DEI Update from WYSO

We reached out to Luke Dennis, General Manager of WYSO Public Radio and President of Miami Valley Public Media, for an update on how their DEI work has been progressing since joining Public Media for All. He offered the following.

What’s one DEI success you’ve had at your organization recently?
We no longer offer unpaid internships. We now offer paid internships in three areas (news, music and development / marketing) three times a year (fall, spring and summer). We pay $15 an hour. Interns can work with us for as few as 10 and as many as 20 hours a week.

What’s one lesson you’ve learned about DEI work at your organization?
That it cannot be a separate plan -- a side initiative -- that it must inform every aspect of our work every day. At first we thought about creating a separate diversity plan for WYSO, but now are integrating DEI ideas into every operational area.

What resources and support does you need to improve DEI at your organization?
We need to be held accountable. Making a pledge to do this work -- publicly, in the way that Public Media for All asked us to do -- was needed and appreciated.

We need outside audits of our hiring practices, salaries, etc.

We need to build long-term relationships with colleges and universities (we hope to do this better through the new paid internship program) that will create a pipeline of POC who want to work in public radio.

We need to be able to talk with other stations of similar size and similar markets to learn what their successes and failures are with DEI work.

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.