When Joni Deutsch arrived in Charlotte, North Carolina to become the podcast lead at NPR station WFAE, she wanted to create something that captured the city’s unique identity beyond just football and banking. To that end, she launched Amplifier, a biweekly podcast that highlights the region’s diverse music scene in September 2018.

In early 2019, Deutsch wrote a report for the American Press Institute‘s Better News Initiative to share Amplifier’s success and encourage other public radio stations to create local music podcasts of their own. Read the full report here.

The Better News podcast is a partnership between It’s All Journalism and the American Press Institute to a) showcase innovative/experimental ideas that emerge from the Knight-Lenfest Newsroom Initiative and b) to share replicable strategies and  tactics that benefit the news industry as a whole. Sign up for the Better News newsletter to receive news about the latest resources, case studies and insights. For more news about the It’s All Journalism podcast and future episodes of Better News, sign up for the weekly IAJ newsletter.