WCBE-FM, Columbus, Ohio
Licensee: Columbus Board of Education
EEO Annual Report: June 1, 2016 - May 31, 2017
Recruitment for Job Vacancies: WCBE recruited for and filled one position during the license year June 1, 2016 through May 31, 2017. The position was Evening Announcer (“Radio Host/Producer”).
Recruitment Sources and Job Referral Organizations: For this position, WCBE utilized the following list of Recruitment Sources and Job Referral Organizations…
1. Columbus City Schools’ Human Resources Division:
A. Web site listings: http://www.ccsoh.us/employment.aspx
B. Posting on employment opportunities bulletin board: Classified Personnel Office of Columbus City Schools
270 E. State St. Columbus, OH 43215
2. WCBE
A. Station web site: http://www.wcbe.org/EmploymentOpportunities.html
B. Staff word-of-mouth and referrals
C. Station Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/WCBE90.5
3. Local Newspaper Ad
Columbus Business First
303 West Nationwide Blvd. Columbus, Ohio 43215
4. Local Universities
(departments notified vary)
A. The Ohio State University,
Columbus, OH
B. Otterbein University,
Westerville, OH
C. Capital University, Bexley, OH
D. Franklin University, Columbus, OH
E. Central State University (WCSU),
Wilberforce, OH
F. Ohio Dominican University,
Columbus, OH
5. Other Organizations
A. TEEN – Teen Education & Employment Network (Franklin County, OH)
c/o Godman Guild Association
303 East Sixth Avenue
Columbus, Ohio 43201
6. Industry listservs (Pubtech, Pubradio, NPR A-Reps).
See http://www.pubradio.org/ and http://www.pubtech.org/
7. Online Job Search Sites: Indeed.com
8. Columbus-area Job-referral Organizations:
· NAACP (Columbus Chapter)
233 S. High St.
Columbus, OH 43215
(614) 464-1108
· Columbus Urban League
788 Mount Vernon Ave.
Columbus, OH 43203
(614) 258-8475
Results:
· Number of Persons Interviewed = 3
· Recruitment Source for Person Hired: Columbus City Schools’ Human Resources division website (http://www.ccsoh.us/employment.aspx)
· Recruitment Sources for All Persons Interviewed:
o Columbus City Schools’ HR website (listed above)
o Indeed.com
Outreach Initiatives and Activities: June 1, 2016 - May 31, 2017
The WCBE Station Employment Unit has 11 full-time employees; therefore, we follow the more stringent requirement of larger stations to engage in at least four (4) outreach initiatives or activities for every two-year period. At WCBE, we surpass that number of initiatives.
Because WCBE is licensed to a school district, educating youth is core to our mission. Thus, most of the following outreach activities, including our extensive high school and college internship programs, are part of the fulfillment of that mission. Students here do not get coffee or take out the trash; rather, the programs are designed to give each intern or work/study student a broad overview of station operations. After that overview is obtained, the intern moves into an area of specialization: journalism, marketing, writing, membership, etc. The high school program gives a broader experience over a longer period – each student’s internship runs the course of the school year (September – May). The college internships are more specialized, as these students have a better-defined career focus. The college internships are also shorter, typically lasting one semester.
In both cases, the overall emphasis is to give the intern a true career experience, a taste of the real work of radio.
Ongoing Outreach Activities: These outreach activities and initiatives have become ongoing and standard from year to year at WCBE –
1. Internship program (high school students) (#5). WCBE-FM partnered with Columbus City Schools (the Columbus Board of Education is WCBE’s licensee). This has been an ongoing program since 2000 and remained in effect throughout the entire 2016-2017 license year. WCBE continued our program to include students from Cristo Rey High School, a downtown-Columbus parochial charter school for at-risk teens. Our high school internship program was developed and initially coordinated by General Manager Dan Mushalko. During the 2016-2017 license year, it was coordinated by webmaster/operations assistant Heather Anderson, office manager Melony Wells, and membership director Caitlin Farkas.
2. Internship Program (college interns) (#5). WCBE’s college-level internship program continued for another year. During 2016 - 2017, interns for this program were drawn from the Ohio State University, Wright State University, and Capital University. All were coordinated by webmaster/operations assistant Heather Anderson and membership director Caitlin Farkas. Of particular note this year was the addition of an internship track for students with developmental disabilities; WCBE hosted two student interns who are on the autism spectrum.
Because WCBE is a public radio station and a member of National Public Radio, it draws upon diverse content for its programs, including history, literature, political science, sociology, etc. Thus, it looks at careers in broadcasting through a wider lens, as encompassing also content providers and potential future producers of programs for radio broadcasting. Thus, its interns include students majoring in fields other than communications or journalism, to include those majoring in English, history, etc.
3. Career Outreach Programs Partnering with Educational Institutions (# 10)
A. High School Career Days. In partnership with its licensee, the Columbus Ohio Board of Education, WCBE routinely participates in Career Days at high schools within the Columbus schools system. During the 2016-17 license year, WCBE participated in the career days of two local public high schools and one local charter high school. Our community outreach coordinator, Jim Coe, oversees these career day activities.
4. Station Tour Programs (#10, #11):
A. Boy/Girl Scouts; School Tours, General Tours: The WCBE Station
Tour Program began over a decade ago as a way for local Boy and Girl Scouts to earn credit toward their career merit badges, but has now expanded into tours for all members of the public, including school classes, adults interested in radio careers, “shadow” students, etc. The tours, which are coordinated by afternoon news anchor Alison Holm, are designed to give a general overview of the radio industry, the different types of careers available in radio (engineering, writing, deejay/host, sales, management, and so on), and “behind the scenes” radio operations.
B. History tours: WCBE is located on the grounds of an old Civil War Army fort, with many of the original buildings still standing. Since 2009, station personnel have offered historical tours of the campus. School groups and adults taking advantage of special events
are the usual participants. These tours are coordinated by Dan Mushalko, with tour content assistance provided by a college student intern (history major), a retired high school history/English teacher formerly employed at Fort Hayes, and the Columbus Landmarks Foundation. New this year was the addition of a “ghost tour” variant of the campus on Halloween; this provided a wider swath of interest, pulling more people from a broader population into the program.
5. Host site for ISN (Intern Student Network) (#4): For a fourth summer – and continuing this year into fall and winter -- WCBE served as a host site and broadcast outlet for this training/employment program supported by the city and county. This program focuses on urban teens in poverty. The radio journalism and production training portion ran in June, with resulting shows broadcast weekly July through May. Assisting the ISN coordinator and students were WCBE personnel Dan Mushalko, Alison Holm, and Greg Moebius. This was augmented this year by Kickin’ It, a show recorded and produced by the Fort Hayes vocational audio production program’s teacher and students, but written and voiced by students from two representative high schools (the two schools change with each episode). Kickin’ It replaces ISN the fourth Saturday of each month. Dan Mushalko and Alison Holm work with the Kickin’ It initiative.
6. The Dick & Jane Project (#10): WCBE continued its partnership with The Dick & Jane Project NPO and area school districts for this program, which reaches students at a younger age than the usual high school- and college-level students we work with. In this ongoing initiative, which focuses on one school per week, public middle school students are guided to develop communication skills through song composition; their finished works are broadcast by the station Fridays at 11:55am and Tuesdays at 8:01pm. The original initiative began in January, 2012, and has become very popular with students and schools. Dan Mushalko is the station contact for the Dick & Jane staff.
7. Fort Hayes High School Vocational Curriculum Advisory Committee (#10): In yet another partnership with Columbus public schools, WCBE continues as a member of the Fort Hayes High School Vocational Curriculum Advisory Committee. In this capacity, WCBE personnel, including Dan Mushalko and radio drama producer Catherine Rinella, advise teachers on best educational practices and content for vocational classes relating to broadcasting, audio recording, and production, and for preparing secondary students for the workplace.
8. Fort Hayes High School Interdisciplinary Program (#10): This is a still-developing partnership with our licensee, the Columbus public schools. Each year, WCBE conducts an international scriptwriting competition for short radio dramas. For the last few years, as an offshoot of item #7 above, students in the Fort Hayes High School Vocational Audio have recorded/engineered/produced the winning scripts, which are then aired Friday nights on WCBE. Several of those productions have won national awards, so we decided this year to expand this into a new initiative. We have begun planning with Fort Hayes staff to produce nightly, short audio dramas (2 – 5 minutes in length); these will be written by students in English classes, acted by students in the theatre program, and mixed/produced by students in the vocational audio program. Though still in the planning stage, students and teachers alike are excited about executing the initiative when the new school year begins in the fall of 2017. Dan Mushalko and Catherine Rinella are working on this burgeoning activity.