Burbank's tips for engaging Gen X listeners

To attract younger listeners, public radio needs to "get off the news mountaintop," former NPR host and correspondent Luke Burbank told station execs at last week's Western States Public Radio conference. "Don't talk down--be at eye level," he said. Burbank, who departed NPR's Gen X-targeted Bryant Park Project shortly after its launch last year, offered six suggestions for bringing younger adults into the public radio fold, reported by KUOW's Jeff Hansen on the PRPD blog. From Burbank's perspective as one of two full-time staff on a daily commercial talk show in Seattle, BPP was "overstaffed, overly-expensive, and over-supervised," Hansen writes.