General Manager Report to KXCI Board, May 2010 Randy Peterson
Financial reports are provided separately. I am happy to report that for the first time in many years, I was able to transfer funds ($50,000) back in to our money market account. I also consolidated the two previous money market accounts into one account.
KXCI board election ballots (and the e-mail link to the online site) were sent on May 13th. We have three candidates running for three, 3-year terms and one candidate running for one, 1- year term. On-air announcements about the election continue to run.
Through the first seven months of our fiscal year, membership revenue was at $143,864. This is up $3,769 (or 2.7%) from the same period last year, and represents the first long-term evidence that membership revenue, and the larger economy, might appear ready to turn the corner.
I am finishing up the final report documentation for the Arizona Commission on the Arts and we should see payment on that grant within the next 30 days.
Jason Repko will join us June 1st as the new Programming and Volunteer Coordinator/host of The Home Stretch. He has already secured an apartment just a few blocks from the station. He will hit the ground running with his off-air duties first, and transition over a few months into his hosting duties for The Home Stretch. In the interim, as many as ten different people will be alternating in the afternoon time slot.
KXCI had significant exposure and success at a number of recent events, including our Earth Day solar commissioning ceremony, the Tucson Folk Festival, the inaugural 2nd Saturdays Downtown (on whose steering committee I serve), and the Tucson Volunteer Fair.
About 30 deejays attended our volunteer meeting on May 16th at the station. A special thank you to Debra Rodriguez and Mary Beth Haralovich for speaking on behalf of their board committees. I believe Anne and I will look at holding the next meeting this fall.
The Community Advisory Board met at the station on May 12th. Among other discussions, the CAB reviewed the Quarterly Issues Programming Report and my PSA report for the 1st Quarter 2010. I am happy to report that even with less time available due to the membership drive, during this period (January – March) we were able to air $39,808 in PSAs for 39 different non-profit organizations in our community.
As part of the development of the KXCI Local Music Store at 2nd Saturdays Downtown, Duncan and I created the station’s first-ever e-mail contact database for local musicians, something that will see a lot of use for a lot of reasons in the future.
Television commercials to increase awareness of the station will resume soon on KMSB TV.
The underwriting sales team continues to struggle to meet budget goals in this economy, but we are working together to create new sponsorship packages, as well as to create awareness
of the effectiveness and availability of underwriting.
The station has purchased a new piece of equipment ($229) that will allow us to begin testing the separation of our webstreaming from our on-air broadcast. The plan is that for programs that cannot be streamed due to content restrictions (for example, Dead Air on Saturday nights), rather than be off the web, we would be able to stream a completely different program, either new content or perhaps a repeat of a previously aired program.
Celia and I have struggled to coordinate our schedules to allow sufficient time to work on a re-do of the KXCI web store (and the greater website) but it is the perfect summer project. The more feedback we can receive from everyone on the website, the better.
Television commercials to increase awareness of the station will resume soon on KMSB TV.
Amanda will be attending the National Federation of Community Broadcasters conference in Minnesota in June. I will be attending the Public Media Development and Marketing Conference in Texas in July.