Carla Eckels
Carla Eckels is Director of Cultural Diversity for News and Engagement at KMUW. She has been an award-winning announcer and news producer for KMUW since 1996. Carla also produces and hosts the R&B and gospel show Soulsationsthat airs Sundays at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. She annually emcees Gospelfest at the Wichita River Festival and was voted Best Disc Jockey by subscribers of The Community Voice. Prior to coming to KMUW, Carla was the local host for NPR’s Morning Editionat WYSO in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and co-hosted a nationally syndicated gospel radio show in Cincinnati. Carla was also program director for KIBN, the Inspirational Black Network in Wichita, hosted the Joyful Sounds gospel show on Q92-FM and produced the number one gospel radio show on KSJM 107.9 JAMZ from 2004 to 2007.
In November 2020, Carla was inducted into The Kansas African American Museum's Trailblazers Hall of Fame for her work in broadcast/journalism.
Carla has reported on national news stories for NPR, such as the Hesston shootings, BTK serial killer case, Scott Roeder trial, Greensburg tornado and the 1958 Dockum Drug Store sit-in. In October 2018, she received the Sonny Slater Award for Service to Station and Community from the Kansas Association of Broadcasters. In January 2018, Carla was honored with the Drum Major Award at Wichita State University's MLK Unity Walk. Several of her news stories have been recognized with first place awards from the KAB, including the 2018 special program‘Hope For The Future’: The Dockum Sit-In, Sixty Years Onand the 2018 sports featureHot Towels, Tapered Cuts: Local Barbershop Welcomes NCAA Tournament. She received the prestigious National Edward R. Murrow Award in 2017 for her work on the storyThen And Now: The Summer Of Justiceand a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award forNewman Basketball Coach And Wife Recount His Struggle With Depression—And His Return To ‘Normal’. In April 2016, Wichita State University presented Carla with the Wayne Carlisle Distinguished Service Award in April 2016. The Carlisle Award is presented to a WSU professional who models the standard of extraordinary service exhibited by the late Wayne Carlisle.
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As businesses around Kansas reopen and restrictions are lifted, more people are wearing masks when out in public. Black Americans are more likely to get coronavirus and die from it, but recent killings in Minneapolis and Georgia again show why black men are still worried about covering their faces. -
The number of black farmers in the U.S. is shrinking — down to less than 2% of total farmers — and many are losing their land. Members of the Kansas...
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Leola Montgomery is the widow of the Rev. Oliver Brown, the lead plaintiff in the 1954 landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka....
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Gov. Jeff Colyer is scheduled to sign an executive order on Friday night that will lead to the development of a state dementia plan. Kansas is the only...
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Sixty-four years ago, the United States Supreme Court handed down the decision to end legal segregation in the public school system as part of the Brown...
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Residents of Wichita, Kansas, are outraged after Boeing announced Wednesday that it will close a massive defense plant there. More than 2,000 highly skilled jobs will be gone by the end of next year. The announcement sparked considerable frustration among elected officials who had been lead to believe that more Boeing jobs were on the way to Wichita.
