ABOUT US
The Allegheny Front is an award-winning public radio program covering environmental issues in Western Pennsylvania, airing on WESA in Pittsburgh and on stations throughout the region.
The Allegheny Front began in 1991 on WYEP 91.3 FM as a new urban environmental consciousness was strengthening in Pittsburgh. As originally created by volunteer Lucy Laffitte, who coined the name after the major escarpment in the Allegheny Mountains east of Pittsburgh, the program provided environmental news, events and interviews with people active in the local environmental community.
Today, Allegheny Front reporters travel throughout the region, exploring environmental issues affecting the community through stories, interviews, news, and commentaries covering a wide variety of topics. We also produce special series and podcasts, including Trump on Earth, which, for four years, covered the environmental maneuvers of the Trump administration.
The Allegheny Front has been honored with journalism awards from the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters, Pennsylvania Associated Press Broadcasters Association, Radio Television Digital News Association and the Society of Environmental Journalists.
Editorial Independence
A Code of Ethics and Editorial Guidelines has been assembled to establish guidelines for upholding those standards by staff, independent journalists, volunteers, and student interns working for The Allegheny Front. It draws upon the Code of Ethics from other news organizations, including 905. WESA.
The Allegheny Front is independently funded, through foundation support. Our organization retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization. We maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services, or opinions.
We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support. We do not give supporters the rights to assign, review or edit content.
Our organization may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content, nor of unauthorized distribution of editorial content.
We make public all revenue sources and donors who give $5,000 or more per year. As a news nonprofit, we avoid accepting charitable donations from anonymous sources, political parties, elected officials or candidates seeking public office. We will not accept donations from sources who present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence.
Our organization will make public all donors who give a total of $5,000 or more per year. We will accept anonymous donations for general support only if it is clear that sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our organization.
We are committed to transparency in every aspect of funding our organization. We will include disclosures in broadcast and digital stories or taglines if we determine that the public should be informed of support from a specific source that has bearing on the story, series or interview. We disclose our funders above $5,000 at the end The Allegheny Front weekly program broadcast or podcast.
Fiscal Sponsor
Our non-profit fiscal sponsor is Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting Corporation (see 990 tax information and financial statements, board of directors and leadership team) which operates public radio stations WYEP and WESA in Pittsburgh. The Allegheny Front maintains editorial independence from PCBC and WESA.
Funds and donations for The Allegheny Front are separate from those for WESA and WYEP. The Allegheny Front receives no funding from PCBC.
Corrections
When we make mistakes we admit and correct them, either in the same venue in which they were made, such as an on-air broadcast, digital version of a report or program, such as the online version of a story or on-demand version of a program, or both.
We welcome comments and additional facts; if they add to the precision of what we present, we are committed to timely modifications.
Our current funders giving $5,000 or more in 2022-2023:
Richard King Mellon Foundation for conservation coverage
Park Foundation for coverage of energy issues
Colcom Foundation for the Environmental Update segment
Listen to the show on these stations
WESA 90.5FM in Pittsburgh every Friday at 7:30 PM and Saturday at 3:00 PM
WITF Harrisburg 89.5FM, Chambersburg 93.3FM and Lancaster 99.9FM every Friday at 7:30 PM and Sunday at 6:30 AM
WIUP 90.1 FM in Indiana, PA every Monday at 7:30 AM
WNJR 91.7 FM in Washington, PA every Sunday at 8:00 AM
WPSU, Penn State Public Broadcasting every Friday at 6:00 PM
WQLN in Erie, PA every third Sunday at 4:00 PM
WRFA 107.9 FM in Jamestown, NY every Tuesday at 9:20 AM
Listen to the Allegheny Front’s Environment Update
WPSU in State College, every Wednesday at 4:45 PM
WESA 90.5FM in Pittsburgh, every Thursday at 7:45 AM and 9:45 AM and Sunday at 9:35 AM
WQLN in Erie, every Friday at 6:45 AM
