Boise State Public Radio journalists help make sense of a turbulent world
Over the last two months, people have had a lot of questions.
When it started, it seemed like a distant inconvenience. Why is it called COVID-19? How do you do an elbow bump? Where is all the toilet paper?
Then it came closer. What’s the safest way to buy groceries? How do the kids log into school from home? How long will I be on furlough?
And now a pandemic and a recession are at the door. Will I receive a stimulus check? Can our business qualify for a loan? Are we sick enough to get tested?
Even in an uncertain environment, these questions were met with answers every day. Thanks to journalists. Each step of the way, it was a reporter who helped you access the experts who had those answers. It was a broadcaster that shared a community story that helped you understand.
Of course, government officials are talking to us directly, too. But you’re hearing Idaho Gov. Brad Little because it’s being broadcast by media organizations. And if you missed it live, a news personality will share a clip with you the next day. You’re hearing what Boise Mayor Lauren McLean is saying because reporters are monitoring the City Hall meeting.
Every photo, chart and sound-bite that helps clarify the world are collected by people who care deeply about accuracy, integrity and community. It’s no surprise that trusted news outlets are seeing huge boosts in their web traffic. Trusted news is in high demand.
I manage one of those local news outlets, Boise State Public Radio. Our digital traffic online in March was the highest in our history. And that’s just a fragment of our larger radio audience tuning in for news at 91.5 FM.
We broadcast through 18 transmitter sites across Idaho and we’re found on apps and online. Since mid-March our staff has been working overtime, on weekends and remotely. We’ve invested in new technology to allow Idaho Matters to broadcast from host Gemma Gaudette’s home, to have Rachel Cohen bring us stories of health care workers in Ketchum and to deliver George Prentice to your home every day on Morning Edition.
We are the founders of the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration of public radio news stations across the intermountain west. Two years ago, we launched this partnership, and now during this pandemic, we’ve extended our daily content for free to a number of radio stations and small-town newspapers across the West.
The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 requires us to serve everybody, everywhere, every day for free. And Boise State Public Radio is doing just that. We’re honored this long-standing commitment can be a benefit in a crisis no one could have predicted.
Public broadcasting stations in every state are working their best to serve their communities during this national crisis. It’s noncommercial radio when America needs it most. It’s an important return on the investments the federal government and dozens of state governments and university licensees have been making in our work for decades.
But the majority of our funding comes from listeners.
Every spring we usually spend more than a week asking for audience donations for our membership drives. But this year we don’t want to interrupt the news that long. So we are shifting to a one-day fund drive: Thursday April 30, on both our news radio station (91.5 FM) and classical music station (90.3 FM).
Listener donations are what make Boise State Public Radio a trusted independent public broadcaster with a mission of community service. All of the journalists in the Treasure Valley are working hard and working together in a time of crisis.