Kling still on track to raise $5 million for pubradio reporters

After Bill Kling retires on July 1 from atop Minnesota Public Radio and American Public Media in St. Paul, he "plans to take his show on the road and use his influence to build up public radio stations across America," according to the City Pages in Minneapolis.

Kling reiterated to the paper his plans to raise $5 million a year for five years, to be used by four public radio stations (Chicago's WBEZ, New York's WYNC, and KPCC in southern California) to hire more reporters (Current, Oct. 18, 2010). Another $5 million per year will be donated to the greater public radio system. "Ultimately, Kling hopes to take on all the top public radio markets in the country," the paper notes.

"You can have all the blogs, all the Huffington Posts, and Twitter feeds, and any other way of distributing content," Kling says. "But if you don't have the content, none of it's worth anything. That comes from reporters, which I believe we have to step up."