Summer 2024
Wow, has it been a busy spring so far at WHRO Public Media! You may have noticed our website has a new look. We’ve moved whro.org to a new platform that allows us to offer even more news coverage, access to online streams of your favorite programs, and more of the educational content that you rely on for your family. If you haven’t visited the website recently, I hope you will check it out.
We’ve also continued to hire new journalists in the WHRO Newsroom. I’m very excited about how we’ve been able to expand our local news coverage, and this will only increase as we continue to grow. While the number of local print journalists in the region has declined, WHRO is committed to restoring robust local reporting. We now have reporters covering environmental issues, culture and equity, military and veterans, education, healthcare, and business development and growth.
Speaking of our journalists and their excellent work, our news team has already collected several awards this year. Uprooted, a series of news stories from the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO that were later expanded into a documentary, took first place in Pictures of the Year International’s documentary journalism category and was awarded the 2024 Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award. Uprooted also scored third place in the 2024 National Headliner Awards and is a finalist for an Education Writers Association Award.
Our staff also won two awards from the Virginias Associated Press Broadcasters — one for “Radio - Best Continuing News” and one for “Radio - Best Sports Feature.” Lastly, we recently learned that Another View has been nominated in two categories for the National Association of Black Journalists Salute to Excellence Awards. Congratulations to all of our journalists and producers for their great work! Stay updated on all of our awards at whro.org/awards
Our WHRO Education team has also been busy this spring coordinating student competitions. In April, we aired our annual spelling bee in which local students competed to represent the region at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. Check out whro.org/spellingbee to see the top competitors and photos from the event. Also in April and May, we saw 131 teams (416 students) compete in the senior and junior levels of the Great Computer Challenge. And we recently celebrated the winners of our annual PBS KIDS Writers Contest. You can see the winners on pages 6-7.
None of these accomplishments would be possible without your generous support. It is your faithfulness that enables us to provide the arts programs, music, news and events that we offer. Thank you for helping keep public media strong in our community!
Bert Schmidt
President & Chief Executive Officer