Our Work
Cincinnati Public Radio
A comprehensive digital initiative strengthening public media platforms through thoughtful design and custom development.
Solutions Provided
Overview
Custom Web Development and Design on Demand for a Mission-Driven Media Organization
Challenge:
Cincinnati Public Radio operates two distinct flagship properties serving a loyal regional audience — and both were running on an aging, fragile codebase that had become a liability. Inconsistent design across platforms created audience confusion. Editorial staff were losing hours to a CMS that fought them at every turn. Accessibility gaps, performance issues, and scalability concerns compounded the pressure — all within the constraints of a nonprofit operating environment where every dollar and decision carries board-level scrutiny. They didn’t need a patch. They needed a ground-up rebuild by a partner willing to treat the work as a mission, not just a project.
Strategy:
NightOwl brought its full service stack to bear — Custom Development, Design on Demand, CMS Integration, and DevOps Support — rebuilding both flagship sites simultaneously on a fully custom, future-ready platform. Unified information architecture resolved the cross-property brand fragmentation, while tailored CMS workflows gave editorial teams back the speed and control they’d lost. A custom real-time music player and playlist system was engineered from scratch to meet live programming demands. This engagement was also delivered as part of NightOwl’s Creative Philanthropy commitment — bringing the same senior creative and technical talent to mission-driven organizations that our corporate partners receive, because good work shouldn’t be a privilege of budget size.
Results:
Both rebuilt platforms delivered a cohesive, accessible audience experience while dramatically reducing the internal publishing burden for editorial staff. The custom audio and playlist system now supports real-time programming with the reliability a live broadcast environment demands. Content management that once required workarounds now runs cleanly, allowing staff to publish, update, and scale across both properties without technical bottlenecks. The partnership demonstrated what happens when enterprise-level creative and development capability meets a mission-driven organization — and stands as proof that NightOwl’s service model works at every scale, in every sector.
