Some of the critical areas of equity and inclusion work at the Community Broadcast Center include the following: 

Building a healthy, encouraging environment: Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting is a great place to work!  We embrace our commitments to each other, our community, and our industry.  We value all perspectives and are committed to building a workplace where every voice is heard and everyone participates in the conversation. 

Improving recruiting and interviewing practices: We are committed to writing clear and inclusive job descriptions, posting openings with organizations dedicated to improving diversity in the workforce, standardizing the interview process to evaluate candidates fairly, and addressing potential biases. 

Bolstering our candidate pool: We partner with local and national schools and professional organizations to establish relationships with potential candidates and grow our paid internship program to include departments beyond the newsroom. 

Championing a thoughtful and active Diversity Council: PCBC’s Diversity Council consists of members from all departments throughout the organization. The council supports and helps shape the organization’s objectives of promoting inclusivity, fostering a culture of belonging, and embracing diverse perspectives. 

Both of our stations play critical roles in our communities. WYEP’s mission to enrich the community through musical discovery, expression, and education is expressed through our programming and community programs.  

WYEP’s Reimagination project provides a unique approach to music education, enabling high school teens to write and record an original song that is included on an album.. During the past eight years, we have engaged more than 240 young musicians who were looking to hone their skills, learn about the music industry and prepare to launch their careers. In 2020, NPR’s Weekend Edition covered the collaboration between local artist INEZ and Reimagination alum Na’chelle Simone. Participation in the program is free and open to all students to submit materials. We are thrilled to showcase the diverse talent and genres of music of students throughout our region.

On a daily basis, the WYEP programming staff works to incorporate our DEI values into what you hear on the air by making sure that our hourly playlists are not only musically diverse but include women and artists of color – two groups who typically receive less airplay than white men on many rock-formatted radio stations. This philosophy also applies to special programming, on-air features such as the Pittsburgh Artist of the Week, and musical guests booked at such WYEP events as the Summer Music Festival and The Hellbender Ball. In 2022, we are introducing week-long monitoring periods to track how many women and artists of color we play on the station to ensure fair representation and opportunity for artists on WYEP.

On-air programming on WYEP includes: 

• Special features spotlighting influential Black songwriters for 2021’s Black History Month. 

• Special guests from the Pittsburgh music community, LGBTQIA+ community, and local and national artists speaking about the songs and artists who are personally meaningful to them during Women’s History Month and Pride Month. 

• A day of songs by Black musicians on Juneteenth, highlighting the vast contributions to popular music by African American artists. 

WESA’s programming and journalism are critical to forge connections with our communities. With a mission “to work for the public to inform people in ways that engage and inspire them to create dialogue about community issues and stories,” WESA makes journalism and programming selections central to the pursuit of our mission.

WESA programming shares the issues and concerns that are important to the region we serve. When it comes to representing local communities, we know have a long way to go: The diversity of our staff does not reflect Pittsburgh yet. When we do our work well, every producer, reporter, editor, and host asks the questions: Who are the key voices in this story? Whose voices aren’t being heard? And how do we center them in our coverage? Pittsburgh is a diverse place, and we strive to tell every story with fairness, accuracy, and care every day in our newscasts, features, and conversations on The Confluence.

WESA’s journalism plays a vital role in community discourse. The Confluence, where the news comes together, is 90.5 WESA’s morning news show, broadcasting Monday through Thursday. Probing beyond the region’s biggest headlines, The Confluence blends reporting from the WESA newsroom with one-on-one interviews and roundtable conversations with community leaders, experts, activists, and interesting personalities about issues important to our region.

In addition to our local news coverage, WESA broadcasts national programs and shows that regularly feature voices and perspectives from a variety of backgrounds. In January 2020, NPR President and CEO John Lansing announced that audience diversity would be the organization’s top priority. Since then, the network has worked to expand its own DEI efforts to address inequities within the organization.

Here are some of the ways we are working to be impactful in our communities: 

Community Advisory Council (CAC):

The CAC comprises individuals who advise Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting regarding the programming service it provides to the region. They are listeners of WESA, WYEP, or both. They are enthusiastic about the mission of each station and are willing to engage with station representatives and members of the community to help WESA and WYEP deliver on their missions. Members of the advisory council are representative of the diverse needs and interests of the communities we serve.  

Media Partnership Program:

We aim to build mutually beneficial relationships that provide service to Pittsburgh institutions and expand the reach of Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting’s events and programming. We strive to make the program as meaningful and innovative as possible by focusing on long-term, multi-initiative, and content-driven partnerships. Media partners include local nonprofit organizations with whom we work for mutual amplification of our missions. Nonprofits with missions that align with that of PCBC may be eligible for a more robust partnership. Find more information here.  

Land Acknowledgement:

Truth and acknowledgment are critical to building mutual respect and connection across all barriers of heritage and difference, thereby strengthening our community, and living up to the commitment of our mission. It is in that spirit that we acknowledge that the Pittsburgh Community Broadcast Center rests on the traditional lands of the Seneca Nation, part of the great Iroquois Confederacy. You can read more about this here.

Vendor Diversity:

PCBC champions the mission to support businesses that meet our diversity, equity, and inclusion goals. In addition to making changes within our own company to live up to this mission, we support other companies with similar DEI values to strengthen the communities we serve. Find out more here.