GM Report August 2011

Financial reports have been provided separately. Overall we are doing much better than expected in most areas of revenue and in cost control. I have begun preliminary work on the draft budget for FY12 and I am currently projecting the budget to grow by about3%. I anticipate presenting a completed draft budget at the August board retreat.
I reviewed and signed the tax return last week and it was filed by our auditing firm. InJuly I also completed the renewal of all of our liability insurances. All policies renewedat the same rate or with a modest reduction in cost (with no changes to coverage). Thechange of ownership report for the FCC – from the old board of directors to the newboard of directors – was also completed and filed by our D.C. attorneys.
The fall membership drive officially starts September 13th but for the first time we’ll alsobe doing a “Power Hour” on September 9th, where we will push to make the initial $10,000 dollars in one hour of Your Morning Brew. Many stations have found successwith this concept. The overall drive goal is $110,000, our largest campaign to date.
About 20 applications were received for the Membership Director position. Amanda and I narrowed the field down to three finalists who were brought in for in-personinterviews with Amanda, Duncan and I. On August 12th I offered the position to MichelleBoulet-Stephenson (known on-air as Anna Droid). She will formally start near the end ofthe month but I’ll be able to get some training time in with her before then.
In late July, our Program Director Jason Repko informed me that he will be leaving atthe end of August to pursue a graduate degree out of state. It’s hard to lose a valuedemployee but also hard to quibble with someone whose is seeking a better long-termcareer path.
With Michelle’s arrival and Jason’s departure, I will in the short-term be picking upmany of his responsibilities, while Duncan and Amanda also take on some of his duties. We will hire a temporary replacement for The Home Stretch, so on-air responsibilitieswill not be a consideration. I plan to take a serious look at dividing Jason’s job back into two positions: 1) The Home Stretch host, part-time and 2) Program Director, either full-time or possibly three-quarters time.
We’ll begin the search for Program Director around October 1st, with an expectation ofaccepting applications during the month and conducting phone or in-person interviewsin mid-November, followed by second interviews and background checks. I wouldexpect to make a decision very early in December and have that new person startaround the first of the year.
On August 20th we will hold the KXCI Celebrates 1971 concert, the third annual Augustconcert we’ve done at the Rialto. It has grown from my original idea in 2009 to becomea steady fundraiser for the station. On September 23rd KXCI and the Fox presentEmmylou Harris in the most expensive concert we’ve ever presented; I’m happy andrelieved to announce that as of today the show is close to sold out. We have booked aNew Year’s Eve-Eve event on December 30th at the Temple of Music and Art (that I’ll describe in more detail later) and are close to booking a major fundraising concert forearlier in December near the time of our anniversary.
While we didn’t win the Goodmans Good Guy office makeover, we came close and we’lltry again next year. I am happy that from nominations filed by Mary Beth and one ofour deejays (Jimmy D) I was recognized last week as one of the Arizona Daily Star’s 40Under 40 winners. An official ceremony/luncheon will be held in October which willcorrespond with a much more detailed write-up in the paper.
We are coming back in to event season in Tucson and you’ll see us out at a variety ofevents in the coming months, including Tucson Meet Yourself, the Blues Festival, theBluegrass Festival (first time there in many years!), 2nd Saturdays Downtown, HOCOFest, and the Fourth Avenue Street Fair.
To date one bid has been received on website redesign. On the basis of one bid I cannot yet determine whether the scope of the work justifies the expense of about $2200 and there doesn’t seem to be anything in the proposal that would help monetizethe website to cover the costs. I’m happy with the work done on other websites by this company, however, so I’m soliciting informal opinions from others about the costs. If we conclude that they are in line with the work being done, we’ll likely proceed withtheir proposal but with a goal toward having the work done at the end of September/early October.
Amanda and I attended the two-day AFP state fundraising conference, held here in Tucson at the end of July. It was very informative and very cheap to attend.