"On the next Studio 5"

Ever since 40 became the new 30, the trend around town is to create special programs and events geared for the unique culture that 20-40 year-olds demand. Especially when it comes to the arts. The arts community is scared to death that their audience is dying out, so they’ve hired some young, hip professionals to develop new audiences.

One of the first programs that popped up about a year ago was Vivace, sponsored by the Utah Symphony. “Vivace" means in a lively or vivacious manner. It’s actually wildly successful. They go to the same symphony performances as the 50-60 and 70 somethings, only Vivace has an after party and special program notes written by their 20-something coordinator. Sometimes they’ll have special late-night performances and lectures by the performers. They even have a myspace page.

Ballet West and RDT have started Studio D which is similar to Vivace – just a specialized group of younger people that get together to share their common interest in dance. It’s all free, but you have to fall in the younger age-range.

The Salt Lake Tribune, is even trying something. Hardly anyone reads the Trib anymore when you can read it online or pick up a City Weekly for free. So they came up with “IN” Utah. A poor attempt to cut into City Weekly’s audience. It has the same look, format and price. Only the writing is really bad.

So this brings me to KSL and their stab at being young and hip: “Studio 5”. I remember KSL's marketing director did a workshop for the Utah Arts Council and he talked about Studio 5 and how it's going to attract a younger audience to KSL. Someone should tell the execs most of the "young and hip" audience is at work at 11 AM and can't watch their show. Has anyone seen this? I have not, but I’ve seen the morning teasers all week. I want to know what kind of surveys or focus groups resulted in this morning show. And who did the hiring for their hosts?

I’m sure Brooke and Darin are very nice people, and they actually look all right in this picture, but they’re not exactly what I would call hip. The promos have Brooke’s hair all big and teased and every day this week they’ve put Darin in a girly sweater. Which brings me to the reason I even bring this up. I’m going to list the teasers from this week and you tell me why they even have a guy co-hosting this show:

Brooke: Make your own bath salts!
Darin: On the next Studio 5

Brooke: Home decorating tips!
Darin: On the next Studio 5

Brooke: How to host a girlfriend party!
Darin: On the next Studio 5

I'm not exaggerating. At least they have the girl saying the first line. Poor Darin. If KSL wanted to look younger, they’re failing miserably. This pair doesn’t look like 2007; they look like 1955. And if they wanted to talk about country crafts and slumber parties, all they needed to do was look to ABC’s Good Things Utah for ideas. Don’t even get me started on Good Things Utah. I don’t know how that show exists. They basically regurgitate everything that was covered on the national morning shows earlier in the day, only without the celebrity guests. The show's very name is a Martha Stewart ripoff. I remember watching it once and the brunette actually took out a newspaper and read the headlines. Well, I guess if no one is reading the Tribune anymore…