NPR Finds New Home for Its West Coast Push

National Public Radio will announce today it has settled on a Culver City location for its new West Coast production center, planned to be the network’s largest facility outside its Washington, D.C., headquarters.

When it opens in September, the center will house about 90 employees, including NPR’s Los Angeles news bureau, currently based downtown, as well as “The Tavis Smiley Show,” a one-hour magazine program hosted by Smiley, an L.A.-based author, commentator and former Black Entertainment Television talk-show host.

Smiley’s program, which debuted in January, is NPR’s first show to originate from Los Angeles and is in negotiations to gain an affiliate locally. It’s currently heard on 21 stations in the U.S., including New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore.

NPR officials say they want a West Coast presence to help revitalize and broaden their cultural programming, stories about emerging trends, the business of entertainment, new media and new music. They also want to tap into sources and audiences--such as Asians, Latinos and youth--now underrepresented on the network.

NPR Executive Vice President Ken Stern said the expansion is key to the network’s plan to overhaul its approach to arts, music and entertainment programming, announced last week, noting that NPR currently has arts reporters stationed only on the East Coast.

“American culture is by no means just New York and Washington. There are other voices out there,” Stern said. “One of the things we want to accomplish here is to expand our arts coverage so it encompasses more of the country. And California is very much a thought leader.”

It’s also one of NPR’s largest audience pools--according to Arbitron ratings, nearly 3.2 million Californians listen to the network weekly, about 13% of its nationwide audience.

In its cultural reorganization, NPR said it will revamp shows such as “Performance Today,” heard weekdays at 11 a.m. on KCSN-FM (88.5), cutting back on commentary and interviews and focusing more on music.

A new midday show in the works for the end of 2002, meanwhile, is slated to be a newsmagazine with “more of a cultural bent,” said NPR spokeswoman Jenny Lawhorn, featuring arts coverage and originating from the L.A. production center.

The two buildings, on 1.76 acres in the 9900 block of Jefferson Boulevard, were formerly the home of an Internet broadcaster and will need only a few acoustic and technical improvements to be radio-ready. The facility also is scheduled to serve as the network’s backup operation in case of emergency.

NPR bought the property from Welk Group Inc., the holding company for the Lawrence Welk family interests. The network funded half of the $12-million cost to acquire, equip and operate the facility, with the rest coming in donations.