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About Us

Mission Statement
KRVS is an indispensable source of information, ideas and cultural experience that enables people to fulfill their potential as citizens of south Louisiana.

Who we are
We are a listener-supported public radio station, located in Lafayette, Louisiana. We broadcast live annually from area music festivals, and produce and air live broadcasts of music series throughout Acadiana.

We play Cajun, Zydeco, Blues, Jazz, Swamp Pop, Swamp Rock, Louisiana singer/songwriter music, and many other distinct musical styles created and played in Louisiana. Countless musicians have joined us in Cypress Lake Studios to play live and talk about their work, including: Sonny Landreth, Michael Doucet, Zachary Richard, Steve Riley, David Greely, Christine Balfa, Dirk Powell, the Magnolia Sisters, Keith Frank, the late Beau Jocque, Mark Broussard, Henry Butler, the Red Stick Ramblers, Terrance Simien, Marcia Ball, Buckwheat Zydeco and many more.

Service Region
KRVS serves a region known as Acadiana, with a distinct French language, culture and traditions. By focusing on indigenous Louisiana programming, KRVS provides an important local resource for the Creole and Cajun residents of south Louisiana.

Broadcasting from the heart of French Louisiana, KRVS is committed to artists and performances unique to the language, culture and music of south Louisiana. We also air programs synonymous with public radio such as Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Fresh Air, World Café, Thistle & Shamrock, American Routes and This American Life.

University of Louisiana at Lafayette
KRVS is a regional public radio facility licensed to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Housed on the campus, KRVS began broadcasting in 1963 with a power of 10 watts and a coverage area of about six city blocks. Located in Burke-Hawthorne Hall, KRVS now broadcasts at 100,000 watts providing service to 651,000 Louisiana residents in 12 parishes across the southern portion of the state. In addition, KRVS' programming is available worldwide via www.krvs.org.

As a non-commercial, non-profit public radio station, KRVS is supported by listener contributions, station fundraising activities, program underwriting, corporate and business support, gifts and endowments, institutional and foundation grants.

KRVS Public File on FCC site

Transparency and Compliance

Local Content and Services Report

  1. Describe your overall goals and approach to address identified community issues, needs, and interests through your station’s vital local services, such as multiplatform long and short-form content, digital and in-person engagement, education services, community information, partnership support, and other activities, and audiences you reached or new audiences you engaged.
    1. KRVS reflects and amplifies the culturally rich and diverse populations in south Louisiana — and in doing so, it sounds unlike any other National Public Radio affiliate in the United States. Because of the deep, local musical and linguistic traditions here, KRVS broadcasts 25 hours each week in the French language unique to Louisiana's Acadian and Creole cultures. The French-language programs include “Bonjour Louisiane,” “Zydeco est Pas Salé,” “Encore,” “La Lou Jukebox,” “La Nation Creole,” “Dimanche Matin” and “FrancoMix.” Local hosts produce unique music programs that educate the audience about the variety of cultures, music and history of Louisiana. Programs such as "Funkify Your Life," "Dirty Rice" and "Freetown Radio" are just a few of these offerings that delight and inform our audience. For a growing Hispanic population in south Louisiana, we produce and broadcast the weekly Spanish-language hour “Espacio Latino.” Another weekly music program, “K-Pop Fever,” reaches fans of a global phenomenon previously overlooked in this region. “Japan Jukebox,” produced by two Lafayette natives living in Japan, presents cutting edge rock from that country.
    2. We routinely host musicians from the region into the studio for live performances on the weekday live-hosted music program “Medicine Ball Caravan.” Students from UL’s visual arts program and Ragin’ Records help to set up microphones and instruments for these performances, operate a three-camera video shoot that results in promotional material for the station and the artists and observe live music mixing in the studio control room. 
  2. Describe key initiatives and the variety of partners with whom you collaborated, including other public media outlets, community nonprofits, government agencies, educational institutions, the business community, teachers and parents, etc. This will illustrate the many ways you’re connected across the community and engaged with other important organizations in the area.
    1. Key initiatives include the promotion and dissemination of archival cultural material (interviews and music recordings) from the Center for Louisiana Studies, and annual live broadcasts of Festival International and Festivals Acadiens et Creoles.
    2. The station offers practical experience in live music and video production, audio engineering and programming to UL Lafayette students.
    3. KRVS regularly collaborates with the Acadiana Center for the Arts, the UL Lafayette School of Music and Center for Louisiana Studies, the Lafayette Parish School System, Vermilionville, the aforementioned festival organizations and other educational and cultural organizations in its primary service region.
    4. We work with teachers and parents in French Immersion schools throughout the region to assist and showcase the work and progress of students in these programs.
  3. What impact did your key initiatives and partnerships have in your community? Describe any known measurable impact, such as increased awareness, learning or understanding about particular issues. Describe indicators of success, such as connecting people to needed resources or strengthening conversational ties across diverse neighborhoods. Did a partner see an increase in requests for related resources? Please include direct feedback from a partner(s) or from a person(s) served.
    1. Our support of regional francophone culture through “Bonjour Louisiane,” “La Nation Créole” and other programs has helped to promote the resurgence of Louisiana French heritage that also functions as an economic engine powering international tourism to the state.
    2. "Aprés-Midi” offers a regular platform for nonprofits to promote upcoming events, fundraisers, volunteer opportunities and initiatives to improve the quality of life in this region through art, culture, education and social services. “After hearing our interview, somebody called us for more information about how to volunteer,” said the regional executive director of Court Appointed Special Advocates, a nonprofit that trains and deploys volunteers to represent children in the family court system.
  4. Please describe any efforts (e.g. programming, production, engagement activities) you have made to investigate and/or meet the needs of minority and other diverse audiences (including, but not limited to, new immigrants, people for whom English is a second language and illiterate adults) during Fiscal Year 2019, and any plans you have made to meet the needs of these audiences during Fiscal Year 2020. If you regularly broadcast in a language other than English, please note the language broadcast.
    1. KRVS is committed to meeting the linguistic and cultural needs of diverse audiences in south Louisiana. Not only do we produce and air more than 25 hours a week that reflect the diversity of French spoken here — we generate original programs in Cajun and Créole French, and programs created and hosted by the young French-speakers of the area. These young hosts, producers of “Francomix,” “Encore,” “La Lou Jukebox” and “Bonjour Louisiane” have attracted and inspired younger audiences to explore their unique heritage and language.
    2. Four days a week, "Aprés-Midi" welcomes representatives from cultural, artistic and social services nonprofits into the KRVS studio for interviews. We also help to facilitate the production of “Out to Lunch,” a weekly business interview program focused on entrepreneurs and innovators in our primary coverage area. Both of these programs, along with the station website and social media, offer exposure to regional neighbor, including: the Opelousas-based nonprofit Guns Down, Power Up that teaches young people nonviolent conflict resolution through chess; the Innocence Project New Orleans that works on behalf of wrongly incarcerated people in Louisiana’s 64 parishes; the PARC Village creativity hub on the largely-Black north side of Lafayette; the Latino Music Festival; and the Second Harvest Food Bank. These regularly scheduled public affairs programs reach widely and generate results such as successful volunteer recruitment, engaged attendance at civic meetings and cultural events and financial and in-kind support for nonprofits.
  5. Please assess the impact that your CPB funding had on your ability to serve your community. What were you able to do with your grant that you wouldn't be able to do if you didn't receive it?
    1. CPB’s Community Service Grant is crucial to our station's ability to carry news from National Public Radio and other public media production and distribution networks, along with high-quality cultural programming from our home region and beyond. The cultural programs we purchase with the CSG complement our many locally-created programs, ensuring an indispensable mix of entertainment, information, and a larger world perspective to our primary service region that it would otherwise not encounter.

Diversity

As a licensee of the University of Louisiana Lafayette, we adhere to its policies in this regard. The mission of the Office for Campus Diversity is to foster inclusion, appreciation, and understanding of diversity throughout the university by advising the president and the university community on diversity related initiatives, issues and goals. Diversity issues include those concerning various races, religions, national origin, citizenship, disability, gender, sexual orientation, ages and socio-economic backgrounds.

The office provides leadership to attract and maintain a diverse student body, faculty and administrative staff in order to promote a quality and diverse learning and social environment.

UL Office for Campus Diversity

UL and KRVS EEO Policy

University of Louisiana System

Board of Supervisors

Board of Supervisors Meeting Schedule

Elizabeth Pierre, Chair

Jimmy Clarke, Vice Chair

Brad Stevens, Parliamentarian

Barry Busada

John Condos

Steve Davison

Lola Dunahoe

Jo’Quishia Lethermon

Alejandro “Al” Perkins

Dana Peterson

Virgil Robinson

Mark Romero

Kristine Russell

Joe Salter

Julie Stokes

Ethan Estis, Student Board Member