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Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at KNKX

KNKX Equity Statement

KNKX Public Radio is committed to building a staff, board, community advisory council, and audience that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive. We value this work and believe it is a non-negotiable part of our future.

We want KNKX to reflect the vibrancy and diversity of the place we live. That means people of different identities, backgrounds, experiences, and abilities feel welcome and at home. We believe that diversity is essential to authentic, accurate storytelling and reporting; and creating an inclusive workplace in which all voices are encouraged and affirmed is a core part of our values as an organization.

We have fallen short of this value.

Historically, public radio stations—whether focused on music or news—have been white-centered and have catered to mostly white audiences, staff, and donors. This has been the case at KNKX and KPLU throughout our history, which is why we have joined Public Media for All and are committed to their vision and goals for diversity, equity, and inclusion in public media.

We are actively working to live up to our ideals, and we take on this work with the understanding that success will likely involve a significant and humbling transformation of every part of the station. This work is a top priority for the organization.

Redefining Public Radio: Representation & Relevance

We envision a station whose content and staff represent the diversity of our community. We will focus on three areas:

  1. Audience
  2. Staff & Culture
  3. Content

Audience

We want KNKX to reflect the diversity of the place we live. To do so, we need to deepen and expand our listenership to be a more inclusive organization, and to represent the entire population as a true community station. If we can accomplish this goal we will better serve our audience, remain relevant in our community, and will evolve as Puget Sound’s ethnic make-up evolves.

Goals:

  • Reach an audience that mirrors the 2020 Census demographics of Puget Sound in five years. Use Nielsen and other research tools to measure the results.
  • Reach a donor base that mirrors the 2020 Census demographics of Puget Sound in 10 years. Use research tools to measure the results.
  • Seek input from the community to guide programming decisions, including news coverage, music presentation and outreach activities four times per year.

Staff & Culture

We welcome people of different identities, backgrounds, experiences, and abilities and want all staff to feel at home. Creating an inclusive workplace in which all voices are encouraged and affirmed is a core part of our values as an organization. In order to be more inclusive and authentically connect and serve a more diverse audience; we acknowledge the need to add diversity to our staff and create an inclusive culture.

Goals:

  • Commit to building a staff, board and CAC that accurately reflects the demographics of Puget Sound in three years.
  • Design and implement HR criteria and processes that reflect DEI, for recruiting, hiring, retention, and staff training.
  • Conduct an annual staff Diversity Audit.
  • Conduct an outside assessment of our DEI work and progress, every three years.
  • Incorporate DEI goals into the annual goals of all staff.

Content

We believe that diversity is essential to authentic, accurate storytelling and reporting. We want to introduce audiences to people and ideas they would not be aware of if it weren’t for KNKX. We believe sharing diverse stories, cultures, and histories, enlightens audiences, builds greater empathy in our community, and increases a shared understanding of the world. We honor jazz and blues - music from the African Diaspora. We want the music to remain relevant, innovative, uplifting, and celebrated in our community and worldwide. We feel that a focus on presenting diverse content will resonate with the diverse audiences we want to reach.

Goals:

  • Increase the number of community partnerships with organizations that reach the racially diverse audiences we want to reach by 25%.
  • Conduct a source audit of news coverage and artists on our playlists and track this data on an ongoing basis.

Published July 16, 2021

Public Media for All

KNKX joined Public Media for All in 2020 and in doing so, has committed to its robust list of actions to help move our industry forward. Public Media for All is a diverse coalition of public media workers, led by people of color. PMFA is raising awareness of the negative effects of a lack of diversity, equity and inclusion in public media, and sharing solutions for individuals and organizations. Diversity, equity and inclusion at every level and in every facet of public media is essential for ensuring meaningful service to all.

To read more on the specific action items laid out by Public Media for All that KNKX has committed to can be found at publicmediaforall.com/organizations.

A Working Timeline

Who We Are

KNKX staff and leadership make up a team of incredibly talented individuals–individuals with unique backgrounds and identities. In order to learn more about ourselves, the needs of our workforce, and how our staff might reflect the identities of our region, we have launched an annual demographics and identities survey for KNKX staff and management. While we were unable to get 100% participation in the first year, the results of the 2022 survey are shared below.

KNKX will continue to survey staff, management, board and community advisory council annually to measure ourselves year to year. We surveyed our 2023 staff and will publish the results in early 2024.

Who Accesses KNKX?

With 12 radio signals that cover Western Washington, KNKX reaches 325,000 listeners weekly. In addition, KNKX.org and its 24-hour jazz stream, Jazz24, reach 350,000 listeners every month online. Through Nielsen ratings, we are able to gather demographic data and the audience composition of current listeners, as well as the communities we are attempting to serve. We are actively working toward diversifying our listener base.

Audit of Our Efforts

KNKX is proud to be working toward a more equitable future and wants to ensure that we are on-track toward our DEI goals. In accordance with our Public Media for All commitments, KNKX is in the process of auditing all internal DEI efforts and plans to share results once available. We will publish the results in early 2024.