WAMU 88.

5 COMMUNITY COUNCIL
Minutes of the Meeting of the Council
Wednesday, May 10, 2017

WAMU Community Council Members Attending:

Eugene Sofer; Council Chair, Shay Stevens; Vice Chair, Armele Vilceus, Margaret O’Bryon, Dr. Christine
Berg, Maura Brophy, Donna MP Willson, David Nemazi, Stan Soloway, Avis Thomas-Lester, David Smith,
Nakeisha Neal Jones, Kumera Genet, Navros Gandhi, Audrey Alvarado, Lucinda Crabtree, Susan Weiss,
Kumera Genet, Don Britton
Peter Tannenwald and Matt McCormick, ex-officio
WAMU/AU Staff Attending:
JJ Yore, Carey Needham, Andi McDaniel, Rob Bertrand, Audrey Johnson, James Coates, Bianca Salinas,
Alicia Montgomery, Latisha Few, Patrice Jackson, Nancy Guis, Madeleine Poore
Members of the Public:
Gar W. Young, Steve Kaffen, Timothy Tilghman, Cliff Brody, Lisa Bregman, Dani Kauffman, Lisa Shepard,
Carolyn Finney.
I. Welcome – Eugene Sofer, Council Chair

Eugene opened the meeting at 7:02 p.m.

II. State of the Station Report - JJ Yore, Andi McDaniel, Carey Needham, Alicia Montgomery
and Shay Stevens
A. Strategic Plan Recap: JJ Yore, General Manager

JJ began his presentation by sharing numbers of our listenership. The number of millennials listening
to WAMU grew over 50%, for underwriting the most important demographic is 24 to 54 and we’re
up almost 50% compared to 18% in commercial stations.

The upcoming membership campaign is scheduled for June 5-16, it will be a quiet summer
campaign, where we won’t be interrupting programming. We’re specifically asking listeners to
support the News and Information Fund.
If you think you’re hearing more of us on air asking for money more often, you’re right, we’re on air
more often, still far less than commercial stations. Our member count and revenue has increased so
we are seeing the financial benefit from it.
Nakeisha asked if since our members have gone up has the frequency of donations also increased?
James Coates from the Membership Department was able to answer this question, yes we have seen
an increase in both.
 JJ explained that we’re exploring options about Board and Governance options. We have pulled
together a lot of research about the ways other universities manage their public media. JJ met with
the university to begin the exploration of potentially creating a board and exploring other governance
options. We’re not sure how this will play out or if it will come to fruition, but we’re excited to see
where it goes.
The Marketing & Engagement department is being built and we have hired a search firm to begin
looking for a director.
B. Journalism and Content – Andi McDaniel
Andi presented content updates, including a little tease on programing changes. It’s been over a year
since we did our last set of program adjustments. In October, when the “real” end of Car Talk
happens we need to have a program to replace it, we’re looking at our options now.
We’re hoping to bring back public space, the time slot that the The Big Listen grew out of. The
purpose would be to air specials in this hour and to allow for creative projects to flourish. We’re
looking at bringing this back on a week day night. We’re also thinking about a 1 hour evening version
of 1A.
David Nemazie asked if the evening 1A would be a replay or new content, and Andi said potentially
both, it would be highlights of the 2 hours in the morning as well as any breaking updates.
Andi gave updates about 1A’s success so far, explaining that it’s been doing incredibly well, our goal
was to reach 75% of DRS carriage by the end of year one, right now we’re over 100%
Andi also discussed what we’re calling the “Trump Effect.”. We are having a conversation about the
new administration and its impact on our region; this essentially taps into voices around the region
asking people to submit their ideas.
David Nemazie, asked about Indivisible, covering the first 100 days, he liked the program and asked
if it’s going to continue. Andi answered that it was only developed to cover the first 100 days and
won’t be carried beyond April 27th.
C. Community Dialogues- Alicia Montgomery and Shay Stevens
Alicia and Shay addressed the Council to discuss the ways they are repositioning and branding the
Community Dialogues moving forward. To better fit our goal, which is an off the record, intimate
conversation between journalists and producers and local experts on a certain topic, and not truly for
the community. Moving forward the name will be Community Council News Briefings. The times
might also be changing because we’re hoping to be more inclusive of the news team, and better
accommodate their schedule. Avis made a comment about the benefit of it being later in the day.
Shay and Alicia will be in touch with more information.

D. Finances – JJ Yore and Carey Needham

JJ gave an overview of the station’s finances over the past 10 years, explaining how we moved out of
a 1.5-Million-dollar deficit and ended up with a $23-Million surplus, and the guidelines developed
going forward on how we are going to steward that money. The two main buckets of money will be
used to “Protect” and “Grow and Invest”

 Protect: pay off AU debt, grow reserve, infrastructure, compensation and our
endowment and to
  Grow and Invest: Marketing and Engagement, Regional News, Infrastructure, R&D
Fund, New services. Financial Projections FY18-FY22,

Carey walked us through FY 17 financials. We’ve seen increases in every fundraising category, in
September when we were projecting deficits in underwriting we were pleasantly surprised to learn
while they are still under budget they are catching up quickly, and $1 Million ahead of where they
were this time last year. With a 50% increase in Dec – March and a 78% increase between March –
April.

We will exceed our stretch targets for membership, major giving, and miscellaneous/earned income
in 2017. Membership count is up 50% over the last 18 months – 75,000 now & had been around
50,000 for several years between 2011-2016. This is our first time having a surplus in 5 years, we also
spent a little more than we intended. But we will end the year with a surplus, we aren’t sure where it
will land yet but it should be between 2-3 million.
Lucinda asked if we’d consider this the “Trump Effect”, and Carey said yes, there’s no doubt about
that. , “The Trump Effect” has been a big factor in the audience growth and the interest in
underwriting.
We’ve also been notified by a few estate attorneys that we will be receiving around $1.2 million
dollars in bequests. And we’re looking at the possibility of selling WYAU, which could bring in
around $300K.
We have ramped up our institutional giving in major ways including increasing the “ask” and seeking
multi-year commitments. The CPB grant is 20% greater than the grant we received year ago. And we
are intentional in building a broader base of donor support. We have more than $5 million in grants
pending that we could see realize in the first three months of the new fiscal year. The impact of
these grants cuts across the station. For example, we built in underwriting in the proposal to the
Koch Institute.
David Nemazie asked about the bequests and suggested putting them directly into an endowment,
Carey discussed that that is an idea they are looking it.
Gar asked the estimated cost of antenna replacement, Carey answered it’s around $1.5M..

III. Diversity Initiative - JJ Yore, Lettie Holman, Tish Few

JJ explained that there are three major areas we’re focusing on when talking about Diversity: Staff,
Content and Audience. In regards to Staff, we’ve increased the percentage of non-white staff from 28
percent in 2016 to 34 percent in 2017. There’s also a staff diversity committee that meets to discuss
these issues and propose solutions.
In regards to content, there’s been a conscious effort to diversify the sound of our station. Some
notable changes JJ mentioned are: Hiring Joshua Johnson, Heather Taylor the voice of Underwriting,
and Anacostia Unmapped.
And Audience: We’ve seen a small increase in Black listenership which has increased 22% from
87,400 weekly cume during Winter 2016 to 106,700 during Winter 2017. Hispanic listenership has
increased 99.8% from 53,300 to ??
Tish Few explained that for defining diversity, we looked at best practices around the country; and
there are six categories we’ll talk about today. In terms of the need and justification of the plan, we
made sure to be specific to our region and listeners, and making sure we are reflective of our area
while developing our plan.
Priorities and Goals: We’re dedicated to an organizational culture, talent acquisition and
development, programming and engagement with the community.
Delegation of Responsibilities: Has to come from the top—JJ has been on board and been a part of
this entire process. Diversity Committee, reporting out to the Community Council, CPB we’re also
working with the leadership team to make sure we’re in compliance.
Maura Brophy asked if WAMU released a statement about the racist incidents at American
University on Monday, May 1st. JJ explained we didn’t release a statement but we did cover it
extensively. Alicia explained the coverage we had, from reporter Brakkton Booker.
Nakeisha Neal Jones asked about how we’re engaging our audience as well as staff and letting them
know they are included with a sense of community.
Tish explained that we created an internal onboarding packet, in addition to AUs. And the diversity
committee has been working on is other ways to engage the staff and better share information
internally. JJ adds we need to figure out how to focus on retention, one of the things we’re doing this
summer is a climate survey, this is a work in progress. Not only are we brining people in, but are we
retaining people.
Lettie then began her portion of the presentation looking at our audience numbers in relation to our
goals around diversity. She explained what we’re seeing on public radio and specifically WAMU. In
the winter of 2017 WAMU was #1 station in the Washington region.
We are trying to diversify our listenership and are looking to Prince Georges County, the most
affluent majority Black county in the country. College education is the prime predictor on whether
you’re going to listen to public radio and 72% of DC metro has some a college degree with 54% of
Prince Georges County and 79% of WAMU listeners.
Our 5 Year plan is to increase listening by African Americans overall. Our goals are to increase
listening (AQH) 1% per year over 5 years. Listeners increase Cume 20%. And then our 5 Year plan
for Prince Georges County AQH increase 100% per year and Listeners Cume, increase by 15% per
year.
Explanation of Terms:
If WAMU were a store rather than a radio station, the weekly cume is the total number of different
shoppers in the store.

AQH listeners represent the number of shoppers in the store during any fifteen minutes. AQH
listeners stay and shop longer, and come back for more return trips compared to cume listeners who
only shop once.

Share is the percentage of those listening to radio who are listening to WAMU.

Cume Rating is WAMU's weekly cume audience expressed as a percentage of the Washington,
DC population.
How do we accomplish this? Through community engagement, event series and really getting into
the community. Next, we need to do research with focus groups, two groups first of current listeners
and then of people who fit the educational and psychographic profile who don’t currently listen.
Advertising & Branding in Prince Georges County, bus backs, simply by being visible in the area we
will increase our cume. We’re focusing on Prince George’s County because that’s where we have the
biggest shortfall.

IV. Public Comment-

Steve Kaplin, long-time listener and supporter, gave advice on looking at diversity as it relates to the
station. He also complimented the new website and said adding visual elements not just audio will be
beneficial.
Gar Young, a long-time listener and supporter, mentioned that he is thrilled about the progress in
finances. He asked a question about evening programming, beyond 1A what might be in
development as an alternative for the evening.
V. Adjournment-
The Council Chair, Gene Sofer, called for a motion to approve the minutes from the February
meeting, minutes were approved unanimously at 8:53 p.m. Being no further business, the motion
was made to adjourn the meeting, seconded and approved by the Council. The meeting was
adjourned at 8:56 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Madeleine Poore