CPB Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

‘America Amplified: Election 2020’ Initiative Announces Partner Networks Including WVPB/OVR

KANSAS CITY, MO. — As the election season kicks off, the “America Amplified: Election 2020” initiative, led by KCUR 89.3 in Kansas City, is pleased to announce the eight public media networks that will produce innovative journalism from community engagement efforts, including the Ohio Valley ReSource, which partners with West Virginia Public Broadcasting.  

Each of these collaborations will receive funding from the initiative, which is supported by a $1.9 million grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.  

Chuck Roberts, executive director of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, said the news team is excited to be able to continue its relationship with OVR, which is a regional public media collaborative that includes seven stations across Kentucky, Ohio and the Mountain State. They include Louisville Public Media (WFPL in Louisville, Kentucky); WVPB (West Virginia Public Broadcasting); WOUB (Ohio); WEKU (Richmond, Kentucky); WKYU (Bowling Green, Kentucky); WMMT, (Whitesburg, Kentucky); and WKMS (Murray, Kentucky).   

Brittany Patterson is the energy and environment reporter for WVPB and the OVR. She covers a broad range of topics including the oil and gas industry, coal industry, utilities, conservation, water quality issues and climate change across West Virginia and the Ohio Valley.  

“In the past, collaborating with OVR has produced substantive, original reporting on regional issues important to all West Virginians and we’re so proud of Brittany’s work and the service it provides for the Mountain State,” Roberts said. “Now, to give regional insight on voting during an election year will be really valuable information for our listeners.”  

The networks and their commitments to “America Amplified” are as follows: 

Ohio Valley ReSource: Connecting rural communities online and in person through events and web-based outreach.
StateImpact Pennsylvania: Working with Keystone Crossroads to embed seven reporters in Pennsylvania communities underrepresented in local media
Side Effects Public Media: Building engagement strategies around health issues, with a Midwest emphasis
Mountain West News Bureau: Organizing various initiatives to listen to the concerns of underrepresented rural, Latinx and Indigenous communities along the region’s Great Divide.
I-4 Votes: Engaging non-voters and underrepresented communities along the Interstate 4 corridor, from Tampa to Orlando to Daytona Beach, Florida.
New England News Collaborative: Reimagining how talk shows can reflect the concerns of communities
Harvest Public Media: Rethinking how we listen to and report on rural communities across the Midwest and Great Plains
WABE, Atlanta, Georgia: Using community engagement to strengthen relationships with and understanding of issues important to diverse women voters in the South

 The partner public radio stations will collaborate to gather data and engage communities in a variety of ways, including listening events, public forums, texting clubs and social media. The stations will share insights, stories and content with national broadcast collaborators such as NPR, PBS, the BBC and podcast producers.  
Donna Vestal, managing director of the initiative for KCUR, said: “We’re excited to see how these efforts will change the reporting narrative in the election 2020 season,” Vestal said. “Plus, we’ll be sharing what we learn far and wide.”   

“America Amplified: Election 2020” is also partnering with The Public Agenda/USA Today Hidden Common Ground Initiative, which is exploring where Americans stand on critical issues of the day through original research and creative communications. Through this partnership, “America Amplified” will explore how Americans across the country find themselves united and/or divided.  

A team of seven is leading “America Amplified: Election 2020,” which aims to strengthen collaboration within public media, build trust in local journalism and deepen understanding of America’s needs and aspirations. The team comprises Donna Vestal, Alisa Barba, Jennifer Tufts, Kathy Lu, Andrea Tudhope, Matthew Long-Middleton and Ann Alquist, who is on loan from The Public’s Radio in Rhode Island.   

Follow “America Amplified: Election 2020” on Twitter at @amplified2020 or e-mail the team atelection2020@kcur.org. 

About CPB 

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1,500 locally owned and operated public television and radio stations nationwide. CPB is also the largest single source of funding for research, technology, and program development for public radio, television, and related online services. Since 2009, CPB has invested $35 million to develop regional journalism collaborations throughout the United States.

For more information, visit www.cpb.org and follow us on Twitter @CPBmedia, Facebook, LinkedIn, and subscribe for other updates.  

About the collaborative networks 

StateImpact Pennsylvania: WITF (Harrisburg), PA Post (statewide), WHYY (Philadelphia), WESA (Pittsburgh) and The Allegheny Front (Pittsburgh)
Side Effects Public Media: Indiana Public Broadcasting; WFYI (Indianapolis, Indiana); WOSU (Columbus, Ohio); WFPL (Louisville, Kentucky); Iowa Public Radio (Des Moines, Iowa); KBIA (Columbia, Missouri); WILL (Champaign-Urbana, Illinois); WSIU (Carbondale, Illinois) and WNIN (Evansville, Indiana)
Mountain West News Bureau: Boise State Public Radio (Boise, Idaho); Wyoming Public Radio (Laramie, Wyoming, but statewide distribution); KUNR (Reno, Nevada); KRCC (Colorado Springs, Colorado); KUNC (Greeley, Colorado); KUNM (Albuquerque, New Mexico); and the O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West University of Montana.
I-4 Votes: WUSF Public Media (Tampa); WMFE (Orlando)
Ohio Valley ReSource: Louisville Public Media (WFPL in Louisville, Kentucky); WVPB (West Virginia); WOUB (Ohio); WEKU (Richmond, Kentucky); WKYU (Bowling Green, Kentucky); WMMT, (Whitesburg, Kentucky); and WKMS (Murray, Kentucky)
New England News Collaborative: New England Public Media: WFCR (Amherst, Massachusetts) and WGBH (Boston, Massachusetts); Connecticut Public Radio (Hartford, Connecticut); WSHU Public Radio Group (Fairfield, Connecticut, but serves Connecticut and Suffolk County in New York); WBUR (Boston, Massachusetts); Maine Public Broadcasting Network; The Public’s Radio (Rhode Island); New Hampshire Public Radio (Concord, New Hampshire, but serves statewide and parts of Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine); Vermont Public Radio (Colchester, Vermont).
Harvest Public Media: KCUR (Kansas City, Missouri); NET (Lincoln, Nebraska); Iowa Public Radio (Des Moines, Iowa); WILL and the Illinois Newsroom (Urbana-Champaign, Illinois); Associate Partners KBIA (Columbia, Missouri), KVNO (Omaha, Nebraska), Prairie Public (Fargo, North Dakota), St. Louis Public Radio (St. Louis, Missouri), KRCC (Colorado Springs, Colorado), KSMU (Springfield, Missouri), KOSU (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) and the Kansas News Service (HPPR [Garden City, Kansas, serving western KS, the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma Panhandle and eastern CO], KMUW (Wichita, Kansas), KPR (Lawrence, Kansas).

About KCUR 

KCUR 89.3 is the flagship NPR station in Kansas City, exploring thought-provoking ideas and stimulating conversations through its daily talk shows, in-depth reporting and entertainment programming. KCUR shares news, art, music and life in a way that inspires, challenges and connects people. A charter member of NPR, KCUR holds itself to the highest journalistic standards in service to the citizens of Kansas, Missouri, the broader Midwest and the nation. The station also leads Harvest Public Media and the Kansas News Service, among other collaborations. KCUR’s live stream, local news coverage and talk show podcasts are available at kcur.org. KCUR is operated as an editorially independent community service of the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

About WVPB

 West Virginia Public Broadcasting engages more than 2 million people every year utilizing its radio and television towers, as well as its news site, wvpublic.org.   WVPB is an indispensable resource for education, news and public affairs, emergency services and economic development for West Virginia. Headquartered in Charleston, West Virginia, the agency has locations and/or reporters in Morgantown, Wheeling, Shepherdstown and Beckley.   The entire WVPB team, from production to news, and education to programming, aspires to inform, educate, protect, and inspire our listeners and viewers of the Mountain State’s public broadcasting organization.

News Director Jesse Wright Earns Prestigious Journalism Fellowship

Jesse Wright, news director for West Virginia Public Broadcasting, has been selected by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University as an Editorial Integrity and Leadership Initiative fellow.

One of 53 journalists selected for the program, Wright will begin the program in August at ASU. The intensive curriculum will focus on editorial integrity, utilizing active learning strategies to reinforce public media’s unique firewall, statutory obligation to balance, objectivity, accuracy, fairness and transparency. Participants will receive one-on-one coaching from industry leaders.

“I’m thrilled to be part of CPB’s Editorial Integrity and Leadership Initiative,” Wright said. “Shepherding a statewide news outlet in West Virginia poses some unique challenges, so I look forward to developing my news leadership skills and bringing that knowledge back to WVPB to strengthen the service we provide to the state.”

Chuck Roberts, WVPB’s executive director and CEO, said it’s an honor to have Wright participate in this prestigious professional development program.

“Jesse Wright is a talented reporter, writer and editor and his journalism know-how has made him an excellent news director for West Virginia Public Broadcasting,” Roberts said. “We are proud of his accomplishments and acceptance into this level of training program. We are looking forward to him sharing what he learns with our entire news team.”

EILI is funded by a $1 million grant from CPB, managed by The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at ASU and is led by Julia Wallace, the Cronkite School’s Frank Russell Chair and the former editor-in-chief at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“The fellows will have the opportunity to work with an all-star lineup of newsroom leaders, who are facing the challenges of today’s media landscape and working hard to improve civil discourse in their communities,” Wallace said. “Our program is designed to help strengthen American public media journalism by building the expertise of multimedia editors.”

The EILI Fellows come from 34 states and Washington, D.C. They work in radio and television stations of all sizes and serve rural and urban communities. They include current editors of journalism collaborations, producers of local and national programs, station newsroom leaders, investigative journalists, and up-and-coming reporters who show great potential for future impact in public media.

Kathy Merritt, CPB Senior Vice President of Journalism and Radio, said skilled effective editors are vital to producing content that tackles issues of importance to our communities and informs our country’s civil discourse.

“At a time when many news outlets are shrinking, we seek to train more public media editors to lead public media’s growing newsrooms while upholding the highest editorial standards,” Merritt said.

Another call for applications will take place later this year and the final round of fellows will be announced in the fall. By 2020, a total of 100 public media leaders will have participated in this professional development program.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1,500 locally owned and operated public television and radio stations nationwide. CPB is also the largest single source of funding for research, technology and program development for public radio, television and related online services. For more information, visit cpb.org, follow us on Twitter @CPBmedia, Facebook and LinkedIn and subscribe for other updates.

About the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
The Cronkite School at Arizona State University is widely recognized as one of the nation’s premier professional journalism programs. The school’s 2,000 students regularly lead the country in national journalism competitions. They are guided by faculty comprised of award-winning professional journalists and world-class media scholars. Cronkite’s full-immersion professional programs give students opportunities to practice what they’ve learned in real-world settings under the guidance of professionals.

W.Va. Public Broadcasting Receives Grant to Expand Regional Reporting

Seven public media stations in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia, including West Virginia Public Broadcasting, have been awarded a $445,000 grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to establish a regional journalism collaboration.
The still-to-be-named network will produce hard-hitting, high-quality multimedia journalism that examines the region’s economy, energy, environment, agriculture, infrastructure and health.

“This will help expand the storytelling we already do through regional shows such as ‘Inside Appalachia,'” said Scott Finn, CEO and executive director of West Virginia Public Broadcasting. “We’re excited to work more closely with other stations in our region to report more deeply about the economic transition we face.”

The CPB grant will support the hiring of eight journalists at the seven partner media outlets for two years; with station support continuing in outlying years.

“CPB is pleased to support this historic collaboration among public media stations in Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia,” said Bruce Theriault, CPB senior vice president, journalism and radio. “By working together, these stations can ensure that important stories from this underreported area are told locally, regionally, and nationally. The sum is indeed greater than the parts.”

Louisville Public Media will lead the news operation and house the project’s managing editor and data journalist. Partner radio and television stations inlcude WEKU in Richmond and Lexington, Ky., WKU in Bowling Green, Ky., WMMT/Appalshop in Whitesburg, Ky., WKMS in Murray, Ky., West Virginia Public Broadcasting, and WOUB in Athens, Ohio.

The group will produce journalism for partner stations and collaborate with national programs, including PBS NewsHour, Frontline, Marketplace, Morning Edition, and All Things Considered, and other public media outlets such as WFPL’s Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting. The collaboration will produce daily reporting, investigations, long-form narrative pieces, and documentaries.

About the Corporation for Public Broadcasting:

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1,400 locally owned and operated public television and radio stations nationwide, and is the largest single source of funding for research, technology, and program development for public radio, television and related online services.