Station Update 2009-08-18

 Hi folks,

I'm back from a long vacation, and from a busy July and need to update you all on some important information.

This message contains 4 important announcements:

1. Mandatory training for all DJs on using our playlist software

4. Air Conditioning

1. Playlist Software Training:
Starting in September, I will be holding a series of workshops to train each one of you how to use our new playlist software. EVERYONE will need to attend at least one training session - no exceptions (even if you are already using the playlist software. The reason we have to make these meetings mandatory is that new regulations governing web-streaming have just been finalized and there are many details that effect how you do your show. We are also now required to report our playlists to Sound Exchange (the organization collecting royalties from web-streaming). We MUST begin electronically submitting complete playlists covering two weeks worth of music programming starting Oct. 1st of this year. Failure to do so will result in huge fines from Sound Exchange.

2. Our Fall membership drive will run Friday Oct. 9th to Saturday October 17th. We'll need everyone's help making this the most successful drive in the station's history. The "Great Recession" is effecting everyone, including KSER, and in order to make it through the tough years ahead, we need as much money in the bank as possible. More information to follow, but please plan on being here during the pledge drive and putting together one of your best shows ever.

3. In the good news department, we've received a major grant from the Boeing Company to launch a new local call-in show, called Sound Living. Throughout our strategic planning process, the #1 message we consistently heard was: LOCAL. I believe that being THE local media service in our community is our singularly most important role and opportunity. No other broadcaster - Radio or TV - contributes as much as we do in support of local arts, the local music scene, and covering local politics and community concerns. In the last couple years, Boeing has been focusing its grant giving on two areas: the local environment and local civic engagement. Sound Living fits their goals perfectly, and they are solidly lined up behind this new program.

If you've tuned in the first Friday of each month for the past three months, you've heard the pilot programs Ed has been producing. They have all been extremely successful, generating lots of calls and community interest. In fact, the show has been so successful that he now has guests scheduled every WEEK for all of September and October. Community leaders are especially interested in participating, and we expect the program will generate significant financial support over the coming years as well.

This is what KSER has needed to expand our impact on the community and help us meet the financial challenges ahead. A high-profile, local call-in show will cover a huge variety of topics, meeting community needs no other media outlet in the County currently addresses. And by covering a huge variety of issues, the program will reach out to new listeners every week, bringing new members and new financial support from businesses, organizations, and communities.

Sound Living will begin airing Fridays at 3:00pm starting in September, but producing the program will take significant resources. Ed has been working at a completely exhausting pace for years - 10 hours/day, 5 days/week. Adding a whole new program to his plate is simply unsustainable in the long term. So Boeing has given us the grant to fund 2 new part-time positions to produce the program and create stronger connections to the community.

A new paid part-time Program Producer will work with Ed in producing the show each week, and over the course of 2 years, work to expand the program from weekly to daily (M-F). A second part-timer Online Mobilizer will be hired for a few hours a week to integrate our website and other online tools into Sound Living. The Online Mobilizer will be responsible for extending the functionality of and developing new tools for our Drupal website content management system and other web 2.0 solutions (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, MMS, etc.) . The goal is to create a live, online version of the show to reach a whole new (younger) demographic of online media users. I feel this is absolutely essential if community radio is going to survive the huge shift in media usage that is currently underway.

By focusing on the huge surge in audience during drive-time, we hope to greatly increase our overall membership income over the next two years. And because Boeing is paying the entire cost of our two new part-timers, we will incur only minor costs in setting up the program

I hope you all tune into Sound Living Friday afternoons, starting Sept. 4th. And of course, tell all your friends. Also, if you have an idea for show topic or a potential guest, please contact Ed.

4.
Finally, I hope all of you are enjoying the new air-conditioner in the air room! When I saw the forecast for 100 degree days a couple weeks ago, I realized something had to be done for you all.

I've wanted to put in an air conditioning system that is actually suited to radio, i.e. quiet. Unfortunately, those systems have been out of our budget range. But given the 100 degree heat, I figured something adequate was better than a perfect nothing. I hope you are all using the remote control to turn off the air-conditioner when you turn on the microphone. We hope to install an exhaust fan in the Production Room and the Community Room in the near future, to help keep those rooms cool as well.

Hope you are all having a wonderful summer. See you in September!