WRFA is a listener supported, non-commercial, low power FM radio station provided as a public service by the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts (Formerly known as Arts Council for Chautauqua County). We broadcast at 107.9 FM in Jamestown, NY.
WRFA General Manager Dennis Drew, Consultant Steve Schulman (retired) and Public Affairs director Jason Sample.
WRFA is dedicated to providing access to the arts, cultural and educational programming and a forum for the discourse of public affairs. In addition WRFA provides community outreach through programs at area public schools, the East Side YMCA and the Boys and Girls Club of Jamestown and Hispanic Youth Radio. The station also relies of participation from local volunteers, who produce a wide variety of news, cultural and entertainment-related programming.
General inquiries can be sent to us using the Contact Page on our website, or by emailing WRFA@RegLenna.com.
WRFA Executive Management
- General Manager: Dennis Drew
- Public Affairs Director: Jason Sample
WRFA’s license is held by the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts.
- Maria Kindberg, President
- Ellen Ditonto, Treasurer
- Sue White, Secretary
- Nacole Benson
- Phineas DeMink
- Tammara Hodges
- Jake Kane
- Mary Kohl
- Andrea Rowan
- Stephen Sellstrom
- Uma Vejendla
Reg Lenna Center for the Arts
A copy of the organization’s latest annual report may be obtained, upon request, from the Arts Council or from the New York State Attorney General’s Charities Bureau,120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271.
WRFA Advisory Board
- Julia Ciesla-Hanley – Chair
- Chris Anderson
- Heather Felton
- Greg Johnson
- Kristen Johnson
- Robb Jones
- Mark Olson
- Walt Rittman
Public Meetings
- 2021
- DATES TBA
- 2020
- Aug. 27 – POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19
- Feb. 11
Reg Lenna Center for the Arts Most Recent Audited Financial Statement [PDF]
Reg Lenna Center for the Arts Most Recent Tax Statement (990) [PDF]
WRFA Annual Report – Not Available
WRFA Diversity Statement
As a community outreach program of the Reg Lenna Center For The Arts (RLCFA), WRFA-LP is committed to fostering a culture of diversity and inclusion by providing a wide variety of educational, informational and cultural content that addresses the diverse gender, age, race, ethnicity, language, religion, sexual orientation, disability, national origin and economic status of the greater Jamestown region.
WRFA rigorously supports RLCFA’s non-discrimination policies, ethics policies, and commitments to equal opportunity, affirmative action and diversity. These policies are applied equally to all functions of WRFA including the selection of contractors and suppliers of goods and services.
WRFA Diversity Goals
- To provide diverse non-commercial educational content for unserved and under served audiences
- To provide equal opportunity in employment while recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce, volunteer force and community advisory board
- To educate our management, staff and listeners in best practices for maintaining an inclusive and diverse work environment
- To revive our dormant Hispanic Youth Radio Program
- Participate in minority or other underserved population’s job fair, health fair and education fair.
Diversity at WRFA
WRFA has 2.5 employees with a very low turnover rate. WRFA will continue to recruit diverse candidates for future open positions, internships, volunteers and community advisory board members.
Local Content and Services Report
Our goal, in 2013-2014, had been to improve the region’s quality of life by engaging the community on as many levels as possible, on and off the air, listening to and addressing their needs. Our approach was to become more interactive, form new partnerships and to get out of the office while bringing more volunteers in. Health reporting and education, consistent in-depth public affairs coverage, expanded classroom presence, neighborhood revitalization, and Hispanic outreach formed the core of our efforts.
We partnered with the Chautauqua County Department of Health to present the community transformation health initiative featuring “rethink your drink” in addition to regular long and short form on-air health programming, links and discussions on our website and a major presence at the weekly downtown farmers market. We partnered with the Gebbie Foundation and local businesses to produce and broadcast an economic development forum that included private developers, state, county and city agencies and University academics. We also partnered with the Jamestown Renaissance Corp in the farmers market and in ongoing programming as part of their neighborhood revitalization plan. All of these programs were available as downloadable podcasts. We continued our partnership with Jamestown public schools teaching real world communication and computer skills, media literacy and journalism 5 days a week. Our Hispanic Youth Radio program was defunded after mid way through 2014 and went on Hiatus. It is set to return when funding can be secured.
Our work with Chautauqua Health Network in 2013 led to a new initiative with the Chautauqua County Dept. of Health and Human Services’ Community Transformation Grant. Awareness of the Farmers Market and other Nutrition services is growing. Our students at Jamestown High School continue to attend our classes in record numbers and perform well on state tests. Many of the Hispanic students feel the class was life changing. We’ve helped boost awareness of the Neighborhood Revitalization Project and many other public issues including the Board of Public Utilities on going fight with city hall, The National Comedy Center project and the growing Heroin epidemic. Our website often receives thousands of unique visits on a single day in a city of 29,000.
WRFA is in the classroom teaching real world computer and communication skills to minority and underserved members of our community trough our RadioWorks Program at Jamestown High School. Up until June of 2014 our Hispanic Youth Radio constituted the only Spanish language programming in the community. We are working to find new funding and to re-establish this vital program.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting makes most, if not all the public affairs programming possible. It has allowed us to hire our news/public affairs director. CPB Funding makes the myriad of Public Service Announcements and regular weekly arts coverage possible at no cost to cultural and arts groups. It has facilitated the partnerships we’ve made that enrich the entire community. The Funding allows us the very special outreach opportunity at Jamestown High School.
