Corporation for Public Broadcasting – Fiscal Year 2024
Telling Public Radio’s Story
[This report gives stations an opportunity to tell the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and their communities about the activities engaged in to address community needs by outlining key services provided, and the local value and impact of those services. Responses may be shared with Congress or the public. CPB grantees are required to post a copy of this report to their website no later than ten days after the submission of the report to CPB.]
Describe your overall goals and approach to address identified community issues, needs, and interests through your station’s vital local services.
Blue Lake Public Radio (BLPR) was organized as a division of Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp to provide regular broadcasts of classical and jazz music to our region of west Michigan. BLPR continues to be the only originator of classical music programming in an 18-county area and is the broadcast home for both the Grand Rapids Symphony and the West Michigan Symphony (Muskegon). BLPR currently provides 42 hours of jazz programming weekly including locally-hosted and syndicated programs. In the summer, BLPR broadcasts live and recorded concert performances which are part of the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp Summer Festival. We continually reach out to established and new musical organizations and educators in our region for partnerships and information exchange. As one of the few fully-staffed radio stations in the area, BLPR prioritizes the reliable delivery of emergency information.
Describe key initiatives and the variety of partners with whom you collaborated.
Blue Lake Public Radio has collaborative relationships with educational institutions, arts and community organizations throughout the listening area including: the Arts Council of White Lake, Artworks (Big Rapids, MI), Friends of the Arts (Holland, MI), Grand Rapids Community College, Grand Valley State University, Hackley Public Library, Hope College, Lowell Arts, Newaygo County Council for the Arts, and North Muskegon Public Schools. We provide opportunities for live and pre-recorded in-studio interviews with representatives from entities such as: the Dogwood Center for the Performing Arts, Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts, The Gilmore (Keyboard Festival), Grand Rapids Ballet, Grand Rapids Symphony, Holland Museum, Holland Symphony, Michigan Irish Music Festival, Muskegon Museum of Art, Opera Grand Rapids, Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company, St. Cecilia Music Center, and West Michigan Symphony.
What impact did your key initiatives and partnerships have in your community?
As our licensee provides arts education for young people, we believe in keeping music alive and available for these students and their families. Our broadcasts also increase the quality of life for community seniors and other home-bound individuals as evidenced by individual contributions and listener comments. Blue Lake Public Radio receives written and verbal acknowledgement of appreciation (and continued financial support) from the many non-profit, fine arts organizations, and educational institutions we serve throughout our listening area as listeners connect to the many opportunities offered across the region.
Please describe any efforts you have made to investigate and/or meet the needs of minority and other diverse audiences during Fiscal Year 2022, and any plans you have made to meet the needs of these audiences during Fiscal Year 2023.
Blue Lake Public Radio (BLPR) furnishes its WBLU and WBLV sub-carriers at no cost to Sight Seer, an organization that serves west and west-central Michigan with a reading service for people who are blind or reading-disabled. Census data shows that up to 25% of the population in many of the communities that we serve speak Spanish on a regular basis. BLPR carries the bilingual (Spanish/English) classical music program “Concierto,” produced by Frank Dominquez at WDAV, for this audience.
Please assess the impact that your CPB funding had on your ability to serve your community.
As with most small, community-based, public broadcasters, Blue Lake Public Radio (BLPR) could not function without grant funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. We cannot call on the resources of a university nor does our state have a public broadcasting network. Corporation for Public Broadcasting grant funding (15% of BLPR operating revenue) allows the station to maintain a staff of locally-based on-air hosts. These professional broadcasters provide our listeners with unique programming every day. They are also trained and ready to respond to emergency situations that may threaten our area.
