Form Coalition of Partners, Announce MEDIAthon, Launch Website
North Carolina’s top television station, WRAL-TV, and the leading regional urban music specialist, Radio One Raleigh, are partnering again for year two of a powerful movement of change. Last year, the media partners created HungerFreeNC, a week of special programming and an unprecedented daylong TV, radio, web, and social MEDIAthon that raised $112,000 for their non-profit partner, Inter-Faith Food Shuttle.
“This is about using the power of the media for good,” says WRAL-TV Vice President and General Manager Steven D. Hammel. “Together with Radio One Raleigh, we can reach hundreds of thousands of people. With North Carolina ranking fifth in the nation in hunger, we knew this year’s effort had to be bigger.”
Radio One Raleigh’s Regional Vice President and General Manager, Gary Weiss says, “When we first started brainstorming a community project together in 2013, I had no idea we had this kind of hunger problem. It’s completely unacceptable. We will urge our listeners and viewers to come together to learn about the root causes of hunger and help fund access to healthy food and skills for self-sufficiency.”
Partner Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, who has pioneered hunger relief programs for 26 years in N.C., identified five other non-profit partners to form the HungerFreeNC coalition, expanding the footprint of the movement and focusing on solutions to the root causes of hunger, which are poverty and lack of access to healthy food. This year’s effort will support Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, Farmer Foodshare, Action Pathways, Transplanting Traditions, Hawkeye Indian Cultural Center and Conetoe Family Life Center.
The state that is so rich in both high tech companies and agricultural resources, has an invisible hunger crisis. One in four children, one in five adults and twenty percent of North Carolina seniors live in food insecurity and hunger.
New this year, the partners launched a standalone website www.hungerfreenc.org packed with information about the state’s hunger problem, the movement of change, the coalition partners, an easy donation page, and other ways to get involved.
July 13-17, 2015
A special week of programming on WRAL-TV and Radio One Raleigh stations will illustrate the problem and feature the six coalition partners and their programs to solve the root causes of hunger.
July 16, 2015 MEDIAthon
6 a.m. – 8 p.m. WRAL-TV, Foxy 107/104, 103.9 The Light, K97.5
2nd Annual daylong fundraiser on TV, radio, web, and social media, to help fund the innovative programs of the HungerFreeNC Coalition.
Learn more about the movement: www.hungerfreenc.org
The conversation is already alive on social media using #HungerFreeNC. The stations are using the technology of Tagboard to curate social media posts from twitter, facebook, instagram and vine.
About Radio One, Inc.
Radio One, Inc., together with its subsidiaries (http://www.radio-one.com/), is a diversified media company that primarily targets African-American and urban consumers. The Company is one of the nation’s largest radio broadcasting companies, currently owning and/or operating 55 broadcast stations located in 16 urban markets in the United States. Through its controlling interest in Reach Media, Inc. (http://www.blackamericaweb.com/), the Company also operates syndicated programming including the Tom Joyner Morning Show, the Russ Parr Morning Show, the Yolanda Adams Morning Show, the Rickey Smiley Morning Show, Bishop T.D. Jakes'”Empowering Moments”, and the Reverend Al Sharpton Show. Beyond its core radio broadcasting franchise, Radio One owns Interactive One (http://www.interactiveone.com/), an online platform serving the African-American community through social content, news, information, and entertainment. Interactive One operates a number of branded sites, including News One, UrbanDaily, HelloBeautiful and social networking websites, including BlackPlanet and MiGente. In addition, the Company owns a controlling interest in TV One, LLC (http://www.tvoneonline.com/), a cable/satellite network programming primarily to African-Americans.
Thanks to WRAL-TV’s Debbie Tullos for this capcom story & graphic.