KCRW TO VIDEO PODCAST MORNING BECOMES ECLECTIC SESSIONS

A year ago, "podcasting" was a concept we could hardly explain to ourselves.

In December, "podcast" became the New Oxford Dictionary's Word of the Year for 2005.

And today, you can watch radio on your video iPod!

Beginning January 10, KCRW will offer video podcasts of live sessions performed by unsigned, independent, and select established bands on our signature music show, Morning Becomes Eclectic, hosted by Nic Harcourt.

The first video podcasts we will make available from iTunes, AOL Music and KCRW.com are performances by KATE EARL (recorded and originally broadcast on September 27, 2005) and SI SE (recorded and originally broadcast on June 28, 2005). On January 23, KCRW will post the video podcast of the ARCTIC MONKEYS' live session (recorded and originally broadcast on November 19, 2005). Each Morning Becomes Eclectic podcast will be available for a two week window and new ones will be posted on a case by case basis.

KCRW began offering podcasts of Morning Becomes Eclectic live sessions in August 2005, with the unsigned Los Angeles band GOLDSPOT. The exposure quadrupled traffic on the band's website, not just on the day they performed at KCRW - a common occurrence - but in the weeks that followed.

Since then, KCRW has podcast guest DJ sessions with such notable musicians as ROBBIE ROBERTSON and RY COODER, as well as 40-minute live performances from critically acclaimed buzz bands SONS & DAUGHTERS, CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH and THE LIKE, among many others. At present, the Morning Becomes Eclectic podcasts receive upwards of 20,000 downloads weekly.

For the past four years, our dedicated web team has been filming those performances and archiving them on KCRW.com. Of the 50,000 hours a week of On Demand Archive listening to just the music programs, KCRW's Video On Demand accounts for half. From a rudimentary one-camera shot of bands in our studio when we started filming, to a sophisticated four-camera, live-edit shoot now, the KCRW video podcast will make music fans feel like they are in the basement studio with the band and Nic.

There is nothing currently available on iTunes like KCRW's video podcasts. Consumers can buy commercial music videos, but KCRW's intimate, unique live sessions will be available for free from the Podcast section of the iTunes Music Store.

KCRW is an NPR-affiliate station with a unique public radio format that features talk and free-form music programming. Morning Becomes Eclectic airs weekdays from 9 AM to Noon PT. The show is also available as a live stream and on demand at KCRW.com. Live performances by established, unsigned and up-and-coming artists have been a feature of the program for years. All live sessions are archived for streaming on demand. The New York Times Magazine profile of Nic Harcourt calls him ". . .the country's most important disc jockey and a genuine bellwether." Exposure on Morning Becomes Eclectic reaches the ears of the entertainment industry, music supervisors and A&R executives. Several artists have been signed to record labels as a result of airplay on KCRW, including JEM and DAMIEN RICE, and many more have ended up as soundtracks to today's most popular television programs.

Now music fans and KCRW listeners worldwide will be able to see where it all starts.

KCRW-FM, licensed to Santa Monica College, is National Public Radio's flagship station for Southern California. The station serves Los Angeles and Orange Counties at 89.9 FM, Ventura County at 89.1 FM on KCRU/ Oxnard-Ventura, the greater Palm Springs area at 89.3 FM on KCRI/Indio-Palm Springs and Kern and Northern LA Counties at 88.1 FM on KCRY/Mojave/Antelope Valley. KCRW can now be heard in Santa Barbara at 106.9. Other translators carry the signal to the Twentynine Palms and Yucca Valley areas at 90.7 FM, Gorman at 89.7 FM, Banning at 90.9 FM, the Ridgecrest area at 107.1 FM, the Santa Paula, Moorpark, and Fillmore areas at 102.3 FM, Ojai at 102.1 FM, and Lemon Grove/Spring Valley in San Diego County at 89.9 FM. Every week, more than 500,000 listeners tune to the station for its eclectic and innovative non-commercial program schedule. KCRW can be found on the World Wide Web at KCRW.com, streaming 3 channels and now podcasting all KCRW-produced talk programs.

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