‘I saw it on the radio” was the catch phrase in a classic radio industry ad campaign.
National Public Radio West wants to take that concept to a new level.
According to Ken Stern, the network’s executive vice president, the national non-profit producer and distributor of radio programming is looking to hire a video editor possibly by the end of the year.
When created, the position will be based out of NPR’s West Coast bureau in Culver City. Details have yet to be worked out and budgetary approval is pending, but the editor would most likely produce reports for the network’s podcasts.
NPR West’s Culver City campus opened nearly four years ago and is the production facility for the national network’s popular “Day to Day” and “News & Notes” shows.
“The West Coast bureau is such a crucial addition to what NPR is,” said Andi Sporkin, NPR’s vice president of communications. “It’s not a satellite location, it’s part of the fabric of who we are.”
The network has been offering podcasts for a year this month and plans to progressively expand its offerings, Stern said.
Since the Washington, D.C.-based network’s Southern California headquarters moved from its small Santa Monica site, which had six employees, to its current site it has expanded to 75 staffers. NPR bought the Culver City office, which was formerly occupied by now-defunct tech company Digital Planet, for $8 million in 2002. The 25,000-square-foot building houses two sound studios, five production rooms and a TV-equipped studio that are all open to the public for weekly tours. A second 12,500-square-foot building on the site is currently being leased to a tenant.
“It’s geographically balanced the editorial content of this network,” said Cinny Kennard, general manager of NPR West. “We have a distinctly non-D.C. style; our own west coast sensibility.”
R. Kelly’s Image
Image Entertainment Inc. of Chatsworth has signed on to be the exclusive worldwide distributor for embattled hip hop star R. Kelly’s first live-concert DVD.
The deal was reached through an arrangement with Zomba Label Group, and grants Image, an independent licensee, producer and distributor of home entertainment programming, exclusive digital video distribution rights to the performance.
Image will co-produce and distribute Kelly’s first live concert DVD, which was filmed in high definition in March at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland.
Image executives said they expected the disc to be well received. The deal does not include the rights to “R. Kelly Triple-X,” an infamous and graphic tape. As a result of that tape, Kelly was indicted on 21 counts of alleged child pornography in 2002. The felony charges carry a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000. The case goes to trial later this summer.
Technicolor Diversifies
Home entertainment doesn’t just come in Technicolor, it will come from Technicolor.
Thomson’s Technicolor Home Entertainment Services division has begun manufacturing and distributing DVDs. That’s in addition to the company’s duplication services for high-definition DVDs and Blu-ray discs, which have been in operation since fall 2005. Technicolor Home Entertainment Services’ has three DVD replication lines and three Blu-ray Disc lines in place at the company’s headquarters in Camarillo. Technicolor has also installed mastering and testing equipment for both of these new formats in its Advanced Media Development Center on the same campus.
Staff reporter Anne Riley-Katz can be reached at
[email protected]
or at (323) 549-5225.
