Bryant Park Project

Last updated

The Bryant Park Project was a short-lived morning radio newsmagazine from National Public Radio that ran for 10 months in 2007 and 2008. The show's name was derived from Bryant Park in Manhattan, which NPR's New York studios overlook. [1] While the Bryant Park Project (a.k.a. "the BPP") was originally a working title, [2] the show debuted with the name intact on October 1, 2007. [1] The multi-platform show was broadcast live from 7 to 9 a.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday and, at its height, was carried by 13 NPR member stations, mostly in small markets. The Sirius Satellite Radio station NPR Now repeated the show (on tape unless breaking news necessitated live updates) from 10 a.m. to noon Eastern, 7 to 9 a.m. Pacific.

Contents

The show's founding host was Alison Stewart, previously of MTV News, ABC News and MSNBC, but Stewart went on maternity leave in April 2008. In her absence, the program was co-hosted by Rachel Martin, formerly the show's newscaster, and Mike Pesca, until Martin left on June 27, 2008, to take a position as White House correspondent for ABC News. The show's regular newscaster was Mark Garrison, but Korva Coleman often substituted from NPR's Washington bureau. The show's executive producer was Sharon Hoffman [3] and the supervising senior producer was Matt Martinez. [2]

On July 14, 2008, the New York Times reported that NPR would be cancelling the Bryant Park Project as of July 25, 2008. [4] Stewart, who had planned to return from maternity leave, resumed her role on July 21 and hosted the final week of broadcasts. [5]

Overview

The show was meant to appeal to a younger, less-traditional NPR audience and succeeded in attracting online listeners, an early example of NPR programming to do so. [2] Recurring segments include a Monday morning sports wrap-up featuring Bill Wolff (Stewart's husband and a former producer at ESPN and MSNBC executive), political news discussions with Jim VandeHei from the Politico blog, a Tuesday section on new music releases, and frequent interviews with various musicians and performers, such as Tegan and Sara, Peter Bjorn and John, Jill Sobule (who also contributed original songs to the show), and The Pipettes. Daily segments included "The Most" (a segment Stewart brought from her MSNBC show of the same name, featuring the most-read, -shared and -emailed stories from various online news sources) and "The Ramble" (a brief rundown of quirky news stories, read over a music loop from the song "In One Ear and Out the Other" by dance music trio Fujiya and Miyagi). [3] News headlines were read at approximately 10 and 40 minutes past the hour, 10 minutes later than the traditional top and bottom of the hour updates. The show also had an occasional segment called "Make Me Care" in which guests had 60 seconds to argue why a story or subject should matter to listeners. [1] The tone was often informal compared to the more conventional content found on other NPR newsmagazines.

Bryant Park Project was distributed online via podcast and streaming audio, and could be heard on Sirius Satellite Radio and on select NPR stations. The show also had a frequently updated blog.

On July 14, 2008, NPR announced via The New York Times that "their experimental weekday morning program, designed to draw a younger audience to public radio and capture listeners who had moved online, is being canceled." [4] The last broadcast of the program was on July 25, 2008. The Times called the show "an expensive failure — the first-year budget was more than $2 million — and [cancellation] comes at a time when NPR is facing the same financial constraints as other news media thanks to higher costs and a downturn in underwriting." [4]

History

Luke Burbank originally co-hosted the program with Alison Stewart. [1] On the November 13, 2007 broadcast, Burbank announced that he was planning on leaving the show in mid-December to be closer to his daughter in Seattle. [6] Since January 2008, Burbank has hosted the nightly talk show "Too Beautiful to Live" on KIRO, an AM news and talk station in Seattle. On his current show, Burbank has alluded to being unhappy with the early-morning hours necessary to produce a morning news show and has hinted at personality conflicts with NPR producers and executives. On the May 8, 2008 episode of the show, which featured pre-recorded birthday wishes for Burbank from various friends and family members, Burbank, in speaking about his time at the BPP, said "My name is mud at NPR New York." [7]

Radio stations

The Bryant Park Project was carried on the following stations: [8]

Related Research Articles

<i>Meet the Press</i> American news/interview television program

Meet the Press is a weekly American television Sunday morning talk show broadcast on NBC. It is the longest-running program on American television, though its format has changed since the debut episode on November 6, 1947. Meet the Press specializes in interviews with leaders in Washington, D.C., across the country, and around the world on issues of politics, economics, foreign policy, and other public affairs, along with panel discussions that provide opinions and analysis. In January 2021, production moved to NBC's bureau on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

Morning Edition is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 AM ET, with feeds and updates as required until noon. The show premiered on November 5, 1979; its weekend counterpart is Weekend Edition. Morning Edition and All Things Considered are among the highest rated public radio shows.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WNYC</span> AM and FM radio stations in New York City

WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that did business as "WNYC RADIO" until March 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WBEZ</span> Public radio station in Chicago

WBEZ – branded WBEZ 91.5 – is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois, and primarily serving the Chicago metropolitan area. It is owned by Chicago Public Media and is financed by listener contributions, corporate underwriting and some government funding. WBEZ is affiliated with both National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Radio Exchange (PRX). It also broadcasts content from American Public Media and the BBC World Service. It produces several nationally syndicated shows for public radio stations, including This American Life and has a co-production credit for Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, which is produced by NPR.

Alison Stewart is an American journalist and author. Stewart first gained widespread visibility as a political correspondent for MTV News in the 1990s. She is the host of WNYC's midday show, All of It with Alison Stewart.

WUNC is a listener-supported public radio station, serving the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. It is licensed to Chapel Hill and is operated by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. On weekdays, WUNC carries National Public Radio, American Public Media, Public Radio Exchange, and BBC programming in an "all-news-and-information" format, including shows such as All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Fresh Air. On weekends, in addition to NPR weekend shows, WUNC broadcasts locally produced folk music programming. The longest-running continuously produced program offered by the station is Back Porch Music, a weekly folk and traditional music program. WUNC holds periodic on-air fundraisers seeking listener contributions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WHTZ</span> Contemporary hit radio station in New York City

WHTZ is a commercial top 40 station licensed to Newark, New Jersey and broadcasting to the New York metropolitan area. Owned by iHeartMedia, WHTZ is the flagship station for Elvis Duran and the Morning Show. The WHTZ studios are located at 32 Avenue of the Americas in the Tribeca neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, while the station's transmitter is located at the Empire State Building.

WAMU is a public news–talk station that services the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area. It is owned by American University, and its studios are located near the campus in northwest Washington. WAMU has been the primary National Public Radio member station for Washington since 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KOST</span> Adult contemporary radio station in Los Angeles

KOST is a commercial radio station in Los Angeles, California. Owned by iHeartMedia, it broadcasts an adult contemporary radio format, switching to Christmas music in early November and ending on Christmas Day. Its studios are co-located with its sister stations on West Olive Avenue in Burbank. KOST is the home of Ellen K, segments of whose morning show are syndicated to other iHeart AC stations on Saturday mornings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WRTI</span> Classical/jazz public radio station in Philadelphia

WRTI is a non-commercial, public radio station licensed to serve Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is a service of Temple University. The Temple University Board of Trustees holds the station's license. The broadcast tower used by the station is located in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia at.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luke Burbank</span> American radio host and podcaster (born 1976)

Luke Burbank is an American radio host and podcaster who hosts the Portland, Oregon-based syndicated variety show Live Wire Radio and the Seattle-based former radio program and current podcast Too Beautiful to Live. He was most recently co-host of "The Ross and Burbank Show" and host of "The Luke Burbank Show" on Seattle's KIRO-FM radio station. Burbank is also a correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KIRO-FM</span> Radio station in Tacoma, Washington

KIRO-FM is a commercial radio station licensed to Tacoma, Washington, and serving the Seattle-Tacoma radio market. It airs a news/talk radio format and is owned by Salt Lake City–based Bonneville International, a broadcasting company owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The studios and offices are located on Eastlake Avenue East in Seattle's Eastlake district.

Progressive talk radio is a talk radio format devoted to expressing left-leaning viewpoints of news and issues as opposed to conservative talk radio. In the United States, the format has included syndicated and independent personalities such as Arnie Arnesen, Michael Brooks, Alan Colmes, Jon Favreau, Al Franken, Brad Friedman, John Fugelsang, Norman Goldman, Amy Goodman, Thom Hartmann, Kyle Kulinski, Jon Lovett, Rachel Maddow, Mike Malloy, Stephanie Miller, Michael Moore, David Pakman, Mike Papantonio, Dan Pfeiffer, Bill Press, Randi Rhodes, Ed Schultz, Sam Seder, Hal Sparks, and Tommy Vietor.

Rough Cuts is a blog and podcast published by National Public Radio. The purpose of the project is to invite the public to participate in the development of new radio programs. Traditionally, radio programs would be created behind closed doors, then premiered when they were adequately polished for public consumption. Rough Cuts takes a different approach, publishing rough drafts of radio segments and soliciting public feedback. The feedback is then used to improve the quality of the show, in the hopes of premiering a better radio program. NPR describes this process as "open piloting," its name inspired by the open source and open content movements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WNYC-FM</span> Public radio station in New York City

WNYC-FM (93.9 MHz) is a non-profit, non-commercial, public radio station licensed to New York City. It is owned by New York Public Radio along with WNYC (AM), Newark, New Jersey-licensed classical music outlet WQXR-FM (105.9 MHz), New Jersey Public Radio, and the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space. New York Public Radio is a not-for-profit corporation, incorporated in 1979, and is publicly supported through membership, development and sponsorship. The station broadcasts from studios and offices located in the Hudson Square neighborhood in lower Manhattan. WNYC-FM's transmitter is located at the Empire State Building. The station serves the New York metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WXXO (FM)</span> Radio station in Rochester, New York

WXXO is a public, listener-supported radio station in Rochester, New York, airing a classical music radio format. Its programs can also be heard in Houghton on WXXY and on the seventh digital subchannel of WXXI-TV. It's owned by the WXXI Public Broadcasting Council, which also owns WXXI-TV and a two-station news and information service, WXXI and WXXI-FM (105.9). WXXO holds periodic fundraisers on the air to support the station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WKMS-FM</span> Public radio station at Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky

WKMS-FM, is a non-commercial National Public Radio-affiliated station operated by Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky. WKMS features a variety of NPR programming and local music shows including classical music, bluegrass, alternative rock, jazz, electronica and world music. WKMS signed on for the first time on May 11, 1970, as a non-commercial, educational FM station licensed to MSU.

<i>On Air with Ryan Seacrest</i> American syndicated radio program

On Air with Ryan Seacrest is a weekday syndicated radio program hosted by Ryan Seacrest. It was launched in 2004 as a drive time show at the same time on Los Angeles Top 40 station 102.7 KIIS-FM as the television show with the same name, although Seacrest had hosted a similar show in afternoon drive time on sister station 98.7 KYSR from 1995 until 2003. The TV series ran for several months in 2004, but nationwide syndication of the radio program did not start until 2008. While Seacrest hosted his Los Angeles show in the morning, the syndicated show's affiliates aired it in middays or afternoons. The syndicated show took segments from Seacrest's live Los Angeles wake up show and packaged them with music, so listeners in other cities could hear them later in the day or the following day. The live radio show originated its broadcast from the KIIS-FM studios in Burbank, California. KIIS-FM is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc.

<i>Too Beautiful to Live</i> American radio show and podcast

Too Beautiful to Live is a podcast originating from Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, co-hosted by Luke Burbank, CBS News Sunday Morning correspondent, host of Live Wire Radio and frequent NPR's Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! panelist, and veteran radio producer and one-time radio host Andrew Walsh. The podcast originated as a radio show on KIRO-FM which aired from January 7, 2008, to September 11, 2009. Upon its radio broadcast cancellation, it immediately transitioned to a podcast on September 14, 2009, and is still produced Monday through Friday.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Jensen, Elizabeth (2007-09-27). "An NPR Program Aims to Awaken a Younger Crowd". The New York Times.
  2. 1 2 3 "Two-guy staff starts building NPR morning show on the Web". The Current. 2007-04-09. Archived from the original on 2008-07-15.
  3. 1 2 Everhart, Karen (2007-09-24). "NPR's Bryant Park Project: Levity with alternative takes on the news". Current. Archived from the original on 2008-07-15.
  4. 1 2 3 Jensen, Elizabeth (2008-07-14). "Public Radio to Cancel a Morning Experiment". The New York Times. Retrieved April 27, 2010.
  5. ↑ "'Bryant Park Project' To End". Radio & Records. 2008-07-14.[ permanent dead link ]
  6. ↑ Davila, Florangela (2007-11-14). "Homegrown NPR host quits radio gig". The Seattle Times.
  7. ↑ Burbank, Luke (2008-11-25). "Too Beautiful to Live". KIRO AM.
  8. ↑ "Affiliate stations". NPR.org.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.