March 30th and April 6th at 2:00. Gail Eichenthal, longtime voice of the LA Phil, will be co-host for each broadcast. I’ll join her in the Disney Hall backstage booth to co-host on March 30th and American Public Media’s Fred Child will co-host the April 6th broadcast, which is being produced for national distribution by APM. These concerts have been sold out for months, but thanks to KUSC, Southern California listeners can hear them live on the radio as they happen. And people around the world can listen online at www.kusc.org.

Brian Lauritzen is a producer at Classical KUSC in Los Angeles, the largest non-profit classical radio station in the country. He currently writes and produces features for KUSC’s more than 50 concert broadcasts each year including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and Los Angeles Master Chorale. His work as part of these series has been broadcast nationally by NPR, American Public Media, and the WFMT Radio Network. In the summer of 2008, Brian will become producer and host of the LA Philharmonic concerts at the Hollywood Bowl as well as the Piano Spheres recital series. Additionally, Brian is co-host and associate producer for KUSC’s weekly arts magazine Arts Alive with Gail Eichenthal. When he’s not in the studio, you can often find Brian careening down snowy slopes (on skis—never a snowboard); chasing an errant serve outside a tennis court; or swinging his sand wedge wildly from the fairway bunker.