KCRW Rebrands: ‘Always On LA.’

• Influential NPR affiliate KCRW/Los Angeles, located on the beautiful campus of Santa Monica College, just unveiled a refreshed brand and message — “Always On LA.,” which management says was inspired by its legions of loyal listeners.

As KCRW President Jennifer Ferro stated, “KCRW has always been more than a radio station: We’re a gathering place, a site of communion and connection. When you turn on the dial or press play on a KCRW podcast, you too belong to Los Angeles. We’ve partnered with the agency work x work, the creative team behind On Air Fest and a longtime friend of KCRW, to develop a new look and messaging that’s reflective of where we come from, who we are today, and where we’re growing. We wanted work x work to tackle our refresh because they look at audio the way we do as a vehicle for creating community engagement.”

Scott Newman, Creative Director of work x work, noted, “Over and over again in our research, we kept hearing the words ‘belonging’ and ‘connection.’ We quickly realized that KCRW is a value beyond the content. It’s part of the social fabric of LA. And we wanted to express that in the branding.”

Ferro added, “We love the logo we have used since 2014, but we knew changing it would represent a truth about KCRW, which is that we’re constantly evolving. So rather than adopt a wildly new look, we wanted something that kept one foot in our recent past. You could say we wanted to redo the kitchen, not rebuild the entire house.”