Local Content and Service Report: Telling Public Radio’s Story
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.
WDAV’s mission is to enrich lives and build community through inclusive and diverse classical music experiences and excellent, accessible content. Our vision for an inclusive arts and culture community aligns with the cultural and educational needs of our service area. We continually assess our community’s needs through surveys, feedback panels, and personal interactions.
In a recent assessment, we identified several key community needs: better arts experiences for children and youth, more diverse programming, innovative content, and the leveraging of the arts to bridge divides and strengthen the region. While WDAV has long addressed these needs, we remain committed to evolving our approach to ensure we make a lasting impact.
Our primary service is locally produced classical music programming. We focus on recording, producing, and distributing local content, such as area concerts, and promoting events for local arts organizations. Through partnerships with community nonprofits, we provide locally relevant programming through efforts like: co-sponsoring events, offering ticket giveaways, hosting live and recorded studio performances, creating blog posts, promoting events via social media, and developing arts features.
A key finding of our assessment was the need for more arts experiences for families and children. In response, WDAV offers educational tours for local students, including Cub Scout troops and school groups, providing presentations on classical music and radio. Additionally, we donate high-quality recorders to local elementary schools, ensuring students from all backgrounds can access music education. Since the inception of our recorder donation program, WDAV has donated thousands of recorders to local schools.
WDAV incorporates and features underrepresented artists in our repertoire year-round. Additionally, we offer special programming during Hispanic Heritage Month, Black History Month, Women’s History Month, and other celebrations of the richness and diversity represented by the communities we seek to serve.
Our original, nationally distributed program, Concierto, a two-hour show presented in both Spanish and English, features Latin American and Spanish composers and musicians.
Since 2020, WDAV has aired “NoteWorthy,” a segment highlighting works by people of color, women, and other marginalized artists. In 2023, this feature expanded to air nine times per week, evolving into a highly produced, two-minute segment heard throughout the week. Starting in the fall of 2024, NoteWorthy has been available for syndication through PRX, a content sharing network for public media outlets. In January and February 2025, several stations across the U.S. began airing NoteWorthy. In recent years, WDAV extended the “NoteWorthy” brand into a concert series featuring BIPOC artists performing classical music fused with other genres. Our NoteWorthy concert series has sparked multiple pioneering collaborations. For example, after connecting through NoteWorthy, several Charlotte classical musicians can be heard on local alt-pop artist Quisol’s album “Dreamworld.” Another featured musician, rapper YUNG Citizen, has built a synergetic relationship with the Charlotte Strings Collective following his NoteWorthy concert. Together, they will perform at one of our upcoming “Small Batch” concerts at Free Range Brewing in Charlotte, NC.
These programs reflect our commitment to increasing representation and engaging diverse audiences with classical music. Our Community Service Grant helps provide access to a variety of musical content, infusing our vision for inclusive content into all of the programming we provide, locally and beyond.
WDAV creates and distributes content designed to make classical music more discoverable, including educational materials like an online glossary of classical music terms. We also offer engaging educational content, such as our weekly Tuesday Trivia quiz. Now in its fifth year, the quiz has become an important connection point between the station and our audience. Every Tuesday, subscribers receive a five-question quiz, and top scorers can win a “Tuesday Trivia Champion” prize, such as a coffee mug featuring artwork by WDAV staff members. Respondents often share how the station positively impacts their lives.
Biscuits & Bach, our Sunday morning show, combines Baroque music with interviews about food and culture. The program includes segments like “Biscuit Chats” with local artists and musicians such as our recent interview with indigenous pastry chef Travis Lipscomb.
Musical Mind Games (MMG), a twice-monthly interactive live stream, explores the experience of music in gaming while engaging curious listeners who are enthusiastic about orchestral music and gaming soundscapes. Each stream invites the MMG community to share insights on a game’s audiovisual experience through colorful commentary, reactions, gameplay, music deep dives, and more. By highlighting the artistry of game music and its connections to orchestral traditions, Musical Mind Games makes these musical experiences more accessible and engaging for a broader audience.
Our website offers on-demand access to local programming, and we continue to expand our on-demand library to help listeners discover and explore classical music. Our smartphone apps also allow access to our streams and content. In our Fiscal Year 2024, our stream was accessed by 468,186 unique listeners, who collectively logged 1.1 million total listening hours. With support from our Community Service Grant, our digital reach is growing, expanding our impact to a global audience. This funding allows us to develop new technologies and engagement strategies, providing listeners deeper insight into the shared classical music experience.
WDAV remains a strong presence at local and regional performances. We consistently seek opportunities to support and promote local arts, particularly symphonies like the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. Our “From the John Clark Performance Studio” features performances and interviews recorded in our professional in-house studio, introducing artists to our listeners.
We address community needs through various tools, including an online submission form for Public Service Announcements, relevant interviews, and partnerships with regional educational and nonprofit organizations such as Cine Casual, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Schools, and the North Carolina Youth Orchestra.
WDAV is dedicated to maintaining a dynamic community service strategy that adapts to the evolving needs of our audience. Our content, digital and in-person engagement, and partnerships all aim to make classical music as accessible as possible to as many people as possible.
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.
WDAV enjoys numerous strategic collaborations with businesses and organizations.
Research shows that early exposure to music improves communication skills, test scores, emotional intelligence, and reduces cortisol (the stress hormone). Despite these benefits, arts education remains underfunded in public schools. Recognizing the power of early music education, WDAV has partnered with local school systems to provide recorders to 4th and 5th-grade music classrooms. During our fundraising campaigns, donors can opt to send a recorder to a local school instead of receiving standard thank-you gifts like mugs or t-shirts. Since 2018, this program has donated more than 4,500 recorders to local children, allowing schools to use their limited funds for other needs.
In 2022, WDAV began participating in the Charlotte Arts and Science Council’s “speed dating” event, which introduces Cultural Leadership Training Program graduates to nonprofit leaders. This event, which we have attended each year, has led to the recruitment of several new members for our Community Advisory Board and has diversified and strengthened the makeup of our Board.
WDAV also collaborates with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (CSO) in various ways. Over the past several years, WDAV has participated in events such as the “Link-Up” concert, where hundreds of students perform with their recorders—many provided by WDAV. Additionally, WDAV’s Frank Dominguez has hosted the CSO’s Music and the Holocaust program, which educates middle and high school students about the Holocaust’s impact on music. We also work closely with the CSO and other organizations like Bach Akademie Charlotte to present live broadcasts, connecting WDAV listeners to the region’s best classical musicians. These broadcasts include live performances from the CSO and the annual holiday broadcast of Lessons and Carols from St. John’s Baptist Church, with WDAV hosts and Board members emceeing to create a more intimate experience.
Through Public Service Announcements (PSAs), WDAV supports and spotlights vibrant local arts and cultural organizations in the region, including the CSO, Opera Carolina, the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, the Mint Museum, and many others.
We also air information about cultural events from institutions like Davidson College, the Community School of the Arts, the Northwest School of the Arts, Charlotte Teachers Institute, and universities such as Queens University of Charlotte, Johnson C. Smith University, and Winthrop University. WDAV has broadcast concert recordings from these institutions, produces features on their activities, and promotes events on their campuses as they arise.
In 2022, WDAV joined All Classical Portland and other classical music stations in the Recording Inclusivity Initiative, which addresses systemic inequities in classical music by diversifying the classical radio playlist. In 2023, WDAV launched our participation in the initiative by assembling a panel of experts to select previously unrecorded works by composers from historically underrepresented groups. Three pieces were chosen, and recordings were made in the fall of 2023. These works will now be aired on WDAV and distributed to classical music stations nationwide as part of our effort to diversify the classical music repertoire.
Our popular Small Batch concert series at Free Range Brewing returned for a full 4-concert season this year, beginning with a recital by harpist Andrea Mumm on November 15, 2024. This series brings a wide range of chamber music styles to a laid-back brewery setting, giving audiences a chance to glimpse parts of the classical canon they may not have encountered previously.
Though Small Batch is free and open to all, attendees can select a “Pay What You Can” option at $20 or above to receive a custom pint glass and the Free Range beverage of their choice. The series, which routinely draws “sold out” crowds, is a crucial opportunity to build community with our listeners in-person and create excitement around classical music’s vast variety.
At WDAV, we view ourselves as an integral part of the classical music and arts community. We continually seek out collaborations with organizations that share our mission to drive change by using their platforms to serve the greater good.
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.
WDAV strives to connect our community with relevant resources that address cultural, educational, and even physical needs. Our impact begins with strong relationships with local businesses and organizations. WDAV’s core mission is to enrich lives and build community through inclusive and diverse classical music experiences and excellent, accessible content.
We collaborate with arts organizations to promote their programs and initiatives and co-create projects that benefit both parties. WDAV maintains longstanding partnerships with organizations like the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra and Opera Carolina, while also seeking out newer, innovative arts organizations in the region. Our online Events Calendar is a free resource for the community, helping organizations publicize their arts and culture events. We amplify these voices by broadcasting calendar entries as Public Service Announcements (PSAs), extending their reach to a broader audience.
WDAV on-air staff frequently host and emcee major events and performances held by our arts partners. Our hosts’ passion for the arts translates into engaging curtain speeches and compelling calls for support, helping increase visibility for these organizations.
We ensure local impact through these initiatives and partnerships by providing accessible content over the airwaves, in person, and online. Our growing audience engagement and partnerships reflect the positive difference we’re making in the region and beyond.
WDAV’s recorder donation program continues to be one of our most impactful community initiatives:
- Donors express gratitude for the option to donate recorders, as it remains the most popular benefit during each campaign, often selected at a ratio of 10:1 compared to other benefits. In several campaigns, it has been chosen more often than all other premiums combined.
- This program is cost-effective, allowing us to spend less on other donor benefits.
- Local schools, particularly those serving high-need populations, benefit from the donated recorders, which saves them money on purchasing instruments. Many of our recorder deliveries go to schools where over 90% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Free recorders increase access to music education for these schools.
- Music teachers and students regularly express their gratitude for the donations. Some feedback includes:
- “I appreciate your recorder donation for [name of school]! Many of my students cannot afford their own recorders, and your generosity will allow them to fully participate in music class.”
- “I enjoyed meeting you and Will last Friday when you came to [name of school]. My students were so excited about their new recorders! After you left, we had a twenty-minute songfest!”
- “I appreciate your recorder donation for [name of school]! Many of my students cannot afford their own recorders, and your generosity will allow them to fully participate in music class.”
WDAV regularly seeks feedback from listeners, donors, community partners, and volunteers to evaluate our programming and community engagement efforts. Through feedback panels, online contact forms, and periodic email surveys, we give constituents the opportunity to help us improve. This feedback shapes our objectives and ensures our community engagement is making a positive difference in the region.
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 2024, and any plans you have made to meet the needs of these audiences during Fiscal Year 2025. If you regularly broadcast in a language other than English, please note the language broadcast.
WDAV is committed to bringing new voices and perspectives to classical public radio. We believe that a diverse staff enriches both our on air content and our behind-the-scenes operations, and we are dedicated to fostering and celebrating inclusion in classical music.
During fundraising campaigns, we offer CDs featuring musicians and composers from all backgrounds, cultures, and influences, providing our wide audience with a richer selection of benefits to choose from.
WDAV’s two-hour bilingual Spanish/English program, Concierto, showcases works by Spanish and Latin-American composers and musicians. In addition to broadcasting Concierto weekly on our HD-1 channel, WDAV has committed its HD-2 channel to a 24/7 stream of Concierto programming. WDAV General Manager and Concierto host Frank Dominguez, a Cuban-American fluent in both Spanish and English, leads the show, connecting with the growing Hispanic population in North Carolina through music that honors Hispanic heritage.
Forty-eight public radio stations across the country air the weekly Concierto program, expanding its reach to both English and Spanish-speaking audiences.
WDAV continues to build a robust library of classical music interviews, history, and insights through in-house interviews with notable Latin and Spanish-Heritage classical artists. The ongoing growth of Concierto as a national presence through syndication and online listening is one of WDAV’s top priorities. Host Frank Dominguez also advocates for new audience engagement by presenting on the subject to civic organizations. Our Community Service Grant is crucial for our continued ability to produce and distribute Concierto, furthering diversity in public media.
WDAV’s playlist, live performances, broadcasts, and promotions frequently feature works by notable and emerging minority composers and artists. In addition to highlighting diverse composers and performers during Black History Month, Latin-American Heritage Month, the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, and other significant events, we have committed to spotlighting musicians from all backgrounds in our regular programming. Additionally, WDAV produces and airs “NoteWorthy,” a program celebrating works by people of color, women, and other marginalized groups. Our programming today features a broader lineup of diverse artists and composers than ever before in the station’s history.
As part of our commitment to expanding the classical music playlist, WDAV participated in All Classical Portland’s “Recording Inclusivity Initiative”, for which we recorded three previously unrecorded works by minority composers. These new recordings, along with those from other stations nationwide, will expand the classical repertory and expose listeners to the contributions of composers who have been historically underrepresented in the genre.
WDAV also commissioned a student artist to create the “Coloring Classical Music” activity book for children. This book celebrates the diversity of classical music by highlighting Black, indigenous, composers of color, and women composers alongside other famous composers like Beethoven and Mozart. “Fun facts” about these composers are included to help children learn about their important contributions to the genre. These books have been distributed to students in local schools, similar to our recorder donation program.
WDAV’s Piedmont Arts podcast series prioritizes interviews with prominent and emerging artists that represent the rich diversity of our area’s music landscape. We also celebrate culturally significant artists, composers, and works by collaborating with organizations like the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, such as in the moving presentation of “Music and the Holocaust,” which immerses audiences in Jewish culture and the atrocities of the Holocaust.
We are proud to foster a space where all voices are heard and celebrated, ensuring that classical music remains a dynamic and accessible art form for everyone.
5. Please assess the impact that your CPB funding has on your ability to serve your community. What can you do with your grant that you wouldn’t be able to do if you didn’t receive it?
WDAV is Charlotte’s only classical music radio service, serving over 100,000 unique listeners each week across a 22-county broadcast area and countless others worldwide through the WDAV app and online streams. As the landscape of terrestrial radio evolves, WDAV remains one of the few classical music stations in the country committed to 24/7 local programming, offering relevant, culturally diverse content for its audience.
CPB’s support is crucial for sustaining a professional team of local producers and on-air hosts, who create over 150 hours per week of locally produced content. Without CPB funding, WDAV’s local, community-focused programming would not be possible.
We allocate our Community Service Grant to support programming and production costs, ensuring we can continue reaching underserved populations with the gift of music. CPB funding enables us to explore innovative ways to meet the cultural and educational needs of the communities we serve, offering music from a variety of perspectives. This programming not only inspires creativity, relaxation, and inspiration but also encourages important conversations about our shared past and future.
By using our platform to reach broad audiences, WDAV is proud to steward resources that bring people together with a common goal: making this region a premier destination for experiencing arts and culture.
WDAV’s mission is to enrich lives and build community through inclusive and diverse classical music experiences and excellent, accessible content. Our vision for an inclusive arts and culture community aligns with the cultural and educational needs of our service area. We continually assess our community’s needs through surveys, feedback panels, and personal interactions.
In a recent assessment, we identified several key community needs: better arts experiences for children and youth, more diverse programming, innovative content, and the leveraging of the arts to bridge divides and strengthen the region. While WDAV has long addressed these needs, we remain committed to evolving our approach to ensure we make a lasting impact.
Our primary service is locally produced classical music programming. We focus on recording, producing, and distributing local content, such as area concerts, and promoting events for local arts organizations. Through partnerships with community nonprofits, we provide locally relevant programming through efforts like: co-sponsoring events, offering ticket giveaways, hosting live and recorded studio performances, creating blog posts, promoting events via social media, and developing arts features.
A key finding of our assessment was the need for more arts experiences for families and children. In response, WDAV offers educational tours for local students, including Cub Scout troops and school groups, providing presentations on classical music and radio. Additionally, we donate high-quality recorders to local elementary schools, ensuring students from all backgrounds can access music education. Since the inception of our recorder donation program, WDAV has donated thousands of recorders to local schools.
WDAV incorporates and features underrepresented artists in our repertoire year-round. Additionally, we offer special programming during Hispanic Heritage Month, Black History Month, Women’s History Month, and other celebrations of the richness and diversity represented by the communities we seek to serve.
Our original, nationally distributed program, Concierto, a two-hour show presented in both Spanish and English, features Latin American and Spanish composers and musicians.
Since 2020, WDAV has aired “NoteWorthy,” a segment highlighting works by people of color, women, and other marginalized artists. In 2023, this feature expanded to air nine times per week, evolving into a highly produced, two-minute segment heard throughout the week. Starting in the fall of 2024, NoteWorthy has been available for syndication through PRX, a content sharing network for public media outlets. In January and February 2025, several stations across the U.S. began airing NoteWorthy. In recent years, WDAV extended the “NoteWorthy” brand into a concert series featuring BIPOC artists performing classical music fused with other genres. Our NoteWorthy concert series has sparked multiple pioneering collaborations. For example, after connecting through NoteWorthy, several Charlotte classical musicians can be heard on local alt-pop artist Quisol’s album “Dreamworld.” Another featured musician, rapper YUNG Citizen, has built a synergetic relationship with the Charlotte Strings Collective following his NoteWorthy concert. Together, they will perform at one of our upcoming “Small Batch” concerts at Free Range Brewing in Charlotte, NC.
These programs reflect our commitment to increasing representation and engaging diverse audiences with classical music. Our Community Service Grant helps provide access to a variety of musical content, infusing our vision for inclusive content into all of the programming we provide, locally and beyond.
WDAV creates and distributes content designed to make classical music more discoverable, including educational materials like an online glossary of classical music terms. We also offer engaging educational content, such as our weekly Tuesday Trivia quiz. Now in its fifth year, the quiz has become an important connection point between the station and our audience. Every Tuesday, subscribers receive a five-question quiz, and top scorers can win a “Tuesday Trivia Champion” prize, such as a coffee mug featuring artwork by WDAV staff members. Respondents often share how the station positively impacts their lives.
Biscuits & Bach, our Sunday morning show, combines Baroque music with interviews about food and culture. The program includes segments like “Biscuit Chats” with local artists and musicians such as our recent interview with indigenous pastry chef Travis Lipscomb.
Musical Mind Games (MMG), a twice-monthly interactive live stream, explores the experience of music in gaming while engaging curious listeners who are enthusiastic about orchestral music and gaming soundscapes. Each stream invites the MMG community to share insights on a game’s audiovisual experience through colorful commentary, reactions, gameplay, music deep dives, and more. By highlighting the artistry of game music and its connections to orchestral traditions, Musical Mind Games makes these musical experiences more accessible and engaging for a broader audience.
Our website offers on-demand access to local programming, and we continue to expand our on-demand library to help listeners discover and explore classical music. Our smartphone apps also allow access to our streams and content. In our Fiscal Year 2024, our stream was accessed by 468,186 unique listeners, who collectively logged 1.1 million total listening hours. With support from our Community Service Grant, our digital reach is growing, expanding our impact to a global audience. This funding allows us to develop new technologies and engagement strategies, providing listeners deeper insight into the shared classical music experience.
WDAV remains a strong presence at local and regional performances. We consistently seek opportunities to support and promote local arts, particularly symphonies like the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. Our “From the John Clark Performance Studio” features performances and interviews recorded in our professional in-house studio, introducing artists to our listeners.
We address community needs through various tools, including an online submission form for Public Service Announcements, relevant interviews, and partnerships with regional educational and nonprofit organizations such as Cine Casual, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Schools, and the North Carolina Youth Orchestra.
WDAV is dedicated to maintaining a dynamic community service strategy that adapts to the evolving needs of our audience. Our content, digital and in-person engagement, and partnerships all aim to make classical music as accessible as possible to as many people as possible.