A $600,000 CPB grant will help NPR’s Code Switch expand its presence on radio and through live and virtual events, the corporation announced Monday.
The two-year grant is part of a more ambitious plan to raise the profile of the podcast on race and identity. The Code Switch team will grow with the addition of a new host and a senior editor, enabling it to produce more short news pieces for NPR shows “as well as longer features written and produced by influential journalists and scholars, member station contributors, and Code Switch fellows,” CPB said in a release.
“CPB originally invested in Code Switch 10 years ago, and since then, it has been a model of successful innovation in public media,” said CPB CEO Patricia Harrison. “We’re pleased to support the expansion of its reach on radio and on multiple platforms to advance needed discussions and awareness about race and identity. This dialogue is crucial to helping us understand one another, which is the basis of a civil society.”
With support from a $1.5 million CPB grant in 2012, Code Switch launched a blog and contributed to NPR content. Its podcast launched in 2016, and NPR began offering a radio version of the program last year. The show is now carried by 197 stations and has more than 650,000 weekly broadcast listeners, according to CPB.