Good afternoon, everyone.

Just about one year ago, many of you joined us here in Studio A. It was May of 2025, and the future of public media across Mid-Michigan was uncertain.

We convened our first Community Impact Forum to address important questions, share ideas, and explore what the future might look like for WKAR public media in Mid-Michigan.

Now it's a year later and I'm pleased and proud to say that WKAR is still here.

We're still serving our community with valued essential services, as we have for more than 100 years.

2025 was one of the most difficult years in the history of our station.

Despite a passionate outpouring of support from our community, in July, Congress voted to defund public media across the country.

The loss of federal funding created a serious gap in our budget here at WKAR.

$1.6 million gone.

The future of WKAR and the services we provide to Mid-Michigan was was extremely uncertain.

We turned to our community and we asked for your help to close the funding gap.

Donors from all across Mid-Michigan and many of the many of you right here in this room, you stepped forward in remarkable numbers to send a clear and emphatic message.

Public media matters.

So we're here today to say thank you as we share and discuss changes we've made over the last year that are that are serving to keep WKAR strong.

We'll also look at what the year ahead will bring as we build for a robust future of service to our community.

So we're going to kick things off today with a look at just some of the programing and services that WKAR shared with our community through the past year.

We're here tonight because public media matters.

Sit in with us as we get the inside out.

Off the Record.

There's always a story beyond the score.

Im going to hand you this pint glass and thank you for being here.

I feel excited.

I feel happy.

It can feel like a spark.

Remember happier times.

Balloon breaths.

This is WKAR.

I'm Sophia Saliby.

You have to be in the spot to hear the story.

You're listening to classical music on 90.5 WKAR.

It's so important to be part of the community.

Okay.

Should we add the tape?

Woah.

Good Job.

Always stay curious.

Stu!

I did it.

Good afternoon.

I'm Sophia Saliby, All Things Considered local host and producer at the station.

We're joined here now by our leadership team.

Shawn Turner, general manager, who has already introduced himself.

Melanie McGuire, senior director of development.

Melanie oversees all fundraising efforts here at the station.

Ashlee Smith, senior director of content and education Ashlee guides our editorial strategy that includes WKAR original TV programing and radio programing, as well as news and also our education efforts.

A lot to do.

And Brant Wells, senior director of station operations, Brant oversees the teams and systems that deliver our content to you through radio and TV broadcast, cable providers and digital and online platforms.

Thank you all for joining us today.

I get to ask my bosses all a bunch of questions.

So I want to start with last year it was a moment of real challenge, I think, for everyone on the stage, for a lot of people in the studio right now, but also one of incredible community response.

So can you remind everyone what WKAR lost and what that meant for us as a station?

Yeah, sure.

Thank you Sophia.

And again, thanks to everyone for being here.

As as I said in my opening, one of the most difficult years that we have, we've ever had, when we realized that we were going to lose federal funding, we knew that, we'd have to make changes here at WKAR.

As I said, it was a $1.6 million, cut to our operating budget, wiped out overnight.

That those funds or funds, we used to bring you original programing to bring you PBS programing, NPR programing, and to bring all the amazing events that we have here at the station.

We had the difficult task of reducing the size of our team.

We lost about 25% of of our team for a long time.

There was a cloud hanging over WKAR.

This team that's still here has been through a lot.

But they've been extremely resilient.

And through as we went through that difficult time, the people in this community, really just, you know, stood to the forefront and said, you know what?

We believe in you guys.

We believe in the work that you do.

So, we lost a lot, but we we made those changes early.

We, got through the difficult time, and now we're at a point where we feel very strong as a station.

This might be another question for you, Shawn.

As well as you, Melanie, we're talking about this community support.

What did that do for this station or what were we able to do with that support?

Well, yeah, the community really stepped up.

It was our best fundraising year yet.

Yeah.

I mean, yeah, the urgency, the, commitment to the station, we felt that when I would go out and talk to community members and donors, it was a confirmation that public media does matter.

Like you said earlier, Shawn, and we you might be hearing, this tagline: Sustain what matters.

Build what's next.

And I think what Shawn was saying about a cloud like our community stepped up for us.

And it's a partnership.

We only can do what we do because you all stepped up and wanted to make sure that we were going to be here for the next hundred years.

Yeah.

And I'll just say that, you know, as Mel said, a record fundraising year.

And that was it was, you know, made this team understand that this community values what we what we do.

Obviously, as we think about the future, we understand that this community was in many ways responding to the moment, we saw record, donations across the country for public media stations.

But we're also, as we'll talk about here, shortly, we're also thinking about the future, what does that look like?

You know, two, three, 4 or 5 years on?

And that's when, that's when it really gets difficult.

We will have to prepare for that.

And that's what we're gonna talk about later today.

Coming to you today, I kind of want to go down the line with each of you, starting with Brant.

How has WKAR changed in the last year when it comes to our mission?

Maybe our focus and what we do, the culture here as well.

This last year was challenging, but with every single challenge, there's absolutely opportunity.

And one of the things that I've been really proud of, WKAR and this team is, is rising to that challenge.

How have we changed?

You know, for me, operations, looking at technology and things, it's how can we be more efficient, even more efficient on efficiency?

Thinking of new ways.

It's really what we felt kind of in a box.

It challenged all the staff to come together and look at a new way of delivering content.

How do we get it out for the community?

And what does it mean to be a public media station, even for me, like being in technology and so forth, we've started to do new partnerships and build on partnerships that, you know, were here a little bit ago.

But like as we look at, you know, the next year, I, we're sitting in studio A, this will be our early voting center for East Lansing again.

And I'm looking at what does it mean to be a public media station beyond just content and getting it out there?

We want to be more in the community now.

And I it's really helped shape my thinking.

And I look forward to the future, Ashlee?

Yeah.

Thank you.

In the content space, we've had a lot to look at this past year.

It has been challenging because we've had to look at every program and service that we provide the community and evaluate, you know, if it's if the community is getting what they need out of it.

We've had to look at how much, how many resources goes into each one.

And so a couple examples of what we found over this year.

One is that we found that our audience really engages with public affairs content.

Most of our public affairs programs get the highest ratings on television.

So that's Off the Record.

That's we've done specials like Aging Answers, Decoding Disinformation.

So this year, our content strategy really moved in a direction of doing more content like that.

Because aside from our audience really enjoying it, it's also some of the more easy to produce content.

It has less, post-production.

So it's more efficient so we can provide more to the community.

Another example of something is looking at ways that audiences are evolving.

So Curious Crew, we said goodbye to our beloved show this past year, and that was really intentional because we looked at, the amount of resources that went into the show, which was pretty significant.

And then we looked at how young people are consuming content today.

So we noticed young people are consuming shorter and shorter content.

They're not watching 30 minute episodes.

And when they do watch, they're looking to see themselves on the screen as the host.

So this year, we're launching three shows.

One is Curious About Careers you've seen before, likely.

And then we're also Curious About Michigan and Curious About Civics.

And those are going to be digital first shows, hosted by kids.

So we're really excited to have things like that.

And the final thing I'll just say about what's changed is the way that we're operating internally.

We have less staff, so we have to be more creative about the way that we're serving our mission.

So you know as well as I, Sophia, in the news department, we've got many freelance reporters working with us.

And, in a time when we're not able to houses many full time positions, what we can do is have temporary positions or part time positions out so we can ensure that we're telling the story of every community.

Still.

To you, Melanie?

I don't know how I can top that.

I just think that our community and the way that we are operating is about efficiency without losing that human connection.

I think that's really important to the Mid-Michigan community.

But beyond that, and I think that's what's special about public media, is that we're going to deliver the content, we're going to deliver the story, but we're going to make, you know, that there's a connection, and we want to make sure we're taking care of the humans that we're telling the stories about.

Yeah.

And I would just add that, with regard to that connection, you know, Branson, talked about, and Ashlee, we'll talk about new things that we're doing when it comes to, that shorter content for young people.

Make no mistake, we're not backing off of the idea that the quality of that content has to be extremely high.

We have to make sure that what we're giving young people is helping them from an educational perspective.

Freelance reporters?

Absolutely.

But they come to WKAR understanding that there is a standard, because we serve this community with factual information at every turn.

So, while we are getting more efficient in these areas, we are not backing off on, the the idea that we're going to be really, extremely high on the quality.

Going back to you, Melanie, you talked about what fundraising looked like last year.

What will the funding need to look like to sustain not just this year, but over the next 3 to 5 years as we adjust to kind of this new reality with the way public broadcasting, not just here but across the country, works?

I think I take it back to the connections and making sure that it's a partnership with our community, and that they know that we're only successful because of the work that we're doing in tandem with them.

So I could say, you know, in 3 to 5 years, I'm going to have this goal financially.

I don't have a magic ball or magic ball.

Crystal ball.

That's it.

It's magic in this crystal, I got it.

But I think it is always been about connecting with people, making sure they understand what we need.

I think we've been really vulnerable this past year, and that's worked for us because people know how to help us.

And if we're we're clear about our priorities and not compromising on the excellence which is our hallmark, then we're able to move forward.

And we just have to be flexible in that space.

Yeah.

And I'll just add that, you know, I, I, Mel doesn't like it when I say this, but but I don't I don't like asking for money.

I, I really I really don't but I, and I know that we ask we ask for your support a lot.

And you know, people come up to me and they say, you know, you know, your campaign's really strong this, this time around because we ask for support a lot.

But just know that because, my my view of this is that when we ask for your support, we must be delivering something to you that allows you to feel like it's worth it to send in that check or to, have that, that, that, that money come off of your credit card every month.

We want to make sure that you feel like that's worth it.

So what I would say to everyone in the community is just know that, we ask for your support because we really, we need it.

We believe in this mission, and we know that you all do as well.

And, we are never going to ask for, support that we don't need.

It's a it's just it's critical to our success here at WKAR.

Going down the line again.

I'll start with Grant again, if you could describe how you feel about WKAR right now in just one word, what would that be?

I'm lucky I get to go first.

Yeah.

There's no repeats.

Going to take the word we all want.

Yes.

With going first, I'm going to say this last year has proven that we're resilient.

No explanation.

I'm going to explain mine.

I mean, I'm more than happy to explain.

I mean, I'll go with.

Yeah.

Why are we resilient?

We've had it.

You know, we had to make some tough choices and even with, funding, one of the roles that I had this past year was, you know, renegotiating with vendors and and how can we really be as intentional with every single donation dollar that we get and, and again, evaluating, not that we've been just throwing money away or anything like that to vendors, but I will say it isn't just this community, but also vendors have heard about what we've been going through, not as just an individual station, but as public media.

And while I like that support that we got this past year, can we rely on it, in the future?

And I don't know what that answer is.

But if anything, despite all of this has happened, we're still here and we're growing.

And what we are producing, what is out there.

So it's just proven that we are strong because the community is strong that we are supporting, and we're here for that.

Good explanation.

I'm going to say proud and I say proud because, it's been said several times up here already, but this team has been through a lot over this past year and even before that, because even before the loss of funding, we had months and months of wondering and not knowing what was going to happen.

So, despite all of that, despite the loss, this team has kept doing the work and kept showing up.

And I think the fact that we're able to show up today and in a, in a moment, show you some of the new content that we're going to have.

And the fact that it's still growing.

I am beyond proud of this team and of everybody who works here and just grateful to be a part of it.

What word do you have?

It gets worse, you know, like I'm like, man, it's going to be a lot of new.

Sorry friend.

Committed.

I think this past year I've been fundraising for for eight years.

And I think it's renewed my commitment to my community that I grew up in, to the, the kids that are growing up here in this community and to the families and folks that rely on what we do.

So committed.

Big build up.

Shawn, I like that word.

I think my word may surprise my my colleagues up here.

But I hope it's a word that, will mean something to every person here in the in the room, in every person listening.

My word is strategic.

And I want to tell you why, I believe that strategic is the right word to describe where we are.

In the coming years, every public media station across the country is going to have to figure out, how they how they will keep their head above water, how they how they stay on the air, how they will continue to serve their community.

The unfortunate thing is that many of those stations are going to start to think about that when it's right at their door.

We are not doing that here at WKAR.

Right now, while this phenomenal team of leaders is making sure that on a daily basis that we're serving our community, I am thinking about what we can do here to ensure that when other public media stations are struggling, that we can say, we've already anticipated this, we're planning for this, and I'll just share with you, you know, we're thinking about things that we can do here at WKAR that will serve other public media stations here in Michigan.

It's been really can't if those stations start to struggle a little bit, are they they're looking for efficiencies.

I want them to turn to WKAR and say, can you help us with this?

And and we're putting in infrastructure to be able to do that.

We're creating new, content, new programing.

That's not just about Mid-Michigan, but it's about Michigan.

So that when other stations have decreased capacity to create programing and content, they can come to us.

I want to make sure that this station is indispensable to every, every person here in Michigan.

So we're being strategic.

And I think that's that's what we're going to continue to do so that we can make sure that we can not have to keep asking for so much money.

Although Mel will.

She just me its my thing.

As we look ahead to what's next, Shawn, you're taking on a new role in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, which is what WKAR is also part of.

Can you share what's next for you and why?

It's important that we talk about this with our community today.

Yeah, absolutely.

And thank you for the question, Sophia.

So, the first thing I want to say is, is that, I'm not leaving WKAR.

I love WKAR, I love this job.

I love this team.

I love this role.

I was asked to step in as the interim director of the school of Journalism here, in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, while also maintaining my role as the the general manager at WKAR.

So I'm going to take on that role as interim for about a year.

The reason I initially said no to to the offer, because this is where I want to be.

But when I took a step back and really thought about precisely what I just said, I thought about being strategic.

I realize there's a real opportunity here not only to serve the school of journalism and all the faculty and staff there who are absolutely phenomenal at amazing school, but also to realize the synergies between what we do here at WKAR and what the School of Journalism does.

In this room, making this production possible are a bunch of, really phenomenal, students from all over this college.

They are the ones who are the future of public media.

So in my role and in the school of journalism, I'll be able to find those synergies and help bring these two organizations together.

But I will still be fully engaged with this leadership team here at WKAR.

As part of Shawn taking on this new role, Brant and Ashlee, you'll be taking on some of his responsibilities, which is exciting.

How are you tackling this transition?

Yeah, well, first, I'm just really excited that I have these three people still with me.

I think we're, we work together incredibly well, and I don't feel that we're going to, struggle at all with any of this.

But I will say I'm kind of looking at this from two different angles.

The first is you may have seen Shawn out in the community a lot.

Shawn does a lot of speaking, engagements and hosting and meeting with community members, and he'll continue to do that.

But also, I will try to be out there more as well.

And I'm really excited about that, especially because, as I'm trying to create new content and experiences, I can only do that by speaking to the people who consume our content and knowing what they're looking for.

The other thing I'm thinking about is internal.

It's our processes.

We've gone through a lot of transition this year, as we've had to adapt new ways to work with less staff, less resources.

And so I'm going to be taking a really close look at how we can continue to strengthen those workflows so that the team at WKAR can feel secure.

Brant?

While Ashlee is out there, I'm going to be working in the shadows.

So no, I'm really excited about this because Shawn hit on it.

Strategy.

And what I'm going to be focusing on is strategy for we are here in this community.

But again, as it relates to the entire state of Michigan.

So we're looking at how can we bring, built infrastructure, not only the better solidify our position, but I'm working with other general managers here in the state of Michigan in order to see how can we do shared services and how to be more efficient so we can all equally have more impact in our local communities.

But I want our to be that hub.

So I'm really looking at the technical side of that.

But what that also means is how can we potentially be looking at bringing more legislative content, to the communities in a more efficient manner?

So really, it's just all of these different kind of partnerships that I'm going to be focusing on that will have major impact for care, but also the entire state, because, as Shawn said, our goal is to make sure not just is going to be indispensable for this state and as such, will be here more impactful in our local community.

Well, that's all the time we have for this panel.

But most of us, I think we'll be back on this stage a little bit later and we'll be able to answer your questions as well.

So thank you all for joining me.

I'm going to turn it over to Ashlee now.

And we're going to take a look at what's coming up this year in television.

All right.

I am incredibly excited about everything that we have coming up.

I hope you enjoyed that reel.

It's fantastic.

And it's my absolute pleasure to be joined today by Sheri Jones.

Impact Michigan host.

Al Martin, host and producer of Beyond the Score and Streetlight Sessions, and Robin Pizzo, Director of Education.

Thank you all so much for being here.

I'm excited to have you.

Happy to be here.

Thank you.

Ashlee, I'm going to start with you, Sherri.

So you are very well known in this community.

And we're very grateful to have you here working with us on Impact Michigan.

I would love to know.

What drew you to working with public media?

Well, thank you for having me.

And it's because you asked me.

It was just a perfect time, for me.

And I have grown up with WKAR.

And I have the utmost respect for WKAR the programing that you offer and how storytelling has always been a very important part of what I do.

And I like the fact that WKAR are always takes an opportunity to go a little bit deeper, to ask the question why and to settle into that storytelling and to really listen to what people are answering.

So to be fair and balanced and the way that you connect with the community, which we just heard from the panel before, that was very exciting to me.

I am thrilled to be part of this family.

I would like to say at WKAR.

And we're thrilled that you're here with us.

So thank you.

I do want to ask you if you could give the audience a little bit of a what to expect with Impact Michigan this year.

So it's thrilling that we are actually airing once a quarter right now and we hope to do more shows.

Our first one was on housing and the economic crisis situation that we faced with housing and stability in housing.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month.

We are going to be talking about people's mental health and also looking at and this goes from grandparents to parents and teens and people that are using their phones and the algorithms that keep us on our phones longer.

The reason that, it's hard to put them down, but what that also does to our mental health.

So we're going to be looking at that.

And then education and then democracy.

That's the way the whole year will play out and impact Michigan.

Yeah, we're very excited for everyone to dive into those episodes.

And democracy in particular is going to link together two of our major initiatives this year that we're very excited about, which are America 250 will have seen in that premiere, and the promo up there, and election 2026, a very consequential election, of course.

So we're excited to have that episode leading right into election season.

So I'll street light sessions.

This is our newest music show.

We have a new episode, premiering tomorrow, I believe, on YouTube.

We do.

Small plug, right?

Yeah.

No, we got some people watching digitally.

Tomorrow, 4:00.

WKAR's YouTube.

Okay.

Exactly.

So Street Light Sessions highlights local artists and culture.

First of all, maybe could you give us a little summary of the show and then talk about why it's important for public media to create a space for a program like this?

Yeah.

First of all, thanks to everybody who has come today and everybody who's watching, digitally as well.

But, I was thrilled when, yourself and Megan came to me.

This is right before the Christmas holiday and said, oh, we know you love music, because if I'm not yapping about touchdowns and slam dunks, I'm usually talking about film or TV or music.

Right?

And, I took about, you know, two weeks during a holiday break to kind of brainstorm and come up with a concept.

And, I landed on one that is kind of in the same ballpark of, of NPR's Tiny Desk, but is a bit different.

Right.

So Street Light Sessions is in it's, a set that is, mimicking outdoor street performances.

Right.

So you have a street light.

I do like.

Right.

Street light sessions, trash can with, you know, fake fog coming up right where we're using, kind of an outdoor fire pit kind of setting with that and newspapers on the ground.

So, mimicking the outdoor setting, an homage to street performers.

And, your second part of that, that question.

Actually, I think, first of all, when you think about music, right?

And the arts in general, you know, film, TV, music, the arts are culture, right?

And culture is people.

And that's what we do in public media.

Right?

And that's why music is so important.

I mean, when you go to that family function, there is a soundtrack when you're at the cookout or at that birthday party.

Also too, when it comes to what we try to do with with Street Light Sessions, what we are trying to do and what we've done in the past as well with our musical programing, going back to Backstage Pass is give these artists a platform, because we all know how hard it is to break into the music industry or the arts in general.

Right?

It's so hard to find a platform that that highlights artists and just shows you that, hey, oh man, I didn't know, about James Gardin and DJ Ys, or about Greg Burke and Rodney Whitaker.

And then tomorrow with Drey Skoney, who's a fabulous, Motown Detroit artist.

So we want to give these artists a platform and also we want to share their stories, right?

Their stories are already baked into the music that they play.

But I think what is really cool is that that quick bridge interview that happens between song one and song two, which talks about, you know, where they're from and the inspiration behind their music as well.

Yeah.

Thank you Al, I think there is a great connection here between your comments, Sherri, about how public media allows you to go a little deeper and further and yours about telling the stories of people.

That's really whether it's public affairs, politics or music and arts and culture.

That's what public media is able to do.

And I think it's really special.

And to that end, Beyond the Score is also a show that does that.

But for sports.

So I would love we're moving into our third season this year.

Right.

So crazy I can't wait I know.

So we're hoping to premiere that this fall for for you all, but I would love to ask you through the evolution evolution of Beyond the Score.

What have you noticed as you've been uncovering all of these stories?

Have there been any patterns?

Has there been any change in how you're approaching this?

Well, I think for for me personally, you know, I'm I'm realizing more and more.

And I knew this before.

But when you when you're so close to these stories and producing them and writing them and directing them now, for me it's changed the way I view sports, you know, when you when you think about sports, of course, immediately we think about wins and losses in points, rebounds and touchdowns.

But you know, the people that are behind you know, the scoreboard, that's what we're doing with beyond the scoring.

I mean, we've gotten an opportunity to cover some incredible athletes and other personnel that are within the world of sports in season two, we covered the Lansing Cricket League, right.

And as you saw in that montage, you know, Bobby jokes about this all the time.

Season two was kind of like, a highlight of me just trying everything, right?

I mean, I got a chance to ride a horse.

As we talked about the MSU Rodeo Club.

Howd that go?

Oh it went great.

It went great, right?

I got a bought a cowboy hat and everything.

That was fun.

I got a chance to, to get out there on the pitch and play cricket.

Right.

And, shout out to Shawn because he signed off on me getting into a NASCAR stock car and doing laps around Michigan International Speedway.

And I think you were the one Ashlee, to tell me that was, you know, crossing my fingers that I'll be able to do this story and get behind the wheel.

And I think, actually, you said that Shawn noted to you that Al has a greater chance of getting into a crash on his drive to MIS than when he gets on the track.

So, yeah, very, very fun stuff.

And, when it comes to, to season three, you know, we plan on tackling topics like referee abuse, right?

Officials, officials don't get to talk don't don't get talked about enough.

They don't get highlighted enough.

You can't have the game if you don't have the zebras.

Right.

So we we plan on diving into that.

Also, visually impaired skateboarder Nick Mullins, will be a part of, Beyond the Score season three.

So I've been kind of coordinating that as well.

And also with flag football becoming an Olympic sport come 2028 out in LA we're tackling girls flag football.

And this this wave that is flag football.

Now.

So just stories that go beyond your typical sports that you usually watch on any given weekend.

Yeah.

What I've loved about this is while you're trying everything, I'm able to experience everything.

I don't know if those of you in the audience are big BBC and masterpiece PBS fans.

But how many, masterpiece shows feature cricket games?

And I've always wondered how the heck you play cricket, so now I know.

Thank you Al.

There you go.

For doing that.

Robin, I'm going to move over to you.

Robin, our director of education.

Education is, of course, the hallmark and the backbone of what public media is and was meant to be.

Can you talk a little bit about how education in the public media space is evolving for today's audiences, especially our youngest viewers?

Yes, absolutely.

I absolutely love that.

Being a part of the PBS public media media system means that we are America's classroom.

I have always loved that mantra and that idea about our programing, and for us, we make sure we provide as many opportunities as possible for children to explore all of the possibilities of their own lives.

And we do that by making sure our programing provides a variety of content for academic growth, as well as social emotional growth, as well as just entertainment and creativity.

But most of it is sort of hiding the education within those wonderful programs.

For most of us, we're very nostalgic about many of those programs, like Wild Kratts and Daniel Tiger and the Fred Rogers brand, but we are noticing, current times our children want far more engaging, really explosive engagement in the programing, colorful burst of all types of energy coming through those programing in a very short form package, and they don't want to sit for a long time to get to the gist of a long, drawn out story.

So that short form means that we need to be adaptable, make sure that we can produce, programing that gets to the point.

Very engaging within a shorter form context.

For our students, that still provides the highest quality to be, America's classroom.

Yeah, that's really important.

Thank you.

And I think, something I've loved seeing in the evolution of PBS is educational content.

Sherri and I were just speaking about this is the vastness of the social emotional learning content that's come out into the space, which is more and more important, and I think even more important, with social media as you will discuss in the next impact Michigan, but we have a new program or a second sort of season, a little different, program we had last year.

Can you talk about I Feel Talks, which is giving kids space to discuss their emotions, tell us a little bit about it and why this kind of content is so important.

Absolutely.

So I Feel talks is what we're considering I Feel second season, I Feel really allowed children, kiddos to talk about their feelings and all the big emotions that they have, and then to provide families with strategies in managing all of those big emotions and I Feel talks takes it a step further by allowing them to talk within community of each other, to have conversations about their dreams and their hopes about teamwork and even experiencing bullying, and all of the aspects of life that they're going to experience on a day to day basis.

But being able to share how they manage those, what their concerns are.

And we know that when it comes to social emotional development and mental health wellness, that stories really do spark healing.

And so we love the idea that they get to have these conversations.

There is definitely, community expert or a therapist or educator or Al took a shot at providing some strategies to manage those big emotions, manage those big moments.

And every day moments that they're going to experience in life and be able to feel confident that they are going to be okay.

That's our goal.

We've missed out on having, enough resources for families and children to be healthy and strong in their mental health.

And research shows that mental health begins at birth and spans a lifetime.

And so we want to make sure they have those resources in place.

And so we come along as partners in providing that with I Feel Talks.

Yeah, it's a very special show.

And if you haven't seen the first season, it's also very special.

You can find it on our website.

And I think YouTube as well, a lot of adults maybe can even use this content.

I think I could certainly, and it's been really special seeing how the kids can so easily engage with these topics and speak with each other about how they've experienced it, and then it's just taking that extra step of having an adult support you through being able to, you know, work through that emotion.

So, absolutely.

And again, the best thing is they are short form.

So I feel was 30s.

And that came out of a conversation with programmers to say, what are you missing in this system?

And how can we help fill some gaps when it comes to children's programing?

And we heard across the nation that they were really missing these shore interstitials that could fit in between programing, because as PBS kids, we don't sell commercials.

And so this was an opportunity for us to fill a gap.

And when I feel talks came along, I had that conversation again with programmers and producers and they said, hey, we still need a lot more interstitials to really push out our quality programing.

And we thought, can we, what's the longest we could go that you can still use it pretty regularly and 60s was the recommended time for them, so 60s.

But it is jam packed with quality programing that highlights our children's voices and experiences and how to manage them within their body and within their emotions.

Making sure that they are healthy, a whole that all the ways that they deserve to be.

Absolutely.

Thank you Robin.

And Sherri, this may be your first time in public media, but I know you do a lot of work with children in this community as well.

Child and family charities and other spaces.

I'm wondering if you could speak a little to why you see, public media being such a valuable resource.

Oh thank you.

Yes.

Bravo, bravo.

The need is incredible.

And this is really what I see public television as an an opportunity to inform, to educate and to connect and young people, we need to meet them where they are in this program.

And the educational content that PBS continues to put out, which is the legacy for the station, is imperative for the mental health.

And, you know, we learn at all ages, right?

We're lifelong learners.

So when these 60 second, they come on you, I guarantee you there's parents in the room that are watching the same thing.

Right.

So that is geared toward all of us.

And we are community.

We care is community.

So the connection, the authenticity and impact Michigan.

We're taking national issues and we're bringing them to the state level.

That's why this programing works across the state.

And we hope that a lot of our sister stations will pick that up.

So when I hear programing like you and and and the passion that you have for what you do to go deeper, to listen longer, to, to also connect and give people the resources that they need.

That's why I love public television.

That's why I'm honored to be a part of this, I love it.

Thank you so much.

And Al, I'd love to ask you as well in your own words, why does public media matter?

Woo.

That is a great question.

I think public media matters because people matter.

I think what we do in public media, what we're tasked to do, is to hold up a mirror to society and reflect the people that we that we highlight.

But I love what you said just now Sherri, you know, to inform, educate and connect.

And I would probably even add challenge to that word as well.

Right?

I think I think what public media does so brilliantly is it doesn't just reflect society, but it also challenges your thinking.

And we need so much more of that in today's society.

Yeah.

And and to your very good point it and having diversified voices in that and I think that's what public media does.

It really amplifies the diversified voices.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

In our last couple minutes Robin, how about you?

I was really hoping we would get that other question.

What word what you define.

But this still speaks to it because I really think we are neighborly.

We are neighborly.

And that means we care about those that we live among.

We support them and all the ways that we can.

We try to share our story, and our stories are varied and diverse and inclusive, and they bridge belonging.

And that's why public media matters, because we really do, exemplify all the characteristics of being great neighbors.

Yeah, I completely agree.

And it's it's very special for me to be able to work with all three of you and everyone at WKAR, because when you walk in and you see the passion that you approach your work with, I don't think you get that in a lot of industries.

And I'm very lucky to be able to experience, working with people that are so passionate about making a difference in their communities.

So thank you all so much for being on this panel.

I've had a great time chatting with you.

Thank you.

So that's what's coming up in television, everyone.

Now let's take a look at a little bit of what's going on in radio.

I'm Melorie Begay, I'm Linda Kernohan.

This is WKAR.

I'm Sophia Saliby.

We're staying true to our values.

We're staying true to what we know.

We do really well.

You're listening to 90.5.

Classical.

Community members want to know what's happening?

How can people have conversations around them?

Understanding how WKAR fits into the scene.

All right.

I'm joined again by Sophia Saliby, our host of All Things Considered.

And we're welcoming to the stage Linda Kernohan, host and producer of 90.5 classical.

Welcome to you both.

Thanks for being here.

Thank you.

Great to be here.

Thanks, Ashlee.

I'm really excited to chat through some of the things that we have coming this year to both classical and to news.

So I'm gonna start with you, Linda.

I mentioned a little bit ago we have an initiative going on this year for America's 250th birthday, semiquincentennial, if anyone wants to try to say it.

It's the tongue twister.

The classical team is going to be curating some new content, which is really exciting.

And I'd love to hear just a little bit more about what's coming.

So we're going to be producing a series of short videos.

We're producing a series of short videos called Sounds and Stripes Forever, and, all three of us.

Well, at least I can speak for myself.

I'm still kind of learning the hang to get the hang of being on video.

It's radio, so I'm not usually used to that.

But it's great to be learning that new skill, and I'm excited about it because we're going to highlight, American composers.

So each video will be 1 to 2 minutes long, and it will focus on one American composer will give a bit about their background, and you know, how they work and what they've done.

And then we'll give listening recommendations so that people can find out more about these composers and the music that we're writing.

And an exciting thing is, they come from all periods of history.

So there are living composers, but then historical composers too.

So quite a variety in the music that we're going to highlight there.

And then another thing we're doing that I'm really excited about is a series on composers who have immigrated to the United States.

Classical music has its roots in Western Europe, so it is by definition an imported, art form.

But of course, it has taken root here in the United States.

And a lot of that has to do with the musicians who came here from abroad, especially during World War two.

You know, many composers were fleeing Europe, and they came here.

Many of them became film composers.

But it's gone on, you know, from the 19th century, maybe even earlier and up till today.

So I want to highlight those composers and performers who have come from abroad and added so much to our American culture.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

This is the first time anybody's hearing about this, I think.

So you guys are getting a sneak peek at what we have to come sounds in.

Stripes forever is going to be a week leading up to July 4th, right?

That's right.

There will be, I think, two videos per day posted on social media.

Starting in late June and leading up to July 4th.

And your specials will be in your Friday show every Friday leading up in July or June.

Yes, it's going to be every Friday.

Leading up to July 3rd will be the last one.

So it's for, specials.

They'll play on Friday mornings at 11, and then we're going to repeat them on Saturday afternoons at 4:00.

Yes.

Thank you.

Very exciting.

So definitely tune in for those.

Our classical team is also out in the community a lot.

You're at events at concerts.

I would love for you to share a little bit about what it means for WKAR to be present in the community, and why you feel that it's impor Well.

Music is all about connection, and when we're hosting on air, we're alone in the studio with the microphone, and we know that there are tens of thousands of people on the other end, but we don't get to see them.

So going out into the community is the way that we connect with our listeners.

And it's so wonderful to talk to people during this time period.

Before we lost our federal funding, we had so many people coming up to us and saying, you know, are you going to be okay?

Are you still going to be doing what you're doing?

We assured them that we weren't, that we were going to get through it.

To know that it was so important to people was very encouraging.

Through that challenging time.

There are people who come up and tell us that, you know, you're the soundtrack to to our lives.

It's really wonderful.

And I just was a, concert guide for a concert last week.

And, we had people coming up to us and just thanking us for what we do.

And it makes it so that when I get up in the morning, I don't say I have to go to work.

I say, I get to go to work.

That's what you love to hear.

Absolutely.

And speaking of community, this past year we launched a new series called Community Classical.

Could you share a bit more with everyone about what that project is and what your experience has been like?

Yes.

So this has been so exciting, and I always want to make sure people know that this was Jamie Paisley's brainchild, our classical program director.

But he invited me in, and we've been trading off the co-hosting duties on this show.

So we put out a call for people to send us their playlist ideas.

So we said, you know, do you want to come on and co-host an hour of classical music with one of us?

So we got some great submissions and people came in and and we co-hosted the hour and what I learned about it is that, you know, and it confirmed something.

I already knew that classical music accompanies people on some of the most important moments in their lives.

So many people over and over again, they would talk about, you know, this piece was important to me with my spouse or with my kids growing up or milestone events in my life, and that just, you know, made it clear how important music is to all of us.

And hearing people's stories.

It was wonderful.

I think it's one of the best things that we've been doing, honestly.

We're repeating our first season right now, and our second season is going to start production in September.

I think we have a web page if you want to sign up, to be a host on Community Classical, you can check that out.

It it really was a wonderful experience.

I think you're right about, music accompanying you for life.

I also did an episode.

That's right.

I got to co-host.

And so with Ashlee, it was wonderful.

But there's so much I didn't think about until I started curating the playlist that I wanted to use.

You know, it's.

Oh, I played this with my dad when I was, you know, ten at the piano for the first time.

And this was the music from The Nutcracker in fourth grade when I was a candy flute.

And it just it's a walk through time.

It's a great memory, great experience for bringing back memories.

Thank you.

Linda, I'm going to jump over to you.

Sophia, we're going to switch to news, which is very different from classical.

What's new for the newsroom?

What's changed in this last year?

A lot.

You probably didn't hear it, but we've gone through a lot of change in the newsroom over the past year and a half due to, staff turnover.

We basically have not had a full time reporter since November of 2024.

We've relied on some great freelancers who are you've probably heard on the radio at this point, and we've relied a lot on them.

But I think we're at the point where we are bringing on a full time reporter.

So that's all because of community support and knowing that you all care about the news, and we want to be able to provide that news.

So that's huge for us.

We've, started a newsletter.

I don't know if there's any Signal subscribers in the room, but we have a weekly newsletter that comes out on Sundays.

That kind of, highlights some stories from the past week and, previews the week ahead, whether it's meetings, stories that we're keeping watch out for.

So those are kind of two of the biggest things that are changing in the newsroom.

But we are in the studios every day.

We are out in the field every day telling the news stories that we think are important to our community.

Yeah, there's been such growth that I've seen in the newsroom, and the amount of content you all have been able to share, and it's been really impressive.

And this signal newsletter, if you haven't signed up, definitely do it.

I look at it every Sunday because it just prepares you for the week ahead.

It's such a fantastic resource.

So shifting gears a little to the election, which we have coming up, we know this is a huge one.

We've got a lot of races going on here in Michigan.

Can you talk to us about what, races or issues you're watching closely?

How long do we have?

Seven minutes and 26 seconds.

So this is a huge election year, which I'm sure probably a lot of you are aware of.

We have a gubernatorial election.

We have an open Senate seat.

We have, all the state House seats, some of the state Senate seats.

Jackson's mayor is up for, that will be an open election as well.

And I'm also thinking about millage is, they are our impact.

Michigan episode was about housing and property taxes.

And I think a lot of people are thinking about maybe that millage request is not an immediate yes anymore, which is impacting communities in different ways.

And I think as a whole, this midterm is going to be, I think, a big test nationally for how people are feeling about the current administration.

And Michigan has its role as a swing state.

So I think there's a lot that is going to be kind of decided here.

And then that will set up the presidential election.

So it is April, but it feels like November is like two blinks away.

And I think we're going to be, you know, doing interviews with candidates, trying to bring all that information together so people can kind of make the right choice for them at the ballot box.

Yeah.

I'm glad you mentioned Impact Michigan, because I think that's a great example of how we're trying to bring TV and radio together.

I believe one of our freelance reporters was doing some, explainer videos for us on social media.

Is that Leanne?

Yes.

Leanne town.

Yeah.

So we're trying to bring as much, together as we possibly can.

And Linda mentioned it, as well, with the videos we're doing in classical music, we're really excited about being able to keep breaking down some barriers between different platforms.

So news also, our coverage has been expanding to cover deeper dives on issues than we've been able to do in the past.

Tell us about some of the stories we have coming up.

Ashlee knows about these stories because I can't stop talking about them in the office.

So obviously when I host All Things Considered, it is the top news stories of the day.

So when I get to do a longer piece, I try to do something that is maybe a little bit off the beaten path.

So I have a story coming up about the history of the Morse Park pool in Lansing.

This is a more than 100 year old pool that has been closed for the last six, eight years, but has gotten money to restore it.

It will be opening back up in June.

So I've talked to people across generations, about how they've used this pool and how it's played a role in their lives.

So I'm really excited about that.

For America.

250 A lot of us are taking deeper dives into historical moments in Michigan's history, and I am doing a profile of the people who are working to fundraise to build a museum in honor of the Bath School disaster.

This happened 100 years ago next year.

So the 99th anniversary is actually on.

A couple Mondays from now, where a disgruntled school board member was not happy about property taxes and, you know, committed an act of terror that that killed a lot of children.

It's quite sad.

But the community, I think, in the past 100 years has gone from not talking about it to talking about it, and now they're in a place where they're trying to fundraise to build a museum to commemorate it.

Now that a lot of the survivors have passed away.

So those are two stories.

And then should I, should I mention?

Do it.

Do it.

Guys, I'm going to do a story about pigeon racing.

I'm so excited.

I am laying the groundwork now to go to a pigeon race.

Which apparently is not that exciting because they set them off in Indiana, and then you just see them kind of fly into their loft at the very end.

But I have made contact with the land Lansing Pigeon Racing Club.

And you are like, how did she figure that out?

But the Capital Area District Libraries archive has a bunch of old pictures.

And I've been fascinated because in the 40s, during World War two, there was a civilian defense force and there was a homing pigeon club.

You can find these pictures on, like, right now online.

Don't take out your phone, though, but, anyway, so I was like, whoa, whoa, what was this?

And I found out there's a modern day club that raises pigeons.

So, at some point this year, you'll hear about that, some cooing noises Sofia is very excited about.

The pigeons.

Can't stop talking about this.

I'm so sorry.

We're looking forward to that one.

So I have a last question for both of you.

And I think this is a really important one.

We talked about how, both, both of you and both of your departments are trying to move more into, embracing and working with video as well.

However, radio is one of the oldest mediums that still has life, like a lot of life.

And so I'd love to hear in this fast paced digital world that we have where new products are coming out seemingly every day.

Why does radio still matter?

And I'll start with you, Linda.

Well, all of this technology that we've been using, I think it had the goal of connecting us.

At first, it seemed like the internet was going to be the great democratizing air.

But we have ended up, for some reason, I think, being more alone than ever.

And so to have something that connects us and where we are connected with our local community, I think is, is just really important.

I think people are hungering for it.

I know I am, you know, to be more connected with people in the physical space and also just knowing that, there are other people out there listening to the same thing you're listening to.

You could go on Spotify and just say, you know, play me classical music in the algorithm huddle forever.

But having, people who are knowledgeable, knowledgeable about it present it with a point of view and with themes and, you know, the driveway moment is a real thing.

I know, at least for me, there are things that people just want to hear going on live and knowing that other people are there listening with you.

I think we all need that kind of human connection in our lives.

I agree, thank you.

And in our last minutes, Sophia, I think there's a reason why WKAR has been around for more than 100 years.

I think there's a reason why PBS has been around for decades, why NPR has been around for more than 50 years.

It's because of the focus on community and the focus on mission.

That's why people give and support care.

And I think the important thing is, is that I think everybody on this stage, everybody here at WKAR knows that.

And so you're going to see different, you know, us expanding into digital, us expanding on our website, on social media, on different platforms.

But the mission isn't what's changing.

And I think that partnership, that trust that's been built over decades and decades and decades is where it pays off now.

Yes, absolutely.

Linda, Sophia, thank you so much for being here.

I really appreciate it.

Always lovely talking to you both.

Of course, we work with so many talented professionals here at WKAR, but we also have the opportunity to work with some incredible students.

Let's take a look at our experiential learning program.

The Experiential Learning program has taught me so much.

As a student intern, it's really cool, really good, valuable experience.

All the things I've always wanted to try, I've been encouraged to do here.

My friends and bosses have been like, okay, like, what do you want to do?

Let's let's just give you the tools that you can go and do it.

There is a lot of support, but there's also like I'm learning the skills of, you know, advocating for myself and being able to say, this is what I want out of this internship.

Working at WJR, we really get to put our skills to the test.

I was always kind of searching for ways to be able to blend both of my interests together.

When I came across this program in this field of work for me, it gave me a lot of inspiration.

Just like this is this is a field, this is here, this exists, and there's resources.

I'm so thankful for all of the opportunities that I've had here to grow my confidence.

Everybody is so helpful and so kind and I've learned so much already.

It's it's a wonderful program and a perfect space to be able to learn what I love.

It's been awesome.

It's been a great experience.

Definitely has made me consider being in public media.

As we finish up a year and enter the workforce, I feel really well-rounded and all of the skills I've learned here and like I can contribute a lot to the television industry, and I think there is just something really special about it.

Hello again.

I'm Brant Wells, senior director of station operations.

In addition to overseeing the station's operational functions, I have the pleasure of also overseeing our student experience program.

I'm joined today by a Bobby Taylor, a video production technician and our experiential learning coordinator.

And two former students have graciously came come back to help us out here.

Conner O'Sullivan graduated from MSU this past fall with a bachelor's in computer science and is currently working as a. I have to get this right.

An associate application infrastructure developer at Auto-owners Insurance.

Previously, he worked as a database operations intern at Grass Roots Midwest and at WKAR.

He worked as a technical operations and engineering intern or as we like to say, a TOCO in my team.

So thank you for doing that.

And with us as well is Maya Moore.

Her first bachelor's degree is in journalism with a concentration in international reporting.

She also has a second bachelor's degree in public policy with a minor in Peace and Justice Studies.

She is currently working as an executive assistant and communications coordinator for Michigan Senate Assistant Majority Leader Darren Camilleri.

I was practicing that and I knew I was going to do that, so.

But welcome back and thank you for joining us.

Thank you for having us.

Thank you so much.

So, Bobby, I want to start with you.

You were an intern when I actually first started at the station about ten years ago.

And you've been instrumental in helping us redesign.

So tell us, what is the experiential learning program here at WKAR?

So I always like to say that when I was a student here.

So I graduated in 2016.

I worked and I started in 2015.

Right away I kind of got bit by the bug.

I got bit by the PBS bug.

We all talk about this.

And I understood working with other student employees and working with other students throughout the years here, that not everyone gets, that there's no way that we can have everyone just kind of really grasp on to what this is really about.

The experiential learning program is kind of our way of trying to have everyone experience that same sort of feeling of what we all go through as staff and what we all put into our work each and every day.

On the grounds of everything that we do in terms of production, I mean, there's students running cameras right now.

There's students running prompter.

There's a student directing.

And here, right now, while I'm out here, in the control room while I'm out here.

Down to you communications and the way that we present ourselves to our audiences online and to all of you here and in messaging and such, to our journalism and our reporting to our engineers to, even our education team, really, every department that we have here at the station has some form of a student that is helping them do the work that they do.

And we're also providing them the opportunity through the learning program to see how their contributions lead to everything else of the station.

So not only are they working in journalism or in engineering, but they may be right now an engineering student helping us on camera.

Or they may be kind of seeing, well, I'm going to help on the education side, what how do we make content for education?

What is that sort of thing like?

So, the experience of learning program is our way for us to interact with MSU students, to kind of get them to get bit by that same PBS bug, public media, but not just PBS.

Great.

Thank you for that.

So, Conner and Maya, can you share why you wanted to take part in this crazy WKAR internship program?

How and what role you had while you're with us.

So explain about what you did here for us.

All right.

I'll go first.

I grew up, just five minutes outside of, WETA, which is the public media station, that services, DC.

And, I grew up watching PBS kids, in the radio, in the car.

I listened to, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and Car Talk.

And when I saw a posting to be able to work at a PBS member station, I knew immediately I had to apply for it, that I wanted to be able to contribute to something that was so formative for my development and to hopefully provide or at least take part in that development for someone else out there.

And as, my role at WJR, I was, again, the technical operations and engineering intern.

And with that, I did a variety of tasks, anything from making cables all the way to operating our TOC, which is more or less the brains of how all this is broadcasted, and how our right now is being live streamed.

My thank you for having me.

I'm happy to be back.

For me, I think it would have started.

I would say I got bit by the public media bug.

In high school, I worked as a, I was it was during Covid.

It was 2019, 2020 and yeah, 2021.

And I was a lifeguard at my local YMCA and I wasn't allowed to I was, obviously not.

I had to watch the pool, but I listen to podcasts.

And so I kind of got hooked on I was election year and I got hooked on the NPR politics podcast, and, up first, next.

And so I would consistently at like 17 years old, listen to these podcasts.

While I was being a lifeguard, watching the swimmers swim.

And so I kind of since then, that's why I chose journalism as my degree, as my first degree.

And with that, I had to, and then with journalism, I had political science related classes with the journalism requirement.

And so senior year came around and I needed my journalism internship experience.

And I saw on handshake, I sawWKAR posted, and I was like, this is my opportunity to work at an NPR sister station.

And it was just like, as soon as I saw it, I was like, I had to apply.

And I think I probably gave, you the same story about how I was a lifeguard.

And I was like, I need to be working for an NPR station.

And so that's how I found myself here as a journalism intern.

I was here my entire senior year.

They gave me the opportunity to stay back for spring semester, and I 100% took that because it was where I found here at WKAR, where I truly felt like I had developed my identity as a journalist.

Prior to that, I had, I guess, a bit of I had public policy and I wasn't really leaning into journalism.

But once I came here, WKAR gave me the tools to really develop as a student journalist and really claim that title as a journalist.

And that's where I got to see some of my first work published on the air and radio.

And it wasn't just writing, I was script writing.

I was editing for the first time, in, in the studios.

And it was just really exciting to just hear my own voice on the radio.

And it was exciting for my own family as well.

So I'm just.

Yeah, that's how I got here.

We're lucky to have you all.

Absolutely.

Bob, can I just add really quickly to you that it's great that both of you were up here, too, because I was just talking earlier with our current engineering student about how some of the things that you did when you were here as an intern has kind of set the tone for what other semesters and more interns have.

And similarly with you, too, Maya, Conner was our first student to run the technical operations Center and to be in the in the talk like that, as we say.

And now our engineering interns every semester do that.

And then similarly with Maya, by the end of her first semester, she had published, I think, 20 articles, 20 or 22 articles.

And now I want to say that's virtually the standard of what students do.

By the end of their semester.

It gets close in that space.

So both of you being back is very cool for me to see because again, I'm having these same conversations with current students right now.

So definitely set the set the bar and set it very high.

So I mean, we have current interns right now working this production, that you all laid the groundwork for.

So thank you for that.

So I'm going to go down the line.

And Bobby, I am actually gonna include you on this one.

So you're gonna have to go back in time.

Okay.

So during your internship, what's something that you were especially proud of working on?

Oh, we're going to start with I'm going to give you time to think about it.

So we'll go with Maya first.

I would say while I was at WKAR, it was the going into the 2024 election.

So I had the opportunity to really, I would say, blend both of my degrees with journalism and public policy and getting the opportunity.

I think it was the Bernie Sanders campaign and UAW President Shawn Fain was there, and I got to interview him after the campaign had ended it.

At the time, I didn't realize how big of a thing that was, and I went to DC for another internship for, Congress, and I was putting together a media portfolio, and literally all of my best clips were from WKAR And that was specifically one in there.

And some of it was like, what the heck?

You interviewed like Shawn Fain?

And I was like, yeah, well, that's yeah, that's what I was sent out to do.

And so, that was one that was really amazing.

And then the night that Kamala had come to MSU, she did her, like press rally leading up to the election, like three days before.

And I was able to go as a journalist for that.

And that was really amazing.

Just getting to interview attendees and like, I was getting sound bites and just having like press page that was like full circle.

And then election night when I was just sent out, I was stayed up late, and I just really felt like I was part of something that night.

And I, that's when I got bit by the politics bug, I would say, and where I see myself now working in politics.

But, that that night, just following results, staying up late, going to different polling stations, like we said, WKAR was interviewing first time voters here.

I was going to other polling stations in Lansing, and I think that's really where I just like developed, like, I really like politics.

I really like journalism.

This is my senior year where can I go from here?

And, yeah, I think those were some really proud experiences I had, and especially as a student, being able to be in those scenarios and situations and having that my byline be my morning, my name on these was really exciting.

So and yeah, so I'm just grateful to have had that opportunity.

Yeah, I would as Bobby said, I think, my highlight of being at WKAR, not necessarily a project, but just being able to run the TOC on my own, was a very, much kind of a capstone for me.

I feel like it very much well reflected my culmination of experience that I had here, that I knew what would be failing if something was going to fail.

I knew how to fix things.

And, being a public media station, there's a variety of both legacy and modern hardware and software that we have, and being able to just know the intricacies of all these variety of tools that we use was very much, my highlight.

This is so hard for me to look back to then, but what I will say is, I, I does anybody remember a show called Quiz Busters?

Yeah, a lot of people remember Quiz Busters, so I remember coming to work here and thinking, what a cool show.

And my first, you know, kind of year as an intern.

It just didn't line up with my class schedule.

And I just remember thinking, next year I am going to make my class schedule work so I can work quiz busters.

And I did that in the fall.

And to me, there was something just special about the high energy of everyone's excitement to to the kids that come in on quiz Busters.

It's their big tournament day and they have a chance to they had a chance to win a scholarship and it was a very, very exciting but also kind of tense time.

And for us in production, it's just like doing sports.

It's just like doing a live sporting event.

And for that in particular, after getting to see so many high schoolers and even when we did Quiz Busters, juniors and middle schoolers coming in and seeing how much fun they had with it, it was just like, oh, this is something totally different.

Like, I can't do anything like this in any other job experience.

I did actually work for MSU and I did do a sports and things like that, and at the time I was kind of battling my time between, do I want to work at W.K.

or do I want to work in sports?

And I leaned more into WKAR because of Quiz Busters.

I was like, this is this is so fun.

This is what I want to do.

So I really thought, you're going to mention your your claim to fame, Bobby, is Google famous?

I think you're going to have to correct me.

I think if you actually Google video production intern, it's broadcast journalism, just the term broadcast journalism.

I thought I had the intern aspect to it.

And he'll his picture, from his time as an intern will come up.

So.

Yes.

Mom and dad, if you're watching the stream at home broadcast journalism, you can use your phones.

So economize.

So how did this experience shape your understanding of of media or storytelling?

The importance of public media.

How does it shaped your thinking?

Okay.

So I refer in importance of public media specifically.

I think, now more than ever is the accessibility aspect.

I think, with journalism in general breaking down really hard to understand topics.

As a journalist here I was really I wrote to much, I found out, and I was able to hone in on those skills.

And just getting down to the nitty gritty as to what the general public needs to know and should know, and making that as understandable as possible.

And I think WKAR does that with public media.

I think now when I'm reading, especially locally, sometimes I really want to read a local story about what's going on locally, and then I'm hit with the subscribe war.

And it's like, I think now more than ever, I've been opened to up to how important it is to have accessible public media and how long I have accurate information coming out as well, especially working out in politics.

I've seen that translate to my current career, where it's just like breaking down hard to understand legislation.

It's similar and just making and this is impacting everyday people.

So making sure they're actually understanding the legislation that's impacting them and being passed.

Is how I kind of see the correlation with public media and what I'm doing now and how is so important.

Yeah, I would say that, I was very much a behind the scenes person when it came to, my time at WKAR.

And I think being on the more technical side of it, I got a very holistic understanding of all the components, which goes into, television, and public media specifically that there are so many steps that one has to take in order to, produce a program.

It's not just the talent that's on stage, it's the audio engineers.

It's those on camera.

It's those in the top ensuring that has FCC compliance, that there are so many steps that have to be done and have to be done well.

And I think that's something that we are excels at and that it instills that vigor in its interns, to be able to go out into the industry with that, determination to have, that, knowledge of this is the way that things should be done.

I mean, you both just touched on it, but do you feel like there is any skills that you got in this internship that you may have missed just in the classroom, for instance, I would say the opportunities to just, like, have trial and error.

I think coming into care, like I said, this is where I really found my confidence in journalism and that when I have been able to do so without the support of its staff, especially in radio or small team.

But Sophia like truly guided me and built my confidence and really brought me to the journalists that I am today.

And I think having that opportunity to get accurate, constructive feedback and, just like being able to just trial and error and just also bring my own ideas and pitch my own ideas to what I think as a young student intern can be interesting to the general folk.

And I think that's just I wouldn't have that opportunity in the classroom.

I have a journalism degree, yet I did not have the opportunity to do podcast and editing in the studio and recording myself, and that was only done here in WKAR.

And again, it's followed me to where I am now, and it's been media and media and portfolios.

So I think being able to like have clips from here that have taken just me to so far now is really special, an experience that I did not get in the classroom.

Yeah, I would say a very similarly.

I was graduated with Computer Science College of Engineering and from I talked about with a lot of my, colleagues in the College of Engineering is that the classroom provides a really good theoretical framework as to how things could go.

You theoretically know how to build a bridge if you're a central engineer, how to write programs, if you are computer science.

But being able to apply it is a whole different, ballpark.

There are a lot of constraints, be a budget, be it what technologies you have access to and being able to actually apply what I've learned in computer science at WKAR, even though I wasn't writing programing, there was still a lot of troubleshooting aspects that, I was able to develop as, techni So one of my favorite things about our internship program is seeing where our interns are going.

So I know you are just have started your careers and so forth.

How do you think this experience like informed?

What is next for you?

Well, when I came to college, I knew that I always wanted to go to law school, and that is still a goal of mine.

Not now, but definitely in the future.

And with that, seeing what's happened within the past year with public media and just in general, like freedom of speech has even pushed me further into wanting to career, I pursue a career in law and studying constitutional law, First amendment law, like media, anything media related.

It's definitely like made me more passionate.

And that journey, I mean, it's definitely taken some time to get a timeline straight, but it's still happening and I know it's happening because I'm upset with what I'm seeing, and I want to be part of that solution and change.

And so just picture putting that, you know, passion in me and continuing it is something that I'm excited to see and fulfill and bring to life.

Yeah.

I would say that WJR instilled three, three things, that I, I will carry with me, when I'm looking at other opportunities that I get.

Firstly, being having my work be varied.

I worked on so many different projects at CR, and, I find that that is an environment that I thrive in, that I love being able to go into work and I might work on this, but I also have an opportunity to work on something else.

I'm not stuck with the same, I'm not in the same box all day.

Another thing that it's really instilled in me is how important mentorship is, and that being at an organization which values the development of me and not just what I'm able to provide.

And lastly, this is probably the most important one is being able to provide back to your community.

WCR does, an amazing service of just providing so much programing and knowledge and services for the greater Mid-Michigan area, and even to the entire state.

And I think that's something that, I will be definitely doing going forward is knowing what I'm doing and how it can impact, my local community.

It's great.

I love hearing that.

And thank you both for being with us, before I'm running out of time.

But I have one last question for Bobby, because one of the things that I take great pride with is how we have such a strong legacy, of interns.

So half our staff were interns at the station and so forth.

Can you just share, like, some where some of our former interns are at or what you've seen, with our interns?

Yeah, absolutely.

It's hard to keep in contact with everybody if I'm being honest, because it's starting to get so big.

You know, over the years, just since I've been here.

But it's also very fun to see where, you know, students that were in my in shoes are students that were in the same shoes of our current students, where they were and now where they are now.

So, we have students that are, mixing audio for Skywalker Sound out in L.A.

we have students that are, the lead audio engineer for a tiny Desk at NPR.

So sticking in the public media, kind of ecosystem, we have students that have been working with graphics in Marvel and working on Marvel films and things like that.

And even, just recently I just heard from someone who reached out to me based off of someone else.

They talked to you about someone who works in NFL films, on the NFL films department working Cameron thing.

So they really are all over the place.

And it excites us because there's opportunities that lead to things like this where we can have conversations and keep talking.

For me personally, it's so cool.

This is just like, mind blowing to hear how much work you've all have done since then.

There's obviously never a doubt when you all are here that we know you're going to go to do on and great things.

It's just so cool to see it happen, and then to have you be willing and interested to still come back and have these conversations that we were having what felt like just yesterday.

But really, it's already been a year since both of you, I believe, were both in 2025.

Right.

So, yeah, it's really cool to see.

And currently I've been telling our, our students now I'm like, just so you know, when you leave here, you're still going to hear from me, you're still going to get my emails, you're going to get my messages.

I'll still bother you to come back and talk to us on a panel one day.

Or really just to keep in touch and see where, you know, your experience here is kind of led you into what path.

So it's amazing where they where they're going.

And we look forward to seeing where you're going to go to our interns that are currently working.

Thank you as well.

We can't do this without you.

And we're so excited to see where your careers are going to take you.

So again, thank you.

And with that, we're going to be transitioning to a video.

They hear from some of the other interns that couldn't make it tonight, but nevertheless wanted to get what they have to say about this.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Morgan Velderman.

I graduated in May of 2025, and I was one of the first production interns for the learning program.

Well, I don't work in video production now.

I actually did just accept a position with Jackson National.

I will have the opportunity to work with things like graphic design, data entry and things like that.

And my favorite memory would probably be working on Curious Crew because I was able to do camera work and editing, and then I would actually show my family and friends and be like, I did that, that thing on TV I did.

That's so cool.

Hi, I'm Maddie Strauss, I'm graduating this spring of 2026, and I was a digital engagement intern with WKAR from fall 2024 to spring 2025.

Right now I'm interning with Michigan State University's University Communications and Marketing office, as well as I'm a public affairs intern, downtown Lansing Strategies.

I also manage Zeke the Wonder Dogs PR and I do all social media, so I definitely use the experience that I've gotten, to recruit in everything I do with Zeke and my favorite memories of are, I randomly said one time, I want to meet the governor or be in the same room as the governor, and I got to go to state of the state, and I got to take pictures.

So that was really cool.

It's kind of a dream come true of just off the cuff saying, I wanted to do something, and then WKAR kind of made it happen.

Hello, I'm Ben, I'm a graduating senior here at Michigan State University.

I've opportunity of working with WKAR from summer to fall this year.

I worked on the production side of things as a digital storytelling major, and it was awesome.

There is so much I got to do there.

It was all great hands on experience.

The staff puts you at the forefront of things so often.

It was so amazing.

They take every opportunity that you, you kind of come across, and they teach you how to learn from it.

And they care about you so much.

Working at WKAR, I have no regrets.

It was awesome.

I would recommend it to anyone who's looking for an internship ever.

It's the greatest place to work.

I love everyone there.

So thank you.

Hi, everyone.

My name is Stella Govitz and I will be graduating May 2026.

And when I was at WKAR, I was a production intern.

Now, a year later, I am a video production intern at MSU Federal Credit Union, and this summer I will be heading off to Washington, DC to work with National Geographic as an editorial video intern.

WKAR definitely influenced the kind of work I want to do post-grad, and I knew after working at WKAR that I absolutely had to align with the values and the mission of an organization and create content that actually is meaningful to people and impacts them.

That's important to me, and that's a value that I'm carrying forward in any role that I'm going to have in the future.

All right.

I'll tell you about all the things we do here.

The Student Experience Learning program is right at the top of the things that we are so proud of.

Now is the time for us to transition to, take some questions from all of you and to turn this into a discussion.

And so, if you have not had the opportunity to do so, then please, write down your questions on the card.

We're getting questions in from people online.

And, I think I'll just start with some of the questions that we have here.

And, and then we'll take questions from the audience.

Also, if you want to, stand up and ask your question yourself, you're welcome to do that as well.

So, let me start off with one of the questions we received.

Already, the question is what are the ways that locals can support WKAR its mission and program programing if they're unable to donate on a regular basis?

You know, I would say talk about WKAR.

I think that's a really important one, is being able to share your love for public media, showing up at events like this, showing up out in the community at places like Absolute Music to support our classical hosts.

I think that's really important, but we're also at a time where as media gets more and more digital and less, appointment viewing, we're at a point where a lot of it, a lot of people's consumption is based on suggestions from their friends.

So I think one of the best ways that you can help us gain new audience is talking about your love for public media and your support for it.

I'm gonna add to that that you need to press that like and subscribe button while, well, it sounds like a like a joke, it absolutely isn't.

And engaging with our content on social media helps the algorithms push that out to even more audiences.

So sharing, sharing our content is just as important as donating, because we want our content to resonate with the communities.

We want it in front of the eyeballs of our community and abroad.

So again, just sharing it goes a long way in supporting this nation.

Yeah.

And I'm going to add to that, that, I've been talking about for a long time, and I it's one of those things that really haven't gotten across the the finish line yet, but, but I'm committed to doing, doing.

So, we really want to bring more of the community back into the studio here at our.

And when we're out in the community, as we started out, tonight, we said, you know, our team is smaller than it used to be, and I believe there are members of the community who would, would not mind giving up their time to come in to, to table with us or to come in and to, help volunteer at events we have here the studio, you know, Robin Pizzo, you know, her team, you know, they mighty but small.

They put together thousands and thousands of reading kits every year.

It's great your support to do that kind of work.

So, one of the things I'd ask you all to, to stand by for and to look for are more opportunities to support our through volunteering and through, helping us, connect with our community in ways that, where we ask your time as opposed to, donations.

Okay.

Let's go to the next question here.

And, again, if anyone has any questions that they want to stand up and ask again to pass the mic around here, I would give that one just musical mikes here.

The question is, what is it?

What is our plan to make up the money, and go beyond to acquire funding?

So I'll, I'll start out and then I'll pass it on to you email.

So when it comes to making up the money, it's there's no way that, in the community that we are going to be able to make up the federal funding that we've lost just here in the community.

We understand that.

We know that.

Now, it doesn't mean that we're not going to try very hard, but we know that, we're not going to get there in the community.

So what are we doing?

Well, we are, looking at ways to, partner with other organizations in the community so that when, when you're supporting organizations, you're supporting collaborations.

So I'm partnering with Wharton Center, we're partnering with Broad Museum, we're partnering with others in the community so that what we are able to provide to the community, has an even higher value than what we have here at WKAR.

There are lots of foundations out there that support the work that we do.

We are redoubling our efforts to engage with those foundations and to highlight the work that we're doing here at WKAR, and hopes that they will support us as and we're seeing a lot of, support as it relates to local news, a lot of people out there who believe in the importance of local news.

So we are going to leave no stone unturned in terms of our ability to to try to bring funding back to WKAR.

I'm hopeful that when the political winds change, maybe there'll be an opportunity for some additional, funding to return.

But right now, we're going to continue to do the one most important thing that we can do.

And that is to show all of you in the community that if you support us, if you will think of us when it comes to your your financial planning, that we will deliver as a public media station in ways that you've never seen before.

There's a couple of things that, I'd like to just highlight too.

I know sometimes people are able to give, a state gifts.

And I want to let you know just about, an estate gift that we received this past year that allowed us to create something pretty meaningful for the, for the station.

Someone left us a very sizable, gift in their estate plan.

They're not here to steward.

They never let us notice.

And there was no indicator during their lifetime that they could give at that, at that level.

And what we did is we started a general manager resiliency fund, and this is for his flexible dollars so that Shawn or whoever stores, in that position in the future, can make decisions based on need or opportunity.

So I think sometimes, we've had a lot, a year of, oh, my gosh, we don't know what's going to happen, but this is going to give us some security in perpetuity.

And it's a gift that keeps on giving.

If you all talk to your advisors, there are things called donor advised funds.

And every year until 2032, there will be a gift to us, as a station.

So that gives me a little bit of like, woo, okay, I can talk about that and people can add to that.

So I just want to do that.

Yeah.

And thanks for that.

Mel.

I'll just add that, you know, when you when you all donate to WKAR, you typically donate to radio, to television or to to endowments.

But the reason that this resiliency fund is so important is because it gives me the opportunity to talk to members of the community about what we really need in this community, and it gives me the flexibility to fix flexibility, to say, okay, we can bring that to the community.

I'll give you a great example of this is that when we think about things that are happening at the national level and how those things impact us right here at home on the local level, oftentimes what's missing in our in, in local news is that sort of big picture understanding of what of how Washington, D.C.

decisions impact us here.

Well, what I'm able to do with the Resiliency Fund is I'm able to support our local reporters and bringing in experts to help us understand how things like tariffs impact us right here in our community.

I can bring people to this stage and bring the community in and say, help us understand what this means.

And East Lansing or in Mid-Michigan, that's the kind of thing that I was didn't really have the flexibility to do before.

So that's why this fund is reall Let's keep pushing here with questions.

Let's see.

Do we anticipate any means of getting some kinds of federal funding, back in the future?

I'll just briefly touch on this and tell you all that I am optimistic that, we may see some federal funding come back, in the future.

I don't think it will come back in the way that it had existed before.

But I do believe that, there are a lot of members of Congress who did not fully realize did not fully appreciate the impact that defunding CPB would have on local communities and local stations.

And they're just starting to realize that.

And there's a lot of, of, of of goodwill.

There's a lot of intent to bring some support back to those stations.

I talked to members of Congress on both sides of the aisle and to a person, none of them want to see their local public media stations shut down.

I even had I won't say who.

I've even had a member of Congress say, well, we didn't we didn't defund WKAR.

We defunded NPR.

Let's just talk about how this works.

So I do believe and this is a person who says we think you guys are great.

We didn't intend to hurt you.

And so I think there's some will there, but we'll see.

All right.

Other questions here.

And I've got a, So this is a great event.

How can we build on it?

I don't know, how can we build on this event?

That's a great question.

Oh, now I'm stuck.

Oh, that's a great question.

I think there's, building on this event, I think we want to host an event like this every year.

I think that's our intention is to be able to offer, consistent opportunity like this, to speak about these specific types of issues to our community and what's coming.

But we also are trying to be a lot more aligned in what we're bringing, the experiences we're bringing.

So around, oh, gosh, I don't know if I'm allowed to say it, but I'm going to say sorry to our comms team if I'm not, we're going to be having a great event coming up in June, for example, for America.

250, where we're going to invite folks out to talk to us and share your stories of your American experience and your family.

So I think what we're trying to do is create more spaces where we can speak to each other, as opposed to just be providing, content out to you.

Yeah.

And I really do think building on this event means, you know, we did not do these types of events, prior to Ashlee's arrival here.

We noWKARnow that we can hold these events, bring you into the studio, and, talk about issues, and we can do it in a way that, you know, doesn't, overstress overtax a team.

So we're going to do more of these things.

Let me.

Yeah, let me get to this other question here.

What is WCW's relationship to Michigan Public Radio?

Not, so.

So Michigan Public Radio is another NPR affiliate.

They are not associated with WKAR.

But they do have a tower here.

Yes.

A repeater.

Repeater.

Yeah.

So it's an interesting Michigan is interesting in terms of the NPR, system, because we have NPR stations all over Michigan, and then we have Michigan Public, and Michigan Public has repeaters all over Michigan as well.

So you and many of the places where you have an NPR station like WKAR are you also have, the option to have Michigan public.

It's a it's a somewhat unique, system compared to other states where typically you have an NPR station covering a particular area, and there may be some overlap on the edges.

But we we are we we work on a regular basis with our colleagues at Michigan Public.

We collaborate on stories, we, we've actually we have some people who used to work here who work there and vice versa.

So it's a great relationship that we have with them.

It's just unusual that we have, overlapping stations here in Michigan.

Let's see, we we continue to get questions in, believe it.

See, this is an interesting question.

If a community member, community member has a local news story or tip or idea, is there a way they can share that?

So that's an interesting story.

We have an email address right over here.

You want it pop up?

Come on up, Sophia.

We're just going to, you know, let the person who has the the answer answer the question.

Hello.

Yes.

So we have a couple of emails, news at broad and I believe shared at WKAR talk.

We checked both of those where you can send news tips.

You know, we can't cover every story that's submitted, but it's always good to kind of see what people in our community care about.

So definitely send us your emails or if there's something specific I'll be around for a little bit after all.

Right.

Thank you.

What's the process for deciding what programs are sunset and what programs are added?

Great question.

It's there's a lot to this process.

So, I look at a number of things.

Two or so years ago, we did a robust community survey where we got a lot of great information on what platforms people were using, what shows they watched and engaged with.

So that survey prompted us to create, an editorial vision and areas of focus.

So our areas of focus for the last few years have been arts and culture, news and public affairs and history and storytelling.

And our editorial vision has been to educate, to elevate diverse voices, to, illuminate what's going on in the community, to entertain and to inspire action from those watching our content, so that every piece of content we do has to meet something within those.

And then when we were looking over this last year, we took a look at the hours that go into creating something.

The percentage of the total content that it was that we were putting out to the system.

So if something took 85% of our staff's time, but was only 1% of our content, that felt like less of a return on investment than if we were to alter a little bit.

We also have, since the layoffs, had to figure out how to do some of this work that we were unable to or that we're now unable to do.

So we've got a Cross-departmental team, our multi-platform innovation team that's come together in really wonderful ways to take a look at all of our different platforms.

So we're evaluating broadcast numbers for both radio and TV.

We're evaluating streaming numbers.

We're looking at social media, the way that everything performs.

So it really all comes into this robust picture where we can see where something may be underperforming, or be overtaxing our resources so that then we can make a shift.

All right.

So this this hour has gone fast, for us.

And unfortunately, we're out of time.

If you did ask a question and did not get it, answered the.

Don't worry, I'll make sure that those questions get answered.

So I want to say thank you to our panelists.

Please join me in giving them a round of applause.

And I want to say thank you to all of you for joining us here today.

We're moving into the future in a strong position to continue serving our community.

We're working even harder to expand access to our content, create opportunities for engagement, and to grow our student experiential learning learning program.

As we build for the future, we know there will be challenges ahead.

And as we deal with those challenges, we value conversations like these.

These conversations are opportunities for our fans, our friends, our followers to help shape what this local public media station can be.

Our work today and for the years ahead, continues to be guided by our mission to inform, educate and inspire our community.

Connecting people through thought provoking content, ideas and perspectives is what we do with a new level of support that we're receiving from our community.

We know that together we can work to sustain what matters and to build what's next.

Thank you all for coming out today.

Have a great day.