DEI Update from KUT & KUTX
We reached out to Debbie Hiott, Executive Director & General Manager, for an update on how the DEI work at KUT & KUTX has been progressing since joining Public Media for All. She offered the following.
What’s one DEI success you’ve had at your organization recently?
Increased emphasis on diverse voices on the air, in recognition that representation matters. On the news side, we are making concerted efforts to increase diverse sources in our local news items and also Texas Standard, our statewide news magazine, and tracking those to view progress (or lack thereof). At our music station KUTX, this includes modified playlists to feature more artists of color and additional on-air shifts for the hosts of our popular show The Breaks as well as other diverse hosts. We have also audited all of our national programming, and found there are some significant areas of under-representation, particularly Latinx voices in a market that is more than 33 percent Hispanic, so we are reviewing some programming decisions.
What’s one lesson you’ve learned about DEI work at your organization?
The further we have gone into DEI work, the clearer it is how critical this is for our overall strategic priorities and values/mission in a way that needs to be interwoven. That’s causing us to go back and review those with diversity, equity and inclusion as the foundation for all that we do. It’s not possible to see those as three separate things. The other big thing we’ve learned is that we have to narrow our focus a bit on the action items so we’re not doing too many items at once, and thus struggling to reach the finish line on any of them.
What resources and support do you need to improve DEI at your organization?
Best practices are helpful, especially among university licensees, who face an additional set of challenges in changing culture and processes in the midst of larger organizations that are slower to change, more risk averse, and set up in many ways to preserve the status quo and protect the current power structure. Specific consultant guidance is helpful also, especially in going beyond legacy public media consultants who have been a part of the establishment for a long time. Finally, as we do improve the inclusion of our organizations, we can benefit from recruiting help in identifying and sharing opportunity with additional talented people of color in the industry.
Public Media for All will be working with the leaders of organizations that have joined us to model successes, share lessons learned, and get the support and resources they need to do this vital DEI work to ensure that public media serves everyone.
