KCRW is a local institution in Los Angeles, home to Morning Becomes Eclectic, the long-running music-discovery program. The public radio station is using its standing to lean into a community model that includes 100 events per year, such as a pie baking contest that drew 400 bakers and 10,000 attendees and a summer series of 18 free, all-ages events at cultural centers across Southern California. Its membership program has 55,000 paying members.

"We use media to cultivate this community,” Jennifer Ferro, president of KCRW, told me on The Rebooting Show. “ We don't build a community in order to make media."

Chapters:

• 00:00 Beehiiv Spot

• 01:29 Welcome

• 01:34 KCRW Origin Story

• 04:35 Why Radio Matters

• 09:44 Public Media Funding

• 13:59 Rage Giving

• 20:41 Events As Community

• 23:10 Brand Beyond Radio

• 24:28 Newsletters And Channels

• 28:07 Audience Channel Pie

• 30:46 Email Conversion Power

• 31:50 Voluntary Giving

• 34:46 Modern Pledge Drives

• 36:59 Voluntary Model Beyond NPR

• 40:08 Why Audio Feels Intimate

• 42:33 Future Of Public Media

• 45:36 Gen Z And Human Trust