Herb Scannell
President and CEO

Southern California Public Radio

LAist 89.3, LAist.com & LAist Studios

Strengthen the civic and cultural bonds that unite Southern California's diverse communities by providing the highest quality news and information across multiple platforms.

We are a public forum that engages its audiences in an ongoing dialogue and exploration of issues, events, and cultures in the region and in the world. We seek to provide greater understanding and new perspectives to the people of these communities and their leaders.

LAist 89.3 is LA’s #1 NPR station, serving an average of 600,000 listeners each week, broadcasting an all-news format on six signals from Santa Barbara to Orange County, from Los Angeles to Palm Springs. AirTalk with Larry Mantle has been our flagship program since its debut on April 1, 1985.

LAist.com is our website that explains LA to an average of 1 million readers each month. Our newsroom's mission is to deliver great local news that explains LA to our audiences. We earn and keep their trust by delivering the highest quality news and information that strengthens the civic and cultural bonds that unite Southern California's diverse communities.

LAist Studios creates world-class podcasts and on-demand audio, news, and information that reflects the rich diversity of Southern California. LAist Studios’ mission is to tell LA stories to the world. Our podcasts include epic narratives, in-depth investigations, and engrossing conversations that elevate underrepresented voices. Since its launch in 2020, LAist Studios podcasts have received more than 18 million downloads and dozens of industry awards.

We have the second-largest newsroom in Greater Los Angeles, and, unlike other major news organizations in the region, we do not put our coverage behind a subscriber paywall.
Our intrepid reporters cover early childhood education and development, K-12, higher education, community college, housing, criminal justice, health, unhoused communities, immigrant communities, science, climate emergency, democracy and civics, and how to navigate pandemic life in LA. Each reporter has a mission statement. Here’s the goal for our health reporter: Jackie Fortiér helps Southern Californians understand the pandemic by identifying what's working and what's not in our health response.
We have one of the most diverse newsrooms in public media, with 53 percent of our content staff identifying as people of color and more than 50 percent as female.
We are leading the country in the practice of engaged journalism, which puts community at the center of our work, so that we don’t just report on an issue, we report with and for an audience. We build relationships with our listeners, readers, and community members and they become true partners in our reporting.
We have been recognized with more than 600 journalism awards.