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Public media knows it has a problem. Since joining the industry two years ago, the most common phrase we’ve heard is “We need to meet people where they are.” They’re right—we have a distribution problem.
But we’re skirting around a bigger issue. You can buy reach. You can put your show on social. But none of it matters if people don’t notice, care, or think about you at all.
Public media, known for its serious journalism and educational programming, wants so badly to be important that it often forgets to be engaging and entertaining. The challenge is, when we meet people where they are, we need them to want to be around us. In this crowded media landscape, it’s too easy to get lost and unnoticed, even with the best of intentions.
In a study by Oracle, 91% of people globally prefer brands to be funny and 88% of people are looking for new experiences to make them smile and laugh. Yet, 95% of business leaders fear humor in consumer interactions.
What if we tried being fun? Being funny? (I’d say, being human, but there are a lot of dull humans). And not just in a small TikTok-sized corner of the organization. We need to inject fun into everything; content and events, interactions with donors, and marketing.
Here are four ways KCRW is meeting the challenge and learnings along the way.
Social-first content is “important”
When public radio thinks of hiring show talent, we default to journalists. To change it up, KCRW collaborated with social media comedian Katherine Ellis, whose fictional character Concordia Shawarma McGraw gained fame with NPR voice impressions while explaining lyrics to popular hits like Snoop Dogg’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot” and Cardi B’s “WAP.”
The social-first, satirical news show “Important Things of Great Importance” takes on LA stories in a goofy way while still teaching audiences something new. Guests include a puppet fox discussing a wildlife overpass over the 101 Freeway, LA billboard icon Chaz Dean talking about brand consistency, and our own KCRW climate reporter Caleigh Wells on algae-killing nanobubbles.
