CONNECT
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2015 Grants Challenge

KCRW Capital Campaign

An award from LA2050 would support KCRW’s first major Capital Campaign and meet three objectives: (1) Construct the KCRW Media Center, custom-designed to meet KCRW’s needs, connect to audiences in new profound ways, and serve as the premier cross cultural public space for Los Angeles’ diverse population; (2) Invest in programming that moves KCRW to new levels of excellence; and (3) Create digital technologies that promote KCRW’s mission amid an ever-changing media landscape.

Donate

How do you plan to use these resources to make change?

Engage residents and stakeholders

Implement a pilot or new project

Expand a pilot or a program

How will your proposal improve the following CONNECT metrics?​

Rates of volunteerism

Voting rates by race

Attendance at cultural events

Number of public transit riders

Percentage of Angelenos that volunteer informally (Dream Metric)

Government responsiveness to residents’ needs (Dream Metric)

Total number of local social media friends and connections (Dream Metric)

Attendance at public/open streets gatherings (Dream Metric)

Describe in greater detail how you will make LA the best place to CONNECT.

KCRW is more than just a radio station. KCRW envisions a future as the premier multimedia forum for music, news, and culture. Building the KCRW Media Center is only the first step toward securing this future.

Much in the same way that KCRW is a destination platform for artists and audiences, the KCRW Media Center will become a physical destination and a multipurpose venue. The 35,000-square-foot facility will provide three times its current studio and production space and boasts a 1,400-square-foot performance studio for established and emerging artists for decades to come. An audience viewing gallery will enable hundreds of people to experience intimate live in-studio sessions and performances each week, and we will broadcast these performances to millions of listeners and viewers worldwide. The building will be engineered to provide live broadcasts and public programming in shared SMC-KCRW spaces, including a 180-capacity auditorium and the 18,000-square-foot Wallis Annenberg Plaza Courtyard and Outdoor Stage.

The KCRW Media Center will be located on the campus of Santa Monica College’s Center for Media and Design (CMaD). Conceived as a way to unite the College’s instructional facilities with its professional broadcasting partner, the CMaD campus will accommodate collaboration through shared spaces and public programming. The campus is located at the center of a transit corridor in Santa Monica’s Creative District near the LA Metro Expo Line stop at Bergamot Station and along expanded bus and bike routes. The campus design was even awarded the Urban Land Institute’s Los Angeles Real Creativity Award as an outstanding example of urban placemaking.

The KCRW Media Center will be a Los Angeles landmark and a space to galvanize the public. Through programming on the radio, online and at hundreds of in-person events, KCRW will serve as the thought-leading community center of Los Angeles—a true “center” for this sprawling city often characterized as lacking just that. It will be a vibrant, publicly-accessible space for cultural discovery, civic discourse, and community building. With the ability to present live public programming in its own space, KCRW will deepen its relationship with members, engage new audiences, and stake its claim as the cultural epicenter for Los Angeles.

Please explain how you will evaluate your work.

As a public media service, one of our most important duties is to evaluate the efficacy of our model, and structure our programs so they might become resources for a sustainable public media landscape. We measure success by tracking growth in listening loyalty and membership support among our audiences. We evaluate the impact of our programs through qualitative and quantitative metrics that examine listenership/viewership data, community feedback, participation via digital platforms, and attendance at live events. We measure our success in advancing access to arts and culture through feedback from the artists, storytellers, and public and private cultural institutions with whom we partner. We measure success in building and engaging communities through the attendance and feedback received at our original live event programming. These metrics inform KCRW’s leadership of the public response to our work and guide strategic decision making and investment in new opportunities.

How can the LA2050 community and other stakeholders help your proposal succeed

Money (financial capital)

Volunteers/staff (human capital)

Publicity/awareness (social capital)

Infrastructure (building/space/vehicles, etc.)

Community outreach

Network/relationship support