Radio Bilingue to develop new pubmedia service for Los Angeles

CPB has awarded a $2 million grant to Radio Bilingue to design and develop a multiplatform English language program service for young Latinos in Los Angeles. Radio Bilingue, which produces and distributes Spanish-language news and cultural programming airing on stations in the U.S. and Mexico, will take several months to develop programming before launching the new service in 2010. "Los Angeles sits at the juncture of diversity and new media and this is an opportunity to create a national model for public media innovation," said CPB President Patricia Harrison in a news release. "This service, developed by Radio Bilingue, will serve and represent a new community of listeners through fresh and innovative content." No word yet on a broadcast outlet: CPB's announcement highlights the search for a chief content officer and research firm to test and design programming and marketing concepts for the venture. Planning of the service began with CPB's 2005 request for proposals for a project examining strategies to expand pubradio listenership among Los Angeles Latinos. [Link to Current's earlier coverage here.]