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WAMU 88.5
COMMUNITY COUNCIL
Minutes of the Meeting of the Council
Wednesday, February 19, 2014


WAMU Community Council Members Attending:
Kent Lynn, Council Chair; Barbara Bares, Council Vice Chair; Sharvell Becton, Rudy Burwell, Paul
DesJardin, Jody Steiner Kelly, Larry McCarthy, Amy Nakamoto, Margaret OBryon, Delphine Peck,
Micaela Mejia Pond, Donald Quayle, Anthony Sarmiento, Eugene Sofer, Thomas Walls and Peter
Tannenwald.

WAMU/AU Staff Attending:
David Taylor, Carey Needham, Kathleen Allenbaugh, Debbie Galiber, Walt Gillette, Harris
Handwerker, Lettie Holman, Margo Kelly, Meymo Lyons, Deborah Morris, Wendy Ponvert,
Kristen Sorensen, Armando Trull, Glenn Williams and Anne Healy.

Members of the Public:
Rick Cato, Glenn Ihrig, Matt McCormick, Cathleen OBrien, Bob Osberger and Gar Young.

I. Welcome Kent Lynn, Council Chair
Kent opened the first meeting of the year by welcoming everyone and introducing himself as the
new Chair of the WAMU Community Council, and he introduced Barbara Bares as the Councils
new Vice Chair. Kent said that he was delighted to serve in this very important year. He pointed
out that this will be a year of transition for WAMU, and that it will be more important than ever for
Council Members to be involved and engaged in fulfilling our mission to serve as the eyes and ears
of the station in the community. Following his opening remarks, Kent asked for a motion to
approve the minutes of the last Council meeting, which was held on December 4, 2013. Don
Quayle moved that the minutes be approved as written, Paul DesJardin seconded the motion, and
the minutes were approved without objection. Kent then asked Carey Needham to give his report
on station activities.


II. State of the Station Carey Needham, Interim General Manager
Carey advised the Council that calendar year 2014 had gotten off to a fabulous start with the ribbon-
cutting ceremony for WAMUs new media center which was held on Friday, January 31
st
and the
open house that followed on Saturday, February 1
st
. During the open house, nearly 1,000 members,
neighbors, and other listeners came to tour our new media center and meet with our hosts,
reporters, and staff. On February 26
th
, the station will host a major broadcast debate featuring all of
the Democratic candidates for Mayor of the District of Columbia. The debate will take place here in
our media center and will be moderated by Kojo Nnamdi. WAMU reporters Kavitha Cardoza and
Patrick Madden will serve as panelists along with NBC 4 reporter and WAMU political analyst Tom
Sherwood.
Audience ratings for fall 2013 listed WAMU 88.5 as the top-ranked station nationally among all
public radio stations, and WRAU 88.3 in Ocean City garnered its highest rating since debuting in the
fall of 2010. Carey announced that WAMU had received the City Papers Radio Choice award as
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DCs Best Radio Station and Kojo Nnamdi was named Best Radio Personality. Diane Rehm
made Washingtonian magazines list of the 100 most powerful people in Washington.

The building turnover process is expected to be completed in the new few weeks at which time
American University will take over full operating authority from the General Contractor, Coakley
Williams. There are still some items that need to be completed. The punch list includes signage,
acoustical treatments, resurfacing of the Terreza floor, lighting and window glare fixes in the studios,
and restriping the garage-level parking area. Carey noted that the cost to renovate and equip 4401 is
projected to be just above $22 million. This is on top of the more than $27 million the University
paid for the building. WAMU has a capital plan in place with AU to fund its share of the new
facility. Our capital lease payment to the University is built into our operating budget, and the
reimbursement to fund the capital equipment and construction cost of our space is approximately
$19 million. While a significant portion of that cost was paid from our reserves ($12.5 million), we
will be reimbursing the remaining amount to AU over several years to come. To help jump start our
repayment plan, WAMU has received a two-year challenge grant from the Deerbrook Charitable
Trust for 2014 and 2015.

Carey distributed the FY 2014, FY 2012, and FY 2011 Revenue and Expense Detail by Unit as of
January 31, 2014 to the members of the Council and reviewed it with them. (Please see Attachment #1)
Carey pointed out that total membership income is up 1% compared to last year but is still running
behind budget. Major giving ($1,200 per person annually and approximately 25% of all
membership) grew by more than 30% since last year; however, overall giving is down by 3%
compared to last year. WAMUs grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is projected to
be the same as last year-- $1.1 million--which is more than expected. Carey noted that total
expenses are up some 10% largely due to our new facility and its operating costs.. Expenses for
Business Administration are up by 14% compared to last year. These expenses include the lease
payment to AU and the administrative fee of $3.028 million which increased by 4% from last year.
Barbara Bares asked about the terms of the lease payment and Carey explained that it is a 20-year
lease at $2 million per year with an escalation cost of 2.5% per year.

In closing, Carey said he was pleased to announce that Patrice Jackson, a long-time WAMU
employee, has just been promoted to fill the newly created position of Facilities and Events
Coordinator.


III. Report on the General Manager Search, David Taylor, Presidents Chief of Staff,
American University
David reported that shortly after he last spoke with the Council in December, the firm of Spencer
Stuart was hired to help with the search for a new General Manager. Spencer Stuart has offices
throughout the country and has conducted searches for leadership positions at NPR and APTS as
well as for public radio stations in California and elsewhere. It is the firm that recruited Caryn
Mathes for KUOW in Seattle. David is working with Spencer Stuart consultants Sally Sterling and
Will Schutte and with a seven-member in-house search committee that includes Carey, Lettie
Holman, and Walt Gillette. Spencer Stuart has been collecting applications and has put together a
preliminary list of candidates. The committee has been reviewing all of the applications, and David
said that he expects the first round of interviews to begin in March and the interviews with the
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finalists to take place in April. He said that he would welcome ideas and suggestions from the
members of the Council. Margaret OBryon asked what characteristics they are looking for in a
potential General Manager for WAMU. David responded that resource development will be an
essential role for WAMUs new General Manager as it has become for all public media leaders.

IV. Updates from WAMU Departments
Programming: Lettie Holman, Manager of Programming and Research, began her report by telling
the Council Members about some program-related special events that will be coming up this year.
The first will take place on Thursday, April 24
th
, when American Public Media brings Marketplace to
Strathmore Hall. APM is partnering with five public radio stations including WAMU and this will
be the first stop on the programs national tour. On Thursday, September 18
th
, WAMU will host a
gala at the Mellon Auditorium to celebrate the 35
th
Anniversary The Diane Rehm Show. And plans are
underway for another WAMU event later in the year to celebrate the 50
th
Anniversary of WAMUs
longest running show, The Big Broadcast, and its host Ed Walker. The Fall 2013 Arbitron Ratings
measured radio listening from September 12
th
through December 4
th
, and Lettie distributed her
report on the PPM data to the Council and reviewed it with them. (Please see Attachment #2) Delphine
Peck asked about the data for WRAU. Lettie explained that WRAUs ratings are measured as part
of the Salisbury, Maryland market, which uses diaries instead of the PPM method. Data for the
smaller markets are only measured in the spring and fall.
News: Meymo Lyons, Managing Editor, News, began by telling everyone how fabulous it is for all
of the reporters, editors, and producers to be in WAMUs new media center. She related that on the
news teams first day at 4401, the shooting at the Navy Yard took place and everyone had to
scramble to report the story in the midst of unpacking and settling in. Meymo said that she is
blessed with an outstanding team, and she talked about the documentary and five-part series that
Tara Boyle put together on DCs crack cocaine epidemic. Tara became interested in reports about
the huge number of deaths in the 1990s attributed to the epidemic and spent nights and weekends
researching this era and conducting interviews with people who were involved. Meymo also spoke
about the amazing investigative reporting Patrick Madden has been doing on his Deals for
Developers series with assistance from graduate students from American Universitys Investigative
Reporting Institute. Kavitha Cardoza is in the process of putting together a series on the
educational opportunities for the children of active duty military service members and plans to visit
military bases across the country to conduct interviews. Meymo announced that Senior News
Editor Rebecca Blatt will be leaving WAMU to take a position as PIN Bureau Chief and Professor
of Practice in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at the University of Arizona. While she is
happy for Rebecca, Meymo said that it will be extremely difficult to find anyone capable of doing
the outstanding work that Rebecca has done for WAMU. In closing, Meymo thanked the Council
Members for their strong support of WAMU and its programming.
Marketing & Communications: Kathleen Allenbaugh, WAMUs Director of Marketing and
Communications, gave a Power Point presentation on some of the work that her team has been
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doing during the past few months creating ads, logos, and materials to market WAMUs programs
and documentaries to public radio program directors across the county. Her department, which
includes the digital media team, is working on the redesign of the news section of wamu.org and on
the websites for the talk shows to make them more interactive. Rudy Burwell asked if visits to the
WAMU website have increased, and Kathleen responded that our stream is showing solid growth.
She said that it is clear that our listeners are using multiple platforms to access our content.
Corporate Marketing: Anthony Hayes, Director of Corporate Marketing, was unable to attend the
meeting and Glenn Williams, Account Manager, presented the report for the department. (Please see
Attachment #3) Glenn said that the summer had been slow but the team expects March to be a good
month, and that FY 2014 is proving to be another strong year.
Development: Walt Gillette, Director of Development, reported on the Winter Membership
Campaign, which took place last week. The week presented a number of challenges beginning with
the Winter Olympics, which diverted listeners to their television sets, and ending with a storm that
closed offices and schools throughout the metropolitan area for the final two days of the campaign.
Walt said that while we did not make the original goal for the campaign--which was set at $1.3
million--he expects that the final total will be close to $1.2 million. He thanked the members of the
Council for their generous donations to the Community Council Matching Grant. The Council
achieved 100% participation. Walt informed the Council that public radio stations across the
country are now concentrating less on on-air campaigns as the primary means of raising funds and
more on increasing the number of sustaining members. He said that 23% of WAMUs members are
now sustainers, and he hopes to substantially increase that percentage to 50%. He is also planning
to downsize the premium budget to cut costs and to focus more on the programs during the
campaign spots. Walt informed the Council that we have raised $115,000 toward the grant from the
Deerbrook Charitable Trust. The grant is a 2-for-1 match, which means we have to raise $400,000
to receive the $200,000 grant. Several Council Members noted that sustaining members might not
be motivated to give during on-air campaigns or to increase the amount of their gifts. Kent
suggested that we might devote some time at a future meeting to talking about ways in which
sustainers might be encouraged to make additional contributions to the station during the year.

V. 2014 Community Dialogues Barbara Bares, Council Vice Chair & Chair of the
Community Dialogue Committee
Barbara thanked all of the members of the Council who volunteered to help with the 2014
dialogues. The committee has already had two meetings and has selected the following three dates
for this years Community Dialogues: Monday, March 24
th
, Wednesday, June 18
th
, and Wednesday,
October 29
th
. Barbara reminded everyone that the three dialogues which were held last year focused
on different aspects of the Affordable Care Act. The Community Dialogue that will take place on
March 24
th
will focus on the Chesapeake Bay and the proposed title is: Chesapeake Bay Watermen:
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What Will the Future Hold? Tara Boyle, who produces Metro Connection and Coastal
Connection, will be working with the committee to put this meeting together.
The meeting on March 24
th
will be held in the afternoon beginning at 4 p.m. to make it easier for
panelists who might be coming from the Eastern Shore; however, the June and October dialogues
have been scheduled for 8:00 a.m. with breakfast beginning at 7:30.

VI. Old Business, New Business
There being no Old Business to consider, Kent asked for new business. Peter Tannenwald, Ex-
Officio Council Member and WAMUs FCC counsel, announced that after working with the station
for 46 years, he was planning to cut back on his hours to spend more time traveling and relaxing.
He introduced Matt McCormick, an attorney with his firm, who will be assisting Peter with some of
the work he does for the station. Kent thanked Peter for his outstanding and continuing service to
WAMU and the Community Council.


VII. Adjournment
The Chair asked for Public Comment and there being none, he asked for a motion to adjourn the
meeting. Tony Sarmiento made the motion, which was seconded by Margaret OBryon and
approved by the Council. The meeting adjourned at 8:55 p.m.


Respectfully Submitted,

Anne

Anne Slattery Healy