WDRT Receives Grant for Citizen Journalism

The Driftless region's only community radio station, WDRT 91.9 FM, is proud to announce that it has received a $6000 grant from the Sparkplug Foundation to establish a citizen journalism training program. With this grant WDRT will train residents of all ages on gathering, writing, producing, and broadcasting local news. The grant also allows WDRT to create a repeatable training model that can be used to educate groups for years to come.

Citizen journalism will play a key role in WDRT's programming because WDRT is putting radio in the hands of the public. The station welcomes everyone in the community to participate in program and news development. Training funded by the Sparkplug Foundation grant will include classes with a professional radio journalism instructor. Topics covered in the training will include: interviewing, fact-checking, investigative journalism, journalism ethics, writing for radio, audio recording, and editing. WDRT's state-of-the-art broadcast studios will serve as the classrooms.

The Sparkplug Foundation, based in New York, funds start-up organizations and innovative new projects in music, education, and community organizing. To learn more about the Sparkplug Foundation, visit: http://www.sparkplugfoundation.org/

Interested in becoming a citizen journalist or on-air contributor for WDRT? Contact the station at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or write to P.O. Box 53 in Viroqua.