WFIU Community Advisory Board Meeting
Indiana University Radio & Television Center, Faculty and Staff Lounge
July 30 at 4 p.m.
Prepared by Mia Partlow
Attending: John Bailey, Katie Becker, David Bowden, Cary Boyce, Marty Donnelly, Becky Cape, Laura Ginger, Peter Jacobi, Nancy Krueger, Nan McEntire, Mike McGregor, Ellen Sedlack, Janis Starcs, Janet Stavropoulos, Charlotte Zietlow
Absent: Carolyn Calloway-Thomas, Jane Clay, Pamela Davidson, Mary Hall, Lewis Ricci, Lynn Schwartzberg, Judy Witt, Lorinda Youngcourt
Janis called the meeting to order at 4:00pm. Minutes approved.
Cary’s Move Away From WFIU
• Cary thanked the CAB for their hard work, and the CAB gave Cary a lovely token of their appreciation for his time at WFIU.
• Cary says the station is fiscally sound and is in a great position.
• John Bailey will be Interim Station Operations Director.
• The search has already begun for the Station Operations Director position. Opening up the Station Manager position is still not an option.
WFIU Programming & Operations Updates
• Cary reports we are still having problems with the equipment we received from NPR. We are trying to work it out, but in the mean time we plan to have people in the studio over the weekend to monitor the signal. This weekend This American Life had an error because of their producers.
• Bowden: regardless of the issues, the protocols you’ve put in place are working, because I think only close listeners would have noticed your mistake.
• Friday and Saturday night schedule changes: some CAB members have had to adjust their listening habits.
• Cary reports there are some radio specials in the planning stages, including an Orthodox Christmas music special and a Motown special.
• WFIU did an informal survey of our listeners—asking them to call or write an email—about the Car Talk hosts’ retirement. To our surprise, it was split about 50/50 between people want to keep it and those who want to replace it, with it possibly being weighted more heavily to the side of people wanting to keep it.
• There are other things attached to Car Talk, including the vehicle donation program, underwriting, and the fact that it’s a gateway program for new listeners. We’ll keep it for now, but at some point may shift it to a different time, or over to HD2.
• The WFIU/WTIU News Department will be at the Farmers Market on August 18 soliciting story ideas. They’ll have a booth and encourage people to come tell reporters what they think we should be covering.
• The News Department has also create a daily newsletter, where you can get WFIU news directly to your inbox every day. Sign up by going to this link: http://indianapublicmedia.org/subscribe/mail/
• StateImpact is creating a one-hour back to school special.
• Ask the Mayor will now feature Sue Murray, the Greencastle mayor. The Columbus Mayor dropped out.
o Metz: The Columbus mayor dropped out because she though Stan followed up on his questions in an abrasive way. She had previously felt blind-sided and didn’t feel it show her at her best. I think there is room in a regular appearance to chat before you start, especially about controversial issues. I don’t find that unreasonable for a news person. We’ll keep the door open with her.
o Bowden: I heard about it. Quite a few in Columbus were really mad. Several people encouraged her to get out of the program.
o Ginger: I was surprised by the tone.
o Metz: My discomfort is that we were responding to an anonymous letter. There is always an agenda with an anonymous letter, even if what they say is true. there’s no context.
• David Brent Johnson will act as a host at the Crown Street Jazz Festival in Greencastle.
Upcoming Events:
• August 18 WFIU/WTIU News at the Farmers Market
• September 28 WFIU/WTIU Open House. 7-9pm in WTIU’s Studios. (Replaces the Listener Reception!)
• October 15-18 CyberDays Online Fund Drive
• October 19-28 Fund Drive
Other Updates
• WFIU Membership surpassed its goal for FY2012 by $14,000.
• WFIU’s revenue from the Public Radio Exchange (PRX) is down a little this year. Cary says we need a fresh look at our specials.
• Bowden: do we really have the resources to continue producing content at this pace? I’m astounded by the output.
• Janis Starcs agrees.
• Cary: the face of public radio is changing. The crew is aware of this. You’ve got to push content to get ahead of the curve, and gain a national audience.
• Nancy Krueger is excited about the mobile app we might be able to develop, thanks to connections made by Katie Becker. You will be able to stream WFIU from your phone, and there’s a member card component! Member card 2-for-1 dining info at your fingertips.
• Becker: We should look at how younger audiences listen to stuff. I don’t own a radio. If it weren’t for streaming I wouldn’t be able to listen to WFIU, and that is true for a lot of people under 30. But we add value with our local content, and connect with future donors.
• Bowden appreciates the business news we produce, and admires David Wood’s program Horizons in Music and Angela Mariani’s Harmonia. Are we putting these on PRX?
• Boyce: Yes, we put those programs on PRX, but typically specials do better. Harder to syndicate weekly programs through that site.
Next Meeting: Monday, October 1 at 4pm.