Last month, Brian Calvert was named as the new Program Director for Northwest Newsradio, the Lotus Seattle all-news brand. He stepped into the shoes vacated when former leader Frank Lenzi departed the outlet to join KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM as its new News Director.
The move marked an unexpected change in his long tenure with the station. Brian Calvert was the first hire at what was then KOMO in 2002 as the brand moved to an all-news presentation.
“They plucked me over from KIRO Radio and then I helped build the team out from there,” said Calvert of his early days with the station. “We built this giant news staff and went into operation in the fall of 2002. So I’ve been with the product ever since. I’ve served in various roles, I’ve been in management, been a talent before, and coming back into management is — I guess you would call it, for lack of a better term — it’s one of those full-circle moments for me.”
Despite now holding the reins of Northwest Newsradio, Brian Calvert joked he never thought he’d hold the title of Program Director for the brand.
“Management was never the goal. Hands down, it wasn’t,” he said. “I always considered myself a storyteller. I did a lot of reporting. I anchored the news, and I thought my skill set was in writing.”
He added that becoming the station’s news director in the mid-2000s changed his perspective on holding a management title.
“That was really an eye-opening experience for me because that helped me channel a new love. I always thought the ideal newsroom manager is not the boss, so to speak, but was in the actual trenches with everybody, sits down beside them, writes along besides them and writing stories just like everybody else at the radio station.”
Brian Calvert continues to serve as the morning host — alongside Manda Factor — at Northwest Newsradio. But he still relishes the opportunity to work inside the newsroom alongside his colleagues, covering the biggest stories that the Seattle audience craves.
“When I can, I love to step out into the newsroom and sit down at a computer beside everybody else … I can’t think of a better way to lead by example. And it’s being received. There’s a fresh air in the newsroom these days that we haven’t had in a long time. There’s a lot of people smiling in the newsroom. Everybody sees the direction we’re headed. They feel this momentum, and everybody is kind of seizing this moment for us.”
While morale is up at the Lotus Seattle all-news brand, Calvert is well aware there are both challenges and opportunities ahead for the station grow.
“Our biggest opportunity, easily, is growing the staff. Our station, like many others, had to go through layoffs over the last five years. Our newsroom is fairly small for a big market, all-news radio station,” Calvert admitted. “We’d love to see those numbers grow. We’re starting to see some trending in the ratings, success is growing that way. We’re starting to sell it better from a sales perspective. And I think that our intention is always to add more newsroom staffers.
“The goal is obviously to take back some of the classic newsgathering you’d expect. That’d being said, our weakest part right now is our staffing level. When you’re trying to build something like a newsroom at a time when everybody else is laying off staffers, that is a hard task, because, as everybody knows a newsroom payroll is higher than any other format in the industry. That’s a huge ask of ownership.
“But the great news around here, ownership sees this new vision of our radio station and embraces it,” Calvert concluded. “We have a billboard campaign that kicks off this week. 75 billboards around the Puget Sound area about this go up for the next 16 weeks, with our brand new logo, and new call to action statement … Just reminding people we’re here and we’re that utility station that you can dial into and you know what to expect and when to expect it.”
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
