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Diversity Policy

KVPR's Diversity Policy Statement

California’s San Joaquin Valley is one of the most diverse regions in the nation, and White Ash Broadcasting, Inc (KVPR) is dedicated to reflecting that diversity in our content, our staff, and our leadership. While the public media system has long taken pride in its values, and the idea of serving all Americans, far too often, our institutions have fallen short in putting those values into practice. At KVPR, we acknowledge our role in those systemic failures, and recognize that we need to do more to better to represent the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion in our work, and in the composition of our staff and our board. We also believe that in order to remain relevant in today's increasingly diverse world, we need to change and adapt to serve the needs of our community. In recent years, we have made strides in this area, though significant work remains.

Our Diversity Vision:
KVPR is committed to the value of diversity in the workplace and in our content. We believe that public radio plays a unique role in helping to foster cross-cultural understanding, and that people from diverse backgrounds enrich and inform our collective knowledge, experiences, and actions. KVPR works to recruit from a large pool of prospective job applicants, and takes part in community engagement and outreach events across our region to help further our vision of diversity. We maintain and build partnerships with community groups to help expand this vision and station outreach. We aim to hire and promote qualified individuals who bring with them their own unique cultural, ethnic, and personal experiences. We create content and platforms reflecting the needs, issues, and interests of the diverse communities that make up the San Joaquin Valley.

Elements of Diversity Important to KVPR: KVPR embraces diversity in all forms and protected classes prescribed by federal, state and local law, including race, sex, (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), age, color, nationality, ancestry, religion, handicap, marital status, medical condition, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, AIDS/HIV, political activities or affiliations, military or veteran status, status as a victim of domestic violence, assault, or stalking or any other consideration made unlawful by federal, state, or local laws.

In addition to those areas, we will seek opportunities to produce and highlight content involving the following groups, which have significant populations within our service area:

  • Latino communities, including Spanish language speakers, Mixtec, Triqui, and others
  • Southeast Asian and other Asian communities: Hmong, Cambodian, Laotian, Vietnamese, Filipino, etc.
  • African-Americans
  • Near & Middle East: Persian, Yemeni, Punjabi, Pakistani, etc.
  • Tribal nations

Equal Employment Opportunity: In its recruitment, hiring and promotion of staff, KVPR is firmly committed to a policy and practice of promoting equal employment opportunity, in accordance with state and federal law, without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, age, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), disability, age, citizenship status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation and identity, AIDS/HIV, medical condition, political activities or affiliations, military or veteran status, status as a victim of domestic violence, assault, or stalking, or other classes that may be defined by federal law, state law, or local ordinance. KVPR prohibits discrimination or harassment based on these classifications and conducts a continuing program to exclude all unlawful form of prejudice and discrimination in our personnel policies, practices, and working conditions.

To make this policy effective and to ensure compliance with the Rules and Regulations of the Federal Communications Commission and the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, KVPR has developed an Equal Employment Opportunity Policy, which can be found here.

Reflecting Diversity: As of 2/1/23

Full-Time Staff:    
Male: 6          
Female: 8
Hispanic: 4
Asian: 1
White: 10                                            

Board of Directors:
Male: 9
Female: 4
Hispanic: 1
Asian: 1
White: 9
Middle/Near Eastern: 1

Recent Accomplishments (2020-2022)

  • Partnering with the bilingual group (English/Spanish) Central Valley News Collaborative, which includes partners Radio Bilingue, Vida en el Valle, and The Fresno Bee. This effort is dedicated to reporting on the issues facing Latinos in the Central Valley, as well as other immigrant groups.
  • KVPR hired a bilingual (English/Spanish) news director to head the newsroom.
  • Expanded news & talk programming on the main station to better serve the most diverse segment of listeners.
  • Community engagement with special projects in local marginalized communities with StoryCorps.
  • Nominee for the 2021 Ruben Salazar Journalism Award for work covering Latino communities.
  • Sponsoring Fresno State’s new scholarship program for student journalists of color.
  • In 2022, KVPR published a major reporting project on the post-genocide mental health issues facing the local Cambodian-American community. This project was the recipient of a fellowship from the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism. Work will continue on this project in 2023 with a fellowship from The Carter Center.

Diversity Goals for 2023:

  • Increase the diversity of station’s staff.
  • Identify issues of importance to our local diverse communities.
  • Produce content reflecting the voices of the region, including reporting on the needs and issues that are important to those communities.
  • Increase the diversity of the station’s content and audience.
  • Increase the diversity of our advisory councils and our Board of Directors.

Annual Initiatives & Implementation

The following are steps management has identified to help implement the goals above, and evaluate their success:

Outreach

  • Produce or co-host at least two community engagement events with diverse local groups to listen, learn and collaborate with diverse audiences that are traditionally underrepresented in public media.
  • Participate in job fairs and outreach events and activities to share the work of KVPR and showcase any potential job openings.
  • Sponsor events in partnership with local organizations representing diverse communities.
  • Sponsor scholarship opportunities for student journalists of color.
  • Partner with local colleges and universities to expose students to career opportunities in broadcasting through classroom appearances, special events, etc.

Hiring

  • Widely disseminate information concerning each full-time job vacancy.
  • Provide notice of job openings to community groups.
  • List every upper-level opening in a job bank or newsletter of a media trade group whose membership includes substantial participation of women and minorities.
  • Identify and recruit qualified candidates for advisory council and Board of Directors positions.
  • Identify and recruit qualified candidates for full-time job openings that express an element(s) of diversity.
  • Create internships or work study opportunities to help students of diverse backgrounds gain job skills in the public media industry.

Training

  • Participate in activities sponsored by community groups active in broadcast employment issues, including conventions, career days, workshops and similar activities.
  • Implement diversity training for all station personnel.
  • Provide professional development opportunities for staff designed to enable station personnel to acquire skills that could qualify them for higher-level positions.
  • Provide training to management level personnel as to methods of ensuring equal employment opportunity, preventing discrimination and creating a more inclusive workplace.

Evaluation and Reporting

  • Annual EEO Report filing with FCC (due July 31 each year)
  • Annual FCC mandated Diversity Report (posted on kvpr.org)
  • Annual CPB Employment Statistical Report (part of the Station Activities Survey, due in February)
  • Annual board review of station Diversity Statement, goals, activities and progress report (February)
  • Annual review of Equal Employment Opportunity Policy

Last updated February 13, 2023