Telling Public Radio's Story

Telling Public Radio’s Story FY 2023
1. Describe your overall goals and approach to address identified community issues, needs, and interests through your station’s vital local services, such as multiplatform long and short-form content, digital and in-person engagement, education services, community information, partnership support, and other activities, and audiences you reached or new audiences you engaged.

A major goal for news content is to provide quality content that provides perspective and context. Our digital content reflects news values of depth and reflection. Our coverage is dictated by issues that touch a broad swath of our audience, including housing, education, state and local policy, and health. We engaged a rural audience in Claiborne County with coverage of EPA health warnings at a sterilization plant. Our coverage of a municipal judge race spearheaded media interest in the race, which had an unexpected outcome. We also looked at the consequences of a local tornado some months after it happened in a story that educated the public about extreme-weather messaging.

2. Describe key initiatives and the variety of partners with whom you collaborated, including other public media outlets, community nonprofits, government agencies, educational institutions, the business community, teachers and parents, etc. This will illustrate the many ways you’re connected across the community and engaged with other important organizations in the area.

We partner with the University of Tennessee’s Department of Journalism & Media with interns, practicum students and an embedded class. We have had individual story and content-sharing partnerships with CompassKnox, Tennessee Lookout, Blue Ridge Public Radio and Appalachian Voices.

3. What impact did your key initiatives and partnerships have in your community? Describe any known measurable impact, such as increased awareness, learning or understanding about particular issues. Describe indicators of success, such as connecting people to needed resources or strengthening conversational ties across diverse neighborhoods. Did a partner see an increase in requests for related resources? Please include direct feedback from a partner(s) or from a person(s) served.

Our coverage of the city’s tree canopy plan was highlighted on social media, where residents learned about tree preservation, but were also able to contribute to the city’s master plan. We also connected with a rural community in the midst of an EPA cancer cluster study to keep them informed about the results of that study and what it would mean for the sterilization plant at the target of that study. WUOT continued in this fiscal year to broadcast interviews and a series of 13 performances per year of concerts by the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. Our symphony partners have communicated to us that they have received positive feedback from their patrons, expressing their appreciation for these broadcasts.

4. Please describe any efforts (e.g. programming, production, engagement activities) you have made to investigate and/or meet the needs of minority and other diverse audiences (including, but not limited to, new immigrants, people for whom English is a second language and illiterate adults) during Fiscal Year 2023, and any plans you have made to meet the needs of these audiences during Fiscal Year 2024. If you regularly broadcast in a language other than English, please note the language broadcast.

We have been doing regular coverage of our city’s violence-intervention programs, including following the activities of a Black-owned and operated nonprofit that does violence intervention on the streets and in schools. In FY 2024, we will have coverage of a local HBCU that occupies 52 acres in the city. It’s a blighted property and has not been fully or adequately represented in local news coverage, which we are striving to change. We covered extensively the state’s debate over federal education funding in terms of how that would affect rural schoolchildren, students with disabilities, and students whose first language isn’t English. Our bi-weekly series HealthConnections, an interview and conversation modular program, discussed substance abuse by the youth in our region, health issues be faced by the local LBGTQIA+ community, a look at Home Health for the elderly, and featured our annual legislative episode, giving an overview of the legislative bills being considered that impact the health of our region.

5. Please assess the impact that your CPB funding had on your ability to serve your community. What were you able to do with your grant that you wouldn't be able to do if you didn't receive it?

CPB funding is critical for WUOT to be able to serve the East Tennessee region, as well as parts of southeastern Kentucky and western North Carolina. Federal funding helps offset the cost of network programming which enables WUOT to invest local funding into providing our community with unique, locally-produced content specifically for our local audiences, through regular airwaves and digital content streams – to reach members of our community no matter how they listen or where they live. Without CPB's annual funding, WUOT's programming would be severely impacted.