There are so many reasons to love and support VPM, we could have you scrolling for days — but we won't do that to you. Check out the highlights with four reasons you should support VPM before we say goodbye to 2024.
1. Commitment to our community
Community is at the heart of everything we do. As Virginia’s home for public media, we’re committed to a local focus through a local lens. From locally hosted music programs to reliable local news, to locally produced television, digital video, podcasts and more, VPM strives to have a positive impact on the communities and people we serve.
This year, we continued to broadcast locally produced, community focused programs highlighting some of the challenges our communities face. Award-winning VPM docuseries, Life in the Heart Land, aired its second season, illuminating Virginia’s rural culture and the residents who are finding solutions to the challenges they face. Our interactive discussion series, Racism: Challenging Perceptions, launched its fourth season as a live event, television broadcast and radio broadcast, tackling topics like “Black Women’s Health + Youth Voices” and “Black Men’s Health + Wealth & Wellness.”
As plans for VPM’s new downtown headquarters continue to take shape, VPM has prioritized sustainability throughout the design and the construction of the new building. Rainwater and wastewater removal, energy use and location have been carefully evaluated to align with sustainability goals with, including a green roof and proximity to the Pulse bus line.
Our commitment to community goes beyond location and content; we believe being a part of our community means being active in our community. This year, we were happy to be able to see so many of you in person again at a wide variety of community events! From festivals to panel discussions, to conferences and children’s events, it was a busy year in the best possible way.
2. Education for all ages
VPM’s roots are in education. In fact, WCVE began broadcasting educational programming for children 60 years ago! Today, we honor that tradition by providing educational programming and resources for all ages in a broad spectrum of subjects.
This year, our early childhood education team continued their work in The Basics and Richmond’s East End with the Market at 25th, and continued a statewide campaign with Virginia Literacy Partnerships called “Reading Doesn’t Just Happen.” VPM also collaborated with Thrive Birth to Five to provide educational resources in eight Women, Infants and Children (WIC) offices across Central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. We are currently coordinating with additional WIC offices to expand to more facilities.
On television, we premiered Dementia and Living Well, the fourth film in VPM’s Dementia documentary series. Dementia and Living Well features diverse people in Virginia and across the country who are living well with a form of dementia, showing how they navigate both their everyday lives and how they are change-makers in their communities.
In March, Virginia Home Grown aired it’s 24th season of guiding Virginia’s growers and gardeners in best practices for our region, while VPM’s Science Matters initiative launched a new digital series, Zero Waste: Foodscaping, focused on teaching Virginians to grow their own food, no matter where they live.
Speaking of Science Matters, in April, we partnered with the Virginia Department of Education to create and distribute educational resources leading up to the solar eclipse, reaching over 13,000 people with information about eclipse glasses, how to build an eclipse viewer and why eclipses happen.
3. Local news that matters
In 2024, VPM continued to expand our news coverage, diversifying our approach to better reach people where they are, making more local news available in more places and formats. While many newsrooms are shrinking or disappearing altogether, the VPM News team has one of the largest newsrooms in the state and works continuously to diversify its reporting, telling local stories and elevating local issues.
For the news lover on-the-go, the VPM Daily Newscast continues to serve as a brief, daily podcast highlighting Virginia’s important news of the day. This year, RVA’s Got Issues joined our growing collection of podcasts, with a hyper-local focus on issues impacting the city of Richmond.
In collaboration with the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP), VPM News 88.9 FM added Policy Matters to the schedule this year. This monthly radio segment hosted by Benjamin Dolle of VPM and VPAP executive director, Chris Piper, highlights top political and legislative issues of the month.
Continuing the tradition of thorough coverage of Virginia politics, the VPM News team once again provided reliable, comprehensive reporting of the 2024 Virginia General Assembly and our local 2024 elections, including VPM News Focal Point election specials on VPM PBS, an online voter’s guide and more.
4. Exploring arts and culture
This year, we renewed our commitment to sharing the stories and passions that make up the rich cultural fabric of the Commonwealth.
VPM Music continues to speak to a variety of musical interests, adding a few new things to the mix this year, including Cobwebs and Strange and The Magic of Broadway. To make all our music programs more accessible, we launched the VPM Music Archive where you can stream recent episodes of VPM Music programs at a time that fits your schedule best.
VPM’s library of online arts and culture content also continues to expand with new digital-first video series like, In the Pen with Roscoe Burnems, Leave it 2 the Prose, Sonic Threads, and Finding Edna Lewis, and podcasts like Track Change. You can find the above-mentioned video series and more on the VPM Culture channel on YouTube, launched earlier this year.
Alongside our growing online content, VPM also premiered season 6 of Un-Wine'd (exploring delicious Virginia wines and the perfect recipes to go with them) and a feature documentary, Sounds of Culture: 20 Years of the Richmond Folk Festival, going behind the scenes of the Richmond Folk Festival, celebrating a wide range of music, food, and culture while learning about what it took to create this signature annual event, and how the city has embraced it as its own.
Everything we do is because of the support we receive from our community. You helped us do more in 2024 and we look forward to everything we can accomplish together in 2025 and beyond.