Article I – Mission and Philosophy

Section 1. KKFI Mission Statement

KKFI is the Kansas City area’s independent, noncommercial community radio station. We seek to stimulate, educate and entertain our audience, to reflect the diversity of the local and world community, and to provide a channel for individuals and groups, issues and music that have been overlooked, suppressed or under-represented by other media.

Section 2. KKFI’s Philosophy Statement

KKFI is committed to diversity in programming and discourse and seeks to create a climate of mutual respect and collaboration among volunteers and staff.

Our Program Selection Process

In order to set reasonable expectations, we need to be blunt: for a new programmer, landing a show at KKFI is rarely an easy process or a rapid one. However, being associated with KKFI as a volunteer can be very fulfilling, as well as a great community service, and if and when you are awarded a show, you’ll have the opportunity to share your passion with an avid and engaged audience. You can also be certified as a programmer for the station and substitute for other programmers on their shows when they need to be out of town or are otherwise unavailable. There are a lot of ways to get involved at KKFI.

The program selection process starts with our review of your application. Our New Show subcommittee will try to assess how well your program idea aligns with our mission and with the content on KKFI currently, or whether it meets any need we’ve identified for new content on the station. The subcommittee will also assess your potential for fulfilling both the requirements to become a certified programmer for the station and the ongoing responsibilities that you will have as a programmer.

If it doesn’t seem likely that we would ever place your current program idea on the schedule, we’ll tell you at this point. On the other hand, if we think both you and the idea have potential, we’ll assign a mentor from among the volunteers at the station to help you through the qualification process to become a certified programmer, and to help you refine your program idea so that it becomes as attractive as it can be.

When you have (a) passed the training requirements (see the section on training below), and (b) performed enough volunteer hours at the station to have some idea of what you are committing to if you do become a KKFI programmer (see the section on volunteer hours below), and finally (c) produced a demo or two of your show live on one of the programs we use for show tryouts, you and your mentor will polish your application for consideration as a new show.

At that point, the New Show subcommittee will again consider your proposal. We’ll know you better at that point, we’ll have feedback from your trainers, our volunteer coordinator, and your mentor, and we’ll have one or more demos to listen to as evidence of what your show would sound like if scheduled.

Broadly, there would be three possible outcomes of this consideration: (1) We might conclude that we were not interested in placing your current show proposal on the air. In that case, we would encourage you to think of other ideas that might be more attractive to the station, and make the acquaintance of other KKFI programmers for whom you might substitute when available and needed; (2) We might like your proposal, but not have a suitable available slot for it on the schedule. In that case, we’d keep it in a holding pattern for as long as you remain interested, to see if an appropriate slot could be created for the show; or (3) the New Show subcommittee might recommend that you be given a specific time slot (and move other programs off the schedule or otherwise re-arrange them to make room).

Recommendations of the New Show subcommittee go to the general Programming Committee for consideration. If approved, or approved with modifications, the recommendations go to the KKFI Board of Directors for the final decision. At that point, we would ask you to sign a document agreeing to abide by the KKFI Mission Statement and Philosophy Statement, and to fulfill the responsibilities required of programmers, including the volunteer hours.You get a show only with Board approval.

If approved by the Board, we’d put your new show on the air!

Program Application (Propose a KKFI Show)

Program Application (Propose a KKFI Show)