(bright music) - Good evening.

Welcome to the special edition of "WTVP Now."

Now I'm Mark Welp, along with Phil Luciano, and we have a special guest with a special announcement.

- Yes.

As you probably heard today, the board unanimously chose Jenn Gordon as the new CEO of WTVP, and the entire board is thrilled.

- Talk about the process where you reached the consensus for Jenn Gordon as new CEO.

- Yeah, so we started out with over 70 resumes.

A fair number of those were from out of state, out of the country.

And (laughs) we got it down to about 11.

Then we did some more due diligence, got it down to five really good candidates.

And then we really did some deeper dive and we decided three of those candidates were a little bit better than the other two, and so we decided to do a thorough interview with those three, and if we didn't have a clear person identified, then we'd probably go back to some of these other candidates.

And so a few weeks ago, the search committee, who was made up of Pastor Marty Johnson, Heather Accera, Helen Barrick, Dr. Andy Chiou, and myself, we met with each of the candidates for about two hours and we had eight categories that we were interested in.

- For you, what was the key?

What was the key category there?

- Key categories of the event was probably leadership, fiscal responsibility, those were probably the two.

Grant writing was probably also important, but those were, you know, some of the lesser ones were like non-profit experience.

That was good, but it wasn't as important as leadership and fiscal responsibility.

- Well, with John Wieland, our Chairman of the Board, and talking about our new CEO, Jenn Gordon, and when you were having this interview opportunity with Jenn, what are some of the things about her personality or resume that just popped out and said, this is probably gonna be our person?

- Because during the interview when she talked about accomplishments, she talked about "we" and the team, not "I," et cetera, and so we'd really like that.

She's talked about the mission of WTVP about six times, and so she is all-in on the mission.

And then she said something during the interview that I really liked and she said, "Look, it's not about me, it's about WTVP.

And if you really want a great leader, a great leader knows it's not about them, it's about the enterprise."

And she demonstrated that she understood and embraces that, and that's gonna make her a great leader.

- Since the challenges that have cropped up over the past few months, you have talked about the need to establish trust with the public.

You sound pretty excited now about this.

Why should people out there be excited?

- Well, because that survey that I am begging you guys to do, (Phil laughs) in the first 48 hours, we had over 600 responses.

And one of the questions was, "What is your current opinion of WTVP?"

And the four responses was very happy, happy, so-so, and disappointed.

And almost 70% of the respondents said they were either happy or very happy.

The number that was disappointed, it was eight-point-something percent.

And even in a incredible organizations with no issues, if you ask the public, "Are you disappointed?"

that number will never be below five.

And so do we still have opportunities to improve?

Absolutely.

But we'll have opportunities to improve until the day we die.

- And you still want to hear about those.

You can still get on the survey until April 15th, right?

- April 15th, just go to the website, click it on, it takes less than three minutes, and the information you are providing Jenn, this empirical data, when she comes on board on April 22nd, is just like a gift, because we got good data on what people are liking and how we can improve, so please, if you're watching this, just do the survey.

- Yeah, you're not gonna find that from any other TV station around town, (John and Phil laugh) asking you what you wanna see and what you don't wanna see.

- Well we serve you.

We serve the community.

- Yeah, this is your opportunity to have your voice heard.

John, we thank you for all your work.

We're gonna be seeing less of you, I think.

- That is a good thing.

(Mark laughs) It's a great thing.

- And more of Jenn Gordon.

- Yes.

- Who we're going to introduce next.

- Great.

Thank you guys.

Okay.

- Thanks, John.

Thanks.

As promised, we have here our new WTVP CEO, Jenn Gordon.

Good to see you, Jenn.

- Good to see you, Mark.

- It's been a long, whirlwind day for you.

How are you feeling now that everything's official?

- Oh, I'm so excited.

There's something about having the news out there that makes it feel a lot more official.

And being here in the station is just making it all feel like it's really happening.

- You know, obviously a big thing about WTVP is it's so family-oriented.

- Mm-hmm.

- For those folks who aren't with you, can you explain a little bit about you and your family?

- Absolutely.

So I am a Peoria native, born and raised here, same thing with my husband, Eric, Eric Gordon.

And we met, got married here in Peoria, we were really involved with the art scene here.

And then we moved out to New York City, spent a good chunk of time out there, just, you know, doing various different professional endeavors.

And then I got pregnant with my first daughter, and we had this moment where we were like, where do we wanna do life for the next 20 years?

And unanimously between us, we said, we really wanna get as close back to Peoria as possible.

And we didn't know if that was gonna happen, but we all, we started putting out job feelers out there.

You know, I thought maybe we would end up in Chicago, just didn't know if we could make Peoria happen.

And I remember, I think it was like my daughter was three weeks old, and we both had job interviews for opportunities here in Peoria.

And it's like the doors opened, our parents were so excited because they could be close to their grandchildren, and we could be close to our family and our support system.

And it has, we've never looked back.

And as much as I love everything that our time in New York was, it's just been phenomenal to do life here in Peoria.

I love this community and I love this town, and I love raising my kids here, so we came back with just one.

And then since then we've had two more.

(laughs) So we have, Josie is our 9-year-old, Elias is our 5-year-old, and then we have a little boy, Eben, who is not quite three years old.

So we're still a little bit in the trenches, as parents will say.

(laughs) - And you thought to yourself, I don't have enough to do.

I wanna be a CEO.

(Jenn laughs) Let's talk a little bit about your professional experience and some of the highlights, so to speak, of your resume and what happened to you professionally before you got here.

- Yeah, absolutely.

So when we were in New York City, I had the opportunity to start working with Steinway & Sons, the piano maker, just an incredible company, the world's best pianos, and through that, I had a chance to be responsible for managing their artist roster.

So they have about, at that time, they had about 800 artists on their North and South America roster, which I was in charge of.

So I got to work with just the top, the creme de la creme of artists, coordinating marketing opportunities, making sure that they were happy with the pianos.

I spent most of my Friday nights at Carnegie Hall, or all the different various venues around New York City, got to rub shoulders with Billy Joel and Harry Connick Jr. and just so many incredible artists.

And that was a dream job.

It was just absolutely fantastic, but it was not really conducive.

I couldn't imagine doing that and raising kids at the same time, and I really did wanna have motherhood in there, and I wanted to be able to be a working mom.

And so the opportunity came up to move back to Peoria and take the helm over at ArtsPartners.

ArtsPartners is a fantastic organization that is currently led by Dr. Mae Gilliland Wright, a very good friend of mine.

And that was just an incredible opportunity to get to know the landscape of the cultural arts scene here in Peoria, and the nonprofit arts scene here in Peoria.

So ArtsPartners' mission is to build awareness and strengthen the arts for the cultural and economic enrichment of Central Illinois.

And because it was a small organization, but really it was focusing on how they could get the word out about 60 local organizations, and how they could help those nonprofits be stronger, have more cohesion, and have a lot of health, and ultimately rise the tide of our cultural vibrancy here in Peoria.

It was just a fantastic opportunity to get to network with and know all of the fantastic leaders that keep organizations like the Peoria Riverfront Museum, the Peoria Ballet, Central Illinois Ballet, Heartland Festival Orchestra, Wheels of Time Museum, Peoria Historical Society, all of these amazing resources that we have here to be able to work on cultivating projects together, and really just working together as a team, so that was a fantastic time.

Got to work with some wonderful board members, launched some new initiatives.

The Business of Art is a conference that we started back in 2015, and I'm so glad that's still continuing on.

There's nothing like it when as a leader you start a program and then after you leave, it continues.

That's a really, really good feeling.

So that's great.

We got to incubate the Sculpture Walk program for seven years before passing that off to the very capable hands of the Peoria Art Guild, with Shannon Cox leading that organization, the Ignite Peoria Arts and Makers Festival at the Civic Center, that was a big project, too.

And just so many, many great programs.

Getting to work with the scores of local artists that create incredible films and sculpture and paintings and music.

Peoria is such a rich landscape of people that choose to call Peoria their home and create their art here, and also small entrepreneurs.

So it was just a fantastic experience.

I was there for seven years.

I stepped away in December of 2022, and at that time I was really looking towards having a team and being able to work with bigger team.

Every leader I think comes to a point where you wanna have a bigger budget, and you wanna be able to manage more resources.

Had a fantastic opportunity to step into a leadership role at Grace Press Church, which is a very sizable church here in Peoria.

They have 1400 members, just a huge facility.

So got to manage day-to-day operations there, and oversee HR for a staff of approximately about 30.

So, and that was a fantastic opportunity as well.

I think most leaders, you just get the itch.

If you've been involved with the public sphere and with a nonprofit, you kinda get the itch to get back into it, so I was really excited when this opportunity came up.

- So why come here?

- Mm-hmm.

- And what do you plan to, what is the, not just why come here, but what do you want to do here?

- Yeah, absolutely.

So one of the beats of my heart is to see specifically nonprofit organizations go from A to B.

And that can be in a variety of different ways, but organizational health is one of them.

Making sure that you have an engine that is running effectively, and that all of the people that contribute to making that vision and that mission moving forward, that they are healthy, and that they are excited, and that they are engaged, it starts there.

When you get to that point, like the sky is the limit.

So that was enticing to me, that there, you know, WTVP here is an organization that has gone through a lot, (laughs) and there could be an opportunity to instill a good chunk of organizational health and trust within the organization.

Of course, the second piece is the mission and the community, and looking to how can we take this fantastic resource, where there's no reason why the community shouldn't be engaged, and reengage that community with the mission.

- Well, I'm sure the community is interested in what's gonna happen over the next few months.

I know it's gonna be about a month until you're officially-officially here.

- Yeah.

- But what are some of the first things on your agenda to start with once you get here?

- Yeah.

Well, I've been saying this in my mind for a while now, leading up to this, what is that first thing?

And the word that keeps on coming up is just listening, listening to our community.

And I know John Wieland already referenced the survey, but this is great, right?

Until April 15th, the community can tell us their thoughts, and it starts there.

Nonprofits exist to serve the communities that they are in, and WTVP is no different.

So the first is just to listen and to really take stock of what our members are saying and what the community's saying.

The second is gonna be to kind of see, currently right now, where are the barriers to accessibility with WTVP.

So there's a lot of on-ramps for WTVP that you can get it through Passport, the app, you can watch it on broadcast, there's clips on YouTube.

There's all these different points where you can experience the content, but (laughs) we also know that right now people are, their attention is really being, you know, lobbied for, by a host of different streaming devices and a host of different digital content that's out there.

So how do we reduce barriers to entry and make it super easy for people to access, watch and enjoy WTVP?

And I think we honestly have those in place, but educating people on how to do that, how to take that first step to, like if you haven't experienced WTVP on your phone yet, everyone in Peoria needs to experience WTVP on their phone.

Like, you're not gonna go back.

It's fantastic.

So I think there's an initial point of communicating with the community about how easy it really is to experience WTVP.

- It's not just at home with grandma.

- Right?

- That what they used to be.

(Phil laughs) - Oh my goodness.

- It's all over.

- It is all over.

And like with such diverse, great content, and I know I've spoken a little bit before about like, you know, the mom in me really has a mind's eye towards PBS Kids.

I love it.

It's so great.

But like, I absolutely love my shows on PBS, too, (laughs) on WTVP and I think there really is something for everyone, and it's, like you said, it's not watching it with grandma.

- One of the things, and you mentioned the survey, that people have been talking about, and the station's still collating all this information, but a common theme is people want more local content, more local content.

- Mm-hmm.

- Can you speak to that at all in terms of what you might hope to do in that area?

- Absolutely.

I think we're gonna see, I think we're gonna see more local content, at the end of the day, for a couple reasons.

We have so much already of what we need to make that happen.

So now there's gonna be ways that we identify, you know, whether it's increased staffing, increased production staff, whatever it might be, increased dollars from the community to pour in, people to step up, but if the community wants more local content, and the community is stepping up, and, you know, becoming members, and saying as they sign up for membership, "Hey, I want more local content," we're gonna deliver more local content.

The fantastic thing about Peoria is there's great local content to deliver - A lot of stories, a lot of history, lot of good stuff.

- So much.

- Untapped so far, yeah.

- Phil wants to work more.

(Jenn and Phil laugh) So if you can get him the resources - And great talent, great talent like Mark and Phil.

(Mark and Phil laugh) - You heard that here from the boss.

(Jenn and Phil laugh) When you come into the situation, there's obviously going to be a learning curve.

- Mm-hmm.

- But something that a lot of people don't have to deal with, or haven't had to deal with in the past is what has happened at WTVP over the last six months.

I guess, how do you balance telling people, "Okay, this is what we have in place now, what happened isn't going to happen again," with moving forward for our mission?

- I think the timing of this, of me stepping into this role is highly advantageous to me, personally, because it does seem like it's water under the bridge.

The due diligence has been done.

That's a story of yesterday, and this is a new page, and our message is gonna be from here on out that this is the next chapter in WTVP, the next and the best.

- You mentioned earlier in the press conference that I think you've called this a treasure, a local treasure, that sort of thing.

And you said not only should people, not only should they support it, but it's an obligation.

- Mm-hmm.

(laughs) - That's pretty strong.

And there are still still some people out there, who are like, "Eh, there was some bad stuff going on."

Explain that obligation and what you mean by that.

- Yeah, absolutely.

So when you have these local institutions that bring essential services to your community, and they're nonprofits, they're community-funded.

If you don't want them to go away, it is an obligation for you to contribute to their livelihood and to the vibrancy and the capacity of that organization to achieve everything that it can achieve.

And there's so much that we can do and that we will do at WTVP, but it does not happen without the full engagement of the community voicing their desires, their needs, their wishes, but then also, you know, voting for that, in a sense, with their dollars.

- And that's why it's important, too, for people to fill out this survey that we released earlier this week, because we really do wanna know what the public likes, what they don't like, what they wanna see more of, what they don't wanna see as much of.

- Yeah.

- And you really have to let your voice be known and hopefully we can give the majority of our audience what they're looking for.

- Without a doubt.

- And we're actually talking about it.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - I mean, that should go unstated, but maybe not, is that we are paying attention to what these surveys say.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, we don't have the ratings capacity that other stations have.

(Jenn laughs) They can see what people are watching.

- Yeah.

- What they're not watching.

So your input is very important for our future.

So speaking of the future, you're gonna start here in a few weeks.

- Mm-hmm.

- And anything that you want the public to know that we haven't discussed?

If, you know, they're wondering if things are gonna be the same or different at WTVP, what would you like them to know about you and your management style and things like that?

- Yeah, my management style is direct and it's also very optimistic.

So if there's a hard decision that needs to be made, I don't avoid it, but I also always make decisions in the context of what's best for the organization and for the future of the organization and is it in alignment with the mission of the organization?

That's a little bit about my management style.

In terms of anything else that I'd want the public to know, I mean, I just am so excited about currently what we have at WTVP, and the big hope that people who, you know, we've had so much attention, so many eyes on WTVP for months now.

And so this is really a momentum moment.

And I hope that everyone in Peoria, you know, leans into that moment and that it turns into an action step of downloading Passport on their phone, or an action step of taking the survey, that it's not just something that's in the news cycle this week, but it's something that really does inspire people to take the next step and to see where currently WTVP is at.

And I'm not talking about in the books, I'm not talking about, you know, any of that stuff.

I'm talking about what we have to offer currently to the community today, because it's really great.

- One thing I think people might be wondering about, it's like, "Okay, she sounds pretty good."

(Jenn laughs) Or maybe better than that.

"She sounds awesome," whatever, but it's one of those things of, well, is she going to be around here a while?

- Yeah.

- What is that plan?

- Yeah.

- I mean, a lot of times people come to a market this size and it's like, "Oh, great, I can now go to St. Louis or Memphis after that."

- Yeah.

I have no desire to leave Peoria.

And I don't know if that is, I know sometimes people are surprised by that, but I don't know if that comes out of the fact that my husband and I have had a season of living outside of Peoria, for a good chunk of years in one of the world's biggest cities.

And coming back to Peoria, you just realize how much this community brings to the table.

And I truly mean, I love living in this town.

(laughs) I love this, and this was the community that I was born in, but it's beautiful, it's got wonderful people.

And I have, yeah, I have no desire to leave or to move on to a different city.

This is the city that we wanted to raise our kids in and that we get to raise our kids in, and that's a real gift.

- I don't know if during the interview process you, excuse me, you were asked this question, but I'll ask it.

Where do you see yourself in the station in five years?

- I hope that...

I'm gonna put that in the context of the community, because I hope that if you look at greater, you know, the Central Illinois region, our broadcast area, which includes obviously not just Peoria, but much, much beyond that we can look at our numbers and be able to say the percentage of people who are a part of this community that engage with our station has jumped by 50%.

You know, to be able to say that, like if you're a part of this community, you know what WTVP is.

This morning I was having a conversation with someone before I came to the station and I said WTVP, and they said, the call letters back to me wrong.

They said WBTV or something like that, and they didn't know what the station was.

And that's what I think we need to see change.

- Yeah.

- If you're part of Central Illinois, you know WTVP.

I mean, I think I knew the station's call letters by the time I was six, right?

Because you saw it constantly with every little kid program that you watch, - You watched Sesame Street.

- Exactly.

- You know how to spell.

- Yeah, exactly.

So I think that's where we wanna see, and also to your point, that it's local.

If we can set ourselves up to be the highest-producing station for the size of the region that we serve for local content that we're able to produce and get out into the community, I think that'll be kind of precedent-setting for all the other PBS community affiliates, - The word you used before, momentum.

- Mm-hmm.

- And that is an exciting word, things moving forward in an enthusiastic way.

And we keep coming back to the survey, but I think it's worth mentioning that there are shows that are here already, like "You Gotta See This!"

and "At Issue."

- Mm-hmm.

- And it is an element that doesn't happen at commercial TV, in that we do listen for story ideas, issue ideas, that kind of stuff.

- Yes.

- And we are, seriously, we wanna know these things we can do.

And so this is an exciting time in that way.

Get in on the ground floor and five years from now, "Yeah, I suggested that thing," or whatever.

- Without a doubt.

And that the shows that you both host and that we've got currently in the lineup, you know, this is something that, it's a deeper dive, right?

Any type of public television gets to go deeper than you're gonna see elsewhere.

And there's an inherent value to the community when you can have conversations through public television that you just don't have the time to do when you're on other venues.

(bright music) - Well, Jenn, it's been good getting to know you here and hopefully everybody knows you a little bit better and we're excited for the future.

- Yeah, thanks.

(bright music continues) (bright music continues) (bright music continues)