The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Woodburn, Oregon

Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United)

Oregon’s union of farmworkers, nursery, and reforestation workers, and the state’s largest Latino organization launched its low power radio station in Woodburn, Oregon (KPCN-LP) in 2007. Its Spanish-language programming serves the community as well as its union members.

South Bend, Indiana

WSBL-LP regularly runs public service announcements for early-childhood vaccinations, prostate cancer testing, and HIV screenings, and can measure the results. “The statistics at local clinics jumped from last year to this,” says Eliud Villanueva, director of WSBL-LP. “We have really made a difference, and that surprised us more than anyone else.”

Oroville, California

Marianne Knorzer is the station manager for KRBS-LP in Oroville, California, where she coordinates more than 50 volunteers who contribute to a sophisticated and vibrant community radio station offering local programming to its rural community, including everything from Hmong language programming to Reggae.

Immokalee, Florida

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers runs one of the first LPFM stations to have gotten on the air, Radio Consciencia, WCTI-LP. During Hurricane Wilma, Radio Conciencia was the only radio that was transmitting information on where to go and what to do in Spanish and in the indigenous languages spoken in the community. During the construction period after the hurricane, some workers called the station to say that they had not been paid by the construction company that employed them. Through outreach on the station, CIW was able to identify hundreds of similarly situated workers and use legal tools to obtain their compensation.