"DINNER PARTY DOWNLOAD" EXITS APM & PUBLIC RADIO…FOR NOW • KEVIN DALE RETURNS TO COLORADO

Dinner Party Download [link], one of the most popular programs in the new generation of public radio shows, is moving on. 

Tuesday (10/24) the program’s hosts – Brendan Francis Newham and Rico Gagliano – said in a message to listeners that the radio edition of the program will end as of December 1, 2017. The future of their podcast is less clear. The bulletin to listeners said “Details about the podcast’s future are forthcoming." 

 The move will end Dinner Party Download’s distribution relationship with American Public Media (APM). The program began as an independent podcast in the late 2000’s and moved into public radio via APM in 2011.  

Brendan Francis Newham and Rico Gagliano

APM helped Dinner Party Download achieve solid carriage in a short period of time. According to the program’s carriage list Download was airing on approximately 280 stations including repeaters and HD stations. Download has around 90 “billable” stations, the insider term for fee-paying affiliates. The program is airing in six of the top 10 markets.

Dinner Party Download recently released a new book—How to Save the World by Throwing a Dinner Party – and they have live shows on their schedule. The popular live performances use the name The Last Supper.

This not host Newham’s first radio rodeo. He started his radio work at WRTI, Philadelphia and was a producer for Fresh Air.  Then he became a regular contributor to Marketplace and Weekend America.

Dinner Party Download’s podcasts can be heard here.

COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO HIRES DENVER POST JOURNALIST KEVIN DALE AS NEWS DIRECTOR

Kevin Dale (image courtesy Denver Post)

Colorado Public Radio News (CPR News) proved it is serious about multi-platform news this week. CPR News hired Kevin Dale to be their new News Director. Dale will start his new gig on December 6^th.

Dale is print, broadcast and digital pro who spent fifteen years at The Denver Post. He is currently the Executive Editor of Cronkite News PBS station KAET and a professor at the Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. [Shameless self-disclosure: I am a graduate of the Cronkite School.]

At the Denver Post, Dale was a high-ranking editor who led a news team that won three national Edward R. Murrow Awards and three Pulitzers. Dale led the Post’s coverage of the Aurora theater shootings, which won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News.

 

Colorado Public Radio serves most of the state

Sean Nethery, CPR’s Senior VP of Programming, said Dale is a tremendous asset for CPR’s growing news team:

“We’ve grown our news team for the past ten years and have plans to double our current news staff of nearly 30 journalists. Kevin brings significant experience overseeing technical innovations in delivering news across digital platforms, which will serve CPR well as we build on our vision to be a multi-media, statewide resource for Colorado.”

Dale’s arrival allows former VP of News Kelley Griffin to make a return to editing stories and working on community engagement.

Dale said he pursued the CPR News job because of the great passion he feels for Colorado. He has lived and worked in many places across the nation but Colorado is the place he likes most.

In his 20+ year career Dale has worked and managed newsrooms across the country. After graduating from Kansas State University, Dale started his career at smaller newspapers in Kansas and California. He was an editor at the Los Angeles Daily News, USA Today, the Westchester Journal News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.