NPR Music And Member Stations Join To Bring South By Southwest Music Festival To Public Radio Listeners Everywhere

March 12, 2007; Washington, DC – NPR Music is collaborating with five NPR Member stations to create a comprehensive, multi-platform presence around South by Southwest, the influential annual music conference and festival in Austin, TX, taking place March 14–17.

The stations – KUT Austin, KCRW Santa Monica, WFUV New York, KEXP Seattle and WXPN Philadelphia – and NPR Music will provide ongoing festival coverage through previews, reports and performance sessions to be aggregated and streamed live and archived for on-demand listening at www.NPR.org/southbysouthwest

“This collaboration reflects public radio’s expanding commitment to new music and music discovery, and to NPR’s growing partnership with Member stations that are recognized music tastemakers,” said Maria Thomas, Vice President, NPR Digital Media. “By aggregating the station broadcasts, NPR.org will make it easy for users to discover SXSW, public radio-style: from performances and conversations with artists to live blogs and postcards from NPR and station reporters in Austin.”

“Music is part of Austin’s DNA and KUT strives to play music that is as innovative, authentic and passionate as the city itself,” said J. Stewart Vanderwilt, director and general manager of KUT 90.5 Austin. “As the hometown station we are pleased to collaborate with some of the stand-out stations in the NPR system to produce SXSW music coverage that is exhilarating and enlightening.”

SXSW broadcasts can be heard on www.NPR.org They will be produced by the participating Member stations and hosted by their respective music show hosts; these include KCRW’s Nic Harcourt, WXPN’s David Dye, KEXP’s Kevin Cole and KUT’s Jay Trachtenberg. WFUV’s Rita Houston will contribute on-site interviews and other features.

Supplementing this coverage, “Temporary Texans: A South by Southwest Blog” will be available at www.NPR.org/southbysouthwest NPR Music producer Stephen Thompson will contribute regularly to the blog from Austin. NPR arts reporter Neda Ulaby will also report back with audio postcards and contribute to “Temporary Texans,” along with some station hosts.

NPR will produce two special All Songs Considered podcasts (www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_detail.php?siteId=4819413) hosted by Bob Boilen: a wrap-up of the best festival performances and recording sessions produced by Seattle station KEXP, and a roundtable discussion between NPR and station hosts.

A complete schedule of SXSW events to be presented and streamed on NPR.org is available at www.NPR.org/southbysouthwest

The SXSW effort represents the latest music collaboration between NPR and Member stations. Among these activities:

Since January 2006, NPR and WXPN Philadelphia have presented nearly 50 “Live Fridays” streaming concerts (www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5194329)

In December 2006, NPR Music and eight stations joined forces to choose their picks for “Memorable Music: Great Performances of 2006” and the “Best CDs of 2006;” the diverse selections can be found at www.npr.org/news/specials/holidays2006/

In November 2006, NPR Music and WNYC New York teamed to offer a special live broadcast and webcast of the only U.S. performance of Sir Paul McCartney’s “Ecce Cor Meum” new choral work (www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6468926)

On air and online, NPR Music features reports, interviews and performances by outstanding artists in all music genres. The online-only weekly program and top-rated podcast All Songs Considered offers an eclectic music mix and has featured such celebrity guest DJs as Lily Allen, Conor Oberst, and film director John Waters. The podcast “Open Mic” features a wide-ranging mix of independent, unsigned or self-produced artists. The NPR.org Podcast Directory (http://www.npr.org/podcast) includes more than 30 music-related titles produced by NPR and Member stations from around the country.