Broadcasters have a mandate to serve the public interest of the communities in which they operate.  Every station in the country is a local station and very much a part of the community it is licensed to serve.

Your local radio and television stations: 

• Offer a life line for the community in disasters and times of crisis
• Provide news coverage of important issues and community events
• Provide in-depth political campaign coverage and debates that help local voters make informed decisions
• Sponsor and participate in many community events, including clean-ups , walk-a-thins, fundraisers and more.

The WVBA is proud to have helped institute the Amber Alert Program in West Virginia. This program is dedicated to finding abducted children in the United States. Amber Alert has proven to have a greater than 90 percent recovery success rate since its inception in 2002.

This document contains more details about the Amber Alert program.

It is the privilege of West Virginia Broadcasters Educational Foundation to support students and teachers in the radio and television educational system. Each year the Foundation assist High Schools and Colleges who have programs to develop the careers in the radio and television broadcast industry. The grants are generally awarded for equipment, studios, and training used by students and teachers actively engaged in school-based broadcasting curriculum\.

If you have an education program that meets our criteria, you may be eligible for financial assistance from our organization. Any request for funding must include a detailed description of the items to be purchased and an explanation of how the purchase will enhance the Radio/Television program at your institution.

The Public Education Partnership (PEP) is intended to help government agencies and nonprofit organizations deliver their important public interest messages effectively and affordably. The West Virginia Broadcasters Association (WVBA) is an approved Sole Source Vendor for the state of WV. It is the only one of its kind in the state. Each year radio and television stations serving communities across the state participate in WVBA PEP campaigns, providing valuable airtime for these campaigns and reaching West Virginians in large and small communities around the state.

The program is best suited for non-profit organizations and government agencies with public education campaigns for which they have some promotional budget, but not enough funds to buy sustained statewide coverage on radio and television stations. 

How the PEP Program Works

• A sponsoring organization provides the WVBA with a master copy of the spots for its campaign. Campaigns should have statewide relevance and should educate West Virginians on issues of significance or urge citizens to take action to protect themselves and their families.
• The WVBA duplicates and distributes the campaign spots to all radio and television stations in the state and requests that stations air the spots a minimum number of times during the campaign. Although we cannot control placement of spots, stations generally rotate spots across all dayparts.
• Participating stations submit affidavits to the WVBA indicating number of times they aired the spots and the approximate value of the airtime.
• The WVBA compiles a report for the sponsor detailing the participating stations and their city, the number of times the spots were aired, and the approximate value of this airtime
• The sponsoring organization pays a fee to the WVBA and our goal is to provide a return on the sponsor’s investment of at least $3 for every $1 invested. In many cases, we deliver a higher return

Station participation in the WVBA’s PEP program is voluntary and stations do not receive compensation for airing PEP campaign spots. The incentive for stations to participate, however, is that the WVBA uses the fees received from the PEP program to underwrite our training seminars and legal resources for members. Over the years hundreds of thousands of dollars were donated by
Take a moment and watch the slide show on this page. For more information about the PEP program, please contact WVBA Executive Director Michele Crist at 304-744-2143 or mcrist@wvba.com