Communication Audit

94.3FM The Fortress

Executive Summary
Background
94.3 The Fortress is a non-commercial radio station run exclusively by student staff
members and guided by a faculty advisor at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Indiana.
The station is licensed through the Federal Communications Commission and broadcasts
throughout the Grant County area. The station plays contemporary Christian music around the
clock, interspersed with original and non-original promotional spots, weather and news reports,
occasional radio shows, and one-minute jock talks four times per hour by student disk jockeys.
The station sometimes goes on remote to broadcast concerts and other community events.
The organizational structure consists of the five following parties: Dr. Mark Perry, the
faculty adviser; Lauren McCormack, the stations general manager; a four-member paid staff
(middle management); students enrolled in the Introduction to Radio class; and students enrolled
in the class to fulfill their Communication Lab requirements.
The Fortress motto is creating community; it is a requirement for each disc jockey to
repeat this motto at least once every time he or she speaks on the microphone.
Purpose
Through this study, Elucidus, Inc. seeks to research how organizational communication at
The Fortress works through observations of general staff and executive staff meetings, surveys
of the entire staff, network analyses, focus groups and one-on-one interviews. The knowledge
gained from these measures will then guide the study to pinpoint three successful communicative
behaviors

and three unsuccessful communicative behaviors that The Fortress engages in.
Elucidus, Inc. will obviously encourage the continuation of said successful behaviors. For each

of the unsuccessful

behaviors, Elucidus, Inc. will prescribe potential solutions for The Fortress to
improve in those areas. Some of the specific communication areas Elucidus, Inc. will focus on
are:
1. The effectiveness and efficiency of entire staff and executive staff meetings
2. The effectiveness and efficiency of the information disseminated outside of meetings
3. How information is spread through the organization
4. The organizational structure and its effects on communication
5. The organizational efforts to create community in Grant County
6. Feedback about job and class performance
By observing the answers to these questions and asking staff members what their answers to
these questions are, Elucidus, Inc. will be able to understand how organizational communication
works at The Fortress.
Assumptions
Elucidus, Inc. has used the following assumptions about The Fortress to guide its
communication audit:
1. The Fortress is dedicated to provide solid Christian radio programming for Grant
County and create community with residents of the county.
2. The fact that the station is run by full-time students, not full-time radio workers,
does somewhat limit the quality and scope of the work The Fortress can produce.
3. That being said, the students on staff are dedicated to being as professional as
possible and showing an eagerness to learn.

4. Although members of the radio station are committed to performing their role to
the best of their abilities, it is very difficult for staff members to be constantly
appraising the organizational communication climate while simultaneously
fulfilling their duties.
5. An organization communication audit from Elucidus, Inc. will make The Fortress
more efficient and effective communicating both internally and externally while
improving morale among its constituents.
Procedure and Participants
During the months of January through April 2015, Elucidus, Inc. engaged in several
methods of research to gain information about The Fortress. The firm distributed a 19-question
survey to all parties involved with the station and got 27 responses, nearly full participation.
After running some data analysis on the results, the firm used the gathered data to interview
various members of the organization-- at least one person from each of the five parties
represented. Elucidus, Inc. then used email to conduct a network analysis, which yielded eight
responses. Following this, the firm had a focus group with two members from the
Communication Lab class and one member from the Introduction to Radio class (the two
low-level groups involved with the station), presenting an opportunity for those students to
voice their opinions without fear of judgment from the stations higher-ups. Finally, throughout
the semester, members of the firm observed and took notes at entire staff and executive staff
meetings.
Methods
Elucidus, Inc. used several different methods to gain information in each of its means of

research. All notes from meetings and focus groups, survey results, transcripts of interviews and
direct results from the network analysis can be found in the appendices.
Planning
At the start of the audit process, contact was made with both the General Manager and
the Faculty Advisor for 94.3 The Fortress to obtain consent to begin the audit. After obtaining
approval, data collection then began. First, the 19-question survey was disseminated amongst all
the members of the organization. The responses received from the survey were then analyzed to
guide further observations and data collection. Various tasks involved in the audit were assigned
to different members of the firm based on schedules, skills, abilities, and willingness. The firm
also held weekly meetings to discuss any developments, update each other on progress, and plan
for what lay ahead.
Results
The audit survey yielded 26 respondents, ranging from Communication Lab students to
Introduction to Radio Students to all levels of management. Transcripts from all of the
interviews conducted produced 33 pages of information, while observation notes from weekly
meetings yielded 5 pages of content. Notes from the focus group generated 2 pages of data and
the network analysis also produced 2 pages. Full texts of all survey responses, transcripts, and
notes can be found in the appendices, as well as a copy of the survey.
Summary of Findings
The audit brought to light that, in general, the communication at 94.3 The Fortress is
quite good. However, issues arise because of a breakdown in stakeholder buy-in and ownership

of the radio station. Other issues come from the constant tension between the staff (who are all
students) and the faculty advisor.
Because the paid staff of the radio station changes every year, and the student disc
jockeys change every semester, the station has had an ongoing issue with developing a strong
culture that encourages stakeholders to truly invest in health and operation of the radio station.
Further, since the faculty advisor is basically the only constant within the organization, other
members end up relying on him to resolve and/or fix any issues or problems which arise.
Analysis of Responses
What follows is a breakdown of the 13 content questions asked in the audit survey
administered by Elucidus, Inc. A copy of the survey as well as results and statistics can be found
in the appendices.
1) I am kept well informed about my work groups plans and progress.
While none of the respondents disagreed with this statement, 30.8% were neutral. A
greater amount somewhat agreed with this statement, at 42.3%, while a lesser 26.9% strongly
agreed.
2) I feel like I dont get much feedback about my work/job performance.
Respondents to this question answered almost the entire range; from strongly disagree at
11.5% to somewhat agree at 23.1%. The highest value was neutral, with 38.5% of
respondents choosing this option.
3) In this organization, the lines of communication are open all the way up the chain of
command.

Almost all of the survey respondents agreed with this statement. More than half, at
57.7%, strongly agreed, and 38.5% somewhat agreed. Only one person was neutral.
4) Most of the group meetings I attend are important and worthwhile.
Answers to this question ranged from somewhat disagree (11.5%) to strongly agree
(19.2%). The largest values were for neutral, at 38.5%, and somewhat agree, at 30.8%.
5) Paid staff members are easy to get ahold of when there is an urgent problem.
Most respondents agreed with this statement, with 42.3% strongly agreeing and 30.8%
somewhat agreeing. Neutral responses equaled 23.1%.
6) Top executives often seem hesitant to communicate news about the organization to
lower-level members.
While a few respondents were neutral (7.7%), a majority disagreed with this statement.
Those who strongly disagreed equaled 42.3%, and exactly half (50%) somewhat disagreed.
7) Most of the information I hear is passed through the grapevine.
A plurality somewhat disagreed with this statement at 46.2%, while others were neutral
(26.9%) and somewhat agreeing (19.2%). Only two respondents strongly disagreed.
8) This organization encourages the sharing of information between departments/groups.
A majority (53.8%) somewhat agreed with this statement. Those who answered neutral
were 26.9%, and those who strongly agreed were 19.2%.
9) A lot of the information I get is either not specific enough or inaccurate.
Exactly half (50%) of respondents somewhat disagreed, while a large number (38.5%)
strongly disagreed. Neutral respondents were 11.5%.

10) I receive the information I need to perform my job in a timely manner.

Responses were mixed, but generally favorable to this statement, with 38.5% strongly
agreeing, 42.3% somewhat agreeing, 15.4% neutral, and 3.8% somewhat disagreeing.
11) Where do you get the majority of your information about the organization?
An overwhelming number of respondents (76.9%) stated that they receive most of their
information from staff meetings. A much smaller number (11.5%) reported receiving most of
their information from social media.
12) When you need information, who do you go to?
Half (50%) of all respondents reported going to the general manager when they need
information. A smaller 15.4% reported going to the faculty advisor when they need
information. Surprisingly, 19.2% reported going to the music director when they need
information.
13) Considering everything, how satisfied are you with the communication in this organization?
Respondents claiming to be somewhat satisfied numbered half (50%) of all responses.
Neutral and very satisfied respondents were equal, each with 23.1%. A single respondent
claimed to be somewhat dissatisfied.
Observations
Over the course of the semester, a representative from our team sat in on a total of five
Com Lab classes. The dates ranged from February 19th to April 2nd. We noticed patterns of a few
things happening at this meeting-- some good and some that can be improved on. Every meeting
started out with every staff member giving a staff report. One ongoing issue we found that was
present in every meeting is that students do not seem to be attentive. Rather, they tend to be

distracted and use this class time on their cell phones, texting, playing games, fidgeting, or are on
their computers. In earlier meetings, we noticed that the time was used primarily by staff talking
at the students. In some meetings, we found that students seemed to become more attentive and
engaged. We found that, for the most part, students seem to be friendly and converse with one
another.
We also sat in on an executive staff meeting with all of the paid staff and Dr. Perry. The
setting was casual in the Communication office. Each staff member gave a weekly report. They
each spoke about issues or goals they would like to see. For example, the Music Director talked
about the song binder becoming unorganized and people being careless in what they do. Also,
they seemed to work together and help one another out on the goals they would like to reach.
The Promotions Director wants to get 1000 likes on Facebook. The Production Director was
happy to help her and suggested that she create an ad promoting the Facebook page.
The tone of the conversation changed when talking about communication with outside
organizations that they rely on for information and technology. The Music Director has
expressed how hard it is to get permission to use a song from outside labels. Also, during one of
the meetings, there was visible tension and frustration with equipment breaking and not being
able to get ahold of the right people to fix it. They have a broken computer that makes it hard to
do their job. Dr. Perry said that he talked with IT and they were not following through with their
requests. For this reason, he has waited until the summer to replace the computer. The
Production Director and Dr. Perry disagreed on if bringing in a new computer would be
beneficial in the long run. Some students took Dr. Perrys side while others took the Production
Directors.

Dr. Perry made a comment that he was surprised none of them complained more often, to
which the students groaned and laughed as if they did complain to each other just not Dr. Perry.
Dr. Perry was then upset that they complain to each other and not to him. Dr. Perry explained
that this is not a good thing and that if they complain enough, they will see a change for a better.
Dr. Perry and the manager commented on how the executive staff says things to each other, but
are sometimes afraid to say things directly to them. Dr. Perry said he would talk to IT again and
try to get a new computer although they may regret that decision later. One employee expressed
her thoughts on the communication problems. For example, she said that sometimes she goes to
Dr. Perry and he tells her to go to the Manager. Dt. Perry then explained the difference between
the two roles and when they should go to each person for problems. Dr. Perry commented that he
is the faculty advisor and its not always clear-cut. There was a comment about tension between
peer and management relationships to which Dr. Perry said, youre going to have coworkers
that arent your boss but act like it and youre going to have to deal with it.
Overall, we found that there were some blurred lines on who to go to for problems when
it comes to Dr. Perry, the faculty advisor and the manager. Dr. Perry cleared these lines but there
seems to be tension between peers being coworkers and bosses. Also, during the meetings, we
found that students do not seem to be engaged and spend time on their phones and computers.
Prescription
Over the course of the semester, sitting in radio meetings, conducting surveys, interviews
and a focus group, we found that there were many things that the radio station does well.
However, we found that there are some things that they can work on and improve. We have
pointed out the main problems that we found and have offered solutions below. We tried to get

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as many people involved as possible by interviewing at least one person from leadership, Com
Lab, and Intro to Radio. Of course there were mixed feelings, but the majority agreed on issues
they could work on.
First of all, lets look at some things that we found the station is doing well. Almost
everyone we spoke with felt like the communication was well within the organization and had
minimal problems with it. In fact, one person described it as over-communication. Everyone
we spoke with said that leaders and staff are all easy to contact and get ahold of if there is ever
an emergency. Everyone seems to get along and is comfortable to go to anyone for help. Beyond
this, the people at the radio station talk like they are close and seem to form bonds and
relationships. They seem to be more than just co-workers; they are friends.
Of course, not everyone feels the same way and we did find issues that could be
improved on in the future. The first problem we found is that a lot of the students don't really
have an idea of what the slogan creating community means to them or the station. All of the
participants in the focus group agreed that they hadnt thought about what it means and feel that
they drop the ball when it comes to creating community. One student mentioned that they are all
about creating community, yet they have a target audience. That seemed contradictory to
him/her. One student mentioned that he/she wishes that the station would aim more toward the
IWU campus, and one mentioned that he/she wished the station would play more than
specifically Christian music. One Com Labber mentioned that they think they create community
well by going out to community events like Walk a Mile. They also said that what sets the
station apart is that they have a text messaging system that listeners can use. Almost every
person at the focus group said, creating community is just something they said on-air, and

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never really thought about the slogan outside of that. One way to improve on creating
community and really implementing it instead of just saying it on-air is to define what it means
at the beginning of the semester. Have a clear vision, and make sure that everyone is on the same
page as your prescribed vision.
Another issue we found that students are having is that they don't feel like the time spent
in meetings is being used efficiently. The com lab class meets for one hour every Thursday.
Some of the people we talked to say that they don't accomplish a lot in meetings, and its just a
good way to get hours for com-labbers. At every meeting, every paid staff member talks for a
few minutes about what is happening or if there is any new information. Some people feel that
this is not necessary every week and feel like it is a waste of time. One student even said they
dread going to the meetings and the staff seems like they just threw together something five
minutes before speaking. One suggested that maybe a monthly meeting would be better and
more beneficial. Some people--mostly the freshmen who participated in the audit-- say that the
staff reports are beneficial in getting to know the staff.
Another thing that could be improved on is the amount of feedback the students receive.
A majority of the students say they do not receive regular feedback, and that is something they
desire greatly. One student said that they were put in an awkward position the one time they did
receive feedback by playing their and another students jock talk out loud and making the
students choose which one they liked better by going to opposite sides of the room. Feedback
could be improved by having one-on-one meetings with Dr. Perry, or even in small groups with
the leaders of the station. The upperclassmen in the com lab could potentially have meetings with
Dr. Perry because some have expressed that it would be uncomfortable to get feedback from

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someone that is younger or less experienced than them. A mentoring program for the
upperclassmen to help the underclassmen may be beneficial as well. The staff could provide
increased feedback, especially to the younger students that feel like they have just been taught
once and then thrown in to sink-or-swim on-air.
One final issue that we observed that has room to improve is aimed more toward the
leadership styles. A student that we spoke with said that they feel like the staff does not take their
job as seriously as they should. He/she said that it is a fun atmosphere, and it is good that they
are not too uptight; but improving professionalism could definitely enhance performance and
employee satisfaction. Simply improving leadership styles could go a long way in the
improvement process for the communication within the station and in making students feel like
they are equal and important. Also, although most students feel that they communicate
well--especially over the Facebook page that Dr. Perry posts on everyday-- there is room for
improvement with communications. For example, when there is a ticket giveaway, there will be
a paper that says to announce the giveaway on air. Unfortunately, the paper does not specify
deadline or amount of tickets, so the DJs dont know when to give the ticket away or if the
giveaway is already over. By establishing a more concrete system of communicating with on-air
radio students, there will be decreased confusion and increased cohesion.
Overall, we found that the station does well in many areas of communication, but also
outlined some areas that could be improved with suggestions. The Fortress is doing a good job
for the most part with communicating and keeping their students well-informed. The staff is easy
to contact in an emergency, and they all get along and have good relationships. However, we
found some issues that can be improved. Having a better understanding of what creating

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community means, being more prepared and productive in meetings, giving regular feedback,
and forming better leadership styles are all areas that can be improved to make for a better
environment and work culture.
Personal Reflections
This organizational communication audit has helped me not only understand the
way the radio station works, but has also helped me reflect on the organizations I am a
part of. Am I being a good boss with good communication skills and habits (in the case of
The Sojourn)? Am I being a good employee, who lets his superiors know when he needs
to tell them something (in the case of most other organizations I am a part of)?
Communicating a lot, and even over-communicating, is never a bad thing, as doing this
audit has helped me understand. -Jared Johnson

Throughout the audit process this semester, from the initial forming of Elucidus,
Inc, to sitting in on meetings, to conducting interviews, to writing the final report, Ive
learned how important it is to truly take ownership of the organizations I am a part of.
Whether those organizations are relatively formal, such as IWU and the Communication
Division, or relatively informal, such as our firm and my residence hall unit, it is still
extremely important to recognize that without a sense of ownership, or being a
stakeholder, the organization can falter, and even cease to exist. Overall, conducting
this audit has given me a greater appreciation for my role in the organizations I am a part
of, as well as inspiring me to take a more active role in helping to shape those very
organizations. -Matt Armes

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Through the course of the semester and through this audit, I have learned what to
expect from management and how to be a better coworker. I have learned that, although
it seems like it would be clear, the lines are not always going to be clear-cut on who is
your boss and coworker. Through this audit, I have learned how important it is to work
together a team to accomplish your goals. Each member brings strengths and diversity,
and its important to take advantage of that. Working on this audit has taught me how to
be a better communicator with the organizations I am part of. -Whitney Catron

I believe that our student radio station is to be commended for their hard work
and dedication to the Grant County community. I thoroughly enjoyed studying their
communication patterns and getting to know some of the students and staff members. I
believe there is much room for improvement, which is a really exciting find for this
growing organization. By establishing an enjoyable, yet demanding work culture with
regular feedback, I believe that the executive staff could see students finding more
satisfaction in their work. Students get excited about joining an organization with a clear
vision and welcoming environment where they can grow in character and ability.
-Sarah McBeath

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Appendix A: Interview Transcripts

Interview with Faculty Advisor, Dr. Mark Perry
By: Matthew Armes, Elucidus, Inc.
April 2, 2015
M: So, first off, how do you think the radio station portrays their mission statement?
P: To whom?
M: Within the organization and externally to the community.
P: I don't know that we do it, I don't know that we.... First of all, I don't know that we have a real
concise mission statement. Our positioning statement of creating community, obviously we say it
on the air all the time.
M: Right.
P: I don't know that we have done... that... I just don't know that we really have then taken that
and really fleshed it out as a, as a mission statement per se. So it's more of our positioning
statement, so that to the community, we certainly say it enough. So I would think they would get
it. The question then becomes: What does it mean? And I think that is an ongoing
conversation. Over different time frames we have tried to define it in different ways. This year's
staff from the very beginning of the school year, we had a guest speaker over Skype talk but his
real small Christian radio station and how they, how they... they don't use creating community
but there's a sense where they try to do that, and so it has... So we've had that conversation
throughout the year and I don't know that we've really come to any, you know, that we've really
come to any firm conclusions on what that means.
M: Do you have any strategies or methods you use to get the staff on board with creating
community?
P: Primarily, it is... my whole approach, regardless of whether it was creating community or not,
is, is to occasionally, every once in a while, usually at the beginning of the school year, have a
discussion. It's really very philosophical: What do we want to accomplish this year? I make it
very clear to the staff consistently, to Comlab, to the Intro to Radio class, we have two primary
objectives. First and foremost we're an educational laboratory for communications students; and
then secondly, is to increase the size of our listening audience. And that the two fight against
each other. So we talk about that, I think a lot, those are our objectives, but I think a lot of the
notion of creating community is we just talk about it a lot. Especially, especially at the beginning
of the year, once we get, you know kind of into it, we get consumed with kind of the nuts and
bolts of running a station and training students, but I think everybody buys into it. Now last year,

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last year what I really wanted us to do, as a part of creating community, I really wanted us to
partner with Habitat for Humanity and then sponsor a Fortress day where we participate in a
build and encourage listeners to join us, we broadcast live from there, and it became... there were
two things that were interesting. The staff wasn't buying into it. The staff wasn't buying into it, I
could just tell, I mean, I could tell all along that I was kind of, I was forcing the conversation,
because then what I wanted to do was to have a series all year long and do a whole series of
talking about housing needs in Grant County and then it just died very quickly. So, I still, big
long range, I would love to do something like that, but I don't think we're there yet.
M: How often do people go to you for problems?
P: On staff?
M: Either staff, or ComLabbers, or Intro to Radio, or anybody.
P: Too much. All the time. Way too much.
M: Do you think they often bypass Lauren and go straight to you or bypass some of the
other executive staff?
P: Yep, there's no question. And, and Lauren knows that. I mean, I tell people all the time. Look,
here's what's really awkward about everything, especially like in Intro to Radio. I'm the teacher,
so why are they involved in the radio station? Because I'm making them do it, I'm giving them a
grade. But, Lauren is the station manager, so you've got to work through her, but the bottom line
is, I still get asked. I mean, and it's not just, it's not just the Intro to Radio class. Now I will say,
this semester, especially, I have not.... I was real involved in the ComLab very beginning
training, and I haven't been very involved, so some of the ComLab people I really don't know
very well and they totally interface with the staff. So that's a good thing. But even the staff
comes to me way too much. I mean it's something that we've talked about all the time. It's a
tension I've just kind of come to the conclusion it's a tension we've got to live with. Because, let's
take, let's take all the technical issues, and a lot of this is technical stuff, but let's take last
weekend for instance. I got three, three separate texts and/or phone calls about problems, that I
had to fix. None of which took more than ten to fifteen minutes. And they were just an
interruption in my life. Could the staff have figured out some of those things? I think, eventually
they would have, but no guarantees, because there are technical issues.
M: How do you perceive student engagement in the weekly meetings?
P: It could be better. It's just okay. I think that, as long as I've been here one of the things we've
constantly talked about is how do we get the individual ComLabber or the Intro to Radio people,
how do we get them to feel like they are a part of the radio station.

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M: Right.
P: And I, I still don't have a good, after all these years of doing this, I still don't have a good, I
mean, it's, by the very nature of the way we have things structured, it goes against us. You
know? I mean, so, somebody who's, 'cause they're taking these things for credit. Some of them,
they know, I know, we all know, this is the only semester they're ever going to darken the doors
of the radio station. So, they have no sense of ownership, they don't want to have a sense of
ownership. And I think those who, what you'll see, I think there's a group of people who really
want to be involved in radio, that every semester they're there, they may not be on staff but they
feel a sense of ownership. I think that's all I have to say about that.
M: Do you think there's a lot of information that only executive staff knows about?
P: Maybe. I'm, I'm sure there is, I, I, right off the top of my head. I think we try really hard every
week to pass on information. It's obvious people don't listen. So I mean that's not entirely their, I
mean it sounds like I'm blaming them, but I mean I, I do think we're trying to do a better job of
communicating all that info. You know Miranda is creating like a promotion sheet that she puts
in the air studio, I think Bart has kind of kept updates of what music is top music. So I think, I
think there are, I think this year's staff has done a better job of making sure everybody knows
what's going on.
M: Is there any information that is intentionally held back?
P: The one, the area of information that, in general, doesn't get talked about a lot, and I don't, it's,
it's intentional but not, not If anybody asked me about it I'd be glad to tell them. I'm the one
that kind of controls the whole budget. So the staff, they have, they don't have, and even then,
when I say I control the budget, that's, that's even out of my hands. But... you know we pay.... I'll
bet students don't, I mean, I think the staff does, 'cause I've talked to them about it, and
occasionally I've talked about it in ComLab. We're a network affiliate, so we pay five hundred
dollars a month to Salem Radio for that; we pay about a hundred dollars a month for the news
that we get. I just bought some equipment for the radio station, it's one of those things that I
never asked anybody's opinion about, it was something that we needed, that I just, I told the staff
after the fact: "Hey, I just wanted to let you know I bought two tuners, I bought this one thing."
So, it's one of those things, I don't make it a point at the weekly staff meeting or the ComLab
meeting. I don't make it a point of saying: "Hey, here are the latest financials." They can't do
anything about it anyway. Now, if anybody ever asks: "Hey, we need to spend money on, we
need to get more mugs." I will be glad to say: "Well, okay, we get seven hundred fifty dollars a
year for our promotional budget. Tell me how we divide up that. Should we buy seven hundred
fifty dollars of mugs, and why?" So I, you know, I think, does that answer your question? I mean
that's, that's not one of those things that I'm, I guess I'm intentional in the fact that it's not, I just
don't feel like anybody wants to know that. It's one of those things that we have very little control

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over. I actually never think about sharing that information. But if people asked me, I'd be happy
to, you know, I'd tell them what.
M: Okay. Do you end up hearing about any problems or issues through the grapevine?
P: Yeah I think so. Every once in a while. I mean, one of the, one of the things I say to every
general manager is, we meet, the general manager and I meet once a week, and I let them set the
agenda for the meeting, and the one thing I ask of them is: "I don't want any surprises. So
whatever you know, tell me what's going on, so that I don't hear about it later." This year has
been pretty good. I don't know that there's, I mean, I think Lauren has kept me very, very much
in the loop, so, I think, I can't think of anything that where it's like I hear through the grapevine
after the fact. Plus, plus, here's the other thing: I do a lot of walking around in the studios, when I
know people are around over there, I, I do it somewhat on purpose, I also do it 'cause I just get
bored doing stuff in my office. But, I go hang out over there, and working on things with
students, so I think stuff comes out that way. So, yeah, nothing else comes to mind.
M: So, outside of class or meeting time, how do you primarily contact students who work?
P: Fortunately I have a lot of them in classes. I go over there, over to the studios a lot. I kind of
know, I don't have their schedules here. I was, there was one year, hardly anybody had office
hours during the afternoon, a lot of them had it at night, which meant I never saw anybody, and I
kind of said: "Look, we need to, I want to be able to see people, so let's try to do more office
hours in the daytime." And that, that has worked. That's, that's worked pretty well. So a lot of it
is very informal. If you were to sit here, I can almost, I can almost, I mean, I couldn't tell you the
time, but mornings around here while students are in class: very quiet. I can get a lot of work
done. Well, you get to the afternoons, it's like, like, you know David, well, that was for
something else but, that's very typical for what my afternoons are. In fact, even as I say that one
of the staff members just peered in my door. So, I, I don't think being in touch with them is ever
a problem. Now, you guys may find that they say: "Well, we wish we could see Perry more."
But, I don't, I, I think I'm very, very accessible and so there's just a lot of interaction.
M: What if there is a large issue that comes up that you need to inform all, everyone about?
P: We have the Facebook page for all of the on air people, we have a Facebook page just for the
staff. So this morning one of the announcers didn't show up for their ten o'clock shift, so I just
went ahead and went on there, and just said: "Hey, so-and-so did not show up for his shift, they
fear this could be happening more during the day, so let's keep our eye on this and make sure
people know that they have to do their shift today." That has, I think, I was thinking about this
the other day, the Facebook groups really have been a huge plus. This semester students have
been, we tell them that if they have to miss their shift, they got to find their own replacement. It's
been all happening on Facebook. And the other thing I like about that is because then we know

19

who's going to be gone. So I think that has been, it's taken a couple of years to get to that place.
When we first tried, this is not the first year we've tried Facebook. This may be the best year, in
terms of interaction on Facebook.
M: How long ago did you switch to Facebook, then, from, say, something else?
P: I don't know... It's probably been about three years. And why it's worked better this year I
have no idea. It's just, I'm guessing students are, are more and more used to, to staying in touch
that way. Most of the time, I will say this: most of the time I am far more the one that knows if
something major is going on than students do, which is, which is a point of contention between
me and the staff. And, one of the pieces of equipment I just bought, which we haven't installed,
is a dead air monitor that will email me, or call me. On the one hand, I really am, that's going to
make me tethered to things even more, 'cause I'll be able to set it, for like, if we have fifteen
seconds of dead air it'll notify me. On the other hand, we have had way too many times where
we've been dead air for hours and nobody's heard it. Usually on the weekends. And that to me is
a real issue, and if there's going to be ever anybody who catches a problem it's me, not them.
M: Did you use to use email primarily before the Facebook group?
P: I guess, I don't remember. I don't remember what, what everybody did. Yeah, must have been.
Email or texting or phone calls. Yeah, I really don't, I don't remember. I just don't know that we
had anything like that, so I don't know. There's probably more phone calls and leaving notes for
each other.
M: So in general you would say that Facebook has been much better than any sort of
system you've had in the past?
P: Oh, I would, yeah. Yep. No question.
M: Is there anything else that you want to say or observations you have?
P: About? Anything?
M: Communication within the organization.
P: No... I, well, yes, I guess. I think the biggest challenge every year is getting the staff to buy
into the notion that this is their station. And that, one of the things I say, and I say to them
occasionally too is a problem, is they know I will bail them out. And I sometimes wonder if I
like totally ignored the, well in fact I've said to the staff a number of times, my feeling is if I
totally ignored the station we'd be, nothing would happen at the station. So that to me, I don't
think that's a communication problem as much as it is, you know, when they walk, when students
walk into the radio station, what I'm expecting of them is not student behavior but professional
behavior. So, on the one hand, I am at peace with the fact that that's going to create tension. On

20

the other hand, I'm also of the mindset that they've got this wonderful opportunity to run a radio
station, go at it. I'm rarely going to say: "Don't do that." I'm almost always going to say: "Great
idea," you know, "Go for it." Their response to me a lot of times is: "Well, we don't know what
to do." But I expect a little bit more thought on their part, that I think they could do.
M: So would you say that it's less of a communication issue within the organization, and
more of, like, the culture of the organization?
P: Yeah, it is. I think that's, and I think it's more the culture of the educational environment. This
is the third school I've taught at... Part of my expectations come from, is because I have had at
other schools at least one or two people who really step up, and I say to the staff all the time:
"Look, if you know more about something than I do, I'm okay. I'm not stopping you." So, a little
bit of our culture here. Another part of the culture of perhaps this generation. So, you know, part
of how I try to fix it, communication-wise, is try to cast a vision a lot of times. Because right
now students are learning, they don't maybe really know, but I still feel they have enough
knowledge they should know. It's a matter of switching their thinking and saying: "Hey, this is
ours. Let's do this."
M: Do you think part of that is linked to the Communication Division as a whole? You
need students to feel at home and like the division is really theirs.
P: Maybe. Because the radio station is not the only thing that struggles with that. Sojourn, T.V.
station, I mean we all struggle with it. Yeah, it might. It might be the culture of the division.
Yeah. So I think that's one of those things we talk about as a department all the time: "How do
we change things?" I'm, I'm of the opinion, I think we get an awful lot of students who major in
communication and they really don't know why. And I, and I really do think if a student walks in
here and says: "I really want to be on radio." They're going to, that's a very different attitude
then: "Oh sure, I'll try radio. Oh that's fun." So I do think that ties into it, but you know, I think
you're right, I think it's a cultural issue. And of course if we go back to Schultz, we know that
communication is co-creating culture right?
M: True.
P: And so, I mean, I do think the work is never done to cast that vision, and say, you know: "We
could, here, here's what we're trying to do. Go for it. We're an educational laboratory, have fun,
play."
P: Is that it?
M: I don't have anything else.
P: Okay, good.

21

General Manager, Lauren McCormack Interview

By: Sarah McBeath, Elucidus, Inc.
February 24, 2015
S: Okay so, can you just talk a little bit about how you got involved in the position that
youre in now?
L: Mhmm, well basically (well Ill sum this up as best as I can) that its kind of been just a
process of being involved with the Fortress. Dr. Perry recommended that I be on the radio, and I
was a freshman, and I thought, well all right, Ill try it out and well see what happens. So, I was
on the air for a year, and they opened up the positions for executive staff, and theyre like:
Anyone should apply. Dont be discouraged. It doesnt matter how old you are, what grade you
are or whatever. And you should apply and just see what happens. And so thats when I was a
sophomore, and I applied to be the promotions director and the music director, and I wound up
getting promotions. And then, as time was winding down, the year was winding down last year,
positions opened back up. Everyone has to start from scratch. So it doesnt matter if you were
promotions director one year. It doesnt mean you automatically get it the next year. I could
apply for any position I wanted, and then I really like being an overseer of people so I thought
I would apply for the general manager, and I knew that I wasnt going up against anyone, so I
was most likely to get it. Thats basically how it all went--kind of trickled down, snowballed or
whatever.
S: Whats your favorite part about working at the station?
L: Well lets see, as the manager, I think this is the position that Ive enjoyed the most. It has
really allowed me to show my skill set, and I really love working with the staff. Thats really
great, and one of my StrengthsQuestone of my top 5was developer. So, I really like to work
closely with my staff. We have one-on-ones, and thats just a time where we can work closely
with one another, figure out what our game plan is for their agenda for the week. I ask how I can
help themif I can make something easier for themif they need anything from meya know,
just challenging them with different things, just trying to get them organized. I LOVE
organization. Thats another good part about being the manger: I have to organize the entire
schedule, of all the DJs who are on air. And, that was interesting this round cause we are
literally, were packed. This is our schedule, and so we are locked. And so we have all these
people on just every single week. So, I had to organize all this, and this is just a ton of fun. So, I
love organizing. I think that just being able to get my feet wet with really being a leader has been
a fun and challenging. Yeah, so I like working with people and I like leading people. So, those
are probably my two favorite things, other than being general manager.
S: Thats awesome. So, on the other hand, what would be your least favorite things?

22

L: Least favorite? I think that something thats hard to deal withnot necessarily deal with,
but to come to terms with-- as a general manager is watching your staff have certain work habits,
and then you want them to have other ones. Like you want the best for them, and you want
But how do youBasically this is the cry of a general manager: How do I get my staff to work
extremely efficiently while still having a good timewhile still having a purpose at their job
and stuff like that. Or, you know, sometimes its hard too because people are so set in their ways
of the way that they work that its kind of hard to come in and say, Well, I think you should do
this, but I mean you cant really do that because that doesnt really work. So, sometimes, its
hardits a matter of sometimes I dont like it, but you kind of have to, ya know, work with
that. So you work with what you have. And its basically, the other thing is, its just learning I
guess this is another thing as Im just thinking: its that you have to work with people who have
different personalities than you, and its a matter of making that work too, cause youre not going
to like everybody. Not everybodys going to like you. So, its a matter of still working together
as a team, furthering the stations vision. So, thats another difficult part too.
S: So, what is the stations vision, then?
L: Yeah, our slogan is creating community, and thats something that we say all the time. Like,
when we open the mic: Its 94.3 the Fortress, creating community. And so basically, that can
be really broad, and that can be in anything and everything. So, ultimately, what were wanting
to do is to be a community resource. We have a ton of efforts to stay in contact with different
businesses in the community. We have a program called Fortress featured events. Thats where
we get in contact with different companies or churches or businesses in the area. And, so say
they have a vacation bible school going on. We can, like its not necessarily advertising that, but
we can mention it on air cause since were a non-commercial state station, we cant advertise. So
anyway, I dont even know if you need to know all those little details, but anyway, lets see
And, oh, yeah, we just had a remote, so to get out into the community, and we had a remote
broadcasting session at the YMCA on Saturday. We were doing Walk a Mile in My Shoes
homelessness awareness walk, and so we were doing coverage there. And, I dont know if you
know Angela Harrington, but shes basically like a celebrity in Marion, and shes got this
womens conference thing going on, so were going to cover that; we going to cover Fusion. So,
its just getting really connected with people in the community. And also just through
promotional things. You know, we want to reward our existing listeners and then gain more new
listeners too, so its just all aboutits all about going out there and meeting people and getting
to know people and form relationships essentially.
S: Can you talk about the hierarchy in the organization, and also the lines of
communication: who goes to who in different situations?

23

L: Yeah, basically, the final final say-so is Dr. Perry. He is the faculty adviser. I can actually
probably send this to you. Its the org chart. And, depending on the lines... the thing is this is not
set in stone. But, like whether or not its a solid line or a dotted line. But anyway, I work closely
with Dr. Perry and talk about essentially everything: whether it comes to behavioral issues with
the staff, whether its scheduling, whether its upcoming events, whatever we want to dowere
close in communication most of the time. Even on Mondays we have a weekly touch base
meeting where we just sit for an hour and we just hash out what we need to talk about and hash
out whats coming up next. So, he and I, we arent equal, necessarily, but then again we work
very closely. Hell have the final say so. Especially when it comes to finances and stuff like that.
And then, so the staff under me, my executive staff, weve got our music director, our news
director, my productions director, and promotions. Okay so thats four of my peers; theyre
justwere a student led organization besides Dr. Perry. Its like the lines can get a little blurred,
but ultimately these 5 positions run the station. You know, were in charge of the music product,
the news product, the production product, and the promotional products. So, ultimately, were in
charge of that, and were the only leaders of the station when it comes to that. Theres alsoso
these guysthese fourso music, news, productions, and promotionsthey all report to me.
Every Thursday we have a no its Tuesday, Im sorryEvery Tuesday, we have an executive
staff meeting, and thats an hour long. We touch base. We go through the weekwhat weve got
coming up, any issues we need to talk about. So thats every Tuesday. So, ultimately, these guys
report to me, but that doesnt mean they cant talk to Dr. Perry if theres an issue. So they can
talk to him too, but normally Ill be their go-to. Also, with the unique position of The Fortress,
weve got comlabbers that come into the mix. And weve got Intro to Radio kids who come into
the mix. Dr. Perry teaches a class every spring, Intro to Radio, and they get time on the station,
and so they get airtime. And comlabbers, which is what I started out as, they get time on the air.
So, basically, what it comes down to, is that I end up being in charge of comlabbersgetting
them on air, trained and everything like that. Thats how that kind of goes. Both of those are like
additional branches, but ultimately, that would probably call for even another org chart, or like a
different branch off of it. This is like the bare bones, right here.
S: Okay, and do you feel like those linesI mean from what youre saying they seem pretty
open?
L: Oh, definitely, and thats the thing. Since its so smallsuch a small group of peoplewere
pretty open with each other. We know each other. So they are pretty open. Theres never been a
time where Ive thought they were like, no, you probably shouldnt talk or say something. Its
always been very open.
S: Can you talk about the differences between the leadership meetings and the class
meetings?

24

L: Yeah, alright, so Tuesdaysthats executive staff meetings.

S: And what time are those?
L: So, theyre both at 3:30, and so Tuesdays weve got executive staff, and I lead the meeting. I
lead both meetings, actually. We start by going around the table sayingthis is called staff
reportswhat we have going on, what we did the past week, if there are any issues we
encountered. This is almost kind of like a checks and balances sort of thing, just making sure that
were staying on task, and being prioritized. And then,Lets seeIm wondering if I even
have a piece of paperIm gonna have to pull it up. We also just go throughso I let my staff
go first and then I wind up, reeling it all in at the end, saying stuff that Ive been working on, and
then looking forward. Like last week, our meeting was, Okay, like were nailing everything
down for Walk a Mile remote, so basically what a lot of discussion was about So staff goes
around and then we have priorities, just talking about when to turn time cards inwe had people
turning them in not on the same day. Also, just talking about technological thingstalking about
we have people on duty on the weekends---if something goes wrong, who should be called. So
we alternate with who does that. They take this page back to their offices with them, and they
can take notes here, and then I always have this on here just for vision shapingjust always
reminding us of why were doing what were doing and just keeping the big picture in mind
cause its easy to get stuck in your routine, and just doing that every single day. Like why am I
doing this? Whats the importance of doing this? So I always just try to keep them to remember
like what is the big picture? Like how are we creating community with the community?
S: And when you talk about the on duty weekendswho would that be? Would that be
executive staff or that go to comlabbers and Intro students?
L: Yeah, it doesnt go to those peopleokay, gosh, thats like in-group/out-groupbut its
only the executive staff. Us 5 alternate weekends. And then the meetings on Thursday, they
differ a little bit from fall and spring. What they look like this semester, every spring, is at 3:35
(they actually start at 3:35) we have every one come in. We have comlabbers come in, and we
have the Intro to Radio class come in, and Intro to Radio only stays for the first 15 minutes of
class, because theyve already been in class with Dr. Perry for an hour and a half, but they stay
for basic updates of whats happening at the station. So, basically all of my directors get up and
talk about whats going on in their division and what they have coming up, what they want
comlabbers and Intro to Radio kids to know: what needs to be known, and whats happening at
the station. So, then those four kids go, I wrap it up and say reminders about this-this-and-this.
Questions? Contact meAnd all that kind of stuff. And then Dr. Perry normally has a couple
words to say and then Intro to Radio kids can leave. After that, okay, so were still left with
comlabbers, because they have a whole hour to fill for their credit. And we normally break up
into groups. Weve gotthis wayits kind of like shadowing in a sense. They can pick if they

25

want to go into news, if they want to go into production, if they want to go into promotions or
music. So, we kind ofwe divvy them upand then they get to pick an area they want to go to
and learn more about. After updates, we break into those groups and then we stay there until the
rest of the hour.
S: So, you are about the same age as most of the students that are in this. How does that
relationshipdo you think that affects your relationships?
L: Mhmm. They do. You know it does. Its a balancing act. Its a tough line to walk, considering
that these are my peers. Every Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 8:55, I have a government class
with two of them. So its kind of hard, because its like hey, youre my friends, youre my
buddies. Lets study. And then, you know, its hard because its like now Im your boss, and I
can tell you what to do. Its like basicallyIm in charge and you have to listen to me. You
know, I try not to operate that way, but, when it comes down to it, its like okay, you kind of
have to do what I say. Haha It never has to come down to the point where I have to threaten
people or anything like that. But the thing is, it can get a little tough because I think its harder
for me to have tough talks in a sense because I think its kind of like, Who are you? You are my
age. Youre in the same grade, so its like we are all relatively in the same area, so its kind of
hard when one of your peers is like in charge of you. So that can be tough. But thats just the
tension I have to deal with, and its normally fine. Theres never really a time where I cant get
something done or cant communicate something with someone, but I often find myself probably
being a little too nice on certain things because I dont want to be rude or mean to my
peersbecause I want to maintain the friendship as well as the workmanship. So thats what can
be tough about it.
S: Yeah, that does seem like a tough line to walk there. So, do you feel like you are
connected with everyone from the leadership team down to the comlabbers and Intro to
Radio students? Do you feel like you have relationships that are pretty good with all of
them?
L: I would say I probablywell Im very connected with my staff, my executive staff. I would
say I feel decent with the comlabbers. I would feel the most distance with Intro to Radio kids
because I really dont have that much to do with them. Those are more like Dr. Perrys babies,
even though they should be reporting to me. In terms of if they have a problem on the radio, they
should call me first. They shouldnt call Dr. Perry first. Or they should call someone on the staff.
But other than that, he has them in class every Tuesday/Thursday, so its different in that sense
because I dont see them as much as he does. Comlabbers, I am close with because they need to
meet certain requirements for the comlab class. So, basically if were going to go from closest to
least closest it would be executive staff, comlabbers, and then Intro to Radio kids.

26

S: Okay, and you said for Intro to Radio, that they should come to you. Do they often go to
Dr. Perry then?
L: Yes, they do. And that is like an understandable thing. Thats something we try to work
withlike a reminder---thats something Ill remind people of on Thursdays in the meetings is
that if you have an issuecause theyre familiar with Dr. Perry. So, Intro to Radio kids only see
me for 15 minutes every single week, and so they see him for an hour and a half 2x a week, so
theyre more familiar with him. Thats why I think they feel like they should call him or they
dont necessarily know me. There are times when I pop in to the class and stuff, just during
breaks and whatever, but its doesnt necessarily foster a relationship like I have with the other
comlabbers and stuff like that. So they do a lot of the times contact him, but thats just a matter
of kind of rolling some things out, but theyre getting better at calling us. And, we havent been
having too many issues so its not like its excessive.
S: Do you feel like people can openly come to you with problems or do you feel like you
hear about them through the grapevine?
L: No, I think that people can openly come to me with issues. Thats never an issue. I make
myself readily available. Yeah, thats never been an issue. My door is always open. If people text
me, call me, I try to get back with them as soon as I can. And the other thing is, I think when
peoplesay if they experience problems on air its like, Oh like, I need to get someone now
they feel like they really scurry to get someone to help them, whether thats me or someone else,
like on the executive staff. Well thats how it goes. I do feel like people can approach me.
S: Great. Okay, so when you need information, who do you go to? Would that be Dr.
Perry?
L: Yes, yeah. He is my go-to. Um, or you know, if I need specific information regarding like
music or news or something like that I go to my directors. But, ultimately, Ill go to Dr. Perry for
any information.
S: Great. Do you see any cliques or drama happening in this organization right now?
L: No, I really dont. Yeah thats atually something thats really nice. Well one, like the
executive staff is so small that there are no cliques there, and I feel like were all relatively
familiar with each other. If anything I would have said, it was like last year when I was the
promotions director, I feel like there was an unintentional clique. I felt like the outsider because
the four other people who were on staffthey were all in the same grade and involved with
media comm and had a lot of the same classes, and Im in human comm (or communication
studies the old catalog). And I just felt like on the outside, like you know, no one really cared or
whatever, which is fine. And so I think that this year we have a good mix of people and its not
cliquey or anything like that. And even when it comes down to commlabbers, we have a lot of

27

people who arent even communication majors who are trying it out, and so there arent really
any cliques there either. And, I cant really speak for Intro to Radio too much.
S: So, when it comes down to leadership, are there any methods right now that you are
doing now to develop future leaders? Or is it just that they apply for the position or do you
see potential in certain people to be leaders?
L: Yeah, I do see potential in people, its just whether or not theyre going to apply. You know
we often talkwe nudge people just asking them, Are you going to apply? We always
remindwell now that the time is winding down to start applying, we put out application after
spring break, we ask people if theyre going to apply and stuff like that. Or whether they have
any interest in an executive staff position, but ultimately we dont really know what were going
to get until people apply. Because even if you were on the staff this year doesnt mean youre not
gonna beyou might go do Sojourn or something else like that so you kind of just see what
happens once the deadlines are there and you see who turned in an application.
S: What would you say the hardest situation or conflict that youve had to address in your
time as general manager?
L: Maybe one thing for me is, this was something we know going inis that since Im comm
studies, I had like no media classes. I never took Intro to Radio. I only took a comm lab. The
only thing is me and my technological skillsI mean Im pretty technologically savvy on like a
general basis with my own stuff, but not with like programs and equipment that we have to deal
with. So I felt like that was something that I struggled with, because I almost felt like there were
certain times where I have to rely on either Bart, my music director or Dr. Perry because I dont
have that expertise that they do. So I think thats been one of the hardest things is kind of being
extremelike I have to rely on other people in that sense if something was to be incredibly
wrong or I dont know what to do in a situation with technology or if were having problems on
air or at the computer or something like that. So I think thats probably like the hardest thing if I
had to say what it was.
S: You talked about you and Dr. Perry meetingwas it on Mondays? What do those
meetings look like?
L: Lets see, we basically just do a run-through of whats coming up, what were looking forward
to next. Lets seeI actually had my meeting with him this morningI moved it to today. We
talkedwe had a debrief about how the event that we had on Saturdayjust talking about how
did that go? What can we do to make it better? What did we like about it? That kind of stuff
Also, so now the planningnow that that event is over, were looking toward to the next one.
So, we talked about that. I talked about my one-on-ones with my staff. I turned inwe all have
to do time cards-- thats a thing I started-- I turned in all the time cards from all my staff to him.

28

And basically, its pretty informal in that it can take any direction. And also something that we
talk about is how I can be a better leader, and how I can better lead the group, and how I can
better serve the group. So, in a sense, hes developing me. So, thats basically what those
meetings look like.
S: Alright And would you like to share any of the ways you talked about that could make
you a better leader?
L: Yeah. Well, he sent metheres this article that I had, like 10 key characteristics of leaders,
and we like went through each oneof like vision casting, emotional intelligence, maintaining
distance (like not micromanaging which is not an issue I have), but its kind of like we would
look at okay so what I am I doing well? And what can I do to be even better? So thats
something that we had talked about.
S: Can you talk about how satisfied you are with the communication within this
organization?
L: MhmmI would say that I am satisfied because I mean we do the best that we can. We all
have each others numbers. We all are on a Facebook page. And communications open.
Sometimes stuff happens, and then there isI mean I dont always need to be exactly in the
know of every incident that happens, but a lot of stuff I think what happens when weve got Intro
to Radio kids and the commlabbers, some stuff kind of travels through the grapevine a little bit,
but thats anywhereit really is. So, I mean Im satisfied though. There are some times where
its like, okay probably more could be said for certain things, but, other than thatI mean and
thats just working on communication skills, which we all need to do.
S: So how do you think the communication could improve?
L: Mmm..thats a good question.
S: Or, what would you change about the communication?
L: See the thing isits tough to answer that because each situation is differentits unique. So,
however people behave within that situation is how an outcome will come about. You know, not
everybody communicates the same way I do, and I have to be mindful of that. Sometimes, its
just going to call for me asking more questions. And, yeahits toughI mean people are doing
the best that we can, but sometimes there are just inevitable bumps in the road, soyeah.
S: Well, do you have any closing thoughts or stories youd like to share?
L: I always love telling stories cause people arethey get nervous being on the air, and I love
when people are so nervous, because it just makes me laugh, because I was there. And now Im
just so used to it, its like nothing, but I love when we can tell stories of times that weve messed

29

up on air or something like that. You know, I opened up to the comlab class about errors Ive
made. Weve even had this thingits so hilariousI love this. We have this system that can
play back people talking on air. Like every time they open the miclike it only goes back a few
days---but we can click it and open it, and then we can listen to what they said on air. And I was
like playing random ones for the class just to see like, So, what do we like about this? What
could they do to improve? that kind of thing. And, do you know Tim Tedeschi? He let me play
one of his cause he said, I just had such a hard time forming thoughts, and it was so funny
because he was talking about the groundhoglike there were two different groundhogs that I
guess people rely on for February 2ndlike whether or not theres going to be 6 weeks of
winter. Hes likeit basically went like this--- Okay, so those groundhogs had two
conflicting diagnoses. It was so hilarious. I just loved it. I loved it I loved it. The thing is, we
like to have fun here too. We dont want to be like strict or anything like that here. So I think, ya
know, when we have fun like that and that just creates a good atmosphere too. And the other
thing islike I alwaysthis was like my phrase last semester: Lesson learned, because youre
not going to know exactly how to do something until you do ituntil you mess it up, and then
youre like Oh..crap. I messed this up, and how do I fix it? Or how do I do better next time?
Basically, its okay to make mistakes here because this is ultimately a learning facility. And I
think its fun to watch people develop, coming from you know, being first time on air to the end
of the semester where they feel confident in being on the air.

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Executive Staff Interview: Production Director, Marisa Hinderaker

By: Rachel Gerber, Elucidus Inc.
March 24, 2015
M: I am the production manager and what I do is a variety of things actually, the basic weekly
tasks include getting all the ministry pieces that we play on the air downloaded, and then we put
them back up on air. So we take them in from lots of different programs across the country and
we broadcast those. I also am in charge of all the local spots that we do, so we have seed spots,
which are intended to give the listener something to think about as they go throughout their day.
It could be a little bit of a word of encouragement; it could be a challenge, anything like that. So
I write those and produce those, all the editing and everything, getting people to come in and
record. And we do branding pieces, which are kinda along the same lines except that they come
back to the identity of the station. So its meant to remind people who we are and why were
here. So those are a few of the main pieces. I also do this program that were just restarting
where I talk to local pastors and they come in and record a two-minute devotional we play those
on air as well. So my job really is to be in charge of everything we play on the station that isnt
music. Its all the little things in between that make us sound unique. We have little sweepers,
that we call them, that go in between songs they might just say something as simple as youre
listening to 94.3 The Fortress, but again that gives a unique sound to the station. So thats my
job in a nutshell.
R: Alright, so what is your favorite part of working at the radio station?
M: I think my favorite part is working with the people. We have a staff, an executive staff, that
has different positions that were in charge of our own individual areas, but we also have to work
closely together to make things happen. So I work with the music director on a lot of different
things and the promotions director on various things so we all have to interact and I love that. I
also really love working with the other students who are on air. We do Com Lab and as a part of
that I lead a group of students in the production work. So I teach them what I know and we work
together to improve our skills and practice and see what it is actually like to be a part of a radio
station. So I think thats my favorite part, is just those interactions, not even always in Com Lab
or in class, but just in the normal everyday life of the station. Stopping in and saying hi, or
figuring out questions and seeing how everybody improves as the year goes on. I really enjoy
that.
R: What is your least favorite part?
M: Hm, least favorite part? Well, right now I would have to say, the technical difficulties. This
computer is the production computer, and its where I do all of my work from, I do all of my
editing and I put new spots in the station and all of that from here, but it has some problems. So I
think my least favorite part is working around those when the computer freezes or when things

31

will just go crazy, and it does slow me down, so that is my least favorite part of the job. But
overall its really fun.
R: Why cant you get a new computer?
M: Weve been in communication with the IT department and well, for one thing Dr. Perry is the
only one that can really set up the computer, and IT has to arrange that with him and figure out a
time and all of that. It is difficult because getting new computers with the radio system does
mean interrupting our broadcast and we dont want to do that. Its a bad idea to have dead air, or
quiet space on your station. So thats complicated, but mostly its just difficulties in working
with the IT department.
R: How is your contact with Dr. Perry? Do you answer a lot to him or do you answer more
to Lauren?
M: Its an odd dynamic between the two of them, because on the one hand, Dr. Perry is in charge
of the class as a whole, but in the structure of the station, Lauren is my boss and Dr. Perry is the
advisor. So it happens a lot where he will step in to places where she should really be in charge,
but for the most part I try and take my questions to Lauren if shes available unless there is
something that I know I have to go through him. So its a continual process of figuring out what
each situation requires.
R: Who from the station do you typically talk to in a week?
M: Executive staff or everybody?
R: Everybody.
M: Oh boy. Well of course I talk to everyone on executive staff very frequently. I mean our
offices are right here in a row so I see everyone every day. As far as the staff, I see all of my
Com Labbers frequently so that would be: Shaelie and Peter, Jen Vanravensway, Jenna Geary. I
run into Tim Tedeschi, into Jordan Chesky, and Laurie Marx. Really, I think I have contact with
just about everybody at the station at some point or another during the week. There are a few
people who slip through the cracks probably, but I have good contact with almost everybody.
R: So the radio stations motto, what is that?
M: Our tagline is creating community, so its all about trying to foster that community, not just
within our station as a staff, which is a battle in itself, because you start fresh every year, but also
in the Grant county, specifically Marion because thats where most of our signal and most of our
audience is, trying to create community within that body of people in our area. Also trying to

32

reach out to people who are not just our listeners and our typical demographic, but those who lie
outside of that at some point.

33

Executive Staff Interview: Music Director, Bart Bland

By: Rachel Gerber, Elucidus Inc.
April 2015
R: So tell me about your job
B: My job-- Im the music director, so my day to day tasks are to make the playlists, which
dont take very long, update our top 40 lists using other lists so I just average everything together
and base it off of that. I find new music for the station by downloading it off one of our websites.
I call record labels as needed saying hey you didnt give me this song I want it, stuff like that,
just other things. This year I started doing artist biographies and other things, so thats my job.
R: How long have you been the music director?
B: This school year is the only time I have been the music director. I actually applied freshman
year, because the music director we had withdrew half way through the semester so they needed
another one and it was between me and another person and they got it. This is the first year I
have been the music director. Last year I was the production director.
R: What is your favorite part about working at the radio station?
B: I mean I like choosing what music gets played, because a lot of stations, especially in the
Christian market, theyll play the Top 40 stuff, the stuff thats extremely popular, we put in the
stuff thats going to be the most popular, but because we get so much music that were allowed
to play, some stuff that wont get as popular I still put it in because it sounds good and I think our
audience would actually like it. So that is my favorite part.
R: Okay, so what is your least favorite part?
B: So my least favorite part is when record labels dont get back to me about songs they havent
given me, which has been happening a lot recently. Weve actually four or five songs right now
that are charting in the Top 40, but they havent given them to us and I have called the record
labels a couple of times and not really getting responses so thats fun.
R: Can you talk about the network of communications or who you talk to in the station
during the week?
B: Im in contact with the rest of the staff so Marissa, Miranda, both Laurens, and Dr. Perry. We
have our weekly staff meeting every Tuesday and talk about what we have done and what we are
planning for coming weeks. So I talk with the rest of the staff pretty much every time we are all
in the office just bouncing ideas off of each other or just talk about whatever is going on in life
and I talk to Dr. Perry as is necessary.

34

R: What is your contact with Com Labbers and Intro to Radio?

B: So I have two Com labbers in my group--Ryan Wheeler and Jared Johnson-- during the Com
Lab meetings we meet for a few minutes after the group meets, and I give them a couple of
assignments. Ryan has been organizing our CDs and helping me out putting some old music
back into rotation and other random things he wants to help out with. Then JaredI have been
having him do some of the artist biographies so every week when we have new music we put up
a biography saying this is what this is where theyre from, this is what record label theyre on,
this is what albums theyve put out, and here is just some generic information about them. So I
have been having him write about two a week for that. The rest of the com labbers the rest that
arent in my group if Im in office hours or if Im just around the station if theyre on air, Ill
just go talk to them for a few minutes whether thats about the station or if its just whats up.
R: What is your opinion of the Intro to Radio and Com lab meetings?
B: I dont know much about the Intro to Radio stuff because Im not in that class, so I dont
really know what they talk about. I have taken the class. I know the generic thing of it is. If we
have something were talking about in our staff meeting on Tuesday, Dr. Perry will mention it to
the Intro kids if they need to know it. In Com Lab meetings when were all in a big group I think
the communication is there at least on the staffs part. I dont know how much every one listens,
but we try to communicate everything we think is important, or that they need to know.
R: Can you tell me the difference between leadership meetings and class meetings?
B: Leadership meetings on Tuesday we start with staff reports, so well go around and say,
this is what Ive accomplished this week, this is something new that Ive done if there is
something new this is problems that Ive had this week, stuff like that. Then after the whole staff
talks about stuff, Lauren will bring up a couple of things, like this is what is coming up or this is
something I noticed either from us or from Com Labbers we need to fix. Usually Dr. Perry will
talk about whatever like if we have an event coming up hell usually talk about this is what we
need to do and these are the people who are going to be involved. Then Com Lab meetings, we
do staff reportish things like this is what I accomplished this week that you need to know. Like
stuff I would go up and say are heres the new music well be playing next week and then
usually we will do an artist biography for the new music for the next week. This is just say
something like hey this is something to look forward to talk about it on their shifts. The other
staff members will say stuff that is important to them.
R: How does your age affect your relationships with the students?
B: Its interesting because with a lot of people at least in Com Lab they have been on the air a
few semesters and Ive been on staff for a couple semesters, before that we were in Com Lab
together and then some of us also work at the TV station together or we just hang out as friends,

35

because when youre around these people enough whether you like it or not youre going to
become friends with them. I think a lot of people can differentiate between when this is when
Im talking to you as a friend and hey do something for work. Usually I think its not an issue.
R: Do you think people can come to you openly with their problems?
B: Oh yes, people come to me a lot when they have problems. Usually when there is a problem
at the station, like a song isnt playing or a playlist is missing or something they will usually
come to me. I mean we have on-duty weekends so two weekends out of the semester you will be
on duty where youre supposed to stay on campus and monitor the station every hour or so
except when youre asleep just to make sure everything is playing right and if anyone has a
problem they know to call you first and if the on duty person doesnt answer just call someone
on staff. Usually they will call the on duty person first, but if they dont know exactly what to do
theyll call me and say, hey this is the issue can you help us? I will either call them and walk
them through it or come over and show them how to fix it. This might be too generalized but I
think everyone involved with the station is comfortable coming to me.
R: Do people ever skip over going to you and go straight to Dr. Perry?
B: Not that Im aware of. Lauren also has on-duty weekends, so if shes on duty then shes going
to be the first person they call, or if someone else is on duty and no one else is answering their
phone, or if they cant get there immediately theyll call Lauren. Usually for on-duty weekends,
people wont call Dr. Perry unless absolutely no one from the staff is answering their
phones--which rarely happens--and if they have his cell phone number. During the week theyll
walk around the offices and see if any one on staff is there if not then if Dr. Perrys here theyll
go to him and say, hey no one is here can you come help me real quick? and usually, if he has
time, he will go help.
R: Do you see any cliques or groups form in the radio station?
B: I dont think we have a problem with it. I mean in any environment there is going to be some
form of cliques that form, but I dont think we have an issue with it. I think that everyone knows
everybody at least a little bit, whether or not theyre close or whether or not they really talk is
where I think that clique might form, but I dont think there is a huge issue with it. I think
everyone is at least comfortable enough with each other to say if there is a problem someone else
will help them with it if necessary.
R: How is your relationship with Dr. Perry?
B: I think its pretty good. I have known him pretty well since freshman year, because first
semester I had two or three classes with him, so we got to know each other decently well. Then I
applied for staff that first semester because the music director withdrew from classes so ever

36

since then weve had a pretty good relationship. If Ive done something wrong hell come talk to
me about it and Ill own up to it: Yeah I did something wrong. Ill do better next time, and
stuff like that. Hes never yelled at me or anything so thats nice.
R: Tell me about the radio stations tagline.
B: Creating Community: we came up with that either my junior year or the summer between
my sophomore and junior year. We were looking for a new tagline because before it was
something like Hope for Grant County or something like that, which was nice but then some
ministry came in and then that was then their thing and because they are a little bit more well
known than we are we just decided to change our tagline, because it was time to change it
anyway and we had conversations about it and Dr. Perry bounced off the staff something about
community and we came up with creating community. So basically what our thing is that we
try to create a community with our music and stuff we talk about on air and we try to get out into
the community. Do stuff like live broadcast remotes as much as we can which is like 2- 3 times a
semester so if there is a huge event going on, like this weekend there is a womens ministry
event, I cant remember the exact name of it, but it is with Broken, Beautiful and Bold ministries.
Were doing a live remote there before and during the first couple of hours and interview who all
is speaking. A couple of weeks ago we did one for Fusion, earlier this semester we did one for
the Walk a Mile event. So we go around and create community with our broadcasts and our
music.
R: How do you feel you guys do at creating community within the radio station?
B: I mean part of it is the Com lab meetings letting everyone know whats going on and what is
important information. Whenever Im in the station and there is someone in the on air room or
doing a project in the station Ill stop in and say hey and just have a conversation for a couple
minutes if they have time. So thats how I try and create community, other people will do similar
things.
R: If there is one thing you could improve about the radio station what would it be?
B: If I could change one thing it would be half student run, half professional run. What I mean by
that is that we would still be the educational facility that we are so we would still have student
jocks and still have students in leadership, but we would also have some full time people who are
always doing stuff. The executive staff, we work somewhere between 8-10 hours a week and
especially for my job I cant get it done in 8-10 hours a week. I wish we had more time to do
more things so I wish we could do more. I wish we could do more professional things, but with
certain issues we cant.

37

ComLabber Interview
By: Sarah McBeath, Elucidus, Inc.
March 26, 2015
S: What is your role at the station?
C: Im just a Com student, so I just have a shift every week, and because Im in broadcast
journalism, were doing newscasts every week sono title--just Com Student.
S: Okay, so what is your favorite part of working at the station?
C: I mean its super fun because thats kind of what Ive always wanted to do. Not with radio,
but just being with media in general. And I mean its fun. Not many people can say theyve
worked for a radio station or are on air every week. So I mean theres that fun aspect of it. And,
then, uhm, I just keep doing it because Dr. Perry and Dr. King say like It helps in broadcasting,
because I want to do more TV, so Im like okay and I mean it will look good on a resume too
if you graduate and say Oh, Ive done it all 4 years. But, yeah, I mean it is fun overall. I mean I
only work two hours a week so its not like it is a big time consumer.
S: Right. So on the other hand, what would be your least favorite part of working at the
station?
C: Oh gosh, Im scared Im gonna get in trouble.
S: You wont get in trouble.
C: I mean, sometimes I just think theres just not a lot of communication. So, for
instancetoday, there was a note on there that said were giving away tickets, but I didnt know
when. And so Im talking about it, and I was thinking, I hope were still giving away tickets. I
dont know. I mean this paper says were giving them away this week. Just like the lack of
communication--I cant think of another instance off the top of my head. But I justand then
today I went and got someone. Like, oh do I put it on satellite? Or do I cause the
voice-track The stations been down this week. Something wrong happened. So I was like Do
I need to put it on satellite or is it on voice-tracking? And no one knew like if it had been fixed
or it was kind of a different thing, so I just threw it on satellite and left. And I was like okayI
dont know. So just sometimes that kind of makes it awkward because I dont feel like were all
on the same page sometimes.
S: Okay. And youve experienced that your whole time working at the station then?
C: It seems like its been more this year. Last year it wasnt as bad. And, my freshman year I
didnt notice that problem. We had a really goodI felt like there was a stronger staff. But I was
also a freshman so I didnt know. I dont know it could be me just getting older so its harder you

38

know. Youre not just an innocent freshman going with whatever. Youre like, Oh hey this
needs to be done this way, or I just have my own ideas or something, but I just have noticed it
more this year, which may be because everyones just busy or I mean it was a lot of new staff
this year mixing so they might just be learning how to work together and stuff like that.
S: So, since youve been here for a long time, have you ever thought about being on
leadership?
C: Um, no because Im on leadership at the TV station, so I figured that was enough hours. And I
think theyre really leaning toward separating that so theres not like two differentbecause we
have some this year, and it just takes away from both, whereas theyd rather have just people
devoted. SoI think thats why. I thought about doing news last year, but then I thought it
would be a lot being news director and the job at the station. Itd be like 30 hours a week, which
I have no time for. So, I figured 20 hoursI better stick with that at the station.
S: How would you describe the communication patterns among different students and
staff?
C: StudentsuhmI mean maybe Im out of the loopI dont really know. I dont even hardly
know a lot of the younger classmen on radio. I mean Ill walk bywhich that makes me feel old
walking by, and Im like, Who is that? Are they in Intro To Radio or are they in comlab? I
dont know. Which I felt like when I was younger, I knew everyone more...probably because you
just know all of the upperclassmen whereas the upperclassmen dont get to know the
underclassmen as much. SoI dont know how much communication there is between us. I
mean I dontwere not always like, did you experience this problem? I mean, we do with our
friends, but I dont feel like its a conjoined group. I think its more just like friend groups
talking about the radio station. We meet in comlab and we discuss, but not a lot happens other
than that at meetings.
S: Okay, so that was actually one of my questions today: How effective do you think your
meetings arethe weekly staff meetings?
C: I mean, to be honest, I dread going. I just think theyre kind of a waste of time. Ohmygosh,
Im so scared someones gonna find this. Sorry Dr. Perry if you ever hear this. I dont thinkI
justnothing ever seems to get done. The updates kind of seem to be pointlessor like I had to
come up with this in the last five minutes to think of something to say. We just were trying to
fill time. And then we get in our groups, and again its kind of just pointless. Were just sitting
around, or attempting to do something. But, like, when you have--right now I think theres like
6 or 7 of uson the production team, well you cant all make a spot. You know, thats like a one
or two person job. So its just kind of like what do you do? Its normally just one person
working, and then everyone else just chilling to the side. But I justI mean you get like the

39

major information, but I think you could also get that out in an email or a Facebook post. But, I
understand we need to meet, but the way its going right nowI just dont think theyre
effective at all. Theyre so boring and pointless. Ugh. We have it today, and I was thinking,
Dang, its Thursday. Its just an hour, but still.
S: So, do you have any ideas how they could get better or more effective, or do you think
that email and Facebook posts would be the best options for that?
C: I think it could be more effective. It justI think it comes down tothis is going to sound so
meanbut I think its just the leadership right now. I dont think its a very strong leadership. I
mean I love the people. I love them. Theyre good people. It just makes it hard when you come
in, and I mean, there are references to babies and kittens. I dont knowIm not a baby or a
kitten. And so you kind of lose the respectnot respectwhat am I trying to say? You lose
leadershiplike youre supposed to be leading, and it seems like you arent serious about this.
So that makes me not want to be serious about this. AndI meanbut I like how its not too
uptight. Like there should be some kind of fun aspect, but I think its a little too fun. They need
to get a little serious, and so I think if they were just stronger...but in general no. Because I
remember freshman year thinking, Man, theyre just a little too strict. So I dont know where
the balance is. I guess Id have to see it to know--maybe just a lack of taking things seriously
sometimes.
S: Okay. So, weve talked a little bit about the Fortresss vision being creating
community. What does that mean to you?
C: Well I think it means just simply not being a radio station thats just playing in peoples car. I
mean were out in the community. Were so in the community. I mean you can do a lot of things
just by being at a business and attracting people to that business and helping them. Thats
creating community. And I think just the fact that were putting outjust through
spots--encouraging peoplesome of the talks we haveeven just the music. Its not being a
separate radio station of people. Were trying to be an interactive radio station with our viewers.
And the fact that we have a texting system now--some guy texted in, hey, can you play this
song? And I just texted back on our system, oh we dont have that song. Any other options? I
feel like thats cool. Not many people have that. And were such a small station that we can have
more of that one-on-one personal relationship with our viewers whereas a lot of other stations,
you call in and dont have that. So I think thats a really neat thing. And when I think creating
community I think it kind of goes to that. Were so in the community if that makes sense.
S: Yeah. So do you work the events usually?
C: Yeah. Ive been out to a few. We went out to Walk-A-Mile, and that was really neat. People
were really excited to see us there. I interviewed some of the Grant County Rescue Mission, and

40

they loved that we came out to that. I think the community sees that too, with even when we just
show up. Like when we did a car wash one semester, and I went out to that one. They see that
just want to see that we care and were coming out. Thats what they like. And it really says a lot
about our station.
S: Sweet. So, when it does come to the communication within the organization, do you feel
like you can openly approach the staffwith the executive staff and Dr. Perry or together
or apart? How do you see that?
C: I think thats hard becauseI meanI dont want toI dont know if everybody else feels
the same way I do. So sometimes Im like, Maybe Im just being too picky about things. So I
dont know. But I dont thinkI cant see myself approaching. I feel like they would be like,
What do you matter? Youre just a Com student. I mean, Dr. Perry, I could talk to him but I
probably wont. Like Im going to be graduating soon.
S: Who do you normally go to if you have a question or problem?
C: Uhmon staff?
S: Yeah
C: Probablydepends whos in there. So, Bart, Marisa, or Lauren. Thats normally who I go to.
Lauren Carpenter. Usually one of those three are always in there.
S: How do you feel about performance feedback? Is there any? Do you feel okay with it?
C: Oh, I mean were never given performance feedback. Actually, last week it was so awkward.
Uhm, were doing this thing called DJ madness, and its like when they...we have a bracket set
up, and theyre like choosing. And they forgot to do mine, and Jens. And so we get in there, and
they play them out loud in the class, and then we have to vote for whose we want to winlike
whos was better. Like how awkward is that? So the whole class is voting, and then I feel terrible
for like winning. I dont know. And thento make it worse, it wasnt just a raise of handswe
have to get up and go to the side of the room to vote for them. So I was like, Im going to the
other girls side. Im not going to vote for myself. Thats weird. And so she went to my side.
And were both like ehhh. And so Im praying for today, like please. Please. Please. Please.
Please dont do that. So, I guess thats the only feedback Ive gotten, and it wasnt like the kind
of feedback I would like. I dont want it to be public. Itd be great if we played our jock talks out
loud. Theres nothing wrong with that, but we dont need to vote between who is better. Thats
just super awkward. I hope that doesnt happen again. You know, were given feedback when
were in Intro to Radio with Dr. Perry but Comlab, we usually dont get that much feedback.
S: Okay. And do you wish there was?

41

C: Uh. Yeah. It depends who it would be. I mean that could be kind of weirdokay lets say that
someone had beenokay theyre a senior and the a sophomore comes in, and theyre
GMwhich is completely possible. I think theres a freshman whos trying to be GM. And so he
was giving the senior advice even though hes only been on there for two years and theyve only
been there for four years. And so if it was coming from like Dr. Perry or something, I think Id
like that. But I think itd be reallyI thinkI dont know if a lot of people would like it if
students were giving personal feedback if they were younger. If they were older yeah, and they
had been working at the station longer.
S: So do you think that students being allowed to be on executive staffdo you think that
its sometimes a hard line to walk with them being a student and them being on leadership
and having that role because sometimes youre in the same classes with people, but then
youre also their leader. So how do you see thatfrom the outside, not being on staff?
C: Yeah. Well, Ive seen some come in, and do it really well. I meanI think Lauren
Carpentershes a sophomore and shes news director, and I think shes done a really good job
here. Like coming in, and training even older people. I dont feel uncomfortable going to her and
asking questions. She knows more about radio. Shes on staff. I just do a shift every week. And
so when I have computer questions, Ill ask her. But I mean some people in the pastI cant
even think of anyone in particular--they justits just kind of sometimes awkward to approach
people or Im sure, there are some younger ones sometimes, where its like, youve only been
doing this for a year Do you even know the answer to this question? So I think itsit must
beI would imagine its hard coming in and being on staff. Cause it is a fine line. You know, a
lot of people dont take you as seriously when youre younger. And then you have to be a leader
for older. So it really depends on the person. And it really depends on the leadership style, which
like I said: Some have done it well. Some havent.
S: Okay, so overall, if you could change one thing about the communication within the
organization, what would it be, if anything?
C: I wish that they wouldI mean maybe treat us all asI cant think of how I want to word
this. I wish they would kind of maybe make it more like were a little more important than we
are--for lack of a better word. And like I said, just when we come in and were called: Oh look
the babies are here. Like okay, thank you for that. And just little things like that. Its
justtheyre kind of irritating, and I mean there was one week when like two of us
accidentally left something in the on-air studio. I accidentally left a notebook, and someone left a
mug or something. And they gave a really long speech about how we dont need to be messing
around. Were older now. We should know how to pick up our things. And then they called us
out. Theyre like, Whos notebook is this? Come get it. In the middle of the meeting! Like,
Sorry, I didnt mean to leave my notebook. I wasnt trying to clutter the studio. And then, even

42

a new freshmanone of the things was hers. And she had to do the walk of shame up. Which I
dont care--Im like, Yeah, whatever. But I felt bad for her. Like, Thats gonna make her want
to come back, you knowpublic humiliation. So I mean I just wish they would kind of see us
more like, oh, hey, youre on air too. Yes, Im your leader, and Im over you, but you guys are
important too. And Im going to treat you as if I were a CEO of a business, and you are the
employees. Im going to treat this like a real business, and not just like everythings all chill all
of the time.
S: Okay
C: Oh, I feel so bad.
S: No, youre fine.
S: So, overall do you have any closing comments or stories-- anything that youd want to
share?
C: Hmmnope I cant think of anything. I think the big thing that Ive just been frustrated with
this semester is the communication and leadership. Theres just many times Ive been supposed
to do a giveaway, and was given no information. It was like a piece of paper that said, give
away this. And Im like, okay where do they pick it up?... And then they came in like an hour
and a half after my radio shift, and were like, Oh did you figure that out? And I was like,
Well, I found someone elses paper, but it wouldve been nice to have known. I could have been
giving away the wrong information when you asked me to do this. And so little things like that.
Or, I was supposed to leave, and someone was supposed to voice-track, and they didnt, so I had
to stay longer while they voice-tracked. Its like, Okay this is not cool. I dont really want to
stay 10-15 minutes after when you know every week that youre supposed to voice-track it too,
and you dontthats a little frustratingso, probably that. But overall itswere justI
understand were just students learning, and no ones perfect, and were not experienced. And
some people areand again its learning. So I cant behave too high of expectations, but it
just seems like its kind of been worse this semester than in the past.
S: Okay, well thank you for your time.

43

Intro to Radio Student Interview

By: Jared Johnson, Elucidus, Inc.
March 29, 2015
J: What do you enjoy most about being on the radio station.
C: I think, honestly, I like radio but its not my favorite part, so I just feel like the relationships
Ive built, I think. I like the class, I like the way Dr. Perry teaches it and Im not a huge fan of
doing the jock talks alone, but I was able to co-host at the remote broadcast that we did and I
really liked co-hosting and doing interviews on the radio, so that was fun. Should I expand on
that?
J: No, thats fine.
J: What is your least favorite part about being a part of the radio?
C: Its stressful to have to be on air four hours a week and come up with jock talks and worry
about sounding professional for every radio shift, because theres usually just a lot of other stuff
going on.
J: What are your feelings about the staff meetings?
C: I think theyre good, I dont feel like they are, actually thats not true, I think they have helped
me some with jock talks and helping me know what to talk about with that. They give some good
advice sometimes, so Id say its a 50-50 shot, sometimes theyre helpful and contribute to what I
actually do on the radio, and Id say the other half of the time its information that I dont really
use.
J: Do you think the staff reports are helpful?
C: Okay, let me think about this for a second. I think some of them are, Id say a 50-50 shot
again. But I think it is nice, even if it doesnt necessarily change anything, its kind of nice to
stay updated and know whats going on with the radio station.
J: What does creating community mean to you and in what ways do you think the Fortress
is and is not fulfilling that?
C: To me, creating community would be getting outside of IWU completely and fully into Grant
County, I guess building relationships with the people, which is hard. I think one of the main
reasons that that doesnt happen is because we are in and out in four years so we dont become
established names. And, you know, we are only there for four hours a week, so its hard for us to
get to know people in Marion and its hard for them to recognize us and know who we are. I

44

think, as a radio station, we dont really host any events, which is understandable because they
dont do that, and I think its hard for us to make those connections, if that makes sense.
J: Is there a way that the radio station could make more of an effort to connect themselves
with the community in Grant County?
C: Ive actually thought about this, and its a hard one, because we have a limited budget. I think
a billboard would contribute a lot, which I know is really expensive. I think the remotes we do
are good, but we could probably always do more remotes. It would be cool if we aired people
more often, you know, like put the listeners on air more. But I know, like, we dont always have
enough listeners that we can ask them to call in, because its super awkward if youre always
asking people to call in and no one ever does.
J: Are you satisfied with the items on the playlist? That includes music, any of the
promotional things, stuff like that? Are there things you think we could have that are not
on there?
C: I definitely think that around 60 percent of contemporary Christian music is just bogus. Its
really cheesy, and its just phony. So theres a lot of music that I really dislike, I hate it, it all
sounds the same, theres not a lot of creativity. There are some songs that I do like, but if youre
asking that Im satisfied that were giving the people what they want to hear, then probably, you
know if were looking at our target audience and what they would like to listen to. We would
probably lose listeners if we played what I want to hear on the radio.
J: What do you mean by bogus?
C: Okay, that was bad word choice, thank you. I worked at the Family Christian Bookstore, so I
am a little bit biased and have known people who have been on winter jam tour, and I know
more things about artists than most people, and Im not convinced that every Christian artist out
there actually has a personal relationship with God. I think its easy to whip up some
spiritual-sounding words, throw it to four chords of music and create it. So, its just really to
make songs that sound ingenuine, and I think a lot of the songs that we play on the station, if you
listen to them, it sounds great but they dont have a whole lot of depth to them. And some of
them just dont sound artistically pleasing to me.
J: Have you expressed any of your opinions regarding the music or ways you can create
community or the staff meetings to any of the paid staff or Perry?
C: I talked to Bart about the music once, mostly just ranting and he just kinda listened. Not
[ranting] about him, just kinda in general. Im planning on putting together a list of potential
artists for him as far as that goes. As far as the rest of it, not really.

45

J: Do you feel like you get adequate feedback about your performance on air?
C: Yeah, I kinda have to look for that. That reminds me, Ive been meaning to talk to Dr. Perry
and have him listen to some of my jock talks and help me, but I think between the class and
talking to friends who are also on the radio and then also the staff meetings, I think Ive
definitely improved as far as my radio presence goes.
J: You said you wanted to meet with Dr. Perry. Is that a required thing?
C: Its used to be, its not anymore. Its totally optional, but I think it would be helpful for me.
J: I dont really know that much about the structure of the intro to radio class. What goes
on in there?
C: Where is this report going? Its just for a class, Im assuming.
J: Yeah, your name wont be associated with this.
C: Its really fun, theres a lot of laughing in that class, just because Dr. Perrys really cool and
we joke around a lot. Its a two-hour class, so he lets us get off topic occasionally and we just
fun, but when we are covering the content, which is what we are mostly doing, its really
informational, its really helpful and we are learning practical information that we can actually
apply, and I really appreciate that a lot. We go through the formats, we talk about jock talks, a lot
of times we talk about audio stuff so we just learned about the different kinds of microphones
you can use. So theres that, we have weekly quizzes, most of us do not do well because theyre
pretty different, so, yeah, is there anything else? Oh yeah, and we also take a 10-minute break
each class period, so usually we run and get coffee or whatever.
J: How do you feel about Lauren McCormack calling people kids?
C: I think its cute, Im not upset by it. I like Lauren McCormack, I think shes funny.
J: We just had some people to talk to us about that, so
C: I always thought people were joking when they complained about it, but yeah. I feel like a
kid, but Im just a freshman.
J: Do you feel like the paid staff and Dr. Perry are easy to get ahold of on the spot?
C: Yeah. Ive only had to get ahold of Dr. Perry like twice, and really it was before I understood
the hierarchy so I probably should have gone to a staff member first, but I just texted him and he
responded right away. That happened twice.
J: Do you like that a lot of information comes on Facebook?

46

C: Yes. I like the stuff that Dr. Perry posts. Sometimes its annoying because I keep forgetting to
turn off the notification so every morning theres a notification on my phone that Dr. Perry has
posted a file on Facebook. So thats whatever, but I do use that occasionally so thats helpful.
And I like the way that we can cover each other shifts, and that happens immediately on
Facebook.
J: Do you think any information should be passed via email?
C: Probably not.
J: What about both Facebook and email?
C: Do you mean like for everything?
J: Well, not for covering shifts.
C: I would say no probably, just because Im not on it all the time and I do get the Facebook
notifications.
J: Regarding staff reports, you seem more positive about them than most people have.
Instead of taking time to listen to those, do you think they could be emailed?
C: Yeah, I think they could.
J: Do you feel like theres a lot of information that you dont know about?
C: Yeah, if I were asked to do anything other than a normal radio shift, I would have absolutely
no clue. I dont know how new music gets added, I dont know how we choose new artists. I
dont know a whole lot about how the PMOs that come in, I dont know who does that, how they
do that, why they do that. I know the Com Labbers have to do hours, but as far as the news and
weather reports, I dont know where that comes from at all.
J: How about regarding things going on between staff members, maybe conflicts. Do you
feel like theres information, not necessarily how to do stuff but just stuff thats being kept
private. Do you think theres maybe some of that?
C: Maybe. Sometimes Im really oblivious to these things, so Ive never thought about it. But
Ive never really felt that way.
J: Last question: do you think you will continue with the radio at IWU?
C: If I had the opportunity to co-host, yes. Im not sure if thats ever going to happen?
J: What do you mean, like for your radio shifts?

47

C: Yeah, I know you can apply to get a special show, like from 10 to 11 you only play metal
music or something.
J: Would you do that? Do you like metal?
C: I like metal, I wouldnt play it on our station, but I listen to some metal music, yeah. Why are
you laughing at me? (chuckles) Im actually more into folk music, so if I could do anything
about the music I would play more soft folk music.
J: Like Rend Collective Experiment?
C: Kind of, yeah, but more like, theres an artist I really like called John Lucas, and hes really
cool. I like the new band I Am They, Green River Ordinance, a lot of these bands are kind of
hipster bands. What was the original question? Oh, yeah, probably not, but mostly because Im
not comfortable talking by myself on the radio. I dont like the jock talks.

48

Appendix B: Focus Group Notes

Focus Group Notes/Observations
By: Jared Johnson
February 26, 2015
What is your favorite part about the radio station?
*Miranda: Nothing specifically
*Nick: Dr. Perry is really conversational.
*Jared: Just two hours a week outside of class, thats pretty much all the work I have to do for it
*Ryan: Getting to know and hanging out with people
What is your least favorite part?
*Miranda: Doing jock talks, going to the meetings, and listening to staff reports
*Ryan: The meetings could go quicker
Does it help you to know more about the radio station from listening to staff reports?
*Miranda: No, but I do get to know about other peoples jobs better and what the staff members
do
*Nick: Yes, I like getting to know them, their personalities, and how silly they are
Do you accomplish a lot in meetings?
*Jared: Not really
*Miranda: We have a meeting because they are trying to help us get hours. Maybe monthly
meetings with the whole group would be better than weekly, because the weekly ones dont seem
worth it.
*Nick: Not so much this semester. Last semester, I feel like we did more.
Creating community- what does it mean to you?
*Miranda: The radio station doesnt do a great job creating community within the campus
because it doesnt feel like were IWU. We accomplish more at remotes where we go off-campus
and do events in the community.
*Nick: We say creating community, but have a target audience. How are we creating
community if were just trying to create community with one segment of people?
*Ryan: I dont think we create community well. We have an awesome opportunity, but we drop
the ball. We need more music that isnt super explicitly Christian.
*Jared: Doesnt mean much to me, its just something we say.
Do you think you will go for a paid position next year?
*Miranda: Im only doing the radio for com-lab hours, so no.

49

*Nick: I will apply for a paid position. I want to be news director. I think it will look good on
resume.
*Ryan: I want to go for music director.
Is the communication between people and leadership good?
*Ryan: Maybe we over-communicate, which isnt bad. I talk a lot with Bart and Miranda.
*Nick: Pretty good, but if you arent friends with leadership outside of the radio station, I could
see how it would be rough and tougher to communicate with them.
*Miranda: They are easy to get ahold of and easy to contact.
Should there be more training or feedback?
*Ryan: Its fine how it is. Maybe have one hour of observation instead of three.
*Nick: Perry listens to jock talks, but we dont hear any feedback from Perry. I didnt need the
whole time for training--may have been too long
*Miranda: Paid staff could give us feedback on our jock talks
If you have a problem or question, whom do you contact?
*Ryan: I call whoever is on duty (based on the list in on-air studio)
*Nick: I would contact Lauren McCormack, Bart, Lauren C. and Marisa in that order
*Miranda: If I didnt know whether there was a meeting, I would ask Dr. Perry. If there were a
problem, I would look at contact sheet and call the on-duty staff member
If you could change one thing, what would it be?
*Ryan: Having a wider variety of music
*Nick: Having a wider variety of music
*Miranda: Also different music, and Id like to talk about sports but we arent supposed to
*Jared: Make the meetings more efficient; maybe involve more feedback from Dr. Perry
End of Notes

50

Appendix C: Meeting Observations

Executive Staff Meeting Observations
By: Sarah McBeath, Elucidus, Inc.
March 10, 2015
Around 3:30, the radio executive staff poured into the business meeting room located in the
communication division office. Since Dr. Perry was otherwise occupied when the meeting
started, they carried on without him. I, the observer, was introduced to the executive staff
members: Bart Bland, Marisa Hinderaker, Lauren Carpenter, and Miranda (Mandy) Lenar. The
meeting, hosted by General Manager Lauren McCormack, began with staff reports.
Bart Bland, Music Director, began discussing the previous week (Spring Break), which was
consequently a week off, and the situations regarding having the week off of school but keeping
the radio running. He spoke of the radio playlist, and having to touch base with Nic about
bringing new music. Bart works on Sundays, and he talked about how Brenda lets him in on
Sundays. The song binder with all of the artist bios was apparently muddled and confused. He is
worried that radio students are taking artist bios (with name and picture) out and not returning
them to their proper place. This has caused the binder to come out of order. As Bart says this,
Lauren Carpenter remarks, Sometimes I feel like people just do things to complicate matters.
Lauren McCormack chimes in by saying that people are sometimes careless in what they do
without realizing it. Lauren M. asks Bart to approach this issue during staff reports in the radio
meeting on Thursday.
Mandie Lenar, Promotions Director, started her staff report by bringing up how the website has
been down. Since this issue will be discussed later in more detail in this meeting, she shifts to
conversation about David having free tickets for the Grant County Players Dinner Theatre for an
upcoming giveaway prize. She shows her passion for improving social media presence by
wanting to start a campaign to push to 1000 likes on the Facebook Page. She says that currently
the number of likes is around the high 800s range, but she hopes to increase this number
significantly by the end of the semester. She mentioned that they had 7 new likes in 1 day after
the remote Walk in My Shoes, and that she just hopes to see growth in the weeks to come. She
states that it is better to focus on getting more fans before doing boosted posts. She also asks
what a good price is for this. They all agree that there is plenty of money in the budget.
Mandie wants more people in Grant County to like the page rather than use a boost post.
Marisa Hinderaker, Production Director, recommended creating a spot for the 1000-like goal.
For the ministry spots, she first spoke on the upcoming Fusion event, which already had a spot
ready to go for the following week. She brought up the brick-by-brick program, and asked for

51

suggestions on the renaming of this. Marisa mentioned that she wants to put a deadline on her
self, so she can see progress. One present project that she is working on is connecting with local
pastors through Facebook for their new program. She is also in charge of the voice-tracking for
Fortress Featured Events, which is recorded the Wednesday before it is aired through the next
Wednesday. She brought up an issue regarding forward-selling ministry pieces. She gave the
example: coming up next is Johnny with Tuesday All of the staff found this to be quite the
blunder for their students to be making while giving their jock talks on air. Returning to the idea
of naming the new ministry spot, she said that the brainstorming sessions with her comlabbers
are not really going anywhere. The naming has been hard.
At this point, Dr. Perry walked in, and gave a suggestion for a name following Marisas idea of
Pastor Pieces. He said Pass the Peace might be interesting given the double entendre of
meaning Peace be with you, and passing the piece of bread in communion, each referring to
rituals in the church. Lauren McCormack asks Dr. Perry if she can sit between him and his wife
at their church like she was their child. This showed that the relationship between staff members
and Dr. Perry is relaxed and casual, with joking being normal. Marisa said on Dr. Perry walking
into the room: I can feel the ego in the room grow stronger.
Lauren Carpenter, News Director, gave the next staff report. Recently, Taylor University and
Indiana Wesleyan were rated #2 and #3 respectively in regard to the most affordable, yet inviting
dorms. She mentioned the possibility of doing a news spot on this article that was trending on
Facebook. She talked about the most recent news stories that different comlabbers in her group
were covering at the time.
Since this was the week of the NAIA National Basketball Tournaments, Dr, Perry talk about
students who were on site to send daily updates as part of AirSound back to campus and to
viewers/listeners of WIWU TV and The Fortress. Tim Tedeschi was on site in Missouri with the
men, and Shaelie Clark was with the womens team. Mandie chimed in What do we do with
sports normally? She seemed to see this involvement with the IWU basketball teams as out of
the ordinary.
They talked about one of the comlabbers that does newscasts, and said that he was okay on air,
but didnt speak about any feedback to give him. Mandie says, I was a little rusty on air.
Through the meeting, they kept me involved in the conversation. At times, they seemingly got a
little off topic, but it seemed appropriate for the casual setting, where everyone had a voice.
Lauren M. told Marisa to tell Dr. Perry about the forward selling of ministry spots (since he had
missed the mention before). His response was, I marvel at some of the things people do.

52

Lauren McCormack, General Manager, thanked the staff for their weekly reports, and then began
speaking on the priorities laid out on the Weekly Executive Staff Meeting Notes Page given to
each member at the meeting. The Network Analysis for this communication audit was brought
up in the conversation, and they asked me how the process was supposed to work. After telling
them, they replied that this will probably be muddied, which shows a lack in strong lines of
communication (not that this is specifically needed for this type of organization).
The next priority to discuss was the GM applications. Lauren said that she would forward Brenda
an email for General Manager that would be due March 20th. They hire the GM first, and then
accept applications for the rest of the staff. Dr. Perry asked the staff if there were any rumors
going around about general staff. The main consensus was that people would be scared to apply.
Lauren McCormack said in response that, People need hand-holding. Especially this
generation. Bart mentioned that Tim Tedeschi might want to apply for GM, and Dr. Perry said
he would send Tim an email. Dr. Perry then asked Lauren if there were any new thoughts
regarding their conversation (which I assume was about her returning to staff next year). She said
that she didnt know yet, but Sojourn pays twice as much as the Fortress. Somebody said,
People go where the money goes. Dr. Perry said that is fine. He wants people who arent there
just for the money, but actually want to be there, and to keep an eye on the prize.
The topic of conversation transitioned to the FUSION event. They mentioned that their
correspondence with the students was average, but Charlie was not very responsive. Dr. Perry
said that they should contact Roger for giveaway tickets. They said that students run Fusion, but
since theyre students, they arent always very responsive. They talked about doing a possible
remote at Maxwell with tables and chairs. Fusion doesnt make the radio station a main public,
so the effort to answer the Radio station is minimal at best. Dr. Perry said that he might pull the
plug on Fusion because they dont help at all. Bart talked about getting a response from Lecraes
people, but not directly from Lecrae. Dr. Perry said that they dont take this radio station
seriously. If they did, Lecrae would be more willing to do even a phone interview at least even if
he couldnt meet for an in-person interview. Lauren Carpenter, who works for the Sojourn, said
that thy have 2 writers and 2 photographers working the Fusion event to talk to speakers and
musicians, and thought that they could double-up on coverage.
The next priority topic was that the website recently went down. The contract ended with
GoDaddy website. Dr. Perry decided to move website to BlueHost, but found out that BlueHost
doesnt work with .FM. He then said that they will probably go back to using GoDaddy website.
Mandie asked if she should make an announcement about why the website went down, and said
she could put a statement about their efforts to resolve the issue.

53

Over Spring Break, Dr. Perry bought new equipment: 2 Radios, a mixer in rack, and a dead air
monitor that alerts Perry or executive staff by email if there is dead air in studio.
They talked about the new texting system where listeners can text in to the station, and Dr. Perry
encouraged them to keep plugging the texting thing.
Dr. Perry talked about the IT request to bring new computer replacement, but that IT has not
been following through on work orders. He decided to hold off the replacement request until the
summer. At this, Marisa hung her head visibly. Dr. Perry talked about the installment adding
more turmoil that tends to cause an interruption to production and voice tracking. Marisa then
talked about how stressed she was regarding to the program right now. She said she has to
restart/open/close programs on a broken computer, which makes it hard to do her job. She thinks
that if the new computer does add turmoil, it would be okay because it would be smoother in the
long run. Dr. Perry argues that he thinks this has potential for less efficiency. Mandie chimed in
by saying, I feel for Marisa, and Voice tracking drives me crazy.
Dr. Perry said, You guys are to be commended. I am amazed none of you have complained.
There were audible groans and laughter, and many from the executive staff said that they
complain between themselves. Dr. Perry then changed tone, and said that it is not a good thing
that they complain to each other but not him. He said, The squeaky wheel gets the grease,
which he explained that an appropriate amount of complaining (or criticism) can cause real
change for the better. Lauren Carpenter said, Well start doing that. Marisa said, I feel like we
have done that though. Dr. Perry and Lauren McCormack both commented on the executive
staff says things to each other but are afraid to say things directly to them. After this, though, Dr.
Perry said, Youve given me enough feedback. Ill talk to IT again for new computer, but
theres a really good chance well regret the decision. Mandie expressed her thoughts about the
communication problems they were just talking about: Sometimes I feel like I tell you things,
and you tell me to go to Lauren. Dr. Perry outlined his and Laurens specific leadership roles:
He is in charge of computers and equipment. Lauren McCormack is in charge of promotions. Dr.
Perry said, Im your teacher, and Im your faculty advisor which is not always clear cut.. They
referenced the peer and manager tension that sometimes exists, and Lauren said, Its tough. Dr.
Perry said, Youre going to have co-workers that arent your boss but act like your boss, and
you have to deal with it. Through this whole conversation, tension was high, people seemed to
take sides with Marisa or Dr. Perry, and Dr. Perry did not have an optimistic attitude regarding
the new computer.
As a final conversation topic, they talked about the March Madness competition starting soon.
Everyone will be in the bracket including com-labbers, and jock talks will be evaluated and
voted on by the class until winner is announced.

54

The meeting was adjourned at 4:37pm, and they invited everyone to eat together at Baldwin at
5pm.
Radio All-Staff Meeting Observations
By: Matt Armes, Elucidus, Inc.
February 19th:

Students on cell phones texting and playing games.

Students conversing with each other.
Students fidgeting, generally restless and distracted.
Lots of announcements from various announcers (paid staff)
Crap like that.
Primarily information transfer.
Primarily just staff talking at students.

March 12th:

Students on phones again, texting and snapchat.

Students not paying attention, talking with each other.
Basically all announcements again.
Some questions and feedback.

March 19th:
Same problems with students: phones, talking, fidgeting, and computers.
All staff reports, minimal engagement from students.
Good crap on there.
March 26th:
Similar issues.
But more of the students were engaged and attentive to what was happening.
Overall, some improvement.
April 2nd:
Issues still present.
But even more students engaged and attentive.
Students and staff very talkative.

55

Appendix D: Network Analysis

Respondents kept track of whom they communicate with, some in regard to whom they go to first
or talk to the most, and some with a more in-depth analysis of the type and amount of
communication in a week. Entries are by order of received responses:
Jenn Van Ravenswaay (Com Lab)
1st: Bart (Either face to face or texting)
2nd: Miranda (Face to face)
3rd: Marisa H. (Face to face)
4th: Lauren McCormack (Facebook message or Face to face)
Laurie Marx (Com Lab)
Abbey - 1 time in person
Lauren C - 1 time in person
Lauren McCormack (General Manager)
Bart - 5 texts, 5 face to face
Marisa - 4 face to face
Lauren C - 5 face to face
Claire Bianco - 2 face to face
Dr. Perry - 10 face to face, 4 texts
David Horner - 2 face to face
Miranda Lenar- 7 texts, 4 face to face
Kyle Farrell - 1 face to face
Jenna Geary - 3 texts, 2 face to face
Keven Tillman - 2 face to face
Nick Cummer - 1 face to face

Lauren Carpenter (News Director)

Lauren McCormack (5 face to face, 2 text message conversations)
Bart Bland (4 face to face, 1 text message conversation)
Marisa Hinderaker (5 face to face)
Miranda Lenar (3 face to face)
Shaelie Clark (1 face to face, 1 Facebook)
Jared Johnson (3 face to face, 2 text message conversations, 2 Facebook)
Tim Tedeschi (2 text message conversations)
David Horner (3 face to face)

56

Morgan Hause (1 face to face, 3 Facebook)

Laurie Marx (1 face to face)

Shaelie Clark (Com Lab)

1. Bart (in person, text) Daily
2. Lauren C. (in person) Daily
3. Marisa (in person) Two days a week maybe
4, Miranda (in person) Maybe once a week
5. Lauren M. (in person) Not often. Once every 2-3 weeks maybe

Keven Tillman (Com Lab)

1st --Lauren McCormack (in person)
2nd --Miranda (in person)
3rd --Marisa (in person)

Nic Kursonis (Intro to Radio)

I don't communicate with any on a regular basis... I texted Marisa one time when I had a
question.

Brooke Hulsizer (Intro to Radio)

Talk to most: Bart B. (in person)
Talk to 2nd most: Maris H (in person)
Honestly that's probably it. I don't really see the staff much outside of the meetings.

57

Appendix E: Survey/ Results and Analysis

Internal Communication Analysis Survey
This survey is to analyze the communication practices of 94.3 The Fortress. Your honest and
accurate answers would be very helpful. All responses are completely anonymous and will not be
linked to any individual.
For Questions 1-10: On a scale from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree), how do you
feel about each statement?
1. I am kept well informed about my work group's plans and progress.
2. I feel like I don't get much feedback about my work/job performance.
3. In this organization, the lines of communication are open all the way up the chain
of command.
4. M

ost of the group meetings I attend are important and worthwhile.

5. P
aid staff members are easy to get ahold of when there is an urgent problem.
6. Top executives often seem hesitant to communicate news about the organization to
lower-level members.
7. M

ost of the information I hear is "passed through the grapevine."

8. T
his organization encourages the sharing of information between departments/groups.
9. A

lot of the information I get is either not specific enough or inaccurate.

10. I receive the information I need to perform my job in a timely manner.
Multiple Choice Format:
11. Where do you get the majority of your information about the organization?
a. Staff Meetings
b. Text
c. Email
d. Social Media
e. Face-to-Face (Outside of Staff Meetings)

58

f. Bulletin Board Outside of Studio

g. Other _______________.
12. When you need information, who do you go to?
a. Dr. Perry (Faculty Adviser)
b. Lauren McCormack (General Manager)
c. Miranda Lenar
d. Lauren Carpenter
e. Marisa Hinderaker
f. Bart Bland
g. Classmates
h. Other _____________.
13. On a scale of 1 (Very Dissatisfied) to 5 (Very Satisfied): Considering everything, how
satisfied are you with the communication in this organization?
14. In what way(s) do you think communication within the organization can improve? (Open
ended question)
15. What is your role with the radio station?
a. Upper-Level Management (Faculty Adviser and General Manager)
b. Middle Management (Other Paid Staff)
c. Radio Practicum Student
d. Introduction to Radio Student
e. Communication Lab Student
f. Other ________________.
16. How many semesters have you been involved with the radio station (before this semester)?
a. 0

b. 1
c. 2
d. 3
e. 4

f. 5
g. 6+
17. What year in college are you?
a. Freshman
b. Sophomore

59

c. Junior
d. Senior/Super Senior
18. What is your gender?
a. Male
b. Female
19. Which option best describes your race/ethnicity?
a. African American
b. Hispanic/Latino
c. Caucasian
d. Asian/Pacific Islander
e. Other ______________.
Thank you! Your response has been submitted.

60

Survey Results
1) I am kept well informed about my work groups plans and progress.
Strongly
Disagree

Somewhat
Disagree

Neutral

Somewhat
Agree

Strongly
Agree

Frequency

11

Percent

30.8

42.3

26.9

2) I feel like I dont get much feedback about my work/job performance.

Strongly
Disagree

Somewhat
Disagree

Neutral

Somewhat
Agree

Strongly
Agree

Frequency

10

Percent

11.5

26.9

38.5

23.1

3) In this organization, the lines of communication are open all the way up the chain of
command.
Strongly
Disagree

Somewhat
Disagree

Neutral

Somewhat
Agree

Strongly
Agree

Frequency

10

15

Percent

3.8

38.5

57.7

4) Most of the group meetings I attend are important and worthwhile.

Strongly
Disagree

Somewhat
Disagree

Neutral

Somewhat
Agree

Strongly
Agree

Frequency

10

Percent

11.5

38.5

30.8

19.2

61

5) Paid staff members are easy to get ahold of when there is an urgent problem.
Strongly
Disagree

Somewhat
Disagree

Neutral

Somewhat
Agree

Strongly
Agree

Frequency

11

Percent

3.8

23.1

30.8

42.3

6) Top executives often seem hesitant to communicate news about the organization to
lower-level members.
Strongly
Disagree

Somewhat
Disagree

Neutral

Somewhat
Agree

Strongly
Agree

Frequency

11

13

Percent

42.3

50

7.7

7) Most of the information I hear is passed through the grapevine.

Strongly
Disagree

Somewhat
Disagree

Neutral

Somewhat
Agree

Strongly
Agree

Frequency

12

Percent

7.7

46.2

26.9

19.2

8) This organization encourages the sharing of information between departments/groups.

Strongly
Disagree

Somewhat
Disagree

Neutral

Somewhat
Agree

Strongly
Agree

Frequency

14

Percent

26.9

53.8

19.2

62

9) A lot of the information I get is either not specific enough or inaccurate.

Strongly
Disagree

Somewhat
Disagree

Neutral

Somewhat
Agree

Strongly
Agree

Frequency

10

13

Percent

38.5

50

11.5

10) I receive the information I need to perform my job in a timely manner.

Strongly
Disagree

Somewhat
Disagree

Neutral

Somewhat
Agree

Strongly
Agree

Frequency

11

10

Percent

3.8

15.4

42.3

38.5

11) Where do you get the majority of your information about the organization?
Class

Email

Face-to-Face
(Outside of Staff
Meetings)

Social
Media

Staff
Meetings

Other
[Faceboo
k group]

Frequency

20

Percent

3.8

3.8

3.8

7.7

76.9

3.8

12) When you need information, who do you go to?

Bart
Bland

Classmates

Dr.
Perry

Faceboo
k

Lauren
Carpente
r

Lauren
McCormac
k

Other
[any]

63

Frequenc
y

13

Percent

19.2

3.8

15.4

3.8

3.8

50

3.8

13) Considering everything, how satisfied are you with the communication in this
organization?
Very
Dissatisfied

Somewhat
Dissatisfied

Neutral

Somewhat
Satisfied

Very
Satisfied

Frequency

13

Percent

3.8

23.1

50

23.1

14) In what way(s) do you think communication within the organization can improve?
Maybe whoever is On Call should have a local pager # that can be called by the
Radio Station Phone. I have very limited phone minutes on my cell.
Emails?
Staff meeting could be more productive and meaningful.
I think that the meetings should be shorter.
I think we should post info on our Facebook group more. Meetings once a week is
not enough.
I don't always like getting things off of Facebook because it makes me feel a bit tied
to my laptop or iPod. But other than that, I think the communication is pretty
effective.
It feels like because my shift is on the weekend much of the information handed out
for the week is irrelevant. If the information for the week could be distributed sooner
(i.e. Saturday) or include the weekend that would help at least with jock talk.
It may need to be approached with a bit more fervency.
I feel like the best way to improve communication would be to work harder with
communication on the weekends. I think that is when the most problems occur, and
communications are lacking the most.
More bulletins in the on air studio of current events or details on shows throughout
the week.

64

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q5

Q6

Q7

Q8

Q9

Q10

Q11

26

26

26

26

26

26

26

26

26

26

26

Mean

3.96

2.73

4.54

3.58

4.12

1.65

2.58

3.92

1.73

4.15

3.92

Std.
Deviation

.773

.962

.582

.946

.909

.629

.902

.688

.667

.834

.796

Range

65

Appendix F: Internal Communication Materials

Spring Schedule 2015

66

Organizational Chart

*One of the News Director blocks is supposed to be Production Director. --Lauren

McCormack.

67

Memo Sample

94.3 The Fortress

WIWU FM

Memo
To:

WIWU FM

From:

Lauren McCormack

Date:

February 5, 2015

Re:

Texting Line

I am really excited to launch our newest enterprise of the texting line (765-677-6612).
We want to roll this out as soon as possible. We will begin using the line publicly on
February 6, 2015 @ 10 am during Miranda Lenars new show. We are aiming for a slow
and deliberate implementation of this new system. This texting line will serve a variety of
purposes and functions as we experiment with this new mode of technology that include
but are not limited to, contest entries (texting keyword), polls, shout-outs, requesting
songs, receiving feedback, alerts for news and weather and new music updates. With
the texting line, we will be able to stay better connected with our audience and listeners.

68

Time Sheet Sample

TIME SHEET
Week Of: 2/16/2015 2/20/2015

EMPLOYEE NAME:

TITLE:

DEPARTMENT:

SUPERVISOR:

DATE

START TIME

END
TIME

TASKS
ACCOMPLISHED

TOTAL
HOURS

WEEKLY TOTALS:

EMPLOYEE SIGNATURE:

DATE:

SUPERVISOR SIGNATURE:

DATE:

69

Weekly Executive Staff Report Sample

Weekly Executive Staff Meeting

VISION
Always keep the vision in mind! How does what you do help shape and
further our mission? How does your area contribute to

Priorities

Turn in time cards on Mondays

Walk a Mile (Feb. 21)

Black History Month spot

Be careful about auto-starting

On duty weekends

Prioritize your priorities

Notes