(upbeat bright music) - Since the start, WKAR's mission has been to inform the public.

When we're thinking about the stories that we're gonna cover, we really look at what are the stories that people need to know, and what are the stories that are not being told.

- Public radio is not just important during the day to day, but it's also most important when there's something happening that we don't quite understand.

When I came to WKAR, it was during the pandemic.

What I noticed is that WKAR had taken a lead in providing daily updated news and stories about COVID-19 in Ingham County.

And they were doing all of that in both English and Spanish.

(speaking in foreign language) Because I speak Spanish and English fluently, it was a perfect fit into continuing to deliver those updates to our listeners who I think many of them felt lost.

Listeners will often tell me they're thankful that they can hear people that have their same experiences that look like them.

- We have seen a huge shift in our initiatives towards diversity, equity, inclusion.

Especially with Michelle's programming.

(speaking in foreign language) - For a really long time, there was a desert of news in Spanish.

There wasn't any other podcast or radio station that specifically providing top headlines of Michigan to listeners.

"Que Onda Michigan" is a weekly Spanish language podcast that provides the top headlines of that are relevant to Michigan's Latino community.

- It's not just about telling headlines, but it's also about using a headline to tell the story about a person.

The puzzle that we're still trying to solve is how do we leverage these new technologies to tell these stories?

Podcasting is one aspect of it.

We can take a big issue and really localize it.

And that's been WKAR's mission from the very beginning, is to get news to the public.