 Questions
for you—
What do record executive Bob Hurwitz, broadcast consultant Valerie Geller,
singer/comedienne BJ Ward, jazz organist Tony Monaco, and I have in common?
Okay, I won’t make you guess. We’ll all be in San Diego at the next Music
Personnel Conference come February 5th! Will you?
“Wait a minute,” you say. “It’s too early to be talking about the MPC.”
Actually, it’s not.The AMPPR Board has been working steadily since Savannah’s
conference to meet our publishing deadline of mid-October.
This gives us only a few weeks to finish fleshing out the conference agenda,
as well as to find those essential sponsorship dollars to underwrite food
and beverage costs, to fund scholarships for first time attendees, and
to bring in the much appreciated world class entertainment.
Can you imagine a conference devoted to keeping music on public radio without
music?
Worse yet, can you imagine public radio stations without music?! That’s
what some in the industry are saying and encouraging and doing ... dropping
music, be it classical, jazz, AAA, or world, in favor of more news and
talk, which can be more costly to operate. For the first time in my radio
career, I’ve begun to wonder about my own job security and my future in
the industry.
What can be done to meet the challenge head on, or at least try to? Here
are a few thoughts. We need to stay attuned to current events and trends.
We need to keep ourselves trained and ready to embrace new technologies,
welcome or not. We need to support each other, either by asking for or
giving help. Simply put, we need to be the best we can be for our communities
and for ourselves. In a nutshell, “Be Pro-Active.”
Personally, my solution and salvation has been through AMPPR’s Music Personnel
Conferences, the one constant in my life where my professional growth and
development happens, where I share experiences with and receive support
from colleagues and friends, where I catch up on industry developments,
and where I renew my commitment to public radio to carry me through another
year on the home front.
To give you a “taste” of what will be offered at the next MPC, in this
issue you will find an article by Valerie Geller, our new announcer coach/consultant.
We’re quite excited to be bringing her to the conference as one of many
new faces/voices at the upcoming MPC, Feb. 5-8.
We hope you’ll be equally excited and that you’ll plan now to join us in
San Diego for a nice mid-winter break from the cold and the on-the-job
pressures. The registration materials with agenda will be arriving in your
mailboxes no later than early November.
Wishing
you happy radio days,
Beverley Ervine
AMPPR President |
