CLEVELAND, Ohio—Jae Williams is the general manager of WOVU 95.9 FM— a non-profit community radio station on Kinsman Road in Cleveland.
- WOVU’s unique 24-hour non-profit radio station has 65 programs dedicated to entertaining and educating
- The station gives a voice to people in their neighborhoods
- WOVU also offers radio certification classes which begin in late November
The station started in January of 2018 and has become very popular for its format.
“Somewhere throughout the 24 hours, you are going to hear the subliminal message what is going on in the county jail, why we need to make a difference what is going on with medical disparities, why we need to make a difference, and you will hear it so much, that you that you’ll go into the barbershop the beauty shop, you’ll go to the grocery store and you’ll act like you are the person that has the knowledge,” said Williams.
There are no commercials at this 24-hour station, which has 65 programs dedicated to entertaining and educating its listeners.
Belva Denmark Tibbs is a community activist and was a guest on Williams' radio show. She believes this station helps get the word out to the people.
“What’s important in this neighborhood, that people have a chance to use their authentic voices to be able to curate their own stories to be able to share with others what is happening what their concerns are… you know the media is replete with somebody else telling the story, now we have a chance to tell our own story and I think that is the importance of our voices united,” said Denmark Tibbs.
WOVU is not just educating its listeners. It’s also teaching them a profession.
WOVU offers radio certification classes which begin in late November.
So far, close to 200 people have passed the course.
“These are people from the community throughout the west side, east side of Cleveland that come and go in our classroom and they spend 7 hours learning about radio, they get a small radio certificate after a total of 7 hours and reaching 70 percent of their tests,” said Williams.
