WFIU Community Advisory Board Meeting
Indiana University Radio & Television Center, Faculty and Staff Lounge
April 5, 2010 at 4 p.m.
Prepared by Josephine McRobbie
Attending: David Bowden, Carolyn Calloway-Thomas, Jane Clay, Pam Davidson, Marty Donnelly, Peter Jacobi, Nancy Krueger, Christina Kuzmych, Mike McGregor, Perry Metz, Lewis Ricci, Janis Starcs, Janet Stavropoulos, Charlotte Zietlow.
Absent: Laura Ginger, Becky Cape, Lynn Schwartzberg, Jefferson Shreve, Judy Witt, Leonard Newman, Nan McEntire, Gwyn Richards, Walt Niekamp.
Janis called the meeting to order at 4:03pm. Minutes approved with the hyphen added to Carolyn’s name ☺
Old Business
• PBS/NPR won Peabody Awards this year – 6 for public radio, 8 for public TV.
• Wait Wait.. Don’t Tell Me! premiered, to a lot of feedback – mostly positive. One critique from Jane is that it is too long. We do intend to keep it, as we raised money for it separately.
• Some still don’t know that we have a second channel, but the HT ads help
• We have launched improved Earth Eats and Harmonia sites
• Online production is going well, we are doing more with TV and waiting on the PBS video player to launch
• IPBS and all stations are covering the primary elections. Indiana is playing an important role this year! There will be an evening production from the statehouse, plus a website that incorporates all IPBS stations. We’re acting as a clearinghouse and online manager, all stations will provide content. We’re not sure if we can stream the debate for the Republican Primary.
Automation
• We have increased automation on Sunday during the day, and we’ll also be working on Saturday. This has to do with us losing our funding, because it helps us better utilize our staff as arts reporters. We will still have local news, might be able to use a weather service that’s used by some public radio stations. There is an automatic message when there is a weather emergency, but not follow-up. Our automation system makes it so that an announcer or engineer doesn’t need to be there on a regular Sunday.
• Jane: You should take advantage of Directions in Sound and describe what you’re doing, so people know what’s going on.
• Peter: Including some “behind the scenes” stuff in the guide would be great
• Lewis: We had a couple of public meetings at the IAC, and those were helpful
• David: I’m worried that we’ll lose some of our announcers, and that the on-air sound will sound canned
• Christina: We won’t lose announcers, but some of them will pre-record their on-air programs. This is actually easier for us, and you have more control over the on-air sound. We’re doing this in times where the announcer needs less spontaneity, where they are saying less.
• What are the benefits? We will be putting more effort into arts reporting (you’ll hear some of these right before noon). Repositioning staff so that they are arts, news, and community reporters. Using our people in more creative ways. We don’t have to spent money to hire people to be “babysitters” for times where they are on the air for 10 minutes out of the hour.
• David: David Wood’s prerecorded nights are brilliant, Stan and Annie are wonderful prerecorded. But we would miss George live. It’s meaningful for us to have those live announcers.
• Christina: We can structure it so it sounds more “live”. For instance, have someone there for the first or last 20 minutes of a program.
• Peter: You can’t tie a policy to George, because we don’t know when he’ll retire. The real question is – is a live announcer essential during certain times?
• George would have an increase in reporting. We’d love to have him do more arts reviewing and reporting. His knowledge lends itself more to that than to pushing buttons in the studio.
• We’re just now beginning to see what we can do with technology, as far as automating.
• David: I like the idea of a mixture.
• There is someone in TMC (Television Master Control) monitoring our stations, but they are not able to do a weather report. Generally we have to wait for Joe Hren to come provide reports.
• There needs to be a plan in place for emergencies. There must be a way for someone to call in to the on-air studio and update? Christina: Yes, there is. But you give up a lot of security.
• Are there alarm/monitoring services for automated radio stations? Good question.
New Business
• Elinor Ostrom and British Ambassador to the U.S. Sir Nigel Sheinwald are going to be here soon for Profiles interviews
• We’re losing our News Bureau Chief, Ann Shea, in August ☹
• We had a wonderful event at the Lilly – made $600
• We’re doing another fundraiser, with Michael Barone, on May 1st. Tickets will be free but hard to get. There will be a $20 dinner.
• We have a hard time deciding what to charge for events. Pam: When in doubt, charge more.
• We’re still expecting a 50% cut from the state. Perry met with Provost Hanson, she is aware of our cuts. She went to great lengths to offer some protections to us as far as university cuts. They are not planning to levy a double cut.
• Our lobbyist is hopeful that if the state revenue shows an upswing, that our supporters will ask the Gov. to release some of the funds.
• Lewis: IAC is operating at a 30% cut as of right now, and they told us not to expect to get the holds back.
• But the Indianapolis Zoo is showing record numbers this year!
• We’re looking for ways to get money.
• We got another DeHaan grant for Harmonia, and applied for the E. Nakamichi grant again.
• Indiana Humanities Council turned us down for an Earth Eats grant.
• John and Lynn Bower made an estate gift, recorded a promo
• Pam: I tell people that WFIU/WTIU are in my estate plan. Everyone can do it, even 1%!
• I really think we can encourage people to do this – Pam needs to write something for the guide ☺
• We have launched the Harmonia store (http://indianapublicmedia.org/harmonia/shop/) – it’s a way of making passive income. Anything that’s purchased off Amazon or Café Press gives us some residuals. We have 180 stations carrying this program, each episode will contain a small message saying you can buy music and other items online. How about: We’re Baroque – So Spend Some Money (credit Lewis!)
• You might be seeing an online fund drive in the summer. But with public school cuts, we have to be careful about where and when we ask for money. Charlotte: I feel like TV is wearing itself thin.
• We might pair up, carefully, with another organization so we can do some online fundraising with them.
• Pam: Also let people know they can give in ways other than cash.
• We have an application in for Terre Haute and Columbus transmitters. We hope to know in August.
• David and Janis: We like the Record Shelf a lot. Several: We like Sounds Choral
• Harp Dreams screening is coming up.
• Quarryland are donating to the Cobine Fund Joe’s Anniversary
• April 22we are hosting the Spring Recycled Music Sale
• IU President Michael McRobbie did a rock show on WFIU during Just You and Me recently, Pam loved it ☺
• Peter Jacobi recently conducted interviews with Angela Brown and Jorja Fleezanis.
Next meeting is July 12, then fund drive
Janis made a motion to adjourn at 5:22pm, Jane seconded.