Evolving Program at a Glance
Tuesday October 15, 2019
Discover the tools and approaches to becoming a strong and effective public media leader. Objectives include: learning how to build a more diverse and authentic management team, and how to lead productive change throughout your organization that is responsive to the needs of an ever changing public media audience. The session incorporates lively conversation, small group exercises, peer-to-peer problem-solving, and more. The Workshop will be led by John Hess, COO, Arizona Public Media.
Class size limited to 10 people.
Lunch is included.
Fee: $350
Roll up your sleeves with the CDP team for this hands-on Workshop to help define a strategic roadmap to financial stability. We will look at national environmental factors and review the key system trend data collected from more than 200 public media stations. We will focus the conversation on the tools and best practices that put your station on the path to financial security. Learn about national fundraising metrics and how they compare to your station. The session will provide practical, actionable information on a variety of topics, such as: Public Media trends overview; Lessons Learned from other non-profit sectors; Local Matters and market potential; Acquisition and Retention; Audience, Prospects and Donor Engagement; and Key Revenue Metrics.
No additional fee, but you must pre-register.
Registration is limited to station-based conference attendees.
Space is limited.
At this Meet and Greet hosted by Tammy Terwelp, Aspen Public Radio Executive Director, you’ll get the inside scoop on how to make the best use of your time while at the conference. Listen as Tammy shares everything you need to know to plan your learning and event schedule and tips on networking with your public media peers.
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Following on the heels of an intensive series of regional cohort meetings over the summer, the conversation around the next NPR fee model will continue at the Super-Regional Meeting. This is an opportunity to catch up if you have not been following the conversation closely, and to share your feedback and recommendations with others. In this session, NPR will share an update on the latest changes to the draft NPR-Station Compact fee model in response to feedback from station leaders.
Public media executives who recently made the transition from newspaper and other media share their insights and observations as newcomers to our community. Hear about their experiences as they bring new perspectives and understanding to public broadcasting. The lessons learned can be applied across the public media landscape as we encounter new audiences, revenue and technological challenges.
You can’t do it alone. Public media news stations getting serious about going beyond their own walls to increase achieve scale and impact in their markets. Whether by a simple content-sharing agreement or an outright merger, public media stations are growing local journalism capacity, reaching new audiences and tapping into larger sources of philanthropy by joining forces with other news outlets in their markets. Hear from leaders on all sides of this growing trend to combat news deserts – and learn how you may do the same in your market.
Three GMs with small-station successes convene a session on building a winning team. Gain insights into the current state of small stations. Learn new productivity hacks and strategies be more consistently effective. This will be a group conversation, so bring your “small but mighty” success stories to share. Take away ideas you can use at your station.
Collaborations come in many forms: partnerships, hubs, state associations, and merged back office services, to name a few. These alliances are expanding and proliferating. Some have labeled this trend “coopetition.” Join us for a discussion about what works, what doesn’t, and how to look ahead and think through the possibilities. Learn about governance, structures and funding models that will help stations build scale in order to drive deeper connections to local communities across the country.
Public radio music stations are often unsung heroes: they play a remarkable role in developing emerging artists, supporting local musicians, and promoting established talent by providing multiple platforms and programs to connect with local (and national) audiences and to advance their careers. The noncomMUSIC Alliance will moderate a panel exploring how music stations can and do influence artist careers with opportunities for live performances, connecting artists to community resources, and with mentoring programs.
Raising money together is an essential element of the NPR-Member Station Compact. Join us for a discussion about proposed next steps in a co-created collaborative fundraising pilot.
Next year your station will need to “be more local.” That’s the future of public media… more local and more digital. For that reason, the New Orleans Super- Regional Meeting will bring you four outstanding – and replicable – models of local service in our Wednesday afternoon edition of Local that Works, a feature created by the Wyncote Foundation. We’ll see the four “finalists” drawn from the 105 projects submitted this year to Current’s Local that Works contest.
Our finalists range from community conversations in Wichita, Kansas to a “Parents Guide to Public Schools” in San Diego, California; from a seven-station, state-wide collaboration to fight the opioid addiction in Pennsylvania to a unique celebration of neighborhoods in Detroit captured through the lens of local photographers.
One hour, four great projects that will inspire you to “be more local” in 2020. Every attendee will be asked to vote for the most inspiring project, and the winner will be awarded a $5,000 check and a Universal station annual subscription to Current. So… mark your calendar and join us at 3:45 Wednesday for the next edition in this wildly popular Local that Works conference series.
Thursday, October 17, 2019
New ContentDepot® receivers will be arriving at your stations’ doors, ready for you to test in the coming months. Join NPR Distribution Vice President Mike Beach to learn about the new interconnection system’s innovative features. Mike will highlight PRSS’ efforts to help your station prepare for business recovery and become your community’s primary source for critical, life-saving information. Also, learn about the new PRSS training program for new and skilled engineers. Paul Maassen, WWNO, will demonstrate how MetaPub, the PRSS service that synchronizes text, images and links with live broadcasts, is helping his station attract new audiences, on-air and online, and how he and his staff are prototyping the next generation of MetaPub.
Featured Speaker: Larry Rosin, President, Edison Research
Since 2014 Edison Research has been performing its groundbreaking “Share of Ear” study, which measures the entire world of audio. This presentation will document the changes seen as audio experiences dynamic transformation. What is up, what is down, where will things go next, and what does it mean to you? You will get the answers from this exclusive presentation.
The system-wide Culture of Journalism initiative is gaining momentum. We have learned a lot about the most important challenges confronting news leaders across the country. They’re battling: undeserved reputations for “liberal bias;” questions about whether management is committed to journalism ethics; the difficulties that come with covering themselves; and, in many places, doubts about whether their GMs will have their backs when they make difficult editorial decisions. Here’s your chance to hear about how senior management and journalists can tackle these issues and then work together to improve our products and strengthen our stations.
The FCC is revising its rules and systems to reflect today’s changing environment. Learn new ways to protect your license under the new rules. Hear about hot button enforcement issues and their impact on license renewals, the new FM Translator interference regime, updated FCC filing systems that require learning new skills, online public file tricks and the fast-approaching unified filing deadline for biennial ownership reports. You’ll also hear about efforts to simplify ownership reporting for public stations, CBD and other underwriting challenges, and new noncommercial educational station point system selection procedures.
Radio is a century old and will be around for years to come, but the nature of listeners, listening and our communities is changing. Radio broadcasting alone may not be enough to create sustainable community impact and revenue over the long-term. This session will focus on how stations are seeking to become more significant institutions in their communities with radio as the foundation.
With significant gains made over the past five years, public media is undertaking a new push to tap the potential of major giving. CPB recently awarded a grant to Greater Public for the Major Giving Academy, to advance stations’ efforts in mining their own member databases for major givers and to create a new mindset about major giving. The project will train more than 300 major gifts officers and station leaders over the next two years.
Joining us for lunch will be Patty Cahill, Vice Chair, CPB Board of Directors and Kathy Merritt, CPB’s Senior Vice President of Journalism and Radio, who will moderate a discussion with Joyce MacDonald, President and CEO of Greater Public, and Richard Perry, Founding Partner of Veritus Group, creator of the Academy. They will talk about how to build donor relationships that move from transactional to transformational. In addition, Jim East, Senior Vice President of Development at Colorado Public Radio, will talk about how his station is changing its approach to major giving through a pilot program with Veritus Group.
Cities across the United States are learning from their colleagues in Canada and Europe to develop and implement music strategies – pragmatic initiatives designed to strengthen local music ecosystems. Noncommercial radio is playing a large role in these strategies, including WYEP that is leading the effort in Pittsburgh. These plans combine research and collaboration between industry and the public/philanthropic sectors to identify specific action items and priorities. The nonprofit Music Policy Forum provides support and best practices across North America. In this interactive workshop, we will walk through why a strategy is important, discuss case studies of how strategies are being implemented, and examine scenarios to develop and launch local efforts.
After 50 years of WYSO ownership by Antioch College, it became a community-owned licensee this year. Learn about this complex political, financial and legal transformation. This session explores how a legacy public radio station became independent from its longtime institutional licensee. In a frank discussion of the obstacles confronted and overcome, the emphasis will be on describing practical win-win strategies developed for both the original as well as the new community licensee’s benefit.
Join NPR Chief Digital Officer Tom Hjelm and members of the NPR Digital Media team to hear more about new frontiers and challenges in audio distribution, strategies and tools for deepening engagement across platforms, approaches to digital membership, and updates on the rollout of the new NPR-Member station content management system.