As a Voice for the Vineyard, Cape Cod, Southeastern Massachusetts, Newport, RI, and the World, MVYRADIO has established its mission as a reflection of the many voices, cultures, ideas and perspectives in our broadcast area.

Our role within this community is to ensure that those voices are represented and heard in our music programming, on our public affairs shows, through our sponsored events, and within our staff, Board of Directors, and Community Advisory Board.

We are especially attuned to our responsibility to participate in conversations that challenge overt and systemic racism, bigotry and injustice. We pledge to use our platform to advance this dialogue.

We recognize that to achieve this mission, MVYRADIO must continuously assess and improve identified areas of operation within our organization, including:

• Recruiting Board members to advance the gender balance and racial diversity of our Board of Directors and our Community Advisory Board
• Expanding outreach, beyond standard Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) requirements, to guarantee that our staff recruitment and hiring is from a diverse applicant pool
• Examining music programming to improve gender parity and racial diversity in the artists we play
• Evaluating our public affairs programs to ensure that underserved and minority constituencies have access to our platform to express their message
• Examining our business practices and committing to seek and support minority-owned businesses

MVYRADIO's BUSINESS DIVERSITY INITIATIVE

With our new Business Diversity Initiative, we want to share our platform with businesses owned by women, those who identify as black, indigenous or people of color, immigrants, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, as well as members of the LGBTQIA community, the disability community, and veterans.

Businesses that are accepted into our Business Diversity Initiative program will receive a bank of free messages on MVYRADIO. These :15 second underwriting spots must follow FCC and station guidelines. We’ll be happy to work with you to develop copy that supports your business and stays within the parameters below.

Congratulations to our newest grantees: Vineyard Caribbean Cuisine, Cape & Islands Produce, The Bodhi Spa

***If you think your business might qualify for our Business Diversity Initiative, PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION, and then click through to our application***

Underwriting messages must be:

-informational, but not promotional
-15 seconds long
-free of any “call to action” asking a listener to “do” “buy” or “go to”
-descriptive of the business, but without qualitative language “the best” “number one”
-free of mentions of prices, discounts and sales

MVYRADIO and FCC guidelines prevent us from running Underwriting mentions in certain business categories, including (but not limited to) tobacco, marijuana, CDB products, firearms, fireworks, casinos, gambling, and political candidates or advocacy.

The BDI Selection Committee considers all applicants using these priorities (none of these exclude an applicant, these are scoring guidelines the selection committee uses to make their decisions):

1. How long has the applicant been in business? (Less established businesses receive priority).
2. Types of advertising and marketing currently used by the businesses: priority given to those who do not have the resources for using paid advertising vehicles.
3. Is the applicant a registered business vs. a non-profit organization? Priority is given to minority-owned registered businesses over non-profit organizations. Non-profit organizations have access to other resources on MVYRADIO such as our Community Outreach shows and Public Service Announcements (PSAs) that businesses do not.
4. Is the business currently an MVYRADIO underwriter? Priority is given to those who have not yet used MVYRADIO.
5. Can the business' products and services be made clear in a fifteen second underwriting messages (see above FCC guidelines)?
6. Will reaching MVYRADIO's listeners help their business?
   

CLICK HERE TO APPLY
CLIQUE AQUI PARA PARTICIPAR

CLICK HERE to find our video recordings of
Let's Do Better: A Racial Equity Conversation Series

DIVERSITY RESOURCE LIBRARY

"Equity" versus "Equality" and other Racial Justice terms, defined

The Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture | Showing Up for Racial Justice

Info on "The First Step Act"

Racism is a Public Health Crisis - from American Public Health Association

The Brotherhood SisterSol - serving youth in economically poor communities - focusing on leadership development and educational achievement

103 Things White People Can Do For Racial Justice

How to use your Social Work Degree to Decriminalize Mental Illness

Voting Laws Roundup | Brennan Center for Justice

Generational Differences among African Americans in Their Perceptions of Economic Opportunity | RICE KINDER INSTITUTE FOR URBAN RESEARCH

In this section, we offer current details on how we're approaching the areas outlined in our Diversity Statement.

In Fall 2020, the MVYRADIO Board of Directors created a Diversity Committee, comprised of Board members and staff members. In January 2021, the Committee added CAB members. In January 2022, the Committee voted to rename itself the MVYRADIO Equity & Inclusion Action Group. This Committee is tasked with helping the organization assess its current efforts, identifying areas of improvement, creating guidelines, and approving and advising on future projects.

Local Public Radio's mission and reason for being is to provide an accessible platform for local voices. So in all that we do, we want the voices involved to be representative of the community we are in. Here are recent demographic statistics for Dukes County (the Vineyard) and Barnstable County (Cape Cod).

Board & Staff

As of January 2026, the Board makeup was 21.7% BIPOC members. It was 20.8% in 2024, 27% in 2021, and 18% in 2020. The Board is 43.4%female members. It was 45% in 2024, 40% in 2021, and 32% in 2020. When the Board considers future members, the Governance Committee which interviews and recommends new candidates, will take diversity and gender parity as a priority consideration.

As of January 2026 the CAB makeup is now 13% BIPOC members, and 48% female. When the CAB considers future members, the members who interview and recommend new candidates, will take diversity and gender parity as a priority consideration.

The current paid staff has a 55/45 male-to-female ratio. The station aims to maintain gender parity. One part-time staff member is black. The rest of the staff is white. Two staffers identify as LGBTQ+. The station will aim to improve diversity via any open or newly created positions.

While MVYRADIO has always followed proper EEO guidelines, the applicant pool for past positions has not been sufficiently diverse and our hiring has not been sufficiently diverse. The workgroup has submitted recommended guidelines to the Committee on how to further outreach to receive more diverse applicants for open positions.

Programming

In music programming, MVYRADIO has made diversity a priority. In Fall 2020, an assessment of MVYRADIO standard programming showed the BIPOC artists account for 8 to 10% of the standard daily playlist (that is, music programming NOT including specialty shows). Adjustments in the music programming software have made it possible to identify and ensure that each hour of regular programming includes a minimum of one BIPOC artist.

We also looked specifically at "Currents" (songs added to rotation in a particular year), to track BiPOC artist inclusion.

Specialty programming (including The Blues At 8, Sunday Morning Jazz, Putumayo World Music Hour, Local Music Café, Positive Vibrations, etc) tends to have a much higher percentage of BIPOC artists, in some cases featuring 80+% BIPOC artists.

MVYRADIO has also made gender parity a priority in music programming. The overall Library of regularly played songs has roughly at 75/25 male-to-female ratio. For “Current” songs (songs released in the last 6 months), MVYRADIO is aiming for a 50/50 male-to-female ratio.

For live performance music events and programming, MVYRADIO will aim for gender parity and diverse representation. In our 2023 Porch Concert Series, there was gender parity in the performers chosen. BIPOC and LGBTQ+ performers were included.

Starting in 2024, we asked performers to fill out a survey to help us track representation among the local/regional artists we book including the Summer Concert Series, the Alabama Cruise, Whaling Church concert, donor events and collaborations with Cape Symphony.

We will continue to track all these categories in future years.

In 2021 we began performing yearly assessments to identify who was featured on our Community Outreach programs "The Vineyard Current" and "The Cape Cod Current." In 2022, we added an assessment of "Person Of The Week." The intent was to determine if our choices for interviewees were diverse and reflect the community we serve. The assessment tracks the interviewees' race, gender, and sexual orientation.

For 2024 and 2025, we took a different approach to information gathers. Our Community Outreach team developed a short questionnaire to send to interviewees. Prior to 2024, the hosts collected data based on their own assumptions about the interviewee. While the old method provided more total data, we felt it would be more accurate for interviewees to self-identify. For this data, we have combined the responses from interviewees on The Vineyard Current, The Cape Cod Current and Person Of The Week

In 2026 we will continue to use this survey, with a focus on a better participation rate.

Vendors & Underwriting

Member of the Equity & Inclusion Action Group assessed our current vendor list, to see if the organizations that we contract with for services are diverse. We are noted which businesses are majority-BIPOC owned and/or majority-woman owned. Though many organizations/vendors to not make this information readily available, for the vendors we were able to assess, less than 2% were majority-BIPOC owned and/or majority-woman owned. The EIAG has created a framework to be adopted, that is intended to increase the percentage of majority-BIPOC owned and/or majority-woman owned vendors, by requiring the station to seek at least one bid on open jobs from a majority-BIPOC owned and/or majority-woman owned business.T

The Underwriting Department has launched a Business Diversity Initiative program to grant majority-BIPOC owned or majority-woman owned businesses free messaging on the station. Businesses are able to apply for these grants, which will give the business a flight of Underwriting messages to use on the air. Applications are reviewed quarterly by the Committee. To date, the station has offered grants to 47 businesses, with a total value of over $84,600 in Underwriting given to these businesses.

COMMUNITY

In February 2021, MVYRADIO co-hosted a series of Zoom panels entitled “Let’s Do Better: A Racial Equity Conversation Series.” This series was developed by Community Outreach Director Laurel Redington, and MVYRADIO Board member Dr. Walter Collier. The intent was to use our platform to spark conversation, reconciliation, and action.

In February 2022, MVYRADIO continued its long-running Black History Month series, with a focus on local history. Features were done in collaboration with local organizations like The Martha's Vineyard African American Heritage Trail.

In June 2022, the station participated in the "Truth & Joy" event organized by the MV Diversity Coalition. The station provided promotional support, sponsorship opportunities, booked musicians, and MC'd the event. Several MVYRADIO Board and staff members participated on the MVDC Event Committee.

In Fall 2023, we hired MV Mediation to help us conduct surveys and focus groups aimed at learning how the radio station can better serve certain underserved local populations. The first effort focused on the Vineyard's African American/Black population.

Information gleaned in the results lead to the creation of a 2024 summer podcast series called "Vineyard Happenings" that provided a weekly calendar of events for the Vineyard's Black Community. The program returned in 2025

Starting in Spring 2024, we aimed to do similar research with the Brazilian population. Research and outreach will continue with hope that we will create some kind of programming or event to begin to address this community's needs.

In March 2025, we created a new feature for Women's History Month. The host interviewed local female musicians about their formative influences. These daily features included the short interview followed by a song.


We have made these goals public as part of the process of being transparent, accountable, and serious about our commitment to doing better.


Updated 01/15/2026