Public Radio seeks a breath of fresh air
Like newspapers and television news, public radio has a graying audience. "We have learned in focus groups with younger listeners that they are interested in many of the topics that NPR covers, but often find the programming boring or staid," a perhaps too candid confidential NPR document states. This same NPR memo calls the network "a national institution of weight, merit and immeasurable value to our democracy" -- a heady self-assessment to be sure.
Enter "NPR Zack: A New Space for Younger Listeners."
"We thought Zack is exactly the kind of name NPR staffers would give their male children," one NPR-nik explained to me. Its radio namesake is slowly taking shape at NPR headquarters in Washington, and in New York. Originally envisaged as a full-blown, 7 a.m.-to-10 p.m. alternative public radio channel, Zack now has more modest ambitions. The first shows, which had been scheduled for next month, will go on air in the fall. "In a perfect world, we'd love this to be the first piece in a longer stream of programming, but we can't start it out like that," a spokeswoman explains.
The main purpose is to compensate for the Mother Channel's hipness deficit among the 25-to-44 age group. "You are actively discovering the world . . . and so are we," explains the above-mentioned document, part of NPR's "visioning process." "We will curate for you, and you can trust us to reflect your lifestyles and interests." In addition to current affairs reporting, Zack also aims to feature contemporary music, staff DJs, and "newshounds" who "will follow the day's big stories and tell the story to the host and the audience, using relevant news and interviewclips." Didn't these used to be called "reporters"?
Zack is one of several interesting initiatives on the public radio horizon. Minnesota-based Public Radio International may try to duplicate the success of its WGBH-BBC coproduction, "The World," by teaming up with The
Starting in May, Chicago Public Radio plans to launch a brand-new alternative station, emphasizing audience involvement, user content, and , of course , the Internet, which is becoming a powerful distribution system for radio. "We are going to put up one hell of a websitethat happens to have a radio station attached to it," says CPR president Torey Malatia .
CPR's new station is not aimed at the youth market, so much as it wants to diversify the city's public radio audience, which is 82 percent white in a city that is two-thirds black and Latino. "We will be reaching younger audiences, but that is not what initially led us to this project," Malatia explains. NPR is test-driving a new show aimed at minority audiences on its website: Click on "Rough Cuts" at npr.org.
The big question mark hanging over new, alternative programming is how to broadcast it. "The gold standard is to have a viable, second FM channel," says Bob Lyons , WGBH's director of new media, "but it's real expensive to do that." Almost every radio station in Boston uses a high-definition broadcast signal, which allows it to beam out more than one show at a time. (WGBH broadcasts continuous classical music on its HD signal, the same one that carries WGBH-FM 89.7.) But hardly anyone owns HD radio receivers, which cost around $200.
Chicago has a second FM frequency for its new channel, so they're set. WNYC is hoping to slot its new morning program in front of NPR's "Morning Edition," a ratings Godzilla that no station will drop. "What they're doing is very bold and makes a lot of sense," says Malatia. "But there are some significant marketing questions."
Alex Beam is a Globe columnist.His e-dress is beam@globe.com 
