After one year of operation, KRFP’s News Department got a huge vote of confidence when the station’s Board of Directors pledged to raise at least $5,000 towards continuing the citizen-produced newscast in Moscow, Idaho, for the coming year.
Two to three volunteer citizen journalists have regularly been producing material for the weekday drive-time (5:30-6 p.m) Evening Report since its September 2005 launch. A dozen other volunteers have contributed on an intermittent basis.
They are working under the direction of a part-time news director hired to help train them. Volunteers use mini-disk recorders in the field, record interviews over the phone, write scripts and edit the audio using Sound Forge. They also write radio versions of other area stories for the newscasts.
The newscasts are available to download as podcasts and are streamed and archived on the station’s website.
The newscast has been deeply involved in covering such contentious issues as zoning for commercial development, uses of downtown property, a proposed Super WalMart, and water issues. The station has recorded numerous public meetings and made the audio available online. During recent City Council elections, the station aired live candidate forums and used short audio clips in the evening report.
“This kind of information has never been readily available to members of the community before and has contributed to a larger community awareness of the complexity of the issues and participation in the debate surrounding them,” said News Director Leigh Robartes.
Robartes said that recruiting, training and sustaining volunteers continues to be the biggest challenge. People like the idea of volunteering, but find it hard to make the time to do it.
This summer the station expects to have a couple of interns from Washington State University’s School of Communications.
Because the station does not accept advertising or underwriting support to protect its independence, it has been holding fundraising events every six to eight weeks to supplement memberships and donations. These events net about $1,500 each, Robartes said.
Radio Free Moscow’s Board of Directors has pledged to dedicate $5,000 from those events to support the newscast.
“We know that having the News Department makes our fundraising burden easier, not harder,” Board Chairman Steve McGehee wrote in a letter to Robartes. “Quite a few new members and continuing donors cited News among the reasons why they support us.”
Robartes said that anecdotal comments made to staff, volunteers and board members tell him that the newscast is having substantial impact. “There has been an upsurge of citizen involvement in community affairs coincident with the establishment of KRFP News,” he noted. “Although we cant really say that we’ve caused that involvement, we are confident that we have an important role in supporting it. Well-informed citizens communicate with one another and make good decisions.”
