FCC/Public File

Nebraska Public Media is committed to complying with all regulations and making our information easily accessible to the public. Our public inspection files for television and radio are maintained, pursuant to FCC permission, at Nebraska Educational Telecommunications, 1800 N. 33rd Street, Lincoln, NE 68503. They are available for viewing to the general public during regular business hours 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday and printed copies are available. For more information call (800) 868-1868.

Persons with disabilities who need assistance or others with issues relating to the content of Nebraska Public Media's public inspection files should contact Nebraska Public Media Human Resources at JThomsen@nebraskapublicmedia.org or 402-470-6413.

Governance

Nebraska Public Media management is accountable to two governing entities. The Nebraska Educational Telecommunications Commission holds the license for the nine transmitters and five translators that comprise the Nebraska Public Media radio network. It also holds the license for eight of the nine television transmitters and for the 15 translators that comprise the Nebraska Public Media television network. The ninth transmitter, KUON-TV, is licensed to the University of Nebraska Board of Regents. Through a long-standing agreement with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Board of Regents, KUON-TV operates as the flagship station for Nebraska Public Media television.

Open Meetings

Nebraska Educational Telecommunications Commission meetings and University of Nebraska Board of Regents meetings are open to the public per Nebraska Revised Satute 84-1409. Time is available at each meeting for public comments. Please visit the links above for a schedule of upcoming meetings and additional detail.

Financial, Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), Content and Services Reports

The FCC and CPB require Nebraska Public Media to provide a number of reports pertaining to financial, EEO, local content and services. That information can be found in the following PDFs:

Nebraska Public Media 2024-25 Community Representation Statement and Commitment to Diversity

Updated September 2024

Nebraska Public Media is a joint undertaking of the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska and the State of Nebraska Educational Telecommunications Commission. The reputation of public media rests on trust from the public that Nebraska Public Media operates with the highest standards of honesty and integrity. To accomplish this in conjunction with our mission, vision, and values is maintaining a workplace environment and governing boards, which reflect the communities we serve as well as recognize and celebrate diversity, equity, and inclusion in accordance with University of Nebraska and/or State of Nebraska policies.

We are steadfast in our dedication to fostering a diverse and inclusive media landscape that reflects the richness of the communities we serve. That means that we strive to produce content by and about a variety of people encompassing all forms of diversity: including, but not limited to, race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, socioeconomic status, physical ability, national and geographic origin, marital status, and veteran status[RW1] . We believe each of these factors, and others, contributes to Nebraska Public Media’s ability to serve its communities across Nebraska and is important to our mission and work, Connecting and Empowering Every Nebraskan. Examples of this content and services include:

Nebraska Public Media also partnered with Firelight Media; a national nonprofit media company focused on supporting BIPOC filmmakers. Nebraska Public Media’s partnership with Firelight included mentorship, production support, outreach, and distribution of a short film by a Native American filmmaker.
Nebraska Public Media has acquired alternative news publications The Reader and its Spanish language service El Perico. These Omaha-metro based news and information media outlets will allow Nebraska Public Media to expand its reach and service to diverse audiences.
Nebraska Public Media’s news division is developing new partnerships including partnerships with Spanish language journalism organizations in Nebraska and the region to share content and reach new audiences.
Nebraska Public Media television has added broadcasts of the nightly news program “Indian Country Today” to distribute news by and about Indigenous people.
Nebraska Public Media is providing fiduciary management and production support to independent filmmakers telling the story of repatriation of Native American lands.
Nebraska Public Media news staff has worked with journalism classes at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to help students learn best practices for respectfully covering communities of color.
Ready To Learn Learning Neighborhood—partnership with Washington Elementary Dual Language Program and Keene Memorial Library. We supported families as they learned about key skills, including computational thinking, everyday functional literacy, critical thinking, and intergenerational learning. All events were multilingual including activities in Spanish, English, and some events included activities in K’iche’.
We were awarded $87,000 for a statewide Ready To Learn grant. Partner planning began April 1, 2024, and activities with early childhood practitioners, children, and families will begin in October. The project priorities include professional learning for early childhood educators, particularly Spanish-speaking educators and caregivers, and working more widely across the state to help school districts build family engagement programs.
We designed a multiplatform engagement initiative around “The American Buffalo” to reach our statewide audience, strengthen library ties and create deeper engagement about how the themes of “The American Buffalo” resonate in Nebraska today through an event centered on Indigenous food sovereignty. As part of this initiative, we partnered with the Durham Museum, Vision Maker Media, and the Center for Great Plains Studies to host an in-person event at the Durham. Panelists included "Seed Warriors" filmmaker Rebekka Schlichting, “Great Plains Bison” author Dan O'Brien, Suzi French of the Umóⁿhoⁿ Nation Public School farm-to-school garden program, Brandon Cobb (Cherokee) of the Nature Conservancy and moderator Renee Sans Souci (Umóⁿhoⁿ). Another component of this initiative included a digital book club kit. The kit was designed to explore the themes of conservation, restoration and respect. It featured discussion questions written by filmmaker Rebekkah Schlichting and two recipes from Indigenous Chef Anthony Warrior as well as book recommendations and ways to learn more. Consulting partners for this guide included the Center for Great Plains Studies and Vision Maker Media.
We have implemented an AI-aided closed captioning solution providing both English and Spanish closed captions to all legislative coverage, floor debates and committee hearings on broadcast and live streaming.

Nebraska Public Media recognizes that diversity comes in many forms, both apparent and sometimes invisible. At its heart, diversity speaks to the range of perspectives and ideas that come from a variety of individuals and their personal and cultural perspectives. Nebraska Public Media is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against individuals based on any characteristics protected by law. Recruiting and maintaining a diverse workforce, management team, and board membership is an organizational responsibility and goal. We are deliberate in all our employment practices to ensure that employment opportunities are widely advertised, and that policies and practices are administered in an unbiased and objective manner that meets applicable University, State and FCC guidelines.

The following are the 2024/2025 diversity guidelines and statistics for Nebraska Public Media. The guidelines are developed to show compliance with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Nebraska Public Media’s workforce is comprised of approximately 200 full-time and part-time employees that are reflective of the state of Nebraska and the communities we serve. Our employees range in age from early twenties to early seventies. In 2024 47% of new hires were women, minorities, and veterans, an increase of 8% over the previous year of new hires. Of total employees, 47% represent women, minorities, and veterans. Also in 2024, board representation remained the same at 57% reflecting women and minorities[RW2] .

Nebraska Public Media remains committed to supporting students and internships. During the previous 12 months, Nebraska Public Media provided 20 students with paid educational experiences. Of the total students, 75% represent female and minorities.

In support of Nebraska Public Media initiatives from our 2023/2024 Statement of Commitment to Diversity, Nebraska Public Media confirms the following activities:

Nebraska Public Media continued our membership with NPR and other public media organizations from across the country as part of the public media recruiting efforts called Think Public Media. This partnership allows us access to the resume databases of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, National Association of Black Journalists, and the Asian American Journalist Association. Human Resources reviewed and will continue to review these databases for potential candidate recruitment opportunities.
Nebraska Public Media staff and board members again recorded a 100% completion for the annual CPB Workplace Harassment Prevention training for the previous year.
Human Resources attended CPB’s effective completion of Harassment and Bias prevention training in order to advance the benefits of this training required of all employees.
A review of Nebraska Public Media’s diversity email list, consisting of 50 organizations, was completed with no additions or deletions.
In order to ensure a diverse and qualified applicant pool, Human Resources conducted an employee survey asking for recommendations on where to expand our recruitment network and potentially identify additional touchpoints of diverse applicant networks.
10 employees of Nebraska Public Media attended the 2024 ICAN Women’s Leadership Conference.

Nebraska Public Media goals for the 2024/2025 year.

Nebraska Public Media plans to add staff that will support our education department in bilingual (Spanish/English) outreach through translation and transcreation of educational materials to be used in outreach and professional development activities.
We will expand our reach and services to diverse audiences through digital content on new platforms including El Perico. Nebraska Public Media will also seek partnerships with Spanish-language journalism organizations to share content.
We will increase efforts to tell stories on all platforms that include new and under-represented communities across Nebraska.
We will continue to work with students at the University of Nebraska and participate in scholarship programs designed to assist students interested in pursuing a career in broadcasting.
Nebraska Public Media will complete longer-term recruitment initiatives as required by FCC- EEO including participation in career fairs, internship programs and other educational institutions programs relating to broadcasting career opportunities. These efforts are reported in the FCC EEO Annual Report.

Closed Captioning

Nebraska Public Media certifies that, as standard practice, closed-captioned programming produced by Nebraska Public Media is in compliance with the Federal Communications Commission requirements set forth by including, but not limited to the “best practices” approach adopted in the FCC report and order on Feb. 20, 2014, in the matter of CG Docket No. 05-231.

For closed captioning concerns, please contact our captioning hotline:

Phone: 800-698-3426
Fax: 402-472-3540
Email: customerservice@nebraskapublicmedia.org

We will make every effort to respond or otherwise resolve your inquiry within 24 hours or one business day.

Written complaints regarding closed captioning should be directed to:

Nancy Finken
Chief Content Officer
Nebraska Public Media
1800 N 33rd St.
Lincoln, NE 68503

Phone: 402-470-6365

Email: nfinken@nebraskapublicmedia.org

Before sending a formal written complaint, we recommend you first contact our captioning hotline (800-698-3426). We may be able to resolve your problem immediately without the need for a formal complaint. In any event, we will respond to your complaint within 30 days. The above contact information applies to Stations KUON-TV, KHNE-TV, KLNE-TV, KMNE-TV, KPNE-TV, KRNE-TV, KTNE-TV, KXNE-TV, and KYNE-TV.

Donor Privacy

The Nebraska Public Media Foundation, or any person working on their behalf, shall not engage in the exchange, lease, loan, trade, rental, donation, sale or transfer of member or donor names for any purpose whatsoever. Charitable work on behalf of the Foundation shall be the sole exception to this policy.

The Foundation shall maintain active control of all membership and donor lists, and shall take all appropriate measures to ensure against unauthorized use of such lists.

The Foundation shall maintain complete and accurate records of all uses of membership and donor lists, including those for fundraising purposes, and shall furnish such records to members and donors for proper purposes on request.

The Foundation shall also maintain complete and accurate records by which they may be assured that they are in compliance with all applicable State and Federal laws and regulations, and with the eligibility requirements for public telecommunications entities as established by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and other national agencies. The Foundation shall annually certify their continued compliance with CPB requirements as specified by CPB station grant procedures.

FCC Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files

Television

KMNE: Basset, Ch. 7
KPNE: North Platte, Ch. 9
KUON: Lincoln, Ch. 12
KRNE: Merriman, Ch.12
KTNE: Alliance, Ch.13
KYNE: Omaha, Ch.17
KXNE: Norfolk, Ch.19
KLNE: Lexington, Ch. 26
KHNE: Hastings, Ch. 28

Radio

KLNE: Lexington, Ch. 88.7
KHNE: Hastings, Ch. 89.1
KXNE: Norfolk, Ch. 89.3
KQNE: Falls City, Ch. 89.9
KMNE: Basset, Ch. 90.3
KTNE: Alliance, Ch. 91.1
KUCV: Lincoln, Ch. 91.1
KRNE: Merriman, Ch. 91.5
KPNE: North Platte, Ch. 91.7
KCNE: Chadron, Ch.91.9
FCC Applications: FM