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