Major Awards Given by CPB in 2009
2009 Edward R. Murrow Award
Ira Glass, host and executive producer of This American Life
Since 1977, CPB has presented the Murrow Award to individuals who foster public radio’s quality and service and shape its direction. The award is named for the legendary reporter who championed responsible, courageous, and imaginative uses of electronic media during his distinguished 30-year career. It’s the industry’s most prestigious award.
Ira Glass began his public radio career in 1978 with an internship at NPR in Washington, D.C., where for the next 17 years he was a reporter and host on several NPR programs, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Talk of the Nation. He left NPR in 1989 to co-host The Wild Room on Chicago Public Radio. In 1995, Glass and Chicago Public Radio launched This American Life, which is broadcast on more than 500 public radio stations and has a weekly audience of 1.8 million.
2008 Ralph Lowell Medal
Henry Louis Gates Jr., professor, author, and documentary host and producer
With the Ralph Lowell Medal, public television’s most prestigious award, which is named after the late Boston philanthropist and founder of WGBH, CPB recognizes outstanding individual contributions to public broadcasting.
The Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University and the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Henry Louis Gates Jr. has produced many PBS documentaries, including Wonders of the African World, America Beyond the Color Line, and Looking for Lincoln. Dr. Gates hosted and co-produced African American Lives in 2006 and African American Lives 2 in 2008. One of public television’s signature franchises, the program employs DNA testing to track the lineage of notable African Americans. Having taught at Yale, Cornell, and Duke, Dr. Gates joined the Harvard faculty in 1991, where he also serves as a professor in the Department of English and American Language and Literature. He received his B.A. from Yale, summa cum laude, and earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in English language and literature from Clare College, Cambridge. He is the editor in chief of the Oxford African American Studies Center, the first comprehensive online resource in the field of African American and Africana studies, and is editor in chief of The Root, an online magazine covering African American news, culture, and genealogy.
2009 Fred Rogers Award
Jim Henson and The Jim Henson Company, creator of the Muppets
Named after the host of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, the longest running children’s television show in history, the Fred Rogers Award was created by CPB in 2001 to honor an individual or organization that has contributed to excellence in children’s educational media.
James Maury “Jim” Henson was an innovator in puppetry and the creator of some of television’s most beloved characters. The family of characters he created for Sesame Street 40 years ago—Bert and Ernie, Oscar the Grouch, Grover, Cookie Monster, Big Bird and many others—continues to entertain and educate today. In 1975, Henson launched The Muppet Show, an international hit that led to six feature films. During the 1980s, he brought two films to the big screen, The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. After his unexpected death in 1990 and under the stewardship of its founder’s adult children, The Jim Henson Company continues to create entertaining curriculum-based programs such as Sid the Science Kid, currently airing on PBS Kids; Pajanimals, currently airing on Sprout; and Dinosaur Train, currently in production for PBS Kids.
My Source Community Impact Awards for Education
CPB created the My Source Community Impact Awards for Education to acknowledge public television stations for their commitment to education through outstanding services to students, teachers, parents, caregivers, and lifelong learners in their communities.
Alabama Public Television (Birmingham)
APT serves nearly 48,000 classrooms with APTPLUS curriculum-correlated content, and the station’s E-learning for Educators is used by 75 percent of Alabama’s teachers for professional development.
Arkansas Educational Television Network (Conway)
AETN created a spring break family day designed to encourage children to learn and be physically active through PBS characters, educational games, crafts, and contests. The event attracted 7,000 participants.
KCET (Los Angeles, California)
KCET’s daily program A Place of Our Own/Los Niños en su Casa teaches caregivers of young children how to include learning in every day. To date, 7,000 parents and child-care providers have attended corresponding workshops.
KRCB (Rohnert Park, California)
KRCB sponsored media training for youth, poetry slams, murals, and other storytelling activities in its Tengo la Voz (I Have the Voice) project, to help Latino youth facing discrimination, poverty. and high dropout rates.
KVIE (Sacramento, California)
KVIE meets the educational needs of immigrant and migrant farm families in the Central Valley region through a traveling lending library, free books, and PBS early literacy workshops.
KQED (San Francisco, California)
KQED partnered with the Unity Council and PBS Raising Readers to target high-crime, high-poverty Oakland neighborhoods with mobile learning labs, a literacy fair, literacy day camps, parent workshops, and student murals.
WHUT (Washington, D.C.)
WHUT designed a Family Literacy Night for a local charter school to help parents in DC’s low-income Anacostia neighborhood keep their children healthy and on the path to literacy.
WSRE (Pensacola, Florida)
WSRE partners with the Escambia County School District, local child-care providers, and the Pensacola Pelicans professional baseball team to engage thousands of the area’s children and parents in literacy challenges, events, training, and workshops.
WFSU (Tallahassee, Florida)
WFSU partnered with a university laboratory to develop a two-week, hands-on science camp for 80 seventh- and eighth-grade girls. The program ignites girls’ interest in science and garnered participation and support from local engineering firms.
WPBA (Atlanta, Georgia)
WPBA works with the Atlanta Public Schools to manage the city’s My Homework Hotline program. On-call teachers provide one-on-one assistance and easy-to-understand explanations to students struggling with math, science, and other homework problems.
Iowa Public Television (Johnston)
Through IPTV’s interactive online learning environment Iowa Pathways, students explore the history of their state. The project won the Iowa Distance Learning Association’s 2007 Innovator’s Award for excellence in K-12 education.
WSIU Public Broadcasting (Carbondale, Illinois)
WSIU helps children develop financial literacy skills through Biz Kid$ Bash. After learning basic business concepts, teams compete to create and market small businesses. The SIU Credit Union was inspired to become a project funder.
WEIU (Charleston, Illinois)
WEIU serves students, teachers, and parents through pre-school literacy workshops and teacher training and has won awards for Newswatch, produced by Eastern Illinois University students.
WILL (Urbana, Illinois)
WILL convened town hall meetings for rural teens to address issues affecting their lives. The results: an in-school mentoring program, a mayor’s youth council, and a new teen center. WILL also provides media training to urban African Americans students.
PBS 39 (Fort Wayne, Indiana)
Facing soaring dropout rates in the community, PBS 39 designed a multiplatform project to motivate students to help each other stay in school and graduate. The project has garnered funding from local foundations and individuals.
Smoky Hills Public Television (Bunker Hill, Kansas)
SHPTV helps residents of southwest Kansas overcome poverty, limited English proficiency, and rural isolation with Bright Beginnings, a series of bilingual workshops for Head Start families.
Kentucky Educational Television (Lexington, Kentucky)
KET developed robust arts toolkits for teachers, comprising lesson plans, idea cards, glossaries, and videos. State art scores subsequently improved more than any other tested content area. KET’s online EncycloMedia has been used more than 2.3 million times since 2005.
Louisiana Public Broadcasting (Baton Rouge)
LPB responded to low literacy rates with the PBS Raising Readers initiative, working closely with the station’s education, nonprofit, civic, and corporate partners. The station’s SuperWhy! camps delivered immediate, measurable results.
WGBH Boston (Massachusetts)
WGBH worked with the Perkins School for the Blind to make science curriculum resources accessible to blind and low-vision students, enabling them to learn abstract concepts and work independently. WGBH also collaborates with MIT and other partners to annually present the nine-day, citywide Cambridge Science Festival. More than 25,000 people attended in 2008, and the festival is now replicated nationwide.
WGBY (Springfield, Massachusetts)
To engage a growing Hispanic community and to address a shortage of Spanish-speaking journalists, WGBY created media and journalism training for Latino students. The station also spearheaded a multiplatform project examining the role of New England artists Currier & Ives in shaping the American identity.
Maryland Public Television (Owings Mills)
Through Thinkport.org, MPT develops and delivers cutting-edge digital resources to K-12 students and teachers. The award-winning site has more than 20,000 registered users in Maryland and beyond, and logs more than 1 million page views per month.
WGVU (Grand Rapids, Michigan)
To address sinking reading scores in its community, WGVU offers an after-school program where students hear from local authors and performers, and develop their own poems, stories, comic books, and journals.
KSMQ (Austin, Minnesota)
KSMQ promotes early literacy through PBS Kids Share a Story. Area parents and children are invited to read sections of a favorite book together on air and then to view their read-aloud online whenever they like.
KETC (St. Louis, Missouri)
KETC is leading 10 stations documenting high school teams participating in the FIRST Robotics Competition. The teens gain technical knowledge, along with self-confidence, communication skills, and leadership know-how.
Mississippi Public Broadcasting (Jackson)
To raise literacy rates, MPB developed an extensive preschool literacy project using Between the Lions. After working with 61 economically challenged child-care centers, the result is a 142 percent improvement in literacy performance.
WTVI (Charlotte, North Carolina)
Thirty percent of adults in the greater Charlotte area do not have a high school diploma. WTVI airs a GED Connect series each weekday and conducts workshops to help participants obtain employment. In 2008, 56 individuals received their GED.
New Hampshire Public Television (Durham)
NHPTV is partnering with Head Start and Child and Family Services to provide a 360-degree education intervention in its hardest hit communities.
New Jersey Network (Trenton)
Partnering with the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce, NJN provides hundreds of hours of on-air, online, and in-person work force training to more than 50 career centers and community sites. The statewide project has 1,700 active participants.
KNME (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
KNME’s Science Central project includes a Science Crawl with the public schools and science museum in Albuquerque, Science Cafés throughout the state, and a comprehensive Web portal. Corporate sponsorship is close to $100,000.
Vegas PBS (Las Vegas, Nevada)
Vegas PBS partnered with the Nevada Blind Children’s Foundation and the Clark County School District to create learning kits for the parents of 350 blind and visually impaired children. Vegas PBS also provides PBS TeacherLine classes to more than 1,200 teachers.
KNPB (Reno, Nevada)
KNPB’s Family Storyteller project, developed in collaboration with the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, promotes the benefits of parents reading to their children, especially English language learners. The project has been adopted by Extension systems in 29 states.
WNED (Buffalo, New York)
Located in a city of renowned architecture, WNED utilized its award-winning documentary Frank Lloyd Wright’s Buffalo to develop a 66-page educator’s guide, distributed with a companion program DVD, to schools and libraries throughout the region.
Thirteen/WNET (New York, New York)
Thirteen/WNET created the nation’s largest annual conference for education professionals, the Celebration of Teaching and Learning, during which 8,000 New York City teachers explore instructional technology, educational philosophy, and classroom best practices.
Mountain Lake PBS (Plattsburgh, New York)
Mountain Lake PBS developed a literacy partnership with the Champlain Valley Transportation Museum in which families use PBS programs, books, and exhibits focused on transportation themes to improve reading skills.
Ohio Educational Television Stations (Athens)
The eight public television stations in Ohio worked together to bring Governor Ted Strickland’s 12 regional Conversations on Education to residents around the state, including on-air programs, community forums, Web content, and promotional support.
WGTE 30 (Toledo, Ohio)
WGTE has expanded its literacy leadership role through Raising Readers. New partnerships include local print and broadcast media and the Toledo Mud Hens Baseball Team.
WHYY (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
WHYY partners with the Boys & Girls Clubs to provide young people with after-school digital technology training. Their Children’s Service workshops help parents and educators prepare children for school.
WVIA Public Media (Pittston, Pennsylvania)
WVIA produces standards-based, instructional television programming for schools, provides Web-based teacher training, creates electronic field trips promoting local history, and conducts educational essay contests involving thousands of students.
Penn State Public Broadcasting (University Park, Pennsylvania)
When public media, community engagement, and higher education converge, you get Common Ground Lobby Talks. These current events conversations are produced in partnership with the university, broadcast on WPSU, and streamed on www.wpsu.org.
TUTV—Tu Universo Televisión / WIPR (San Juan, Puerto Rico)
An initiative created for at-risk communities, WIPR’s Communication Project offers skills training in theater, photography, graphic design, audio, video, and film. More than 6,000 have participated.
Eastern Tennessee Public Television (Knoxville)
More than 4,000 East Tennessee residents have utilized ETPtv’s GED programming to obtain a high school equivalency diploma. The station works with social service agencies, local colleges, and other community organizations.
HoustonPBS (Houston, Texas)
With 42 percent of the local preschool population at or below the poverty line, HoustonPBS conducts “train-the-trainer” workshops to reach parents and caregivers of children in low-income families. The focus is social-emotional development and early childhood literacy.
Basin PBS (Midland, Texas)
Basin PBS partners with the Permian Basin School District to produce a high school academic quiz show used by classroom teachers throughout the region, including rural and private schools.
Utah Education Network—TV (Salt Lake City)
UEN-TV’s my.uen Teacher Portal is an easy-to-use online tool that allows teachers to connect to parents about classroom events, assignments, student progress, and class rules. More than 38,000 teachers have a my.uen account.
WETA (Arlington, Virginia)
WETA launched four national Learning Media sites providing authoritative information for parents and teachers who are helping emerging readers. Nearly 500,000 unique visitors use the resources of these sites each month.
WHRO (Norfolk, Virginia)
WHRO creates and delivers content for the Hampton Roads Virtual Learning Center, an online regional high school offering full-year courses in earth science, English, government, and survival economics.
Vermont Public Television (Colchester)
Using their monthly public affairs program VPT Public Square, VPT engages students at Harwood Union High School to create their own conversations and content.
KCTS 9 (Seattle, Washington)
For 17 years, KCTS has sponsored the Golden Apple Awards for Excellence in Education, recognizing innovative teaching models throughout the state. Winners are featured in primetime specials and online.
KSPS (Spokane, Washington)
Owned and operated by the Spokane Public Schools, KSPS serves children and families with a Ready to Lead in Literacy project and the production of local history programming.
KBTC (Tacoma, Washington)
KBTC was honored by the United Way of Pierce County with the Community Partner of the Year Award for its role in a countywide effort to guarantee that children in low-income neighborhoods would begin kindergarten ready to learn.
Wyoming PBS (Riverton)
Wyoming PBS partners with the Wyoming Early Childhood Association, Head Start, and Even Start to offer hands-on Ready to Learn (RTL) workshops across the state for teachers and child-care providers.
My Source Community Impact Awards for Engagement
CPB’s My Source Community Impact Awards for Engagement were created to recognize stations for their commitment and responsiveness to their communities, providing innovative services—on-air, online and in-person—that have measurable results.
KTOO (Juneau, Alaska)
To address health needs of disadvantaged Juneau residents, including Alaskan natives, KTOO participated in Take One Step. The project included health surveys, shared meals, information meetings, audio postcards, and a community garden.
KJZZ-FM and KBAQ-FM (Tempe, Arizona)
KJZZ mentors high school journalists and brings teens and parents together as station volunteers. KBAQ sponsors events with local opera and symphony organizations, promotes exhibits and performances on-air and online, and features local composers.
KEET (Eureka, California)
To address a methamphetamine crisis, KEET-TV spearheaded a coalition of media and nonprofit organizations, producing TV and radio documentaries, public service announcements, street theater, and print materials.
KVCR-FM (San Bernardino, California)
KVCR invited local war veterans and survivors to record oral histories for Reflections on War, now broadcast throughout the year and presented at local VFW conventions and museums.
KPBS (San Diego, California)
KPBS uses One Book San Diego as a catalyst for community engagement, sponsoring discussions, lectures, and cultural events, providing K-12 curriculum, and creating related radio, TV, and online content.
KSDS Jazz 88.3 (San Diego, California)
Responding to reduced arts funding, KSDS solicits used instruments from listeners to give to local schools, produces the City College Education Jazz Festival, and distributes a multimedia K-12 jazz curriculum.
Community Radio Alamosa – KRZA (Alamosa, Colorado)
KRZA created Espiritu Maya for its Guatemalan community, providing news and information in the Q’anjob’al language. When a salmonella outbreak hit Alamosa, KRZA was the first to alert residents, and city health officials used the station to disseminate critical information.
WAMU-FM (Washington, DC)
In 2008, The Kojo Nnamdi Show tackled public school performance and accountability, producing call-ins with local school superintendents and a series of in-depth education specials.
WGCU Public Media (Fort Myers, Florida)
In a region with a high population turnover, WGCU’s multiplatform Connect! initiative helps new residents link up with nonprofit organizations in need of donors and volunteers.
WMFE (Orlando, Florida)
WMFE’s multiplatform Ballot 2008 provided comprehensive coverage of key local elections for Congress, the Florida House and Senate, county commissioners, and local school boards.
WUSF Public Broadcasting (Tampa, Florida)
WUSF produced a series of television, radio, and online specials exploring Florida’s proposed 2008 constitutional amendments. Topics ranged from the definition of marriage to property tax exemptions.
Georgia Public Broadcasting (Atlanta)
GPB coordinated a large-scale information campaign to prepare the state’s seniors, economically disadvantaged rural residents, and people with disabilities for the transition to digital television broadcasting.
Idaho Public Television (Boise)
In response to requests from rural viewers, Idaho PTV installed robotic cameras in the Idaho House and Senate chambers, providing gavel-to-gavel legislative coverage online and via a dedicated digital television broadcast channel.
WTTW (Chicago, Illinois)
Committed to the arts, WTTW has produced more than 1,300 programs and stories featuring Chicago musicians, painters, dancers and visual artists, now available and searchable online.
WNIN Tri-State Public Media (Evansville, Indiana)
To address a rising childhood obesity rate, WNIN partnered with a local foundation to conduct the Healthy Lifestyles campaign, producing events, online information, and educational materials.
WIPB (Muncie, Indiana)
WIPB partnered with Ball State University and the Boys and Girls Club to create a wellness education program, including K-12 materials, billboards, TV and radio interstitials, and print and outdoor ads.
WBUR-FM (Boston, Massachusetts)
Prompted by a law mandating health insurance for every Massachusetts resident, WBUR provided extensive reporting through its daily newscasts, call-in programs, documentaries, and dedicated Web site.
WDET 101.9 FM (Detroit, Michigan)
Through its multiplatform Detroit Today content, WDET-FM documents both the adversity and the innovation caused by the city’s financial crisis.
Detroit Public Television (Wixom, Michigan)
Each year, DPTV presents the final Sphinx competition concert, helping young African American and Latino classical musicians perform with and learn from professionals. In 2008, DPTV developed MiVote.org to engage young and first-time voters, and partnered with local media outlets to host candidate debates.
North Shore Community Radio – WTIP (Grand Marais, Minnesota)
When forest fires threatened the area, emergency officials turned to WITP to announce evacuations. The station followed with extensive coverage online and on air, including information about fire-related health issues and financial aid.
Minnesota Public Radio (St. Paul)
More than 11,000 kids enjoy Rock the Cradle, MPR’s hands-on annual music festival. With The Citizens League, MPR’s developed Policy and a Pint to engage younger listeners in local issues through lively pub debates and online conversations.
Twin Cities Public Television – TPT (St. Paul, Minnesota)
TPT’s The Minnesota Channel has produced over 480 programs in partnership with 175 local organizations. Topics include AIDS among the Latino population, problems of returning Iraq vets, and the region’s economic disparities.
KJLU-FM (Jefferson City, Missouri)
KJLU helped the United Way of Central Missouri raise a record $1.6 million, producing the community kickoff event and PSAs for use on multiple outlets.
Ozarks Public Television and KSMU-FM (Springfield, Missouri)
Through their shared Sense of Community initiative, Ozarks Public Television and KSMU create local content in one of five public interest areas each year: education, health, economic development, science and the environment, and creative arts.
KMOS (Warrensburg, Missouri)
KMOS worked with local experts to develop a multiplatform health campaign, distributing DVDs, games, brochures, and even hand sanitizer to help families live healthier.
North Carolina Public Radio – WUNC (Chapel Hill)
WUNC launched North Carolina Voices: Diagnosing Health Care in response to audience requests, producing in-depth health reports, a series of talk shows, and several public forums.
WBGO-FM (Newark, New Jersey)
As Newark public schools reduced music education, WBGO responded by producing local Kids Jazz Concerts, creating a print and online magazine, and broadcasting local youth jazz bands.
KUNV-FM (Las Vegas, Nevada)
KUNV’s Vegas Voices combines music from local performers with oral histories of new and longtime residents. The project has produced an audio CD and a Web site.
WSKG (Binghamton, New York)
WSKG hosted a series of forums throughout the Binghamton region, asking citizens to share concerns and aspirations for their communities. The results shape WSKG’s local programming.
WNED-AM (Buffalo, New York)
After a historic blizzard, Buffalo officials asked WNED to provide the 400,000 affected families with information on downed power lines, flooded basements, and the proper use of generators and gas stoves.
WNYC-FM (New York, New York)
Over 1,000 photographers took part in WNYC’s Street Shots, exchanging techniques, photos, and profiles. WNYC developed a series of social events for singles only, held at the New York City Opera, Chelsea Art Museum, and Brooklyn Brewery.
nyctv (New York, New York)
nyctv—a group of television broadcast and cable channels, including broadcast station WNYE-TV, which are operated by a division of the city government—features independent community-based musicians, performance artists, and filmmakers in its original performance and documentary series Backdrop NYC, Gigs, New York Noise, and Video Music Box.
WBGU (Bowling Green, Ohio)
WBGU-TV’s cancer awareness campaign included two documentaries, a Web site and a health event. To address Ohio’s soaring foreclosure rate, WBGU-TV partnered with local agencies and financial experts on a two-hour call-in program.
WGUC – Cincinnati Public Radio (Cincinnati, Ohio)
WGUC’s Classics for Kids introduces classical music to youngsters, using on-air programs, online musical games and information, and lesson plans for teachers.
ideastream/WCPN and WVIZ (Cleveland, Ohio)
Since 2001, over 11,000 Cleveland residents have taken part in ideastream’s annual Listening Project, communicating what matters to them and how the station can serve their needs and interests.
WOSU Public Media (Columbus, Ohio)
To help seniors with the transition to digital television broadcasting, WOSU and partners solicited donations of converter box coupons, sponsored studio demonstrations, and provided DTV training sessions for social workers.
Western Reserve Public Media (Kent, Ohio)
Working with the planning initiative Youngstown 2010, WRPM produced 16 programs on the future of Youngstown’s public policy and culture. A university oral history project led WRPM and Kent State to create a civil rights documentary, a town hall on race relations, a K-12 curriculum, and a scholarship program.
Oklahoma Educational Television Authority (Edmond)
Heading into the 2008 election, OETA produced 44 short Voter Voices segments, created a voter Web site, hosted workshops for first-time voters, and provided nightly statewide election coverage.
All Classical FM (Portland, Oregon)
All Classical FM partners with the Oregon Symphony and the Portland Opera to host lectures, provide music lessons, and invite listeners to watch pre-recorded concerts online.
Oregon Public Broadcasting (Portland)
OPB’s daily program Think Out Loud provides a nonpartisan forum where diverse citizens can converse, learn from each other, and gain understanding of complex issues.
WYEP-FM (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
Through WYEP’s Pittsburgh Performance Project, listeners voted on the best local music venues, and budding journalists interviewed the city’s favorite musicians. In WYEP’s FreeZone program, students from disadvantaged neighborhoods create radio essays about their lives.
South Carolina Educational Television (Columbia)
SCETV honored its large military population and veterans by having students use digital media to to record and archive combat and service stories. Through Ready to Vote, SCETV sponsored voter registration drives and gave teens a chance to interact with candidates in person and online.
South Dakota Public Broadcasting (Vermillion)
SDPB’s Tune into Democracy project provided gavel-to-gavel coverage of legislative sessions, live candidate debates, and comprehensive election information online and on air.
WLJT (Martin, Tennessee)
WJLT’s multiplatform campaign helped rural families learn about and cope with childhood cancer, following A Lion in the House with interstitials, a public forum, health fair, and nursing school curriculum.
Nashville Public Radio – WPLN (Nashville, Tennessee)
Nashville Public Radio’s Live in Studio C provides classical, jazz, and alternative musicians with the only live radio performance opportunity in Middle Tennessee.
Nashville Public Television (Nashville, Tennessee)
NPT’s Next Door Neighbors initiative featured Nashville’s growing Hispanic, Somali, and Kurdish populations in original documentaries, online discussions, community screenings, and corporate training.
KACV (Amarillo, Texas)
KACV’s two-year veterans project included oral history training for students and librarians, more than 1,000 stories digitized and streamed, two on-air specials, a traveling photo exhibit, and K-12 lesson plans.
Texas Public Radio – KPAC (San Antonio)
Texas Public Radio’s environmental focus includes in-person forums, park cleanups, and on-air interviews with experts. The station partners with local nonprofits to present the annual AccessAbility Fest, helping injured soldiers and others.
KWBU (Waco, Texas)
With many rural viewers lacking cable or satellite access, KWBU readied Waco for digital television broadcasting by creating interstitials, distributing printed information, and sending their engineer to help with local installations.
WMRA-FM (Harrisonburg, Virginia)
WMRA partnered with a regional library to solicit and record citizen essays for its on-air series The Civic Soapbox. Essays were also given public readings, downloaded as podcasts, and published in print.
Vermont Public Radio (Colchester)
VPR’s My Vermont project fostered citizen discussions of issues facing the state. The station contributes to the Vermont Reads project with on-air essays, documentaries, and user-generated electronic content. VPR publishes eco-friendly tips from listeners on its Web site, and gets 100 percent of its power from renewable resources.
WGDR-FM (Plainfield, Vermont)
WGDR has provided intensive media training in technical operations, FCC rules, and radio production to more than 100 station volunteers ranging in age from 12 to 77.
Wisconsin Public Television (Madison)
WPT’s Wisconsin Hometown Stories, a series of hourlong profiles of historically significant Wisconsin communities, is followed by History Harvest days, where locals share memorabilia with historians. For the 2008 election, WPT and Wisconsin Public Radio created a Web site featuring candidate debates, blogs, links to polling places, content downloadable to mobile devices, and other voter resources.
WUWM-FM (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
WUWM’s Project Milwaukee focuses station content and outreach on key community issues. In 2007, the station explored economic challenges to the region; in 2008, health; and in 2009, race relations.