COVID Diaries: Stories of Resilience

“COVID Diaries: Stories of Resilience” is a 10-week multimedia visual, audio, and written word series that tell stories of resilience in the local community. It focuses on our local shared experience of the coronavirus pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests over the killing of George Floyd and others. WDET partnered with Documenting Detroit, a photojournalism and arts organization, to produce and tell these stories through the eyes of five local documentary photographers and one spoken word artist.

KOSU Audio Diaries

As journalists were furloughed and Oklahomans became isolated during the pandemic, KOSU worked to keep the community connected and to preserve these snapshots of history for future generations through user-submitted audio diaries. In the same way news archives from 1918 have provided perspective for journalists today, these audio diaries are being archived in collaboration with the Oklahoma Historical Society.

NH Primary 2020

In covering the 2020 New Hampshire Primary, New Hampshire Public Radio set out to interrogate every assumption about ithe primary process and our own political journalism Through questions and suggestions, the public set our reporting agenda. As a result, NHPR built new muscle that later made our coverage of COVID-19 pandemic indispensable for our state.

California Reporting Project

The California Reporting Project is a statewide collaboration of 40 local and regional newsrooms working together to cover long-secret internal investigations of police officers which were unsealed in 2019. It is a locally driven, large-scale investigative journalism project that has published more than 100 stories, including several deep-dive investigations, exposed numerous failures in accountability, and led to dismissals of criminal charges in multiple cases.

You Know The Place

You Know the Place (YKTP) is a podcast that examines the small local businesses most of us never enter or even notice. YKTP gos to the stores overlooked by any form of media to ask: What do you sell or make? Who’s your customer? How long have you been in business? How do you compete with Walmart and Amazon? Hosted by two local writers, YKTP will enter its fourth season with 18,000 loyal users and more than 33,000 regular downloads.

Another Round

Another Round is a community engagement series that allows Boise Public Radio to get outside of the metro region and into areas of southern and central Idaho and eastern Oregon. Three out of four quarterly events take place outside of Boise. In each, the station learns about topics listeners would like to hear covered more on air. Boise Public Radio partners with a local brewery/restaurant/coffee shop and charge $5. Participants get a stainless steel NPR/BSPR logo’s tumbler with a ticket redeemable for one free beer.

Veterans Coming Home: Finding What Works

KSFR partnered with the New Mexico Department of Veteran Services, Santa Fe Community College Veteran’s Resource Center, Santa Fe Vet Center, Horses for Heroes-Cowboy Up! and veterans groups to report on post 9-11 veterans’ re-entry into civilian life. The station helped organize a job fair for veterans that included screening the stories, speakers and entertainment for the veterans and their families. This project was supported with funds from CPB.

Hive

Hive is WFDD’s multi-tiered education program that empowers people to learn, ask questions, think critically, and care about their community through storytelling. Though primarily youth-focused, Hive serves people ages 10 – 65+ through a variety of programs, including a summer student Radio Camp, Radio 101 classes in local schools and colleges, after-school intensives, and pocket edition workshops.

Freestyle Friday 2.0: Outta Da Basement

From February through July 2019, WRTI invited residents of its North Philadelphia neighborhood to the station’s studios for Freestyle Friday – weekly performances, recording sessions with local rappers, training on music production software, and screenings of an Emmy-nominated documentary called “Quest,” a film that inspired this initiative These engagement events serve to bridge the community and the campus and heal a volatile relationship through the power of music.

Giving Tuesday

Instead of focusing on ourselves for Giving Tuesday, we chose to celebrate other local nonprofits. People nominated their favorite local nonprofits and then we awarded $1000 in underwriting to randomly selected winners.

KVMR – Ready to Respond

In November of 2018, KVMR raised over $43,000 dollars in just one day for the survivors of the catastrophic Camp Fire in Paradise, CA located just an hour and a half away from the station. In addition to KVMR’s commitment to supporting their neighbors through efforts like this, the station is also the official Emergency Broadcaster in the region. During summer 2019, a team of 10 broadcasters were trained to take the lead in case of emergency.

Youth Reporting Institute

Each summer, WUNC hires a diverse team of high schoolers, gives them microphones and trains them to tell us stories about their community. It’s been a majority-minority reporting team in each of its 8 years. Youth Reporters are paid, and for many, this is their first job that doesn’t involve a deep-fat fryer or manual labor. WUNC staff host weekly career development sessions (with pizza and soda) to talk about working in public media. In 2018, youth produced stories about mass shootings, mental health, housing insecurity and why so many Hispanics in our community drop out of high school.

Classics for Kids

Cincinnati Public Radio’s Classics for Kids program introduces thousands of children to classical music in a fun way through lesson plans, online games, email newsletters for teachers and parents, partnerships with local music organizations, and events.

Young Artists Spotlight

Every spring, Valley Public Radio partners with local youth orchestras and symphony to host a 12-week-long series featuring live performances from talented student musicians from throughout the San Joaquin Valley. The performances are largely classical music,with some exceptions. Host David Aus interviews students in between their performances, and also serves as program producer. KVPR serves a wide and diverse region covering two markets (Fresno and Bakersfield) and Young Artists Spotlight is an opportunity to bring together our communities and celebrate the unique platform that Valley Public Radio brings our region.

An American Homefront reporter working in Puerto Rico with troops from Fort Bragg

American Homefront

American Homefront is a national/local collaborative reporting project focused on improving coverage of military and veterans issues. WIth support from CPB, WUNC’s dedicated full-time reporter and full-time editor moderate a Slack channel and lead weekly calls with partner stations: KPCC (Los Angeles), Colorado Public Radio, Texas Public Radio (San Antonio) and WUSF (Tampa) WUNC’s listening area includes Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune, two of the largest military installations. American Homefront has helped WUNC build relationships with those communities and host the station’s first two engagement events in Fayetteville/Fort Bragg.

WBGO Media Fellows

WBGO Media Fellows is a paid fellowship program that opens the door for a public broadcasting employment experience members of our local community. Each year, two students from Newark are given a “hands on” opportunity to be mentored by our station news team and our Jazz Night in America production team for 8 weeks during the summer. Fellows learn first hand everything from pro tools to podcasting, meeting etiquette to interviewing techniques. They have real time deliverables and are paid a realistic working wage.

Donate a Recorder

Donate a Recorder is a “give back” initiative that tackles a genuine need in our region while embracing the mission of WDAV – to build a community focused on classical music. Donate a Recorder combines fundraising, education, musical discovery and community engagement all in one initiative. When people make a membership gift on air or in renewal mailings, instead of receiving a CD, coffee mug, or baseball cap, they can choose the “Donate a Recorder” option as a benefit at the $100 level.

Local Music Month

Triple A radio station KXT’s Local Music Month introduces listeners to homegrown, regional acts by recognizing those artists who make North Texas so unique During Local Music Month (October), KXT highlights local music on the air and hosts a free Local Music Showcase, featuring a diverse lineup of live music from bands in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Denton. In 2018, over 800 people attended this celebration of the music scene in North Texas.

Curiosity Club

KUOW’s Curiosity Club is a nerdy supper club exploring the possibility that great food and compelling storytelling can transform a group of diverse strangers into a community. It’s like a bookless book club for public radio nerds.

Delaware Public Media’s Generation Voice Program

In partnership with two public high schools, Delaware Public Media’s Generation Voice program provides innovative career-building opportunities for students interested in digital media. Students work with professional journalists to learn the highest standards of news gathering and reporting. In the past year, participants have written and produced features on colorism, teen vaping, youth immigration, and gun violence; they produced creative storytelling podcasts and a series of parent/grandparent interviews done in the manner of the StoryCorps.