Indy Radio: Non-Com WFYI-FM Adds News Staff

WFYI 90.1 FM is bolstering its news department from 11 to 15—thanks to grants running through 2018—at a time many commercial print and broadcast news departments are downsizing.

WFYI will use $600,000 from the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation to hire four employees by April 1, launch a health news bureau, and expand the reach of its Side Effects health-related programming.

The public radio station will use another $100,000 from The Glick Fund to pay for a reporting position dedicated to covering “poverty, wealth and inequity,” according to WFYI President Lloyd Wright. The person filling that position is already on staff.

“Issues around poverty, inequity and health are closely related,” Wright said.

While the public radio station still likely has a smaller news staff than commercial station WIBC-FM 93.1 (WIBC wouldn’t divulge the size of its news staff), WFYI’s health news bureau represents the latest wave in a sea change in the station’s news department, which has grown dramatically over the last 10 years, reports the Indy Business-Journal.

WFYI 90.1 FM (10 Kw) Red=Local  Coverage Area

The Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation was established in 1986 by Richard M. “Dick” Fairbanks, founder and owner of Fairbanks Communications Inc., a private company with holdings in radio, television, real estate and transportation.

Dick Fairbanks did not specify how the foundation should be directed, according to the foundation’s website. His two primary wishes were that grants be awarded to organizations in and serving Indianapolis and that a primary emphasis be on health.