WSKG PUBLIC TELECOMMUNICATIONS COUNCIL
MANAGEMENT REPORT – August 25, 2015
Management is reporting on activities that have taken place, since the last Board Meeting, in fulfillment of the three Fiscal
Year 2014 Organizational Priorities. In addition, management is reporting on other important activities and
accomplishments that don’t fall directly under those top three organizational priorities.
FY14 Organizational Priorities
Goal 1: Implement new organizational focus on four content focus areas, or Content Verticals, of Arts & Culture,
News & Public Affairs, History & Heritage, and Youth Focused.
Arts & Culture
● On June 17th, WSKG hosted a screening of new BBC drama Poldark. The event was attended by 30 people.
● Arts focused page is now available on our WSKG.ORG website. The arts vertical provides information on our
national programming air dates, local short stories of cultural relevancy, as well as program lists by category.
● Taped three new episodes of Let’s Polka with Grammy nominated band Dennis Polisky & Maestro Men. An
estimated 80 people attended the Saturday event.
● Acquired the program Artists-in-Residence through a partnership with Corning Museum of Glass (CMOG).
Each segment airs weekly, and they are also available online.
● Production of hyper-local segments continue this summer with most recent coverage of The Ithaca Shakespeare
Company at Cornell Plantations.
News & Public Affairs
● Events calendar, in collaboration with the Press & Sun newspaper, added to Morning Edition. Local musician
profiles, produced by WSKG News personnel, added to Fresh Air. This content is also available on
wskgnews.org and will soon be available on NPR1 app.
● New weekend feature on News/PA recommended reading added to www.WSKGnews.org
● News/PA presence enhanced on Facebook and Twitter.
● American Radio Works documentary series on education, coordinated with Youth Voice, now airing on
WSKG/WSQX.
History & Heritage
● The Cornell Class of 1950 project has been completed. The film will air on August 22 nd with the title of Class of
the Century.
● Post-production work continues on the Harvest film. A November 19th air date has been set.
● The History page of the new web site is now being updated 4-5 times a week with photos and other items of
interest involving local history.
Youth Focused
● ‘Early Learning and the Bottom Line’ summit event was held at WSKG Studios on 8/18. This event ran from
9am-1pm and was a grant deliverable from the First Five project, funded by the Community Foundation for
South Central New York. This project is also associated with WSKG’s American Graduate work. During the
event, remarks were provided by Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo and Jenn O’Connor, Director of New York
State’s ReadyNation. A panel discussion was moderated by Charles Compton and featured guests: Claudia
Edwards, Broome County Health Department Director, Dr. Kevin Wright, Binghamton University, Sheila
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Fetterman, Director of K&N Childcare and Learning Center at Lourdes, Pat Follette, Superintendent of Whitney
Point School District, Stephen Keppler, US East Senior HR Partner with IBM, and Dr. Mildred Warner,
Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University. The event focused on the economic impacts
and benefits associated with early childhood education. Seventy community leaders attended and breakout
sessions were held around the issues of Health & Education, Business & Economy and Justice & Society.
WSKG recorded the event and is producing a one-hour Radio and TV special set to air in late September.
●
As part of our American Graduate project, we spent the summer months filming three local education
champions. Mr. Joseph Renton, informal music educator from Bainbridge, NY, Ms. Lonna Pierce, a teaching
librarian with Binghamton City School District and founder of the Southern Tier Poetry Recitation Festival, and
the Family Reading Partnership of Owego-Apalachin are the champions. The spots are now in final edit phase
and will air during national American Graduate Day programming on 10/3/15.
Digital Strategy
● The WSKG.org redesign launched on August 14. With the exception of a resolved streaming issue, the transfer
occurred with no disruption of service. Highlights of the new site include: a mobile-friendly design,
incorporation of advanced ad serving and tracking software, improved user experience, navigation and structure
based on our content verticals, and a primary focus on new content from WSKG producers.
● In the first three days since launch, we’ve seen an improvement in all engagement metrics; we will continue to
report our Engagement Index in the Performance Metrics section and hopefully see long-term improvement.
Community Partnerships
● On July 28, attended the Greater Southern Tier Region’s Summer STEM Academy held at Corning, Inc. WSKG
has participated in and observed the growth of this initiative over a number of years. Contact was made for
potential follow up of partnership activity associated with WSKG’s new STEM Content Vertical.
Development & Marketing
● Began integrating Science Vertical content into promotion platforms and highlighting content areas of interest
in GAMUT.
Goal 2: Develop funding models to support the Content Verticals content development and programming.
Arts & Culture
●
Polka Club continues to grow, currently at 31 members.
News & Public Affairs
● News/PA specific spots produced for TV fundraiser.
● News/PA begins collaboration with Development on “One Day Wednesday” concept.
● News/PA accepts delivery of CPB-funded video equipment from Innovation Trail Video Project. A cross
content vertical, day long training supplemented the equipment delivery, and was coordinated by News/PA.
Youth Focused
● The Floyd Hooker Foundation has awarded WSKG a $10,000 grant in support of Good to Know: Common
Core Concepts for Parents, Series 2.
● The Carnegie Foundation of New York has awarded the PBS Foundation a grant in support of PBS
CoreLearning project. PBS Foundation identified WSKG’s Good to Know: Common Core Concepts for
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Parents project as educational media they would like to include within the national program. WSKG will be
awarded $10,000 for Good to Know, Series 2.
Digital Strategy
● Beta testing for PBS’s new Membership Video on Demand (MVOD), or “Passport” service, has finished.
Stations will begin onboarding process within the next month, and our Development Team will take lead as the
product launches to members in December.
● New WSKG.org website design launched, including incorporation of Google DFP ad serving and tracking
software. Google DFP allows us to track accounts, billing, click-thru-rate, and much more, in order to offer
additional underwriting opportunities to our business sponsors. Staff will continue training in this tool over the
next 6 months.
Development & Marketing
● TV Fund your Favorites drive occurred Friday, 8/7, to Sunday, 8/16. Content vertical directors featured in prerecorded spots during relevant programming explaining our efforts to reduce on-air fundraising and the Fund
Your Favorites pilot program. Total pledged: $18,072.
● Redesign of the Business Sponsorship media kit is underway. Looking for completion within the next month.
● Hosting a live local documentary evening on 8.22 featuring Cornell: Birth of the American University and the
premiere of Class of the Century. A goal of the evening is to raise awareness of funding opportunities available
to keep local story-telling alive in our community.
● Hired a Major Gifts Consultant to advise on our current strategy and suggest ways to strengthen the connection
with major donors and content areas of their interest.
Goal 3: Connect community with our programming and services.
Arts & Culture
● A&C vertical continues to provide a weekly arts and cultural calendar for TV and radio, through Artist Cafe on
Thursdays.
● Classical with Bill Snyder continues weekly interviews with members of the classical and opera music
community in our coverage area.
News & Public Affairs
● News/PA collaborated with Youth Voice on production of the “First Five: Early Learning and the Bottom Line”
summit.
● News/PA collaborating with Arts/Culture and Development on Colorscape promotional event.
● Community Conversation on hunger issues will be broadcast from the Food Bank of the Southern Tier in Elmira
set for 9-9-15.
Youth Focused
● PBS KIDS events were held on 7/17 and 8/14 in partnership with the City of Binghamton and Broome
County/VINES Farm Share program. WSKG brought activities and PBS KIDS take-home items promoting
summer learning and healthy habits. These were held at the Lee Barta Community Center and Roosevelt
Elementary School and focused on high-need neighborhoods. We directly engaged more than one hundred
children and family members.
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● WSKG received a grant from PBS KIDS to bring Kart Kingdom, a free STEM education online game, to live in
our community! On 7/28, we partnered with the Broome County Public Library to welcome thirty children who
participated in a systems-thinking STEM real-life game. In addition, a customized WSKG kart is now available
online as part of the Kart Kingdom interactive world.
● Throughout the month of July, WSKG worked with teenagers from the Oneonta area for an American Graduate
themed Video Production course. This multi-week, hands-on workshop series was held in partnership with the
Oneonta Family YMCA. Youth interviewed local education leaders and created two-minute video segments
highlighting issues such as mentorship and special education and autism. Students also created graphic designs
associated with their projects. Communication, editing/production, and design skills were elevated during this
experience! Youth produced content will be featured this fall on WSKG platforms as part of our local AmGrad
work.
● On 8/4, WSKG worked with youth at the Greater Ithaca Activities Center to create short form videos and
graphic design elements. This day-long intensive workshop was based on a model developed by NPR. The
focus of the student’s work was STEM education and, specially, the Cayuga Lake Floating Classroom project.
This was a final grant deliverable of the Park Foundation’s support of YouthVoice.
Digital Strategy
● With News team, launched mobile redesign of wskgnews.org.
● With History team, premiered first video in a potential web series. The episode features “hard tack”, regional
civil war history and Delhi Historical Society’s Samantha Misa with a historical cooking lesson. View it at:
facebook.com/wskgpublicbroadcasting
● With History team, prepared and implemented a digital engagement plan for Class of the Century premiere.
● With all content teams, conducted training for web content creation and planning calendars to facilitate
production of new content for WSKG.org.
Community Partnerships
● Emergency Direct Link Playbook and evaluation Plan completed. A series of four conference calls were
provided for training and updates about the system. The calls occurred on July 13 (x1), July 16 (x2) and August
5 (x1). All sixteen teleconferencing units are installed and tested in emergency management offices throughout
New York State. Also, had conference call with Keith Tidball, Sen. Extension Associate at Cornell University
in the Department of Natural Resources. Mr. Tidball was interested and excited about the EDL system and was
interested in exploring future collaborations and partnerships. Additionally, had call with Mr. Brett Chellis,
former Fire & EMS Coordinator with Broome County who was a key partner in development of the EDL pilot
initiative. Mr. Chellis accepted a new job with the New York State Division of Homeland Security Office of
Interoperable and Emergency Communications. This office could be key to helping with future development
of the EDL system.
● Maintain outreach work and relations with various community-based groups and organizations, such as the
Broome County Family Violence Prevention Council, New York State After-School Network Chapters, United
Way Strategic Volunteer Engagement Committee, Binghamton Sertoma Club, the Broome County Youth
Bureau, Rural Broome Counts, the Cornerstone Group, SUNY Broome Civic Engagement Board, Broome
County COAD, and SUNY Broome StepUp.
● Attended the Cornell University CaRDI (Community & Regional Development Institute) Conference entitled
Strong Families->Strong Communities on July 14/15, 2015. There were terrific presentations on Community
Development projects and approaches with follow up discussion from a diverse group of presenters. Contacts
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for partnership activity were developed in support of the First Five Early Learning Initiative, as well as the
Emergency Direct Link Project.
● Supported the work of the the First Five Early Childhood Awareness initiative.
● On August 11, attended the presentation by Claudia Edwards, Director of the Broome County Health
Department called State of Broome County’s Children. Ms. Edwards provided an overview of the socioeconomic and health status of children and families in Broome County, NY. Ms. Edwards was recruited to
participate in the First Five Summit Panel on August 18.
● Continue to assist the Board of Directors for the Broome County COAD (Community Organizations Assisting
in Disaster) in reviewing and revising its memorandum of understanding with Broome County. This is an
organization that plans for and manages long-term recovery efforts related to local and regional emergency
events.
● Working with the Cornerstone group to plan event in October 2015 about supporting people after release from
incarceration. Was able to link this initiative with the Cornell University Durland Alternatives Library, which
will provide substantial support to the Art Show and Community presentations being planned for October 2 & 8
in partnership with Binghamton University and the Broome County Re-Entry Program.
● Review and distribute community correspondence to appropriate WSKG departments, which is submitted
through WSKG’s comment line.
Development & Marketing
● Live “Cornell” pledge night in the studio on 8.22. Promotion for the evening included delivered to a variety of
press contact at Cornell University, including the Alumni Association. Three ads in The Press & Sun Bulletin,
WSKG web, radio, TV and live reads during drive time, promotion at Cinemopolis in Ithaca, in Tompkins
Weekly, two Facebook promotions, promos on WNBF radio, and a WNBF interview with Brian Frey.
Other Station Activities & Accomplishments:
Arts & Culture
● Received a $10,000 dollars promotional grant to support PBS Arts Fall Festival 2015. In conjunction with the
Development & Marketing Department, the grant will be used to enhance and expand the 21 st Annual
Colorscape Chenango Arts Festival in Norwich, by including a Latin band and imparting salsa lessons to the
festival’s visitors.
● Several of our staff members engaged in a team building exercise that involved transforming the faux brick in
our TV studio to make it look more realistic, among other studio revamp activities.
News & Public Affairs
● Journalists Crystal Sarakas and Monica Sandreczki honored by the New York Associated Press and Public
Radio News Directors, Inc. for reporting done in 2014.
● Pre-production work has begun on a Party Night featuring the 52nd Senate Seat candidates, tentatively set for
October 29, 2015.
● Prime Time Radio discontinued by AARP, and will be replaced on WSQX by Capitol Pressroom Weekend,
beginning October 4, 2015.
Youth Focused
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● The WSKG Youth Media Lab is officially open! High School interns from Chenango Forks’ STEAM
Academy were the first students to utilize the space this past spring. Now, the Lab will be open for students
participating in WSKG’s American Graduate program during the 2015-2016 school year. We are developing
other models that will leverage the space as a learning center for teachers, pre-service teachers, and youth.
● WSKG was selected as a finalist for AIR’s Finding America: Localore program. The station was paired with an
independent producer from Los Angeles and we worked together to submit a final proposal. This is a highly
competitive grant program and, if selected, WSKG and the producer will partner for nine months to execute a
public media project that engages local youth. The producer will relocate to the WSKG region and all costs
associated with the program are paid for by AIR. A September notification is anticipated.
Digital Strategy
● With content teams, received a PBS Digital Studios grant for web-original series training with experienced
digital videographers (formerly of Alaska Public TV’s Indie Alaska). Training will occur in fall/winter 2015.
● Received a scholarship to attend the 2015 Leading Change Summit hosted by the Non-Profit Technology
Network (NTEN).
Development & Marketing
● A donor who passed away in February gifted WSKG $12,300 as a result of a planned gift. We also have
received two other checks from donors’ trusts for $1,000 and for $2,000.
● WSKG received a grant to participate in the PBS Estate Planning Awareness Campaign in October. The PBS
grant will pay for printing and partial mailing.
● Chris DiRienzo presented at four Public Media Development & Marketing Conference (PMDMC) Planned
Giving workshops on behalf of PBS and WSKG.
● Caroline Basso was one of four panelists asked to present on year-round fundraising strategies at PMDMC.
● Caroline Basso completed the International Advanced Diploma in Fundraising course and graduated with
distinction. The course represents the first time an international masters level qualification in fundraising has
ever been offered through the Association for Fundraising Professionals (AFP), the Institute of Fundraising
(IoF) and the European Fundraising Association. She is one of eight fundraising professionals in North America
and Europe to hold this distinction.
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