AIR receives five-year, $1.5M Ford Foundation grant
The Association of Independents in Radio is receiving a $1.5 million grant from the Ford Foundation, AIR announced Wednesday.
The five-year grant will allow the organization to increase staffing capacity, expand initiatives and bolster infrastructure.
“What we’re taking from this is that it shows the value of independent audio,” said Keisha Salmon, executive director of AIR. “AIR and the creators that we are working with are a huge part of storytelling and the journalism landscape. And I think that’s why Ford is investing so heavily into AIR, because they see the limitations of investments, the shrinking institutional budgets.”
AIR has been building programs “that we just didn’t have the staff capacity to execute. So we’d have to piecemeal all these programs throughout the year,” Salmon said. “And with this investment from Ford, we can do all that at one time.”
AIR will look to build on its SoundPath program, a digital training platform launched in 2021, Salmon said.
“We’re looking to make it into a true training platform with certifications and turning it into an opportunity for creators and veteran creators who want to now turn into instructors to have a place to run their programs,” she said. “We’re working with other organizations that don’t have the financial backing or the capacity to run their own training. So we are now creating that kind of multilevel platform for them.”
She plans to build capacity for the program with one or two more dedicated staffers.
AIR also wants to expand advocacy for its members. The organization hired Giulia Hjort, a freelance audio producer and workers’ rights advocate, earlier this year as advocacy advocate on a part-time, yearlong contract.
“This grant has allowed us to think broadly as to how we mix advocacy in all parts of AIR, not just when there’s an issue,” she said.
Currently, AIR has “part-time staff members doing full-time work,” Salmon said. “So that’s also part of the capacity. We may not be adding a whole load of new people.”
Salmon added that AIR is looking to update its website and to build on a regional hubs initiative it started earlier this year. It is also exploring the idea of creator cooperatives.
“We can’t keep depending on legacy institutions to support independents,” she said. “Independents are going to have to start finding ways to build their own. And part of that is to do some deep research into what co-op opportunities can look like when it comes to a podcast network or when it comes to its own creative studios. So that’s where we have some members who are already dabbling in this. And so we’re looking to see how much more we can do if we take it on as a true program of AIR’s.”
The funding could also help grow the AIR Audio Clinic, a pilot program that the organization launched this year at the National Federation of Community Broadcasters conference. The idea is to connect stations with AIR members, who will help the stations develop plans for challenges beyond just creating content.
Stations, especially with small staffs, “weren’t thinking about AIR members to help them think through programming, think through social media, think through all the other pieces” that bog down small stations, Salmon said. “And so we were able to really show that there is a need for that. Part of this Ford investment is this would be another way for AIR members, particularly veteran AIR members, to continue earning income while still contributing to the industry.”
The grant is not like a traditional grant with onerous reporting requirements, she said. Instead, it gives the organization flexibility with how it spends the funds.
“This support strengthens AIR’s ability to organize around issues that impact creators, build collective power, and give independents real influence in how the audio industry operates and evolves,” said Keisha “TK” Dutes, AIR board co-president, in a press release.
