Southern California public broadcaster KCRW Los Angeles (89.9) has hired former Spotify executive Gina Delvac to lead what it is calling a Podcast Audience Lab. The division’s focus will be not only on building KCRW’s reach into on-demand audio, but also developing content to engage with new audiences.
“KCRW has long been the soundtrack to the Angeleno experience. With the Podcast Audience Lab, we’re going to take the best of what KCRW already does every day and bring best-in-class audio experiences to the many neighborhoods that make Southern California great — on the airwaves, in person, and in the digital spaces where we congregate,” said Delvac. “We’ll curate the sounds and stories that matter most and be in direct engagement with the communities that drive our culture forward.”
The Podcast Audience Lab is funded by an investment from the KCRW Foundation’s Board of Directors.
It is a return to public radio for Delvac, who most recently was Head of Studio 4, Spotify’s in-house branded content studio since 2020. But her experience is largely in producing audio. Delvac spent eight years as Executive Producer of the Call Your Girlfriend podcast and earlier was Executive Producer of Launch Media’s This Week In Startups series. Delvac was also a freelance producer for KPCC Los Angeles, where she worked on several of its on-air shows from 2012 to 2013. She was a freelance producer on the American Public Media radio show and podcast Marketplace from 2011 to 2013.
KCRW has also announced that Arnie Seipel will also join from NPR this fall to lead its approach to news content.
“I’ve been a big admirer of KCRW from afar. There’s really nowhere I’m aware of in public radio that is as special as KCRW,” said Seipel. “There’s so much opportunity ahead to expand and serve all the communities of Southern California who can rely on KCRW for news and information in their daily lives.”
Seipel has spent the last 14 years at NPR, most recently as the Deputy Washington Editor on the Washington/politics desk where he oversaw daily news coverage of politics and the inner workings of the federal government. Prior to this role, he edited politics coverage, leading NPR’s reporting on elections.
“We are so excited to have Gina and Arnie join our team at this time in KCRW’s journey,” said KCRW President Jennifer Ferro in the announcement. “Having Gina totally focused on building podcast audiences and Arnie focused on the news stories that matter most to us, KCRW continues to grow our community service and singular voice.”
Comments