Student Media Board
MINUTES

REGULAR MEETING
April 8, 2008 • 7 p.m.
Student Media Conference Area
Witherspoon Student Center

CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 7:04 p.m. by chair Peyton Holland.

PRESENT: Selby Lo, Peyton Holland, Laura Laurene, Melissa Patzwaldt, Bob Ashley, Dean Phillips, John Clark, Phil Zachary, Al McArthur, Mary Beth Hamrick, Josh Harrell, Joe Wright, Kyle Robb, Bradley Wilson

OTHERS PRESENT: Steve McCreery, Jamie Lynn Gilbert, Fred Eaker, Saja Hindi, John Cooper Elias, Kishea Phillips

ABSENT: Alicia Davis, Vincent Sheehan, Sherry O’Neal, Bobby Mills

Approval of the minutes from March 11, 2008 meeting CLICK HERE The minutes were approved without objection

NEW BUSINESS

    1. Student Media Board of Directors spring election results

    Peyton Holland first announced that Student Body President Bobby Mills appointed Melissa Patzwald to fill the vacancy created when Laura Kenny was removed from the Board for lack of attendance.

    In the 2008 spring general election of the NCSU student body, two students (of the three open seats) were elected to fill seats on the NCSU Student Media Board of Directors beginning May 1, 2008.

    • Melissa Patzwald received 2,610 votes (50.4%)
    • Crystal Clark received 2,574 votes (49.6%)
    1. Budget

      2. Bradley reviewed the Technician advertising spring 2008 and expressed concern about how far down it was, an average of $2,423.25/issue, far short of our goal of $3,000/issue. He attributed the downturn to student staffing issues as well as a slowdown in the economy. He pointed out that income is what drives our budget process, so a decline in income means a decline in available funds for expenditure.

      Then the Board reviewed the March 31, 2008 income/expenditures to date. They noted that the Agromeck continues to be over budget largely because of expenses that crossed the fiscal year. The Nubian Message has also fallen short of its advertising goals, only realizing 49 percent of its income to date. The Technician has outspent its income by about $90,000. The Technician may come close to exceeding its budgeted expense amount, meaning it will be outspending income by a significant amount. Measures have to be taken to bring expenses in line with income, but the focus needs to be on bringing up the income. Windhover will have some large bills related to printing in the next few weeks. WKNC has, for the first time in at least five years, realized more than it has spent. General administration is on track.

      Bradley said he anticipated ending the year about $63,000 in the red for overall Student Media, of which $15,000 should be for initial expenses related to HD radio and $19,833 was for AdPro. That means that overall, Student Media will be in the red by about $28,000 or 3.4 percent over budget.

      Board members then reviewed the 2008-2009 budget. This overall budget shows some decreases across the Board. However, overall, it presents an aggressive income and spending package that results in a 7 percent budget increase.

      • Student Fee monies will result in $386,130 of income, budgeted at 97.6 percent of income as requested by the budget office despite us having collected 100 percent for the past several years.
      • Agromeck, down 17 percent to balance with projected income, including $24,000 in advertising and $12,375 in sales.
      • Nubian Message down 4 percent including $1,000 in advertising income.
      • Technician up 16 percent including $399,362 of advertising ($382,515 budgeted this year), but that includes five special issues, and two exam week issues that will not be published if the income is not there to cover payroll and printing. It also includes eight Technician grants funded solely through advertising dollars to recruit and retain young staff members.
      • Windhover is down 3 percent. Still solely reliant on fee monies.
      • WKNC is up 11 percent to reflect increased income, including $14,100 from Wolfpack Sorts, $5,000 from concerts, $29,250 from sponsorships.
      • General Administration is up 1 percent to reflect mandated salary increases for professional staff, 4 percent for EPA employees and 3 percent for SPA empoloyees.

      The budget was not final, and Bradley said there will inevitably be some minor changes to get it balanced and to meet the demands of the various levels of approval including the approval of Michael Giancola, the budget office and the vice chancellor's office.

      The budget was approved unanimously after some discussion particularly on increasing income. Phil Zachary said it was certainly not a problem of producing inferior products. He said he was continually impressed with the quality of the products being produced by the students, products he called "spectacular." He stressed how important it is to pay attention to the budget and the budget process as that it something administrators have to deal with, no matter their position.

      After the discussion of the budget, the Board had a brief discussion of student television and possibly creating more video presence, particularly online. Board members stressed the need to keep creativity in the video medium, no matter what form it ultimately takes. They also discussed how creating video on the Web was a much better alternative than creating a "student television station."

    2. End of year party — April 21 at 5:45 p.m. on Harris Field
    3. Announcements
      • Agromeck — Mary Beth showed the Board members a copy of the 2007-2008 yearbook that would be distributed April 16. She was commended by Board members for producing a great product, not only on time, but early. Individuals on staff also found out today, they won quite a few individual Gold Key awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. These will be posted online.
      • Nubian Message — Al said the Nubian Message openhouse would be April 17 at 5:30 p.m., a recruitment opportunty. He asked Board members what they would suggest for improving the product. Bob Ashley said the staff should focus on recruiting enough staff to have a broad array of stories. Dean Phillips said to focus on the quality of the writing, which he said goes right to credibility. Phil Zachary said that having an African-American candidate for president has increased the attention given to media like the Nubian Message and could pull media like the Nubian Message to the mainstream. Keep your identity. Decide what you want the publication to be. Be reflective of what's happening. John Clark said for the staff not to get caught in the trap of doing the same thing the same ol’ way all the time. Question angles. Look for things that aren't obvious.
      • Technician — Josh Harrell said he was extremely pleased with the audio-visual work of the photographers this week, producing one slideshow per day during Agriculture Awareness Week. He said the year went by very fast, but having professionals on the Board has "been amazing" and he appreciated all their efforts.
      • Windhover — Joe distributed a copy of the 2008 edition of Windhover, that arrived today. The CDs will be added later. The Windhover reception is April 20 at 7 p.m. in Caldwell Lounge.
      • Business office — David Mason said he will be pushing the staff to increase sales as they focus on training as well. The advertising Web site developed by Fred Eaker is being tested now.
      • NCCMA — 13 NCSU staff members attended the first North Carolina Scholastic Media Association conference at UNC-Chapel Hill this year. NCSU will host the conference probably next Februrary. Bradley was elected to chair the steering committee to form the organization.
      • SIPA — NCSU and UNC-Chapel Hill will co-host the Board meeting of the Southern Interscholastic League Press Association next September. This is part of our continued efforts to recruit quality high school students and to make high school advisers aware of what we can offer.

REPORTS

    1. Agromeck CLICK HERE
    2. Americana CLICK HERE
    3. The Nubian Message CLICK HERE
    4. Technician CLICK HERE
    5. Windhover CLICK HERE
    6. WKNC 88.1fm CLICK HERE
    7. Society for Collegiate Journalists CLICK HERE
    8. Business office CLICK HERE

EXECUTIVE SESSION
The Student Media Advisory Board may adjourn into executive session to discuss matters of litigation, potential litigation or personnel.

ADJOURN

 

REPORTS
Due by April 4 at noon

AGROMECK
(submitted by Mary Beth Hamrick, editor)

Personnel —Now that Coop has been hired as editor for next year we have been working on assembling an editorial staff to work on next year's book. Right now, it looks like all of the staff members will be returning. The struggles with a young staff have definitely paid off!

Production Schedule — We sent the final pages to the plant during the second week of March. We received the final copy of the book on April 1 and will be receiving the entire shipment of books by April 11.

Promotion and Marketing — We have planned an event to promote and sell the book in a partnership with the Bookstore on April 16.

TOP

AMERICANA

NO REPORT

TOP

NUBIAN MESSAGE
(Submitted by Al McArthur, editor)

NO REPORT

TOP

TECHNICIAN
(submitted by Josh Harrell, editor)

Budget — Saja Hindi, Bradley and I have been tinkering with the budget for the past month or two and have come out with what you see. Some of the major changes include getting rid of the managing editor and cutting a copy editor. We're still looking for money to fill more positions, such as another copy editor, but have not yet been able to.

Monthly Training — This month's training featured multiple guests from outside Student Media. John Clark joined Tyler Dukes, last year's editor, to speak on the importance of the Web and helped us with creating new material for our site. Andy Bechtel came and talked to the design and features staffs about alternative story forms. Dick Reavis spoke to the news writers about the art of reporting and story mapping. Members of the school's media relations team came and spoke with the sports staff about how the two groups can better their relationship. The feedback was very positive and the staff seemed to enjoy the outside help.

Technology — The training session this month gave the staff a number of solid ideas that it will be working to implement in the coming weeks. We've continued posting audio slideshows and our response to breaking news and posting stories before they hit print has gotten progressively better. Fred and I, along with Kyle Robb and Adam Kincaid from WKNC, met with a possible Webmaster for next year. The meeting was encouraging and our hope is that we will be able to find a spot for him. My primary hope for a Webmaster would be for someone who can learn aspects of new media that we do not yet know how to do, but have ideas for, and to help us learn them with him. We have a lot of ideas and our hope is that he can help us this summer and into next year.

Staff makeup – The staff has undergone some changes to prepare next year's staff. Saja has filled in as managing editor after Laura White vacated the position, and Chris Allred, moved up to news editor after serving as Saja's right-hand man. Taylor Auten, who is applying for sports editor for next year is also being phased in to the sports editorial board.

WINDHOVER
(submitted by Joe Wright and Hannah Richardson, co-editors)

NO REPORT

TOP

WKNC
(submitted by Steve McCreery, general manager)

Staffing: Hiring for all director positions at the station for the 2008-09 academic year is nearly complete. Our new program director is Adam Kincaid, Phillip Smith returns as operations manager, and Robert Earle has been hired as the personnel director. The position of personnel director replaces the now defunct position of sports director. The personnel director will now manage all Wolfpack Sports broadcasts as well as compound reports regarding DJ attendance, which will be submitted weekly to the program director and general manager. The program director, operations manager, and personnel director collectively comprise the programming department of the station. I've stressed to them that their focus as a department should be to organize programming in a consistent, coherent manner that maximizes the amount of student involvement in the station. The department also needs to build on the overall knowledge base regarding production, scheduling, and trafficking software at the station.

Evan Crim returns as production manager. Evan will be joined this summer by TJ Appling as co-production manager. It is the goal of the production department to completely revamp and replace original station content such as sweepers, liners, and promos over the summer, to create a new, more diverse sound for the station.

Among returning directors are: Kelly Reid, daytime MD, John Jernigan, chief engineer, Rich Gurnsey, chainsaw rock MD, and Cassidy Weathersby, public affairs director. We are still trying to fill the positions of Underground MD, Afterhours MD, and webmaster.

Budget (Report compiled by Jamie Gilbert): WKNC's projected non-fee income for 0708 is $29,000. To date, we have $26,317.71 in the bank. We have $18,576.62 is sponsorships sold, with an average of $2,064.07 per month. This is great, especially considering our sponsorships for July were $0 and for December we had $345. If sponsorships continue at the current rate we would have about $24,000 by the end of the fiscal year. Using these figures, we would need a 75 percent collection rate to bring in $18,000 from sponsor sales. We have also finished the women's basketball season, bringing us around $3,000 in revenue.

WKNC has only spent about 50 percent of our supply money to date. This does not include an additional $1,382.56 already processed for April. As of April 4, we are done making engineering line item purchases. We expect to spend another $500 or so in the next week on engineering repair supplies. This should bring us closer to a 75 percent spending rate by May.

Merchandising: Adam Kincaid and Phillip Smith have taken a lead role in pursuing outside merchandising opportunities for the station. Adam and Phil are in contact with Schoolkids records as well as multiple off-campus bookstores. We hope to have T-Shirts and other merchandise on store shelves by the end of the semester. An internal search for designs has already begun; we may implement an audience design contest in the near future.

Training: WKNC 101 will resume this summer starting July 8. The class will meet once per week, four times between July 8-29 from 5-6:30 p.m. in the Student Senate chambers. Class time was reduced from two 1-hour sessions per week to one 1.5-hour session to better maximize in class time. Instructors will be Jamie Gilbert, Kyle Robb, and Adam Kincaid.

Programming/Ethical Issues: A DJ had a guest in-studio on the night of Wednesday, April 2. The guest committed repeated FCC violations over multiple breaks, with no intervention from the DJ. The program director and myself have agreed on a plan of action to handle the situation. The DJ is required to meet with us in person by Friday, April 4 at 5 p.m.; he will then be suspended from all staff functions for the remainder of the semester, including board operator duties, his guest will also be permanently trespassed from the studio. Whether he regains a shift this summer or next semester is at the discretion of the program director. If he fails to meet with us by the aforementioned deadline he will cease to be a staff member at WKNC and a hold will be placed on his academic record until he returns his studio key.*

* As of the time this report was submitted (11 a.m., Friday, April 4) the DJ has still yet to meet with us.

HD Radio Update — Student Media has moved forward with the plan to implement HD Radio for WKNC 88.1 FM. The requisition to purchase the license from iBiquity was entered, faxed to purchasing and college approved on March 18. We are now waiting to hear from the purchasing department about our request for a waiver of competitive bidding, as iBiquity is the sole vendor of HD Radio licenses. Purchasing is in talks with Kitsa Lee, Broadcast Business Manager at iBiquity to verify our request. Once we are allowed to purchase the license we can begin the process for the purchase of the necessary equipment.

Regarding HD Radio in general, there are now 1,663 stations broadcasting in HD (more than 50 additional stations since the end of January). HD Radio upgrades are pending for Clear Channel stations WRDU 106.1 FM, WDCG 105.1 FM and WKSL 93.9 FM.1 I also have plans to meet with HD Radio/iBiquity representatives at the National Association of Broadcasters convention later this month.

TOP

Society for Collegiate Journalists
(submitted by Clark Leonard, president)

NO REPORT

Business Office
(submitted by David Mason, account representative)

Advertising Sales - Sales have been noticeably down for this time of year for Technician. While no excuse is acceptable, the lag in sales can be partially attributed to spring break in the early part of March and the Housing Fair/Expo, which both took valuable time from account representatives that could have been used for increasing sales. We are pushing to finish the semester strong by encouraging account representatives to commit more time to getting past clients to advertise with us again and finding new avenues of business through cold calls/meetings.

Collections - Krystal met with the University Accounting office on Tuesday, April 1, to discuss a plan of action for old and current collections. There is a new employee in that office that will be assisting her with this effort. The office has had numerous calls in the past week from the last set of collection letters that were mailed out. A few have paid by credit card on the spot to bring their accounts current. Krystal is meeting with one large account on Thursday to discuss a payment plan to bring their account current. As of right now the student reps do not collect from customers unless the customer wants to take advantage of our prepay discount. We have always had the policy to keep collection and sales separate but the we are considering a new strategy for the fall after we will be able to train the staff on how to handle collection issues.

Housing Fair - We hosted two housing events on campus this year: a Commuter Student Expo in Talley Student Center and our regular Housing Fair in the Brickyard. While the Expo did not meet our vendors' nor our expectations, the Housing Fair was once again a huge success. The cancellation of future plans for an Expo should be seriously considered, whereas the Housing Fair has the potential to be an even larger spectacle in future years than it is currently. The vendors who participated in the Housing Fair were very pleased with the results and would like to continue attending future events. The Apartment Book brought 500 copes of their publication to hand out to students and were able to give all of them away. When they attended North Carolina's housing event they brought 300 copies and were unable to unload them all. This is just a small example of how beneficial the Housing Fair is to all parties involved. Additionally, the business office staff all contributed to the effort and worked very well as a team to make both the Fair and Expo possible.

Training - Sue Weiss of WUNC radio was able to come to NC State and speak to our business staff on Tuesday, April 1. She was able to give some great insight into selling donor announcements for our own radio station, WKNC. The staff felt that Mrs. Weiss's approach was extremely beneficial, given that she was able to focus on how to sell specifically for WKNC. One idea that should be put to use is selling recruitment announcements on the radio. Weiss explained the technique for selling these types of announcements and why WKNC should utilize the potential of that market. We look forward to having Sue Weiss back for our training session in the Fall.

Meeting w/ Sue Weiss - Krystal Pittman, Elizabeth Wan'gu, and David Mason attended a meeting with Sue Weiss at the WUNC offices in Chapel Hill on Friday, April 4. The intent of the meeting was to get Mrs. Weiss's assistance in restructuring the rate card for WKNC radio. We focused on pushing long-term packages, especially for the Women's Basketball and Baseball seasons. Also, we discussed how to begin including promotional ads in our packages as a tool to increase revenue and make our radio packages more attractive to the client. We also discussed the advantages of cross-promotional events, like the Fred Anderson/WKNC event that was held in the Brickyard on Wednesday, March 19.

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