Media in Seattle
by NINA SHAPIRO
www.Seattle Weekly.com

Seattle public radio king KUOW-FM (94.9) announced last week that it will program KXOT-FM (91.7), the Tacoma station operated most recently—and to disastrous financial effect—by Seattle's other public radio station, KEXP-FM (90.3). KUOW twice before has passed on a chance to program KXOT.  

What gives? Public Radio Capital, the Denver-based nonprofit that owns KXOT, was having a hard time finding another public radio station to take it over, according to KUOW General Manager Wayne Roth. So the nonprofit was willing to enter into an unusual joint venture with KUOW that gives the station an escape hatch: If it doesn't work out, KXOT will be sold and KUOW will reap a share of the proceeds. KUOW also changed its mind because Roth came up with a new way of thinking about KXOT.

While everybody had assumed KXOT would continue as a music station, Roth started envisioning another talk-radio format, one that would eventually develop new talent currently locked out of public radio's prime time by NPR blockbusters like Morning Edition.

Meantime, the KXOT lineup will mostly feature shows not currently aired in the market, including Talk of the Nation, which KUOW dropped a few years back to the anger of many listeners. "The real question is how many NPR listeners are there in Pierce County," comments Joey Cohn, program manager at KUOW rival KPLU-FM (88.5), which features news and jazz. Though that public radio station is based in Tacoma, Cohn says the majority of listeners live in King County.