The National Federation of Community Broadcasters is pleased to announced the new cohort of public radio stations selected for the Community Counts Initiative, a multi-phased enterprise to enhance local public media’s service to rural and underserved communities.
As a part of CCI, NFCB provides access to a pool of knowledge experts, guidance, technical support and individualized coaching. Great attention and care have been given to nourishing peer-to-peer connection, customizing material, and integrating robust data collection as it relates to station service and local economic realities.
The 2020-21 cohort includes:
KCAW in Alaska
KUYI in Arizona
KZYX in California
KVMR in California
KIDE in California
KGNU in Colorado
KFAI in Minnesota
Allegheny Mountain Radio in West Virginia
WMPG in Maine
KNHC in Washington
CCI participants were chosen by an open application process from a pool of 64 NFCB member stations that are also grantees in the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s (CPB) Community Service Grant program. The aspiration is to scale the work done with cohorts by sharing knowledge and tools more broadly with the larger field of public radio.
For a look at results from NFCB’s first CCI cohort you can find our report HERE.
“CCI has transformed our work with stations,” said Sally Kane, NFCB’s CEO and lead on this initiative. “COVID19 required a dramatic shift in our approach and we jumped right into that challenge. I am grateful to the NFCB staff and to CPB for making this groundbreaking work possible. Community radio is an integral part of putting the ‘public’ in public media. We are honored to be able to shine a light on the impact it has within the public media system and in our society as a whole.”
The National Federation of Community Broadcasters has been serving small market public media organizations for over forty years. Focused initially on getting stations up and running, NFCB is now focused on optimizing capacity at these essential local institutions that rely on the efforts of a few staff and thousands of volunteers. They operate in economic environments with limited financial and professional development resources. Of NFCB’s 190 member stations, 65% serve rural areas.
