CPB Transparency Reports
CPB Transparency Reports
CPB TRANSPARENCY
As a publicly supported media organization, KWBU/Brazos Valley Public Broadcasting Foundation makes every effort to be as transparent as possible, out of appreciation and respect for the station’s listener/members and corporate underwriters and in order to comply with expectations of The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Below you will find information and documents related to KWBU’s contact, governance, management, finances, meetings and diversity initiatives.
Also posted here are certain PUBLIC INSPECTION FILES that are required by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), giving members of the public free access to these reports. They are also available for inspection at the offices of KWBU, 2100 River Street, Waco, TX 76706 or on-line at: https://publicfiles.fcc.gov/fm-profile/kwbu-fm. KWBU maintains a list of organizations that are notified when there are KWBU employment opportunities. If you would like your organization to be notified of these opportunities, please contact KWBU at (254) 710-3472.
Contact information for KWBU/Brazos Valley Public Broadcasting Foundation
KWBU
One Bear Place #97296
Waco, TX 76798-7296
(254) 710-3472
KWBU/Brazos Valley Public Broadcasting Foundation Board of Directors
Jeffry Archer, Chair
Baylor University Regent Member (vacant)
Paige Beasley
Krista Brinser
Cara Chase, Vice Chair
Dr. Gia Chevis
Cathi Davis
Lori Fogleman
Dr. Torie Johnson
Mike Jones
Dr. Linda A. Livingstone
Dr. Johnette McKown
Dr. Mia Moody
Beth Olson
Alfred Solano
Brian Sullivan
Camille Wilder
Beth Wooten
Meeting schedule for the Board of Directors:
- To be determined
All Brazos Valley Public Broadcasting meetings are open to the public and no registration is necessary.
**DUE TO COVID-19 CONCERNS SOME MEETINGS MAY BE CONDUCTED REMOTELY.**
For specific information or inquiries, interested parties should contact Carla Hervey at 254.710.4298 or send email to: Carla_Hervey@baylor.edu
OTHER MEETINGS:
Development Committee Meetings: Meetings held at 9:00 a.m. in the KWBU offices, 2100 River Street, Waco, TX on the following dates:
Development Committee:
- To be determined
Trusteeship Committee Meeting:
- To be determined
Finance Committee Meeting:
- Thursday,
5/22/255/29/25 at 3:00 pm **VIA ZOOM** - Thursday, 6/26/25 at 3:00 pm **VIA ZOOM**
- Thursday, 7/17/25 at 3:00 pm **VIA ZOOM**
KWBU Advisory Council Meetings
- To be determined
KWBU Community Advisory Council
Candi Cann
Rachel Goodwin
Melissa Lasater, Vice Chair
Esther Lee, Chair
Eric Linares
Oli Pettigrew
Kevin Villegas
Shenequa Williams
**DUE TO COVID-19 CONCERNS SOME MEETINGS MAY BE CONDUCTED REMOTELY**
Management
Joe Riley, President and CEO
Joseph_Riley@baylor.edu
(254) 710-7888
FCC and FINANCIAL REPORTS
ANNUAL CPB LOCAL CONTENT AND SERVICES REPORT
CPB Question 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.
Answer - KWBU continues to create much local programming with the help of volunteer producers and hosts, totaling 10 long- and short-form programs. These include: Central Texas Leadership Series (11 half-hours in FY '24), sharing conversations with community leaders on Waco/McLennan County’s important issues. In the past year, interview topics have included: non-profit collaborative projects; local reporting and community engagement efforts; health and wellness in schools and organizations; the CenTex African American Chamber of Commerce; youth homelessness; the Waco Downtown Farmers Market; Waco’s Anchor News and minority reporting; domestic violence; and planned giving for local non-profits. The station partners with the local arts organization Creative Waco to produce the half-hour Conversations with Creative Waco (16 programs in FY ‘ 24), looking at Waco arts and culture through conversations with local leaders and innovators. Topics included: Waco’s ‘Artprenticeship’ program; Deep in the Heart Film Festival; Waco’s Hip-Hop scene; Art Center Waco; Dia De Los Muertos Festival; Baylor University’s Martin Museum of Art; Waco Symphony; Asian Leaders Network; new Far-Cast Theatre; solar eclipse events; the “Waco Street Drummer”; new Washington Gallery; local strategic art initiatives; and conversations with local artists and designers. KWBU partners with Baylor University to produce Baylor Connections, a weekly half-hour interview program introducing the Waco community to the people behind Baylor’s teaching, research, and distinct role in higher education and providing additional information and context to issues facing the University and higher education. KWBU also partners with the CenTex Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to produce the weekly half-hour interview program Downtown Depot, looking at the ins and outs of development in Waco. In partnership with Mobilize Waco, KWBU added Living It, a new monthly half-hour program in FY ’24 sharing stories from disabled neighbors about the joys and challenges of navigating life in our community. And KWBU continues to produce I Hear America Singing, a weekly hour-long folk-music program hosted by local volunteer Ross Burns. In addition, KWBU works with local volunteers to offer five weekly segment-length productions, including Likely Stories, a weekly book review hosted by multiple reviewers from the station’s listening audience; David and Art is a weekly module examining new ways art reveals the world to us; and Business Review provided stories of local and national business interest. The station partners with the Baylor University Libraries’ Black Gospel Music Restoration Project and Baylor Professor Emeritus Robert Darden to produce Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments, a weekly two-minute segment exploring the distinctly African-American sound of the “Golden Age of Gospel” (1945-1975). Shout! presents cultural snapshots that reveal the depth of a people, their community and the influence they have had on the rest of American music. In addition to these nine productions, KWBU also partners with the Waco Tribune-Herald to share the paper’s daily headlines during local newsbreaks every weekday morning.
KWBU holds monthly meetups at restauruants and coffeeshops in Waco’s various communities, inviting listeners to join us to get to know station staff, ask questions, and share their observations and suggestions about the programming. In addition, the station has started a monthly Book Club to discuss selections that have been reviewed on Likely Stories; and, partnering with Waco Independent Film Festival, KWBU hosts a monthly Movie Club.
CPB Question 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.
Answer - As listed in response to question 6.1 (community issues, needs, and interests), KWBU partners numerous organizations and individuals from throughout the Waco community. The station continues to work with the Waco Tribune-Herald to share the newspaper’s daily headlines during local newsbreaks every weekday morning. In addition, the station partnered with Hankamer School of Business to produce The Business Review, a weekly segment that featured business topics important locally, regionally, and nationally. Topics during FY 24 included: remote work, “option overload,” think tanks, dynamics of innovation and risk, the role of the marketplace in mental health support, supply chain management, importance of curiosity, integration of moral values into AI designs, the role of emotions in IT security, collaboration, trust, nonverbal communication, performance reviews, and more. (Business Review was offered to other NPR stations via Content Depot.) With Mobilize Waco, a disability justice coalition working toward full participation and leadership by people with disabilities in the Waco area, KWBU added Living It, featuring conversations about challenges of navigating life for the disabled in our community. Partnering with the CenTex Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, KWBU produced the weekly half-hour interview program Downtown Depot, providing updates on new businesses, closures, and the ins and outs of development in Waco. Volunteer Ross Burns, retired librarian from Sul Ross State University, produces I Hear America Singing with KWBU, a weekly hour-long program featuring American folk music. KWBU partners with the Baylor University Libraries’ Black Gospel Music Restoration Project and Baylor Professor Emeritus Robert Darden to produce the weekly two-minute segment Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments, exploring the distinctly African-American sound of gospel music in the 20th century. (Shout! is offered to other NPR stations via Content Depot.) With Baylor history professor David A. Smith, KWBU produces the weekly segment David and Art, looking at the importance of all types of art in our community and the world. The weekly half-hour program Baylor Connections is produced in partnership with Baylor University to introduce the Waco community to Baylor’s teaching, research, and distinct role in higher education and provide context to issues facing the University and higher education. And KWBU partners with Baylor University’s Department of Journalism, Public Relations and New Media to provide internships and training opportunities for students who produce content for broadcast on KWBU.
CPB Question 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.
Answer - KWBU posts information on Waco area events and resources and shares appropriate links via the station’s website (KWBU.org), mobile app, weekly e-newsletter, and often through KWBU social media. As stated earlier, KWBU maintains a relationship with the Waco Tribune-Herald, sharing the newspaper’s daily headlines during newsbreaks every weekday morning. JB Smith, the newspaper’s managing editor, has told us, “KWBU’s morning roundup of Waco Tribune-Herald stories is a mutual benefit. It heightens the newspaper’s visibility and encourages more people to pay attention to local public affairs.” KWBU maintains a formal partnership with Baylor University’s Department of Journalism, Public Relations, and New Media to provide internships and training opportunities for students who produce content for broadcast on KWBU. Baylor professor Cassy Burleson has written: “The partnership between Baylor University’s Journalism, PR & New Media department and KWBU offers interns an opportunity to originate stories, interview sources, write copy, learn about effective use of ambient sound, and, in short, get excellent experience in radio broadcasting. . . . The chance to give our students experience in broadcasting at such a prestigious location as KWBU-FM in invaluable – the entire KWBU staff practices good journalism with a national scope and interns get to experience what life is like outside the ‘Baylor bubble.’ We have had many successful interns at KWBU who have gone on to become full-time employees both at KWBU and in other NPR locations, and we appreciate our partnership immensely because it helps our students in ways no other organization can.” In FY 24, KWBU broadened its audience by including numerous new reviewers from throughout the community. These segments are routinely downloaded from KWBU.org by hundreds of users, and KWBU hosts a bookclub which meets monthly to discuss books that have been reviewed. KWBU also contributes regionally, occasionally sharing stories from Waco and McLennan County with the state of Texas via the statewide news program Texas Standard, produced at KUT in Austin.
CPB Question 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 2018, and any plans you have made to meet the needs of these audiences during Fiscal Year 2019. If you regularly broadcast in a language other than English, please note the language broadcast.
Answer - Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments, a weekly two-minute segment, explores the distinctly African-American sound of the “Golden Age of Gospel” (1945-1975); it presents cultural snapshots that reveal the depth of a people, their community and the influence they have had on the rest of American music. KWBU’s Central Texas Leadership Series, hosted by KWBU’s Community Engagement Coordinator Rachel Velasco, features half-hour long interviews with Waco and McLennan County leaders about local issues, including the concerns of racial and ethnic minorities as well as economically distressed communities. In FY ’24, topics included: the Center of Business Excellence at the Centex African American Chamber of Commerce; domestic violence; The Anchor News, Waco’s African American newspaper; the Waco Downtown Farmers Market; and the work of Prosper Waco which the collective impact model to build an environment in which all members of our community are able to improve their education, health and financial security. In FY ’24 KWBU’s Conversations with Creative Waco highlighted, among its many topics: celebrations of diverse cultures, particularly Hispanic and South Asian heritage in Waco; the work of Hispanic Leadership Network; and Waco’s Hip-Hop scene. Among the many topics examined on Baylor Connections: children’s mental health; the work of the Associate Dean for Diversity and Belonging in the Baylor College of Arts & Sciences; the Baylor in Latin America initiative; the performance of ‘Luisa Fernanda’, an opera entirely in Spanish; the work of Baylor’s Language Impairment and Down Syndrome lab; Black worship and the University’s Black Gospel Music Preservation Program; food justice; intercultural engagement; and honoring Baylor’s first Black graduates. KWBU partners with the CenTex Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on production of the local business program Downtown Depot, with one of its priorities being a focus on minority issues.
CPB Question 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?
Answer - As the only public radio/NPR service available to Waco/McLennan County, TX, KWBU relies on CPB funding as “seed money”; approximately 85% of KWBU’s funding comes from local (Waco and McLennan County) sources, and the station’s Community Service Grant provides an important match-incentive for local fundraising. CPB funding helps pay for all aspects of station operations. Staff and resources are dedicated to covering issues that go unexamined in the greater Waco mainstream media, including long-form interviews with area leaders about community issues on our Central Texas Leadership Series, Conversations with Creative Waco, Baylor Connections, and Downtown Depot, along with segment length stories and news reports on minority neighborhoods, immigration, local education initiatives, and issues concerning the economically disadvantaged. KWBU is a very small station, but the service it provides is vital to this small market.
DIVERSITY PROGRAM
KWBU currently employs eight full-time staff members. Of these, five are women (Station Manager, Business Affairs Manager, Member Services Administrator, Multi-Media Reporter and Membership/Community Engagement Coordinator) and three are men (President/CEO, Operations Assistant and Account Executive). There is one part-time female employee (Operations/On-Air Host).
There are seventeen members of the Brazos Valley Public Broadcasting Foundation's Board of Directors (one position is currently vacant). Of these, thirteen are women and four are men. Three female board members are African American and one male board member is African American. One male board member is Hispanic.
KWBU's Community Advisory Council is composed of seven - fifteen members. Of the eight current members, five are women and three are men. Currently one male member is Hispanic and one female member is Asian.
KWBU strives to ascertain that, as much as reasonably possible, its staff, board of directors and community advisory board are reflective of the diverse population it serves. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s (CPB) Diversity Eligibility Criteria require public media organizations to adopt formal goals for diversity and to report annually on steps taken to work toward those goals. These actions are required for all stations receiving Community Service Grant funds (CSG).
KWBU has set the following diversity goals:
· To provide equal opportunity in employment.
· To educate our management and staff annually in best practices for maintaining an inclusive and diverse environment for all persons.
· To seek candidates for KWBU’s Community Advisory Council that represent the diverse composition of the community we serve.
· To seek diverse candidates for our Board of Directors, nominated through our Trusteeship Committee.
· To review with the station’s governing board those practices that are designed to fulfill KWBU/Brazos Valley Public Broadcasting Foundation’s commitment to diversity and to meet the applicable FCC guidelines.
In addition, KWBU/Brazos Valley Public Broadcasting Foundation shall undertake one of the following initiatives on an annual basis:
· Include individuals representing diverse groups in internships or work-study programs designed to provide meaningful professional level experience in order to reflect the diversity of the communities they serve and further public broadcasting’s commitment to education;
· Include qualified diverse candidates in any slate of candidates for elected governing boards that KWBU/Brazos Valley Public Broadcasting Foundation controls;
· Implement a diversity training program for members of the organization’s governing board of directors on an annual basis;
· Participate in minority or other diversity job fairs; or
· Implement formal diversity training programs for management and appropriate staff.