WKSU searches for new leadership, direction
Elizabeth Bartz discusses the state of WKSU with reporter Rex Smith.
Two and a half years after making a programming switch, Kent’s WKSU FM/89.7 continues to experience difficulties funding the station and now owes the university more than $2 million. The NPR-affiliate station overhauled its entire operation in August 2013, transitioning to an expanded news and information format throughout the day and pushing music programs to the evening.
Al Bartholet, who became general manager and executive director of WKSU in 2000, said he believes as much as 50 percent of public radio stations nationwide are in the negative, but that the station’s deficit was never as substantial as it is now.
“I think you have a great asset, it’s just unfortunate and I don’t know how it happened so quickly because people were portraying the debt as being old debt, but it wasn’t old debt at all. The debt that occurred, occurred pretty much in the last three years,” he said. “And I can assure you that it was not old debt, it was debt that occurred during, you know after my departure, and how it happened … I wasn’t there.”
Bartholet spent 32 years working various jobs for WKSU before retiring in 2012. The university hired Dan Skinner as his replacement after conducting a national search.
Skinner, a Kansas-native, took over in January 2013 and implemented the major shift from classical music programs to more news-based programming.
“Before (Al Bartholet) left, the station was looking to make some program changes,” Skinner said. “So, basically during the time I was there, which wasn’t very long in the whole scheme of the station, I was able to work with the staff to implement the changes he and the people he had worked with had cued up in terms of the format changes we made. At the time I left, the audience was growing as a result of the format change.”
Skinner said the station was aware of the financial difficulties restructuring the lineup could bring, and that an adjustment to the listenership was expected to follow.
“This is something that, when Al (Bartholet) was doing all the research, they knew would happen,” he said. “There would be a transition period where there’d be a dip, and then as the audience grows, the income will grow with it.”
Skinner left WKSU to become the director of Kansas Public Radio (KPR) and the Audio-Reader Network last October. Program Director Ele Ellis, Director of External Affairs Mark Syroney and Senior LAN Administrator Chuck Poulton have been sharing duties while President Beverly Warren examines leadership option. He said that the program change was successful in that the audience was growing, and that the future of WKSU would be strong “assuming they continue on that course.”
Funding
According to the station’s audited annual reports from 2011-2015, WKSU had a deficit of $1,483,618. Results from WKSU’s 2013-2014 audited annual report show the total revenue for the fiscal year sat at $5,245,409 — the lowest in five years— and lost $6,496,260 due to expenses for a total loss of $1,250,851. The 2014-2015 report shows growth: the station ended the fiscal year above the red line for the first time since 2011. However, the station received a $2, 745, 169 allocation from Kent State University appropriations.
Elizabeth Bartz, who works on WKSU’s Community Advisory Council and is also the president and CEO of State and Federation Communications, said a group of people from the council were concerned about the direction the station was headed.
“There had been a decision at the time to borrow, it’s my understanding, that there was a loan given from the university to WKSU of about $2 million to help,” Bartz said. “The people that were involved with that loan are not at the university anymore: (the) financial person isn’t there; the president isn’t there; the general manager isn’t there, so we’ve been concerned about what’s going on.”
Bartholet, who now works as the executive director for WMRA in the Shenandoah Valley, said that the two biggest chunks of public radio’s budget come from programming fees (paid to NPR or other national stations for services provided) and personnel. He said when operating on a zero-based budget, the station must set realistic goals in terms of programming and fundraising capabilities.
“Overestimating what you can do, and spending that amount of money, can get you in some real debt real quick,” Bartholet said. “Those are some things you always have to be cognizant of, in terms of what is your realistic capability of raising money, both from corporate support from foundations and from individuals through fund drives and so on.”
Public radio, by no means considered a money-making entity, relies on underwriting (essentially radio’s version of an advertisement), programming support, grants and most notably membership pledge drives as sources of revenue.
Bartholet said that only 10 percent of actual cash to the station comes from the university; Skinner estimated that that number was “in the ballpark.”
Jeannie Reifsnyder, senior associate vice president of finance and administration, said the station has struggled over the last few years with underwriting and membership due to the formatting change, and that the university assists the NPR-affiliate by providing them the space they use and through financial assistance that goes through the foundation in the form of a restricted gift.
She compares a restricted gift to a college student’s scholarship: WKSU can only access restricted gifts (money typically from donors who want to aid specific programs, like Folk Alley) by meeting certain criteria.
Reifsnyder said the university anticipates having to help the station, which is a department that reports up through University Communications and Marketing to its VP.
“In general, the way that public radio works is that they have a sponsor and a lot of time it is a university, and so, the university expects, at some level, to support the radio station as a way to bridge kind of with students, to provide internships opportunities there,” she said. “But also as an outlet for the university because WKSU, anyone who is listening to that will recognize that that is linked to the university, so it kind of gives some recognition as well.”
Iris Harvey, UCM’s vice president, left the school in January. Reifsnyder said Kent State is taking a look at better ways to understand WKSU’s expenses and programming costs, but believes that the station is finally seeing membership increases and underwriting.
“I think that we’re still looking at what is that right amount for the university to support but recognizing that supporting the public station is something the university should be doing at this point,” she said.
*WKSU staff members referred us to Eric Mansfield.
**Mansfield, the executive director of University Media Relations, said Tom Livingston, a national consultant in broadcast station management, will be taking over the role of interim GM as he begins his assessment of the station preceding the university’s national search for a new general manager.
