* This report was created in TAPSCAN using the following Radio information: LOUISVILLE; DEC20 (OCT-DEC); Metro; M-Su 5A-5A ; P 12+; Station Combos Used: *LPM = WFPK-FM,WFPL-FM,WUOL-FM; See Detailed Sourcing Page for Complete Details. Copyright © 2021 The Nielsen Company. All rights reserved.

Louisville Public Media and WFAE were recipients of the first philanthropic investments in broadcast-focused public media from the American Journalism Project (AJP). This generous gift recognizes our dedication to local journalism, innovative approaches to programming and revenue strategies and a commitment to meeting the needs of diverse and traditionally underserved communities. With these funds, we are able to significantly bolster our operating capacity to expand the impact of our journalism and reach more of our community.

In January, WFPL announced the expansion of our newsroom, nearly doubling the number of local WFPL journalists on the ground, adding crucial editorial support and creating the City Team to cover four new local beats. Growing the newsroom enables us to better fulfill our mission to deliver local, civic news at a time when more people are turning to LPM seeking trustworthy sources of news and information to help them understand a chaotic and uncertain world.

WUOL expanded our staff and welcomed Kiana Del as Engagement Manager for Music Education and Colleen Phelps as Music Director. Del maintained and expanded many of our education and outreach efforts throughout the shutdown caused by the coronavirus with programs like “The Music Box” podcast and Instrumental Partners, while Phelps curated and cultivated original playlists for WUOL listeners in celebration of International Women’s Day, AAPI Month, and other significant events.

“The New 92″ turned 25 years old in January. 91.9 WFPK was founded in 1954 at the Louisville Free Public Library as an all-classical companion to 89.3 WFPL, which first went on air in 1950. On January 8, 1996, at 6 a.m., we flipped the switch at WFPK from classical to our current adult album alternative format. In those 25 years, we’ve continued to bring you concerts, community connection, mental health days and the music you know and love.

With help from the national Report For America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project, Louisville Public Media expanded our local newsroom. WFPL added a Southern Indiana beat, while KyCIR added a beat focused on youth and social services with support from the program. Additionally, LPM was one of 164 newsrooms in 28 states and Puerto Rico chosen to host two Report For America corps members beginning June 1, 2020.

The Ohio Valley ReSource (OVR) and Editor Jeff Young published “Appalachian Fall,” a collection of their reporting on the future of Appalachia—from the Blackjewel coal miners blocking the train tracks in Harlan County to people on the front lines of the opioid crisis to the fight for a just economic transition for coal country. Kirkus Reviews called the book “blunt, essential reading on today’s Appalachia that is less elegiac and more forward-thinking than most.”

As documented cases of coronavirus continued to rise in our community and throughout Kentucky, WFPL created an interactive COVID-19 Tracker to share coronavirus data by-the-numbers in the Kentucky region. This live database presents numbers in user-friendly graphs that show key measures of COVID-19 like positive tests, positivity rate, deaths and hospitalizations as well as maps displaying hotspots and virus spread in one central location.

KyCIR collaborated with Newsy to reveal major gaps in how LMPD shootings are communicated. Our in-depth reporting found that when LMPD kills someone, families are left in the dark about how police are handling the case or, in some cases, when the case has been closed. The reforms LMPD has said they implemented years ago to correct these oversights are the same promised reforms agreed to in the settlement reached with Breonna Taylor’s family in late 2020.

Through 2020 and into 2021, WFPK nurtured our community health with monthly #WFPKMentalHealthDays — full days of songs by-request to lift our spirits, give us hope and help us cope. Mental Health Days also provided valuable online resources and interviews with community advocates to share practical support options for those who needed them. In October, Jim James curated an hour of music and spoke with Laura Shine about how Alice Coltrane’s music has helped him cope with difficult times.

In April, the Ohio Valley ReSource launched “Welcome to AppalachAmerica”, a new podcast that digs into what might be the biggest question for many Eastern Kentucky communities: As the country moves to new, cleaner energy, what happens to those places that gave us the old energy? Host Jeff Young and the Ohio Valley ReSource reporting team share stories that illuminate why the path to tackling climate change runs straight through Appalachian coal country.

The mission of LPM is to inform, inspire and empower through programming that reflects our diverse community. When WUOL received a racist letter from a member who did not like that we were playing more music composed by Black artists, we responded quickly and publicly in support of diverse composers and voices: Black, brown, people of color, women, LGBTQ. WUOL Program Director Daniel Gilliam went on to program an entire day of music by Black composers only.

In our 5-part series on the proposed new JCPS student assignment plan, WFPL Education and Learning reporter Jess Clark examined the racial equity in Louisville’s public schools. The series took a closer look at what this new plan could mean for JCPS’s legacy of integration, as well as the district’s future.

WFPL debuted Arts, Culture, Et Cetera in March. Curated by Stephanie Wolf, this new arts and culture newsletter connects subscribers to the latest news, events and artist profiles in the Kentuckiana region.

LPM partnered with Green Bean Delivery to support the local nonprofit Change Today, Change Tomorrow during our December Membership Drive. LPM members generated a donation of more than 2,000 pounds of fresh produce for their #FeedTheWest campaign, a community-based food justice initiative working to create sustainable fresh food resources for residents of Louisville’s West End.

Racial inequity dominated the national conversation in 2020, but it has long been embedded in society — and in more ways than we think. In fall 2020, WFPL premiered the new podcast “Race Unwrapped” with host Michelle Tyrene Johnson tackling different ways to unwrap and unpack race and identity. The first season turned intentionally toward the intersection of race and gender, with Johnson interviewing black women and women of color in the Louisville community.

WFPK Music Director Kyle Meredith joined MSNBC’s Morning Joe as a music contributor. Alongside Joe Scarborough, Meredith interviewed major artists like Ben Folds, Liz Phair, Sheryl Crow, and the Pixies to talk about their music, interests and more.

In March 2021, LPM launched the “Podcast Incubator”—a new podcast initiative designed to increase access and resources to podcast producing for underserved communities. This program provides valuable support through a distribution partnership program as well as a podcast internship. Empowering our community to own and tell their stories, the Podcast Incubator creates a space for sharing those conversations.

WUOL’s Instrumental Partners program returned this year and put over 100 refurbished instruments in the hands of aspiring musicians in need, granting them access to music education.

WUOL’s interactive podcast for children and families, “The Music Box,” focuses on building musical objectives for young learners. This season marked its fifth and presented a unique opportunity for music education in the early days of the COVID-19 shutdown. Listeners were taken on a virtual trip through the musical landscape of Latin America, heard operas written specifically for kids and traveled in time to meet some of America’s Black composers.

The Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting analyzed hundreds of search warrants following the killing of Breonna Taylor. What they found was that most signatures were unreadable. KyCIR’s reporting led to the adoption of a new search warrant form and chronicled an attempt at transparency.

The WFPL newsroom marked the one-year anniversary of the killing of Breonna Taylor with a week of reporting reflecting on the local and national impact of her death, becoming more than the face of a movement.

The phrase “essential worker” became commonplace as COVID-19 forced many to continue working in person. Whether by choice or necessity, they made it possible for the rest of us to manage. The WFPL Essential Worker series highlighted various essential workers in our community, exploring how they adapted, persevered and the challenges they continue to face.

We chronicled the experience of the first Kentuckian to get COVID-19 and the first hospital in Kentucky to treat it with an in-depth look at her diagnosis, recovery and the impact of evolving information on treatment and tracking the virus.

Following reports that Louisville’s library workers would not be included in the 1c priority tier for the COVID-19 vaccine, WFPL began to look into why these employees were excluded, especially since their jobs are public-facing. As we reported the story, pressing public health and city officials on the issue, Louisville Metro changed course and added library, zoo and parks workers to the vaccine priority group, allowing those workers to get vaccinated sooner.

WFPK Music News and The First Cut launched as podcasts this year, making breaking music news and insightful interviews with your favorite artists available on demand.

In a year when in-person events weren’t possible, LPM created new opportunities for connection and learning. Leveraging the accessibility of digital platforms, our community could go to concerts, hang out with their favorite musicians, ask questions of a reporter assigned to the White House, or learn about the impact of history on current events and the importance of the arts in everyday life.

Due to COVID-19 and the widespread shutdown of bars, restaurants and in-person employment to curb the spread of infections, a record number of Kentuckians applied for unemployment insurance KyCIR exposed the state’s missteps in administering that program.