Rising Stars in...Radio & Recording

Brian Lauritzen
Producer/Host, Classical KUSC

Brian Lauritzen, 30, is on the air every day. He’s also accompanied Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic on their tours across the U.S., to Europe, and last season, to Caracas, Venezuela. He was the only person from KUSC to travel with the band, which meant he reported, interviewed, photographed, and blogged for the station, a series of responsibilities about which he comments, “Multimedia, baby.”

Lauritzen frequently tips his hat to his music director, Jamie Paisley, who is also in his 30s. “We set out to see if it was possible to do what other classical music people didn’t think was possible. Studies from the early 80s,” Lauritzen muses, “tell us to make our radio
station as much like wallpaper as possible. But this is the 21st century: Pandora and Spotify can do that just fine. People tune in to KUSC for something more: more companionship, more storytelling. If you want background music, there are places to go for that.”

He tries to give context to the pieces he programs. “The problem with so many new music people is that they’re too busy prosthelytizing to actually advocate for the music. They spend their time telling you that you should like it. My feeling is, you don’t have to like it, but here it is.”

Public radio outlets, like KUSC, Lauritzen says, have done a better job than other broadcast media in learning that the secret to success is in audience engagement. “Listeners literally own the station!” The talent and producers, therefore, go out of their way to encourage people to be a part of what they’re doing. Regarding streaming and downloads—the future of music, as it were—Lauritzen squarely answers, “The most important thing in our business is to protect the integrity of the artists. If they can’t make money from what they’re doing, they’re not going to give us any product, and it’s their product that makes our product possible.”

Lauritzen particularly enjoys being “a young person on the air in a medium that is viewed as old, and in a medium where the audience is traditionally old as well.”

Building a younger audience, he says, means “looking to the way that we consume media and music. It’s all about what’s most convenient. If we can make our content available in a number of carefully chosen outlets, then that’s going to serve us well in the future.” The example Lauritzen gives is the Clear Channel iHeartRadio app for Android and iPhone. “The reason we joined them alongside KCRW is because they’re in the car. Cars are coming with smarter and smarter radios that have apps, and that’s one of the big ones.”

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