The Community Foundation of St. Joseph County has awarded WVPE a grant to expand its newsroom.
Station Manager Anthony Hunt made the announcement Tuesday at the Elkhart Community Schools board meeting, since the district holds the station’s broadcast license.
Hunt said the foundation is giving the nonprofit station $500,000, to be spread over three years. That will fund two more reporter positions ”to give us definitely the largest news production in Elkhart County, and certainly one of the larger ones in this region, given the direction that actual local journalism seems to be taking.”
WVPE has been an NPR affiliate for 35 years and has been owned by the school corporation for 55 years. Hunt praised the corporation for never trying to interfere with the station’s news operation.
”You as the board have been monitoring what we’ve done. You have largely stepped away from day-to-day operations in the same way that we are seeing many commercial entities being impeded by their owners, stepping in and stopping on all kinds of First Amendment issues.”
