Kresge Foundation in Detroit Powers Up New Transmitter for WDET
Managing Director Wendy Lewis Jackson says the decision to provide Detroiters with accessible information was a no-brainer.
If you’ve been listening to WDET for the past few months, you have heard about our need for a new transmitter. Thanks to the Kresge Foundation‘s generous help, a new one will soon be sending our programming out to you. For Detroit listeners, this contribution is so much more than new equipment.
“Our Detroit program at Kresge is about advancing equity and justice and we do that … through strengthening [the] social, cultural and physical fabric of Detroit … information is so vital.” –Wendy Lewis Jackson, The Kresge Foundation
Listen: How The Kresge Foundation is contributing to information equity.
Guest
Wendy Lewis Jackson is managing director of the Kresge Foundation’s Detroit program. She says the foundation was prompted to contribute upon learning that 80% of listeners get their news from FM radio. “Our Detroit program at Kresge is about advancing equity and justice and we do that … through strengthening [the] social, cultural and physical fabric of Detroit … information is so vital,” she says.
Jackson says it’s not just access to information that’s important, it’s access to a community outlet. “We consider WDET such an iconic radio station for community engagement and local voice,” she says.
Jackson says The Kresge Foundation, and many other Detroit organizations, are focused on empowering connection in the region. “Detroit is modeling a new way forward as it relates to different ways and forms of information access.”
Web story written by Nora Rhein
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