Media Decoder: Media Decoder: Adding Local Flavor to ‘The Takeaway’

As public radio stations around the country search for more compelling midday programs and ways to be more local, the producers of “The Takeaway” are pushing to fill that void, with a reformulated show that includes more perspectives from reporters at local stations, instead of presenting a purely national perspective.

At the same time, officials at the New York public radio station WNYC, which produces “The Takeaway” with Public Radio International in Minneapolis, said they will make the show, and other programs WNYC owns rights to, available to stations to cut up piecemeal and use as they please.

“We want to strengthen ‘The Takeaway’ by strengthening our partnership with other stations, and we’re doing it in an environment where stations are searching for new solutions for midday,” Laura R. Walker, chief executive of New York Public Radio, WNYC’s parent, said in an interview by phone.

At a mid-April meeting in Phoenix, nine public radio stations joined an informal coalition to explore new ways to share content and to mix local and national news, starting with “The Takeaway,” which is hosted by John Hockenberry. The New York Times and the Boston station WGBH are also collaborators on the show, which 82 stations carry.

While some public radio stations are happy just to broadcast national shows from NPR and other distributors, local perspectives are becoming more urgent in a digital age when listeners can easily tap numerous news sources on a tablet or smartphone.

“We feel like part of our ultimate winning strategy is to produce and deliver content and experiences that can only be done from where we are,” said Stewart Vanderwilt, director and general manager of KUT radio in Austin, Tex., which joined the coalition.

But he said by phone that localism must not replace a national or global perspective. “I think it’s the integration of those things,” he said, “and it’s why we’re so enthusiastic about the proposed approach that’s being explored here.”

Public television stations have been exploring similar sharing models. Last September, WNET in New York began distributing short arts and culture pieces that other stations could incorporate in their own local arts programs, leading some stations to start new shows.

Discussions about the radio coalition began in November, before NPR announced in late March that it was canceling its 21-year-old midday call-in show, “Talk of the Nation,” effective in July.

NPR also proposed a replacement: an expanded version of “Here and Now,” an afternoon broadcast produced by WBUR in Boston, which will now be competing with “The Takeaway” for time slots.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/business/media/media-decoder-adding-local-flavor-to-the-takeaway.html?partner=rss&emc=rss