KCRW-FM & KCRW.COM ADD LEXUS AS PODCAST SPONSOR

As another example of how far podcasting has come, public radio station KCRW in Santa Monica, CA (89.9 FM and KCRW.com) announced today that the Southern California Lexus Dealers will be the exclusive sponsor of the station’s podcasting line-up, for 26 weeks starting at the end of October.  KCRW is the number-one rated public radio station in Southern California. Unfortunately the station’s innovative music program will not be a part of the podcasting initiative dues to complex music licencing issues.

On March 1, 2005, KCRW.com began podcasting its line-up of locally produced talk, news, cultural programs and commentaries, free of charge. The station boasts an impressive number of original shows.

Described by Business Week as "the uber-techie NPR station in Santa Monica,” and as “the cutting-edge…public radio station that has been on the forefront of Internet Radio,” KCRW went online in 1995, positioning itself as an “early adopter” of digital technologies.

KCRW.com now averages 1.5 million page views each week, as well as 500,000 streaming hours weekly. Since March 1, the average number of podcasts downloaded per week was 25,000. During the first week of June, 2005 the number leaped to 75,000.

KCRW.com operates three streams ( the on-air simulcast, an all music channel and a world news service) and features an online audio and video archive of live in-studio performances, as well as an on-demand feature for its most popular music programs, Morning Becomes Eclectic, Metropolis and Nocturna neither of which will be podcast.

Three podcasts that should be of interest to hypebot.com readers include:

• The Treatment   Elvis Mitchell, entertainment/pop culture interviews

• The Business   Variety’s Claude Brodesser examines the entertainment biz

• On the Beat with Celia Hirschman   The music industry analyzed

Download the KCRW podcasts here.