Prairie Public Broadcasting Community Advisory Board Meeting October 25, 2014 Prairie Public Broadcasting Basement Conference Room, Fargo ND MINUTES

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1 Prairie Public Broadcasting Community Advisory Board Meeting October 25, 2014 Prairie Public Broadcasting Basement Conference Room, Fargo ND MINUTES Members Present: Janet Daley Jury, James Kotowich, Carol Stevens, Craig Whippo Members Absent: Rodney Haug, Samee Khan Staff Present: Steve Wennblom Convene Chairman Janet Daley Jury called the meeting to order. Janet then asked each member present to tell everyone a little about themselves as an introduction. Approval of Minutes A Motion was made by James Kotowich to approve the April 25, 2014 minutes as presented, and was seconded by Carol Stevens. The motion carried unanimously. Janet then asked if there were any additions for the agenda for today s meeting, there were none. Bev Pearson, Education Services Manager at Prairie Public, was then asked to give a presentation about the Education Services that we provide and how our department uses PBS and PPB s Television Services to provide educational opportunities for instructors, families, students, and our viewing audience as a whole. Examples: The Roosevelts, Nova, Nature, Antiques Roadshow, The Makers, etc to be used in classrooms of all ages, and for professional development. Bev also spoke about the NCCST Board and how they secure funding from the legislatures for Educational Television for Prairie Public. Bev specifically highlighted the multitude of online resources that we provide locally and nationally as well. John Harris then stopped in to give a quick update about Prairie Public. John thanked everyone for being present at the meeting, and noted that we are very excited about Prairie Public s future and progress. We are currently in a very good financial position overall, with a couple minor struggles in underwriting and gaming revenues presently. These areas are just not meeting our expectations presently (there is currently a $140k shortfall in this area, half of that number being Canadian shortfall), and we hope to change that. We ve attributed a large portion of the cause of these struggles to staff turnover. In gaming our bingo hall is struggling, and we attribute this simply to the nature of the industry and the struggles in staffing and cost-ofliving issues everywhere out in the western portion of the state. All bingo halls everywhere seem to be struggling and in decline. We re in the process of restructuring our programs, getting some new electronics, and possibly beginning an ad campaign.

2 Even with the shortfalls in underwriting and gaming, we were up in membership dollars. Actual member numbers are pretty flat, though the amounts of contributions are up. Overall we had a $307k loss in TV revenues, and a $307 gain in Radio revenues, resulting in a net zero gain or loss overall. Engineering is very busy, they are currently in the process of building 21 microwave shelters, and they are being constructed and stored on our property on South University and 40 th Ave here in Fargo. This project is part of a huge federal grant call the WARN grant that we ve been working on for the past couple years. It is over a $2.5 Million dollar project. The lawsuit that we filed against the original builders of the old shelters was recently settled out of court, and we are pleased with the result. Radio is doing very well, their meeting was held yesterday. Mainstreet is becoming more well-known, and they have been busy with new stories. Morning Edition and All Things Considered are still the most listened to programs, though Car Talk and This American Life still continue to draw audiences also. Generating Radio revenue is a constant worry, specifically due to our partnerships with NDSU and UND NDSU cut all funding to us several years ago (they used to fund us $194k annually). UND did not fund the partnership for the first 10 years we managed their stations, but the now fund us very minimally now ($62.5k annually). If any of you know anyone at either of these universities, please promote funding for PPB. They are great partners, though it would be an even better partnership if they could help us more financially for managing their radio stations. There is currently a vacant position on the CAB, and Janet may have some candidates from the Minot area to consider in the future. The proposed candidate from the Moorhead area evidently has some health troubles at this time and cannot accept a position. There was a question about how the sustaining membership has affected membership numbers. It is a program that has definitely helped membership numbers overall. We have long considered the idea of no separation between TV and radio memberships. We currently have no corporate memberships. It s frustrating for our members to have to pick where there donation goes when they love both radio and TV equally. It offends some members to continually be asked to donate, even though it s for the other entity, ie TV or Radio. There is also the need to distinguish whether a donation is a renewal or an additional gift for the donors who call in during drives. It is a complicated process and a challenge that needs to be simplified. A question was raised whether we have approached the oil companies for support. It is very difficult to secure funding from these companies as they are not based in ND. We have benefitted from the oil boom here in indirect ways such as new membership and additional listeners/viewers. Bev Pearson then continued her Education presentation. Anyone can access our programs and plans from anywhere in the world via the internet. Janet thanked Bev for her presentation and made mention that it gives us a CAB members one more thing to tell our viewers and constituents about. PPB is not just TV, is it an entire source of educational assets. We can all be ambassadors for PPB education! Steve Wennblom was then called upon to present the Television report.

3 Television Report Steve Wennblom We will be seeing the 4 th seasons of both Downton Abbey and Sherlock this January. Sherlock: His Last Vow, a BBC production that aired as part of WGBH s Masterpiece, won three Primetime Emmys recently. That brought the detective drama s total Emmys over the years to 7, the most of any PBS program. It is because of the success of Downton Abbey and Sherlock, we have seen more viewers of our other programs and we re gaining more viewers as well. PBS KIDS talks Chromecast deal -- In accordance with its mandate to be an innovator in children s educational media, and to be as accessible to as many kids as possible, PBS KIDS recently extended its popular free PBS KIDS Video app to Android and Windows devices. It also inked a deal with Apple TV to provide ondemand access to thousands of full-length PBS KIDS episodes and clips. They also secured a deal with Chromecast, marking the first time Google has partnered with a kids content provider specifically for its Wifienabled digital media player. The deal, sealed on the heels of a content renewal agreement with Netflix, puts PBS KIDS in a position to delve deeper into second-screen streaming experiences. Face to Face Debates (throughout October) -- A series of debates with the candidates seeking election to Congress and statewide offices in North Dakota and Minnesota. All six debates/interviews will be aired twice, and all debates will be available for online viewing at prairiepublic.org : North Dakota Congress -- (I) Kevin Cramer vs. (D) George B. Sinner vs. (L) Jack Seaman North Dakota Sec. of State Al Jaeger vs. April Fairfield vs. Roland Riemers Public Service Commission Julie Fedorchak vs. Tyler Axness Public Service Commission Brian Kalk vs. Todd Reisenauer MN. 7th District Congress Collin Peterson vs. Torrey Westrom N. D. Ag Commissioner Doug Goehring vs. Ryan Taylor Richard Bresnahan: The Taste of the Clay (aired Friday, October 17 at 9:30 pm) - Richard Bresnahan returned to St. John s University with a wealth of pottery knowledge and skills. He set up an indigenous pottery studio, utilizing a nearby clay deposit, and built the largest wood-firing kiln of its kind in North America. PPB1 Primary channel: Prairie Public continues to use a wide variety of program sources to fill our broadcast days on our PPB1 primary HD channel. 57% of the programs aired on this channel are from PBS, and 11% of the programming is for pledge drives. All of these programs are made available to Prairie through our membership fees or through special purchases on an annual basis. We pay annual dues to PBS, NETA, and APT in exchange for access to some of their programs. PPB2-WORLD SD: Prairie Public continues to use a wide variety of program sources to fill our broadcast days on our PPB2-WORLD SD channel. This resource is programmed through American Public Television (APT) in partnership with WNET and WGBH. 44% of the programs are from public broadcasting. PPB3 Minnesota Channel: Prairie Public provides our viewers access to the Minnesota Channel that originates from Twin Cities Public Television. This service provides a wide variety of documentaries and specials series from the public stations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Michigan, Iowa and the Dakotas. Prairie Public PPB 4 SD Base: Our Lifelong Learning channel, PPB 4, now offers three 6-hour blocks of how-to programs on cooking, health and family on weekdays. Additional programs focus on quilting, sewing, glasswork, woodworking and travel. One 6-hour block delivers educational programs for use in the classroom and for teacher training. These 6-hour programming blocks are then repeated four times each day.

4 Fall Upcoming Series Art in the 21 st Century -- The seventh season of the critically-acclaimed series that is exclusively devoted to contemporary visual art and artists in the United States today. Finding Your Roots -- Professor Gates' journey continues as a weekly series that will look at an ever widening spectrum of our nation's fascinating ethnic mixture, ex. Ken Burns The Great Estates -- Tells the stories of ambitious landowners who have acquired some of the most beautiful land in Scotland, areas ranging in size from a handful of acres to tens of thousands, homes to castles. Among those landowners chronicled: Queen Elizabeth II, Donald Trump, Mohammed Al Fayed, Craig Ferguson. Cheek to Cheek Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, just a fabulous piece! The Roosevelts -- Profiles of Theodore, Franklin and Eleanor, as the most prominent members of the most important family in our history. Through their stories, we'll chronicle the history they helped shape - from the Square Deal to the New Deal, San Juan Hill to the Western Front to the founding of the United Nations. Janet noted that she saw an article in the paper yesterday about The Roosevelts a program that was recently aired and captured the biggest audience in two decades for PBS making it the third most popular program for producer Ken Burns (after Civil War Documentary, and Lewis & Clark series). Between Downton Abbey and The Roosevelts we should have attracted massive audiences! Others: How We Got To Now; Life On The Reef; Makers: Women Who Make America; PBS Arts Fall Festival Fall 2014 Upcoming Specials -- Bing Crosby (AMERICAN MASTERS), Fidel Castro Tapes, James McNeill Whistler and the Case for Beauty Winter/Spring 2015 Upcoming Series -- Animal House Hunters NATURE; EARTH a New Wild National Geographic; The Italian Americans; Last Days In Vietnam (AMERICAN EXPERIENCE) CPB gave Prairie Public a large Ready to Learn grant for Educational Services working extensively in Devils Lake and on the Indian reservation with mobile ipad labs. NCCST has continued its work with us and has requested funding from the ND legislature to do so. There are a couple new staff members: Shania Winning, and Tammy Swift. We have many new programs and apps and lesson plans, all on the website for instructors to use. We have made proposals to PBS and MN stations for them to be able to use our programs via the PBS app. PPB was awarded a grant from TPT (Twin Cities MN Public TV) to promote STEM directions in lesson planning (science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). We had a reunion gathering in Mid-October of present and past Prairie Public employees to premiere the new half-hour PPB 50 th Anniversary documentary. This will be shown tonight at the Golden Gala, along with about 500 looping photos from the past 50 years of PPB. Janet then asked if the CAB members had any other comments. Question was raised if CAB could put together a survey of sorts with standardized, easy questions for viewers? Just a few questions that CAB members could send out to their own contacts or Facebook friends that would help gather comments and information to be shared at future CAB meetings? Jim would also like CAB members to contact schools directly to let them know about all of the educational opportunities that are available to their faculty and students via PPB we need to develop more communication about our tremendous resources, thereby making long-term relationships here in ND and in Canada also.

5 Janet then called for a motion for the CAB to make a recommendation to the Prairie Public Board that an informal survey be put together to gather opinions and suggestions from our audience. Lengthy discussion continued. Steve offered a suggestion that the CAB make a recommendation to the Board to consider doing a large scale survey of members and potential members, and then also suggest and provide a series of questions that would be uniform and easily answered, along with places for additional comments. Perhaps this is something that could be posted on our website? The first step is to come up with questions. We re beginning to see more and more people not watching the live broadcasts. More people are using the website to download programs at a later date or DVR, YouTube, and Netflix type uses on all types of media devices, not only TVs. What PPB needs to do is focus on getting the message out that we have all these types of services and that we are available. Perhaps reminders through or the Waves guide could help a Did you know that type of section perhaps. We need to promote our content and medium possibilities, not necessarily the program times. Perhaps the survey questions should also inquire about viewer habits, mediums, and accessibility? This could be a short, public survey via internet. Could answers and results be forwarded directly to PPB? Perhaps we as the CAB try to come up with a rough draft of a survey before the next time we meet? CAB members agreed to put together questions to form an informal survey prior to the next meeting, and then make a recommendation to the Prairie Public Board that the survey be administered to gather opinions and suggestions from our audience. The CAB members would like some suggestions from the Development Department regarding to if subjects are members or have ever donated to PPB previously, or what inspired them to become members, etc. Janet once again called for a motion for the CAB members put together an informal survey to gather opinions, experiences, and suggestions from our audience regarding programming. Jim Kotowich made that Motion, Seconded by Carol Stevens. Motion passed unanimously. Janet asked Jim to take the lead with this survey, and they agreed to communicate via . More discussion and an update will be discussed at the next CAB meeting in April. Public Comment No public members present. Janet then called for any other business. Craig noted that he has talked to some of his students about Prairie Public and noted that he received blank stares. It seems that the impression of many young people is that Public Television is for kids and for old people. There s an opportunity here to try to reach this age group and educate them about what Prairie Public truly is, and what PPB can provide for them. Our young generation is being bombarded with constant choices and options we need to show them that PPB is also one of their options. Steve asked whether there was a particular genre or type of information that fits Craig s classroom? Perhaps we could we give your students program guides so that they could see all of the science programs PPB offers, thereby generating interest in other programs also. More discussion followed. With no other business at hand, the meeting was adjourned by Chairman Janet Daley Jury.

MINUTES. December 1, The meeting was called to order by the Chairperson, Harvey Gersin, at 7:31PM at West Bloomfield Town Hall.

MINUTES. December 1, The meeting was called to order by the Chairperson, Harvey Gersin, at 7:31PM at West Bloomfield Town Hall. MINUTES December 1, 2016 1. Call to Order The meeting was called to order by the Chairperson, Harvey Gersin, at 7:31PM at West Bloomfield Town Hall. 2. Roll Call Members Present: Representing Keego Harbor: