General Discussion

When our local community radio nonprofit was waiting to hear if we would be awarded a construction permit to build a low power FM radio station, we began a program advisory committee to select programs from submitted proposals from the community. Before we even could start, Keith, a retired CBS cameraman who volunteered for that committee insisted that we develop an ethics framework. He was so proud of the one CBS lived by during his working career.

Having the framework made sense to us too, so we spent many meetings crafting one. (We looked at several models, but crafted our own.) Much of it applied to news gathering, including investigative journalism) and dissemination – and it turns out that new community radio stations do not generally do any news because credible news gathering requires a whole team who spend enough hours that they should be paid to make it happen right. News editors, fact checkers, writers, etc. Our station announces a lot of community events, but rarely breaks a news story. We interview two area mayors on a weekly basis and other officials working for the well being and safety of the community, as well as what the schools and local nonprofits are working on. Almost everyone on the air is a volunteer, except for our GM and a production person.

But I'm very glad we took the time to be guided by Keith to ensure we have a written ethics policy, and have had one since the beginning. Even though usually not used directly, the principles behind it have shaped our station. We've been fully licensed to be on the air for ten years next month. I suspect our ethical approach has had a lot to do with the community support we have gotten.