2017 Station Activity Survey
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.
KBOO Community Radio’s Mission states: KBOO is an independent, member-supported, non-commercial, volunteer-powered community radio station. KBOO embodies equitable social change, shares knowledge, and fosters creativity by delivering locally rooted and diverse music, culture, news, and opinions, with a commitment to the voices of oppressed and underserved communities.
KBOO has been a valuable part of the Willamette Valley and the Columbia Gorge for 49 years; we reach Salem, Oregon to Longview, Washington — from Mt. Hood to the Coast Range. KBOO provides local service in a variety of forms, including an informative and engaging daily newscast, many high-value local public affairs programs, daily weather reports, and a thriving community events calendar. Additionally, KBOO regularly presents these services through a variety of venues: on-air broadcast, social media, email, mobile app, and website.
KBOO's local programming is produced mainly by volunteer hosts and producers in the community we serve. Those producers are charged with gathering stories and points of view that voice and meet community needs. We have a daily news production, entirely created by local, citizen reporters who keep their eyes and ears on the local news scene and make suggestions for stories and features KBOO can cover in a longer format. KBOO has a Community Advisory Board comprised of members of the listening audience.
Our approach to collating information on community needs and determining strategic goals is highly collaborative; through a committee-lead effort, we solicited community input on our 3 year strategic plan through a variety of venues — including online/printed surveys, discussion groups, and process reviews. Through this process, we were able to identify opportunities for growth and improvement within KBOO and throughout the listening audience.
We are working to increase audience engagement. This year, we started our evaluation of Nielsen data through the Radio Research Consortium. Currently, we are learning how to interpret that information to see how our listeners connect with our broadcast content. Additionally, we are working to improve our internal systems so we can live our mission and core values more effectively — installing new streaming appliances and developing equipment improvement strategies for broadcast, implementing volunteer and archive database solutions for our support infrastructure.
KBOO’s in-person engagement remains a strong aspect to our local service through our training programs, which are free for volunteers, and through our presence at community events. Over 820 people went through volunteer training, the majority of which continue to engage in the KBOO community. We support the local community through a vigorous co-sponsorship program. In 2015, KBOO highlighted the work of 110 nonprofit, community partners through our event co-sponsorship program; in 2016, our program grew to highlight 238 events. KBOO's co-sponsorships provide an opportunity to build relationships with community partners while providing listeners with information about important community events. They also give valuable support to community organizers, grassroots campaigns, and independent artists.
KBOO’s service to local music, arts, and culture manifests through a number of settings. Our Artist in Residence program is now in its fifth year. Every year, one artist or one collaborative group of artists is awarded twenty hours of studio recording and production time with a KBOO sound engineer in order to create a piece of sound art that will be publicly presented at the end of the residency. The Artist-in-Residence program is open to artists of all disciplines whose project proposals include sound as a major component. KBOO nurtures a thriving live music broadcast schedule, which highlights local artists. Our arts & culture programming includes regular shows on theater, fine art, graphic novels, DIY culture, and more.
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.
With regards to our work with other public media outlets: KBOO Community Radio is a member of Oregon Community Media, an alliance of community radio stations throughout the state of Oregon. We work on collaborative programming, including the broadcast of the Waterfront Blues Festival, benefitting the Oregon Food Bank, and the 2016 General Election Coverage. KSKQ, KPOV, KSOW, KYAQ, KMUZ, KWSO, KMUN, and KTCB are members of this nonprofit organization. We produce content together and are working to improve community station operations by sharing knowledge about membership, fiscal responsibility, and other issues to create a firm foundation for our future work and nurture strong partnerships. We are exploring our approach to the Collaborative Operations and Services Grant Program together.
KBOO engages in many collaborative projects on a regular basis. For example: KBOO partnered with Portland State University's Public History Lab: Podcasts and History course. Students received training in audio production at the studio, and they had the opportunity to video call with staff involved in history related podcasts. They discussed just how much work goes into crafting a podcast—from creating topics to the logistics of getting the episode on the radio. Undergraduates spent time crafting and producing two podcasts centering on Portland history while graduate students worked on three. KBOO then broadcasted the finished materials.
Since 2002, KBOO has run a Youth Collective: a youth mentorship and broadcast education program with a monthly radio show focused on youth concerns and youth voices.
As a participating cultural nonprofit, KBOO promotes and encourages local participation in the Oregon Cultural Trust. The Oregon Cultural Trust's mission is to lead Oregon in cultivating, growing, and valuing culture as an integral part of communities. We join in this effort by inspiring Oregonians to invest in a permanent fund that provides annual grants to cultural organizations.
KBOO supports and collaborates through its live-remote broadcasts of events in the local community. We air an annual live broadcast of the Tribute to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in collaboration with the World Arts Foundation, Inc. In support of Health Care for All-Oregon, KBOO presents a live broadcast of the Inner City Blues Festival every year. Good in the Hood is a non-profit organization founded in 1990 to be a creative medium by which Portland residents, businesses and organizations can engage in music, food and resources while connecting people with experiences that strengthen unity in the community. KBOO has broadcast this festival for many years. KBOO Community Radio is a founding sponsor of the Waterfront Blues Festival, which supports the Oregon Food Bank. Cathedral Park Jazz Festival, presented by The Jazz Society of Oregon, is another event that KBOO supports through its broadcast.
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.
KBOO members are listeners, volunteers, donors and programmers. KBOO is a hub for community engagement, which is a key factor of health for any community. KBOO listeners can call in and participate in important dialogues about issues that are deeply affecting our community. They are invited to community events that KBOO leads and co-sponsors with 100’s of community partners, and, most importantly, they bring their voices and their diverse community experiences to the KBOO broadcast and to the world through our website. KBOO encourages and makes possible deep engagement and dialogue that is vital to the health of our society.
KBOO provides 100’s of hours of on-site, training and mentoring each month to people of all ages, incomes and physical abilities, with an emphasis on the voices of those communities that are unserved and underserved. This radical act helps ensure that all voices will help shape the landscape of our community, not only those voices with the most resources and power.
In 2016, our co-sponsorship program grew to highlight 238 the events organized by grassroots organizations and nonprofits in Portland and our other translator communities. Partnership between these groups and KBOO helps to highlight the work our communities are doing, which connects listeners with causes and facilitates conversations. Our community partners assure us of the positive effect KBOO’s amplification has on their work; KBOO’s coverage of recent local ICE activity has engaged many folks in activism against deportations, helping to create community that can support populations under threat, as an example.
Our work in lifting the voices of the least heard and represented makes KBOO an acknowledged resource, which we can see in the growth in our listener data. Comparing PPM data from November 2015 to November 2016 shows growth in listenership: from 37,700 weekly listeners above the age of 6 in 2015 to 40,000 in 2016. These numbers do not take into account the jump in online and mobile listeners: 42,269 stream users in the second quarter of 2016 and 3,267 app users as of November 2016. People are seeking connection in order to create a just and equitable world, and are using KBOO as a resource to do so.
“KBOO is an instrumental neighborhood partner for my organization, Sisters Of The Road, and all of us working for a more just Portland with everything they do. As fellow advocates of building community through inclusiveness and empowerment, we rely on KBOO’s ability to get the word out to folks all over Portland and Oregon about our work, including the struggles we face and victories we share. Poverty and homelessness are tragedies we feel all around us in a rapidly changing city and this housing state of emergency impacts everyone from those facing eviction or decreased benefits to those without any place to go right now. KBOO’s commitment to fair and engaging reporting of vital local issues with an emphasis on questioning, educating and reflecting a position of social justice and sustainability serve as a model for other organizations in the area and pillar of support for those of us engaged in complementary work.” - Justin Hufnagel, Development Co-Manager, Sisters Of The Road
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 2014, and any plans you have made to meet the needs of these audiences during Fiscal Year 2015. If you regularly broadcast in a language other than English, please note the language broadcast.
KBOO is committed to equity and diversity and has programmers and programs from many cultures. Thirty percent of KBOO's on-air programmers and forty-percent of our board of directors are people of color. We provide youth a safe, supportive setting where they can learn technical broadcasting skill and put youth perspectives on the air. KBOO broadcasts more than 18 hours a week of Spanish language programs as well as in Italian, Farsi, Yiddish, Russian, and Italian. We have had Spanish language programming for over 26 years. KBOO has programs serving the African American, African immigrant, Spanish language, Asian, Pacific Islander and Native American communities. KBOO has programs from prisoners, labor activists, LGBTQQ communities and other underrepresented and marginalized groups.
While it is our hope that all of our programming serves our whole community, the specific KBOO programming that is by and for underserved communities, include:
1-2-1-2
Focusing on Hip Hop and other youth-produced music selected by our youth DJs. We also have bands perform live on this program.
An Evening of Afrotainment
Join host Celeste Carey, aka Adiva, to hear music of the African Diaspora by Black artists-worldwide. All genres...from African traditional to esoteric experimental.
Armando Puentes
A little bit of funky Tejano mixed in with some traditional Conjunto as well as Mariachi music. Offering some public affairs/issues pertaining to the Latino community - in Spanish
Artists Rising
Youth radio show featuring the music of Portland underground artists.
Black Book Talk
Monthly program featuring interviews and discussions of works by African American authors. Co-hosts Emma Jackson Ford, O B Hill and Patricia Welch review works in all genres by well-known and emerging authors. Occasional call-in shows allow audience members to talk directly to authors and/or share their opinions on works by Black authors.
Bread and Roses
Bread and Roses is a collective of women-identified radio activists. We offer feminist public affairs programming. We give voice to those working for social justice and equity, globally and locally. We strive to challenge systems of oppression. All this, and we have fun! Bread and Roses highlights the achievements of women artists, activists, athletes, scholars and innovators. We strive for programming excellence and collaborative efforts, providing access and training to women.
Buscando America
Buscando América es un programa cuyo objetivo es promover la acción para el cambio social a través de las artes, la música, entrevistas y debates políticos y culturales, con información sobre eventos de actualidad y oportunidades para la educación, un espacio para el activismo y las opiniones en las comunidades diversas de Portland y alrededores. - in Spanish
Disability Awareness
A monthly show about issues affecting people with disabilities and their communities.
Domingos para Recordar
Gracias por escuchar y ya lo saben, a gozar de la vida que recordando es volver a vivir. Las noticias que a veces no se escuchan en otras partes, y en cuanto a economia, les voy a decir como ahorrar un poco de algun modo. - in Spanish
Ear to the Streets of Portland
This program will have conversations around organizing in the Black/African community in Portland and surrounding areas in Oregon, and music of all genres in free-form. The goal with 'Ear To The Streets of Portland' is to create thoughts around organizing and bring people together for understanding ideas for proactive approach to for and about Black Portlanders.
FA Radio
FusionArte is a program that focuses on art and culture, seeking to inform the Hispanic community about both areas. - in Spanish
From The Grassroots
From the Grassroots – where we agitate for social change with music and commentary.
guess who's coming to radio??!!
This is a show with a goal to address the sociopolitical issues relative to African people and our experiences, in ways that promote positivity, awareness, and pro-activity. We are currently located in the U.S.; however, wherever we are on the globe we are all connected, and none of us will be free until Africa is free!
Italian Hour
Italian music primarily from the 50s, 60s and 70s with occasional modern tunes. - in Italian
Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Kush
Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Kush is presented by your hosts DJ Anjali and The Incredible Kid. Electronic folk and urban sounds from the global diaspora and the desh; an auditory map of the world with South Asia at the center.
Keepin It Real
“Keepin It Real” is a public affairs, talk radio program that strives to educate and to offer a forum for people to speak their truth while being open minded and inclusive. We shed light on what’s happening at the grassroots level in our neighborhood of North Portland, and take a critical look at the good and the bad.
La Voz de la Comunidad
News, music, general information, interviews Obras de teatros, entrevistas, informaciones para la comunidad, entrevistas, todo lo que concierne a la comunidad latina. - in Spanish
La Ruleta
Underground, alternative, non-commercial, mainly Mexican, Latin American, Hispanic music. - in Spanish
Labor Radio
Of the working class, by the working class and for the working class. A seven-person collective, including the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists
Madness Radio
Madness Radio: Voices And Visions from Outside Mental Health brings you personal experiences of 'madness' from beyond conventional perspectives and mainstream treatments, and also features authors, advocates, professionals, and artists.
MegaWave Radio
Current Jams and Throwback mixes with guest DJ's & Interesting hosts representing all types of culture. hip hop, r&b,soul, jazz sounds.
More Talk Radio
Call-in Talk Radio hosted by leaders within Portland’s African American community.
Mujeres Bravas
Latina Music - in Spanish
Muzafon
This program will let the Slavic community know about the latest news happening here in Oregon and the United States as well as listen to some music in their native language. - in Russian
Pacific Underground
Pacific Underground is a show by Asians and Pacific Islanders (APIs) taking the mic into our own hands. There are nearly 225,000 APIs in Oregon. But in one of America’s whitest states, the issues that impact us simply aren’t covered in the media.
Persian Hour
Persian Art and Music. - in Farsi
Poetic License
Poetic License: The liberty taken by an artist/writer in deviating from conventional rules to produce a desired effect.
Portland Jewish Hour
Jewish, Yiddish, Ladino, Klezmer, Israeli, Mizrahi and Sephardic Music and Culture. - in Yiddish
Politics of Living
Creating a place on the radio dial in order to elevate women's voices and opinions around political, economic, and cultural issues.
Preference
We aim to provide space on the radio for members of our community, especially the traditional least-voiced, to air their preferences about how our social world can better meet their (our) needs, focusing on the LGBTQA community of Portland, Oregon and surrounding areas.
Presswatch
Presswatch is a weekly counterpropaganda and Left opinion program hosted by Theresa Mitchell; expect analysis, alternative news, humor, and transgender politics.
Prison Pipeline
Prison Pipeline is a radio program dedicated to educating the public about the Oregon criminal justice system. Our goal is to present a unique understanding of the criminal justice system, address the root causes of crime, and challenge the status quo. We seek to promote awareness and activism in order to foster a safe, healthy, and just society.
QTPOC Talk
This show features two local members of Portland’s Queer and Trans Communities of Color (QTPOC). The goal is to increase support for Portland’s Queer and Trans Communities of Color and the intersectionality of these identities. This show will act as a medium for uplifting the narratives of Portland's QTPOC community by providing updates, interviews and reporting national news pertaining to a Queer and Trans People of Color (QTPOC) demographic.
Transpositive PDX
Transpositive PDX explores the vibrant activism in Portland reflecting the Transgender communities
Red Eye Sunrise
DJ Charles Guilterre's electronic sound incorporates elements of lounge, experimental, electro, synthwave, heady house, and a hint of industrial, the latter heavily influenced by music from Chicago's WaxTrax! label from the mid-1980s.
Right 2 Survive
Confronting the housing crisis and organizing housing activists to address systemic inequalities.
Rip City Basement
Rip City Basement serves the local Hip Hop community of Portland, OR and surrounding areas. Each episode features a local artist or group, and provides a platform to promote projects.
Rose City Native Radio/Native Power Hour
Rose City Native Radio is a native youth music and public affairs show. It features local and national native issues and contemporary native music.
Rose City Rip Hop
Host and IRCO intern Khalid Mosley explores the world of local Hip Hop, highlighting up-and-coming artists.
The Gospel and More Program
We play the best in Gospel, Gospel Jazz, and Contemporary Spiritual. Hosted by JJ Johnson.
The Motif: Re-Imagine a Jazz Sensibility
Post-modern representations of improvisation, across dramatic modes, and re-imagined spaces of diverse music genre.
The Sacred Circle "TEMENOS"
This is a late night radio show on alternating Thursday nights at Midnight (technically Friday mornings) where I'll be dropping some of my favorite tracks across a wide variety of musical Genres, often focusing on a theme.
The Soundbox
The Soundbox focuses on Local Hip Hop Noise. Music and Mayhem via downtempo, hip hop, rap, drum n bass, beat breaks, and everything else EXCEPT the kitchen.
The Underground
The KBOO Youth Collective hosts The Underground, a public affairs show on youth issues, which airs the fourth Wednesday of each month from 6-7pm.
Tonalli
Radio Tonalli es un programa Latina/o que cubre noticias locales, regionales y internacionales con un emphasis en temas y analises sociales, culturales, educativas y politica. - in Spanish
Veteran's Voice Radio Show
Veterans for Peace deals with matters of war and peace. Also deals with veterans health issues and the after effects of war.
Voices From The Edge
Voices from the Edge lends a KBOO microphone to informed guests you might not hear anywhere else. With an hour to invest, the call-in format engages listeners in meaningful conversations about crucial issues like racial disparity, government accountability, environmental justice and politics on local, state and national levels.
What's Life Without Laughter
Da Amazon Queen and Tsixx Daone host an incredible comedy show, highlighting the work of local comedians.
Youth Randomonium
The KBOO Youth Collective hosts this music show once a month. We feature about half music produced by people 21 and under, and half the time we play the music we like.
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?
In the first year KBOO has been part of the Radio CSG program, we have seen a number of significant impacts in how we serve our communities thanks to CPB’s support.
As specified in Section 396(k)(3)(A)(iii) of the Communications Act, KBOO understands that restricted CSG funds are “solely to be used for acquiring or producing programming that is to be distributed nationally and is designed to serve the needs of a national audience.” We also understand that the restricted portion of the CSG must be spent on national program production and acquisition costs and be used exclusively for the acquisition, production, promotion, and/or distribution of national programming of high quality, diversity, creativity, excellence, and innovation, with strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature.
We feel that much of our extant on-air programming is exactly the high quality, diverse, creative, excellent and innovative programming that CPB is seeking on a national level. It was after a long period of research, interviews, and self-reflection that KBOO made a plan to utilize this portion of our CSG in a way that best aligns with our mission of empowerment and amplification. We are piloting a Youth of Color Internship in order to format selected programming for distribution on national marketplaces. This is a 6 month paid internship focusing on fulfilling the KBOO People of Color Caucus recommendations to advance opportunities and close disparities in the media and at KBOO; the position includes audio editing, strategic planning, and marketing training. Our first round of this internship just started in March of 2017 — we are using this pilot program to create benchmarks and assess capacity.
Through the support of CPB, KBOO was able to critically assess one of the programming staff positions — the KBOO PM News Director and Public Affairs Director — and determine that we could better serve our audiences by creating two positions. The new PM Public Affairs Director coordinates and supports Public Affairs collectives and hosts, and the PM News Director coordinates our daily volunteer-produced newscast. We are still assessing the capacity both roles have within a constrained budget, but it is our hope that CPB’s further support of newsrooms will help us fully realize this innovative program area.
CPB funding has impacted our operations significantly. We have rejoined PRX and AudioPort, so we might make our programming more easily accessible to other radio stations. CPB has also enabled us to access Nielsen listener data — something we haven’t done for more than a decade. This helps us to know our audience a little better while finding areas of improvement, particularly in how we connect with our membership community. When KBOO became a CSG, we learned much about CPB’s operational expectations of member stations and have implemented many best practices, particularly with the Application of Principles of Accounting and Financial Reporting to Public Telecommunications Entities.