Programming Committee Meeting 8-4-14

Meeting called to order 5:22 pm

Present: Sybil Augustine, Molly Stentz, Karma Chavez, Sal Serio, Rich Samuels, Stuart Utley, Jim Schwall [Dan Ruggiero?]

Station Comment Log

– Someone called to protest Democracy Now’s coverage as anti-Israel

– Some comments made about programs and written in the log may never be seen by the hosts. Sybil addressed the question of how people can comment on our website. Questions being posted on WORT’s facebook page are also not reaching the proper audience. She said staff will be discussing this as well.

– The archives of the Fete de Marquette live remotes are doing really well on our website in terms of viewing/listenership.

Communications from the Board: none

Next meeting: 9/15 5 pm

July’s minutes: Approved. Dan will be the new secretary; he needs to meet with Molly to learn how to post the minutes on the PC blog at wortfm.org

Staff reports:

News and Public Affairs, Molly:

– There will be an attorney general candidates’ debate 8/5 on APA (live video and audio feed) – UW law school and chancellor are involved; feed will be main story posted on WORT’s home page

– last week was Tim Schneider’s first week (new web spinner); he’s very talented and doing great things

– She assembled a 20 item list of everything that has gone wrong with the Kiosk and called a meeting of the producers; all 5 indicated they would be there, and only 3 showed up

• made a plan based on meeting with those attending. Cut the program way back; 4 minutes, community calendar, and 1 commentary where they can reliably download it (Hightower); it will be same length every day; announcements recorded on Fridays, so that Molly can address any issues; experimenting with recording from home (Molly gave them a mic)
• it was a productive meeting; these changes have gone into effect
• Monday morning there were sound issues, like equivalent of a skipping CD
• drafted new standards, created a document of what needs to be done to do the program correctly (including the two who didn’t make the meeting, but one is unhappy with the new production schedule)
• idea is to make it easier to produce with fewer people involved, and if this can go smoothly, then maybe other things can be added to it

– had good feedback to the online promo form to record announcements

– station is trying to hire two new development staff before fall pledge drive begins

– Carousel Bayrd (host of Tues APA) won a Wisconsin Women of Commitment Award

– did impromptu shows on Thursday and Friday regarding Supreme Court Rulings

Music, Sybil:

– have received new applications, but there was no form to merge them. A volunteer created one but it’s not working with Sybil’s computer, so it’s hard to view them

– haven’t moved forward on replacing some hosts, but there are other new volunteers being trained, including sub-hosts for jazz

– some probationary hosts need to be reviewed – next targets for Quality Review

– she’ll submit some suggestions to the committee for how to modify the questions on the music program review in order to make them work better

– Tracy Vancura has joined the On the Horizon lineup, while Gloria Hays is away

– moving forward: mini disc players are failing, close to implementing digital promo system; giving up on working with Murfie on the proposal for a digital music library, but got email from a colleague in Grand Rapids and they’re using a system that looks promising. Will test it, offer feedback, and by fall it should be available as freeware

– getting announcements for positions translated into Spanish, which is a good thing and it shows we care about that community

– Felipe’s been catching up on stuff with computers

– talked with Tim about online music calendars – how can we have an easy tool to use by DJs and listeners, and that the public can add events to themselves?

– being at the Fete made it clear we need training on how to be a DJ and MC at a live remote, as it’s different than just MCing a stage or broadcasting at a normal remote

– next remote:   Orton Park Festival, then Willy Street Fair

– Gospel host applied for conference registration funds, which WORT is supporting

– sorted many CDs, put 1000 new ones in sale bins at the Fete

– sold out of raffle tickets at PanAfrica night, and we get to keep the money for the individual sales and also from some of the beer and wine sales – maybe up to $2000

– when we do remotes, file names get screwy on the archive; looking into fixing this

– The movie “Finding Fela” is getting shown around the country as a benefit, seeing if we can do something with it

– complaints about the hip-hop shows: a large audience of incarcerated people, and because of the calls they get from listeners, the shows turn into something more violent and misogynistic; it’s a music show [Issues with both Fri. and Saturday nights]

• some debate about how to shift the shows, if it is possible, especially in light of over- incarceration of African Americans
• the hosts have increasingly played more music that is offensive because that is what gets requested
• there are issues with shoutouts and gang fighting;
• talking with hosts individually never leads to changes, so Sybil sees a need to have a group meeting to talk through it
• Sal: the time slot makes a difference, the people listening at that hour want party music
• Rich: is there an opportunity to reach out to this listenership and do something different?
• Sybil: people will stop listening if they’re getting preached at, and we don’t have resources to continually monitor or cover late night shifts
• so do we have these discussions with the hosts or not? Sybil wants to have a meeting with interested parties and community resources before calling the hosts to meet with the Programming Committee.

Program Evaluations:

– one news/APA and two music; Sybil wants to update the music evaluation tool

– Quinlan and Bayrd are next on the APA side

– possible new committee member: John Hamilton? –follow up on facebook comments

Old business:

phone system updates; more tweaking, training to come. Broadcasting out of studio A is working better but there are some glitches – like wanting to dump multiple calls into vmail during public affairs and news programs.

Meeting adjourned around 7 pm

Notes: Karma Chavez