NPR's Jarl Mohn Says He's Having Fun

Dan Reed, Jarl Mohn

"I'm about to celebrate my first anniversary, and have committed to a minimum of five years," Jarl Mohn said Thursday with WXPN on-air personality and conference producer Dan Reed in a one-on-one chat at the noncommercial radio broadcasters' meeting, Non-COMMvention, at WXPN/World Cafe Live. "One of the things that helps me with this job is that I don't really need it. Someone gave me the perfect sign that now hangs in my office. It reads, 'You can't hurt me.' "

At NPR, which has 26 million radio listeners and more than 30 million unique visitors a month online, Mohn's biggest success so far has been in marketing the heck out of Morning Edition, reports
philly.com.

"Public radio has a lot going on, and the tendency is to want to promote it all," he said. "But that dilutes the messages and the brand." So he persuaded "a bunch but not all NPR stations" to commit to a concept he called the "Spark Project" - a super-focused promotion "of just two or three elements appearing on Morning Edition - with promos repeating about 100 times a week - a lot to ask."

The results? "Ratings for KPPC in Los Angeles are up 30 percent in morning drive. KUT in Austin, Texas, is now No. 1 in the market. Other stations are up as much as 70 percent. In overall ratings, our 'control group' of stations that haven't gone along with the concept are down 13 percent, while those that went with Spark are up 2 percent. Hey, 'Haters gonna hate.' "

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