Native Media Resource Center Wins Grant to Promote Health
September 22, 2011
Earlier this year, the Native Media Resource Center (NMRC) received a first-time grant of $50,000 from The California Endowment to promote "healthy community engagement through public radio" on its new station, KGUA 88.3. Founded by award-winning producer Peggy Berryhill, the NMRC is a public service media organization whose mission is to produce content about Indigenous communities in order to promote racial harmony and cross-cultural understanding.
In 2008, the NMRC received a Construction Grant from the Federal Communications Commission to construct a full-power, non-commercial radio station. KGUA will serve the communities of the Mendocino South Coast and the northern tip of Sonoma County. Because the station is licensed to NMRC, Berryhill says, some people have assumed that it will air only Native programming. In fact, she notes, "We are community radio with the goal of serving up local and regional news and entertainment, as well as providing global news. We plan to reach out to the Native and Latino communities, but will have overarching programming that serves all communities."
Early on, Berryhill created Community Advisory Panels to learn more about the needs and interests of the local communities and to get the word out about the new station. The population served by the new station is approximately one-quarter Latino, so the station decided to take on health issues in the Latino community. The grant from The California Endowment, which is also helping the station to match its PTFP grant, will enable KGUA to create web content on health and to build stronger connections with the Latino community. Berryhill found a champion in Hugo Morales, Executive Director of Radio Bilingüe, who also sits on the Board of The California Endowment. "Hugo was a driving force," Berryhill says. "He wanted to help KGUA and get this kind of programming going."
Things are looking good for KGUA, which is scheduled to go on air in October. "We tested for a week and people loved it," Berryhill says. "It's really exciting to bring all my skills together to provide a local service, give voice to a community and collaborate together to create a radio station."
