The media world is rapidly changing. New approaches are necessary

to fill in the gaps left by cutbacks in other media and to engage with

emerging new technologies that enable our audiences to experience

our content anywhere, any way, and anytime. The team at KQED is

innovating, adjusting and expanding every day to meet our

communities’ needs.

Bay Area audiences increasingly turned to KQED last year. With volatile national and world economies and political unrest across the globe, our audiences found depth and context and a trusted source of information through KQED. Bay Area residents know they can depend on KQED for insightful reporting and for providing details beyond the sound bites.

Local Content and Service Report to the Community

2011

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In recent months, KQED Public Radio became not only the most-listened-to

public radio station in the nation, but the most-listened-to radio station in the

Bay Area, a considerable achievement for a non-commercial public station.

Equally impressive, KQED Public Television has gone against the national

curve by increasing viewership, which often places us as the most-watched

public television station in America. Usage of KQED’s online and mobile

services has more than tripled in the past 18 months — and that was before

the launch of the KQED iPhone app in early October. Our innovation carried

us even further with the development of public media’s first radio Pledge

Free Stream, and our reach continues to expand through the use of social

media, with thousands of friends and subscribers on Facebook, Twitter and

our interactive blogs.

Increasingly, we are partnering with other organizations to meet the growing

demand for informed content and to reach new audiences. Over the

past year, new local and national partnerships have included the Public

Insight Network, enlisting local residents as part of KQED’s newsgathering

operation; Networked Journalism with hyper-local news sites like Oakland

Local and Berkeleyside that help keep local neighborhoods under the

microscope; the Computer History Museum, whose lecture series about

tech luminaries found a new life on our airwaves, and the launch of an

expanded service to support teachers with the most up-to-date digital

learning tools through PBS LearningMedia.

KQED’s mission is to serve the people of the Bay Area with programming that informs, educates and entertains. Through partnerships, events, programming and the use of emerging technologies, we’re poised to serve generations to come.

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Science

In its sixth season, QUEST, KQED’s multi-media science, nature and

environment series continues to break new ground in education, and on

television, radio and the Web. Partnering with 19 leading Bay Area science

institutions, QUEST not only helps bring context, depth and understanding

to a wide array of scientific discoveries taking place in our community, but

also brings STEM curricula-based learning tools to classrooms across the

region. Additionally, in a pilot program funded by the Corporation for Public

Broadcasting, QUEST has been working closely with five public media

partner stations to expand its science reporting model nationally—piloting

the production of a variety of science and environment stories on radio,

television and online, including the creation of educational materials aligned

with state science standards. A ten-part QUEST series is now broadcasting

in Seattle, Cleveland, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Nebraska and is serving

as a model for future collaborations.

QUEST Local Partners

UC Berkeley Natural History Museums

SMSM

Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford University

UCSF, Bay Area Science Festival

Picture: QUEST Seed Pack

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The ArtsKQED is arts central, celebrating the wide array of art being created in the

Bay Area. Through its multiple platforms of television, radio, internet and

education, KQED brings focus and exposure to arts groups of all sizes

and creative endeavors. By building enterprising partnerships with some

of the Bay Area’s largest performing arts organizations, including the San

Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Ballet, KQED

has extended their reach and allowed more Bay Area residents to experience

the arts than ever before. From the Symphony’s Keeping Score, to Great

Performances: San Francisco Ballet: The Little Mermaid and KQED’s own

mini-documentary shown during the inaugural PBS Arts Festival, The Art of

Doing it Yourself, KQED showcases the San Francisco arts scene nationally

and has helped establish PBS as the home for arts programming.

Picture: Keeping Score

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Education

KQED Education produces digital media learning objects, distributes these

on KQED.org, iTunes U, PBS LearningMedia and other places, and trains

educators in using and making media for learning. KQED Education, whose

main focus areas are arts, STEM and news, makes video, audio, interactives

and other rich media available for educators, parents and the public, all for

free. Recognizing the growing use of technology in the classroom, KQED

Education, along with KQED Public Radio and KQED.org, launched the

“MindShift” blog, which examines the future of education and how students

will learn. “MindShift” includes original features about trends in education

focusing on the impact of technology on everything from the way the

brain is wired to how it’s democratizing high-quality education. The blog’s

popularity continues to grow. In addition to being featured on The Huffington

Post, as of October 2011, it was averaging 100,000 page views per

month, had 1,200 Twitter followers and hundreds of Facebook fans. KQED

Education’s media technology team, which helps teachers learn to use

new technology in the classroom, produces the “ EdSpace ” blog. Through

the perspective of educators, youth and education professionals, the blog

features professional development and personal stories serving diverse

learners from a variety of backgrounds and circumstances.

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Innovative Technology

The Bay Area is home to innovators and many of the world’s leaders

in emerging technologies. KQED is no exception — using technology

advancements to create new and better services for audiences.

To wit, KQED pioneered public media’s first radio Pledge Free-Stream.

Through this online stream, members were able to login and listen to

our award-winning radio service without fundraising intermissions.

KQED.org also launched the KQED iPhone app, a one-stop destination

for all things KQED. Features include live streaming of KQED Public

Radio, news headlines and daily blogs, schedule information for

television and radio, a video player to watch KQED-produced television

programs, an event calendar and KQED Perks, a geo-targeted member

benefit directory.

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Community Engagement

Bringing programming directly to our audiences wherever they live,

has enabled KQED to reach deep into many of the Bay Area’s diverse

populations. Through dozens of screenings, panel discussions and

education workshops each year, we strive to elevate the discussion and

bring focus to important stories being told on our airwaves. Working with

American Experience, KQED created two dynamic events in 2011 around

the programs “Freedom Riders” and “Stonewall Uprising.”

Partnering with the Ella Baker Center, the

Museum of African Diaspora and The Oakland

Museum, we offered two screenings featuring

actual Freedom Riders interviewed onstage

by legendary journalist Belva Davis. In June,

KQED celebrated the Bay Area’s LGBT

community with a free screening of Stonewall

Uprising and the KQED-produced story of

an earlier West Coast uprising, Screaming

Queens. A capacity crowd of 1,300 at the

famed Castro Theatre included community

members of every generation sharing

common history.

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PartnershipsKQED built an innovative editorial partnership with the Center for

Investigative Reporting (CIR). The multi-platform initiative included reporting

and distribution for investigative reporting of matters of importance to

California through CIR’s “California Watch” initiative, KQED News and The

California Report, KQED’s statewide news service.

Regular reports for radio and online were produced by a reporter/producer

shared by KQED and CIR. In addition to his own reporting, the shared staff

member helps to produce radio stories by and interviews with CIR reporters

for KQED News.

The partnership also produced for radio, television and online, a series of

reports examining the above ground and underground worlds of marijuana

production and sales in California. Another multiplatform series, On Shaky

Ground, revealed the results of a 19-month investigation into the seismic

safety of California Public Schools. Radio reports were fused together

with 30-minute television specials and engaging interactive tools that

included a table detailing Bay Area schools’ earthquake vulnerability and

a range of “what if?” scenarios helping residents know what to expect

in quakes of various sizes. Both the television and radio programs were

distributed statewide.

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Channel 54.4 Comcast 192

Channel 9.3 Comcast 190

Channels 54, 54.1, 9.2, & 25.2 - Monterey Comcast 10

Channel 54.3 Comast 189

Channels 9.1, 54.2, & 25.1 - Monterey (KQET)Comcast 9 and HD 709

Channels 54.5 & 25.3Comcast 191 & 621

V-me

88.5 FM San Francisco89.3 FM Sacramento (KQEI) KQEDnews.org

kqed.org/education

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