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PUBLIC RADIO TRAINING & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SURVEY

RESEARCH REPORT

HOW TRAINING MAKES A DIFFERENCE

"An individual cannot grow and keep current with out continual training. I believe it is important to keep on the "cutting edge". That is difficult in today's rapidly changing world!"

One might draw a bleak picture from the fact that most survey respondents did not indicate that training was a top priority, and most stations would not dramatically their training budget. But there is another perspective on training that cannot be easily expressed in closed-ended survey questions. Many survey respondents told of specific situations where training did - or would have - made a positive difference to themselves or their stations. These comments encompass many of the needs and priorities stations face every day.


RESPONSES FROM MANAGERS

  • "As a manager trained mostly as a programmer, I could use more basic management training."

  • "Better access to production training resources would have allowed us to move more quickly and in a more unified way when we brought our digital workstation on-line in our main production studio."

  • "Until the CPB adjusted their CSG grant to provide greater assistance to rural stations, we were only able to send one person to a conference/meeting. During the past year, we were able to send two people to national meetings/conferences which had a profound effect on these people. The came back with: 1) a better sense of how the quality of their work compared to that of others around the nation, 2) new ideas to mold for use at our station 3) connections with others in the business - building the basis of a network 4) a better or invigorated attitude about what they are doing that manifested itself in their work. I could go on...but you get the picture."

  • "We purchased listener survey information, and training in it's interpretation would have helped us apply that information."

  • "Attended the PD Workshop. Had a PD Consultant visit the station. Attended Arbitron workshop. We have increased listenership 50%. If we had this reaction to all training, we'd do much more training."

  • "It would be great to have someone who was available to discuss management problems with as a mentor, much like DEI has people on call."

  • "Internet [training] would be OK so long as it included sound."

  • "The Board of Trustees wants a business plan -- none of us has any experience in writing one, but we're coping."

  • "Obtaining regular training for all of my staff members from the Morning Host to the Music Director and the Production Coordinator. Getting them out into the 'system' to see how others handle situations is key. Slowly but surely it's occurring, because we've made it a priority."

  • "While I believe heavily in training, I want it to be excellent training, and I do not think any one organization is strong enough to cover all of the training needs for all of the areas identified in the survey."

  • "We made the decision to change the format of our daytime music program. We could have used advice on all aspects of that adjustment."

  • "Staff understanding of audience data...minor program changes were made and a number of staff members did not buy into the changes."

  • "It's all too commonplace for people to not know that our station exists -- even among people who enjoy the music genre we most often play. We seriously need help with guerilla marketing efforts."

  • "With little in resources, some sort of "library" system for all stations or "guidance counselors" or "paid mentors" to help pull these underachieving stations along would be great. The ideal would be to raise the knowledge bar for all employees entering the system so the knowledge base is that much better/professional/talented throughout the system. Long run, that will help us all."

  • "As a relatively green manager, I have had some difficulties dealing with what are, I suspect, common management situations. Management training might well have helped me used me time and resources more efficiently, and might have decreased by anxiety level, too."

  • "Training and professional development is ongoing and evolutionary. To be successful, it must be a part of culture of an organization, not just a project or event."

There were a number of comments about the perceived lack of funding for training opportunities.

  • "I am saddened that CPB no longer provides training support to the system. Some of my most valuable experiences early in my career were gained at training events. I felt I gained perspective, made professional contacts, improved my job performance and helped my station when I shared the information with other staff."

  • "It is an area that needs great attention. For small stations…access to training is needed at affordable rates, in affordable amounts of time in convenient locations. This is part of the Catch 22 syndrome everyone needs continual upgrading how to accomplish this without disrupting the everyday running of the station."

  • "We would be interested in training and development assistance. Unfortunately, we have just removed virtually all "extras" from our budget due to expenses of our move to new facilities. Training and conferences have all been written out budgets for the next five years until it stabilizes."

  • "This topic has been on my "most complained to CPB about" list for sometime. Especially the smaller stations are "wisdom" poor. The low salary makes them typically "starter" positions. These places where the largest improvements could be made can't afford the people with the wisdom to make these improvements."

  • "Some in-service training is helpful, but all in all, we would prefer having the money CPB puts into training invested in programming for the system. In my opinion, too much of CPB money is frittered away on training programs. Why not give it to the stations in Community Service Grants and let the stations decide where they can best use the money?"


RESPONSES FROM PROGRAMMERS

  • "We've had a good deal of staff turnover, growth and growing pains. A helping hand from an experienced professional who understands organizational growth and change would have soothed the transition."

  • "Dealing with a difficult staff member, who refuses to take direction or work under supervision, and spreads an uncooperative attitude to other staff."

  • "I had a situation with an employee that turned into both sides getting very defensive. If I had had more experience in this management area, it could have been avoided and handled better."

  • "Announcers' on-air style and reporters' writing and reporting skills are, by far, the primary bankable assets of the organization in today's competitive environment."

  • "Very low underwriting revenue. Training in underwriting sales techniques would have been helpful."

  • "Severe organizational conflict arising from Board and development not understanding their roles and how they could be successful."

  • "New, former volunteer, News Director, with no journalistic background could desperately use a quick, cheap training in the skills of public radio news reporting and production."

  • "Our management strategic planning is a bit slipshod. We tend to "discover" our priorities and directions as they "emerge." I fear our company may be missing opportunities because of this."

  • "In dealing with announcers regarding on-air performance."

  • "Training for our development staff in the importance of working with, rather than separately from, the radio staff. An understanding of fundraising as BOTH a programming and a development activity."

  • "Employee morale, motivation, understanding how a real job works and what is expected in terms of work ethic, growth, attendance, performance and accountability."

  • "There has been a couple times in the past year where my station would have benefited greatly from having a strategic plan and guidelines about what direction the station plans to head in the future."

  • "Our organization had a commitment to training, but we had to take it out of the budget in the final rounds of negotiations, so our existing training budget (at least in my department) doesn't exist."

  • "We need to train those of us who have never been managers to become real managers. We may know how to program, announce and promote, but can we effectively communicate and manage others in those same areas? Not as well as we should..."


RESPONSES FROM DEVELOPMENT DIRECTORS

  • "I can tell you what it actually produced: We cleared funds to send our Subscriber Services Manager and lead staff person (along with other Devo staff and our GM) to the Nashville Pub Radio Devo Conference. Well, we created membership monsters and that's a good thing. Prior to my arrival, no one had included additional staff in management or professional development training but the GM was very open to the idea. The Devo office had fallen victim to low morale, even lower productivity and increasing turn-over. The training, the sense it created that upper management had a vested interest in their development and the infusion of energy from those activities have only produced a lean, mean fundraising team. They are awesome. And they are happier! (My last position was with public TV and my station had made not only the PBS Devo Conference and Academies available to me but additional professional training in grant writing, major donor cultivation, planned gifts, strategic planning and so much more.) I have encouraged my present staff to go out and find courses and seminars that they believe will help them do their work better and almost every time, my GM and I have approved their requests. We are way over budget for training - only two months into the new fiscal year - but he and I believe it will make a vast improvement in efficiency, effectiveness AND morale. Now, if we could just get the "News People" on the same management training page. Thanks for the opportunity to tell a "so-far-successful story.""

  • "Internal communications is a big problem at my station. I believe the station could better achieve its goals if we had a program director so our GM wasn't so busy AND if we had regular all staff team building training and management training among all top management to get top management working together toward the same goals."

  • "We budget for training, which includes conference attendance. Sessions at the July PRDMC conference have already proven to be effective among my underwriting staff."

  • "I know that all public broadcasting seems to be suffering from a severe lack of leadership training. We are guilty of promoting people to middle and upper management positions because they have held their present positions for a period of time OR have expressed an interest in advancement without the benefit of actual leadership experience. Retaining and training staff to assume management openings must be deliberate rather than by happenstance. I find it amazing that many of the public broadcast stations I have come in contact with do not operate with a strategic plan in place. Each department within a station or network or organization needs to start with goals and objectives that are unique to their effort and then come together as a unit to create a unified plan for the future - specifically for how the organization's members will manage themselves."

RESPONSES FROM OTHERS

  • "I can't single out one instance, but getting feedback, much less actual training, in regards to my on-air performance is nearly impossible. When my PD does listen to an aircheck, he never gives any substantial comments. I'm hungry for training as an announcer! The only training I'm getting is that which I seek out, and it's pretty hard to come by."

  • "Last November I was given the responsibility of producing our local talk show in addition to engineering it. My background is production and music - not news and public affairs. I would have benefited from either formal training in talk show production or the opportunity to visit with the staff of TALK OF THE NATION or a similar program."

  • "As a project manager, it would be nice to have a "guru" or "go to person" about management issues."

  • "Just across the board in everything we do. How we sound, how we interact with each, how we use equipment. Everything, at every level here needs a great deal of improvement, especially management's attitude toward giving us development training."

  • "Any type of basic, thorough training on new equipment and technology would have been useful: Audio Vault, recording equipment, etc."

  • "Our Board (and our bank account!) really believes that our station needs a development director/underwriting director and our station manager thinks he can do it all by himself (while coordinating the news department, his former position)."

  • "It is the subtle hallmark of good public radio to have features which give stories that extra context. This only comes from wide reading and (preferably) discussion with professional peers. Opportunities to meet and discuss our work are invaluable."

  • "Visioning session for Internet service -- we DID have help, and it was very valuable."

  • "When our clients have asked us to give them an estimate of how many listeners their program has, I would like to have had help understanding the Arbitron data."

  • "I regularly go over air checks with our announcers. It would be nice to have some training that gives me ideas to help my announcers improve their on-air performance and presence."

  • "The news department here is expanding, bringing in new personalities and ideas. The existing staff, being more "experienced" (re: jaded), sometimes bristles at these new ideas. An open forum for these ideas could be very helpful. Therefore, a production workshop could provide a shared experience whereby new and old staff would discuss ideas together and come to a greater understanding of one another's ideas."

  • "With a new format started in January a complete overhaul of the membership database and record keeping was done, I think that professional advice or training would have assisted in creating a more effective system, I've already changed the system twice when working out flaws."

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