Working Christmas

Christmas With Jim Glynn

Back in the day...I used to work on all the holidays. It was a part my job as Music Director for WUWM. I was responsible for scheduling music programming including on-air staff. Most of the music shifts were filled by volunteers and students. Full-time staff would fill-in as needed and, around the holidays we were needed. We did the work but, all of us would rather have been with our families.

The most memorable came around Christmas. To be sure, I didn't want to be there. But, something changed for me when filling in as board operator for Jim Glynn. Jim was a musician and one of our jazz announcers. His shift was on Friday nights. The music reflected his tastes and Jim as an individual. His music was mellow as was his conversation. I enjoyed the laid-back atmosphere he created. Jim preferred to be in the control room with the operator for better interaction so, the conversation between stopsets flowed freely and the topics were broad and always interesting.   

Christmas fell on the Friday and Saturday in successive years. Both years I brought refreshments; oranges, chocolate and tea. The music, conversation and treats were shared freely. I truly enjoyed the interaction with Jim. It was a great combination. Good Music - Good Food - Good Conversation. The flavors, music and the conversation made for memorable evenings. It's a Christmas experience I will always remember. Thanks, Jim and Merry Christmas!

WBEZ Workers Unionize

I admit that I'm a bit behind on news and trends in public media. My three paying gigs are taking up more of my time.

I find it intriguing that another public media outlet is unionizing. Chicago Public Media workers voted 40 - 7 in favor of joining the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

Does the need to organize represent that public radio is growing up, at least at the larger stations? It might also mean that workers feel a need to protect themselves against management. I do recall putting in a lot of hours and getting little in return because I believed in the mission. Being let go a few times flies in the face of those beliefs.

You can find more in Trib-Town with a link to an article in the Chicago Sun Times.

Contributions to Public Radio and TV intersect

As contributions to public radio continue to increase...the contributions to public television continue to decline.

This trend has everything to do with programming. The reasons for the sad decline in programming can be attributed to the splintering of the marketplace but, public radio is feeling the same pressures. Public TV has done, at least in part, this to itself.

Those of us who have been around the system for a while remember the research put out by Audience Research Analysis called the Stairway to Given.

ARA called it the Stairway to Given
1.      Aware of the services/a user of the service.
2.      The user relies on the service.
3.      The content or service must be personally important.                    

Personal importance and sense of community. This is the idea that the content and                     the services are the ties that bind together people with certain shared values.  

4.      Funding Beliefs – Users must believe their support is crucial. They must understand that funding from other sources is only a piece of the fiscal puzzle. Individual support is the most reliable source of income.  

5.       Household income is a contributing factor in whether someone will give, but that it is not nearly as significant as the other steps of The Stairway to Given. People give because they rely on the service, find it personally important and believe their contributions are truly needed.

It starts with the content. There's a direct correlation between the loyalty of the audience and its willingness to contribute. PTV seems to have lost that along the way. Each time I stumble across another showing of Celtic Woman or another broadcast of the Moody Blues, I've wondered if others have found this to be as far off mission as I do. Do these fundraisers really appeal to the core audience? And, if PTV can't fundraise around core programming, what does that say? The answer always seems to be more fundraising!

There's a really good graphic published in Current.Org that shows this trend. The statistics are provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.