Edie Rubinowitz of Northeastern Illinois University provided a fascinating insight into Chicago Public Radio’s community radio project, :Vocalo, at the Convergence and Society conference.

And yes, it is supposed to be “:Vocalo”, as Rubinowitz explained at the start of the talk.  The colon is a deliberate attempt to create an emoticon.

:Vocalo is its own distinct radio station which downplays its relationship with Chicago Public Radio (CPR).  Rubinowitz explained that this was again a deliberate decision, as it is aimed at a very separate audience.

CPR has an audience that is 91% white in a city with a much more diverse population.  :Vocalo is targeted at reaching these communities who don’t listen to public radio because they see it as not aimed at them, not local enough or simply too stuffy and elite.

Rubinowitz described :Vocalo as a hybrid social network, user-generated content site and radio station.  Or, in the elevator pitch, a cross between YouRadio and MySpace/Facebook.

So it aims to be younger, more vibrant and diverse than CPR, in the hope of creating a third space between home and work for the Chicago’s communities to get together, share and discuss events in their city.

The station is available both on the radio and online, offering a mix of progressive music, user-generated content and hosted talk shows.  What makes this different from CPR is that the hosts are often non-professionals drawn from the community, such as teachers.

Rubinowitz explained that launching the radio station was not without issues.  Some at CPR were concerned it would turn into amateur hour on the radio, or that the public radio station was trying to be something it wasn’t.

As she put it, if you do something like this, you can expect a backlash from the “old crowd”, as she put it.

:Vocalo is a work in progress and expanding the reach of its radio signal.

It seems to be a good way for public radio to reinvent itself, not by slightly tinkering with its established format, but by creating a separate station to reach new audiences in new ways.