WAMU 88.

5 - COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEETING

Final Minutes
Wednesday, December 4, 2019

WAMU Community Council Members Attending:

Gene Sofer, Navroz Gandhi, Huda Asfour, Sojin Kim, Michele Manatt, Susan Weiss, Maura Brophy,
Manuel Ochoa, David Bradley, Avis Thomas-Lester, Maura Brophy, Alexis Moreno, Peter Tannenwald,
Matt McCormick and CC Gachet

WAMU/AU Staff Attending:

Seth Grossman, JJ Yore, Carey Needham, Andi McDaniel and Dawnita Altieri

Volunteers:
Glenn Ihrig

Members of the Public Attending:

Steve Kaffen, Jane Smythe, Marla Bobowick and Sharon Anderson

I. Welcome – Eugene Sofer, Council Chair

Eugene Sofer, Council Chair called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. Gene reviewed the
evening’s agenda with council members and reminded attendees that meeting materials
included: the dashboard, draft September meeting minutes, as well as the GM’s report for
members, which were circulated to members in advance by email.

II. Old Business – Eugene Sofer, Council Chair

The September minutes were approved by Michele Manatt. Susan Weiss seconded the motion.

III. Feature Presentation: Local Programming Input Session, Andi McDaniel, Chief Content Officer
Andi provided an explanation of the process to gather insight into a possible new offering.
The team is considering creating a new local daily news program and it’s still a wide-open field in
terms of what may be offered. The content team has hosted four listening sessions around the
city. The sessions were fascinating and wide-ranging and there were consistent themes
throughout the discussion. During this community council decision, we hope to learn from
where the news gaps exist and how we could facilitate closing the gaps with this potential new
offering.

Rules:
Want to learn about the desire and needs for a new show.
Will engage everyone around the table and during the public comment section.

Response to Two Questions (sent in advance):

 A local new story that I recently heard/watched/read that stuck with me is _________
because ___________.
 Information that I want that I don’t often get from my local news diet is ______________.
Manuel: Likes podcasts but doesn’t have time to listen to all of them. Listened to Sasha-Ann’s recent
story about DC fashion. Found the conversation fascinating. Interested in a show where you can learn
about something local. Some of these interesting stories come from the WWW podcast.

Maura: Enjoyed the lightness of the egg carton story sometime ago. Fun way to cover the topic using
the scientific method. Drawn to it because it was so well done, but relevant to news. Fun approach.
Different and creative.

Navroz: Local story that’s not public radio: the recycling story—inspectors going out and tagging
materials that are inaccurately recycled. The story reminded him of his own life and applied to his own
life because he doesn’t have a clear sense of what can be recycled.

Susan: NYT story about Amazon’s role in Baltimore, MD good example of providing information that
most people don’t know- it was an enterprise story. The workers, time, money, real estate. Likes stories
that look at what’s out there and go deeper.

Peter: Regularly follows the DC police email, never hear on the local news.

Gene: The Ring doorbell will tell you information about your local neighborhood.

Maura: Twitter is a major source of news—first leaned about the Jack Evans story. She consumes the
news via other outlets- there’s value there.

Popular News Sources:

 WAMU
 Twitter
 NYT
 The Next Door App
 Local: Arl Now
 Network News Z(Audio) WRC
 Rely network of people for cultural and arts
 The Washington Post metro sources
 Former journalists emails
 The Economist: weekly newsletter
 Email newsletters
 Neighborhood listserves
 The Current, etc.
 730 DC
 DCist
 Greater Washington
 HillRag
 Video stream Local News Now

Why do you need local news?

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Peter: As you walk around things are going on around you bigger than the national news.
Local news is more relatable and connected.

CC Gachet: FOMO, so you can talk about things with other friends and neighbors

Huda: local news motivates to seek it out legislation that affects her life. Cultural life in the city keep her
connected to local news.
Avis: Local news helps navigate around your life – provide access to learn about new places to dine or
new businesses, keeps you in touch with issues going on in your world.

Andi: Makes her feel a sense of place.

Navroz: News provides a sense of community and belonging to it- helps make informed decisions that
help feel a better part of the community.

Maura- Make a distinction in how local news helps her know things vs understand things- what does it
mean for us and how do we learn those things? Drawn to outlets that provide both of those things.

What’s missing in the news diet?

Manuel: There’s so much news, hard to sit through. Need some element of curation and periodization.

Michele: Through WAMU don’t hear what’s going on with the universities in this area- for instance their
impact on real estate and development, saw an article about Georgetown. Johns Hopkins- what does it
mean, what are their plans? Also wants to know more about veterans and the military presence in this
area. Military and civilian communities don’t know each other as well as they should.
Should consider adding someone from the military community to the Council.

Gene: Struck by how little local news there is in the Metro section of Post. Wants more news in his local
news diet. More of everything, local govt to sports to local business to culture. Opt for show vs podcasts
but isn’t the future.

Peter: Big picture like Amazon’s moving here. DC puts in more bike lanes. What’s the vision and how are
we going to get around? Need more context of what’s going on and what’s the long-term plan.

CC: Find myself with unanswered questions when I listen to the news. Scooters being removed from
area with less companies, but same amount of scooters example and unintended consequences of
actions. Going deeper and follow up questions/continuity. How is this going to affect my life?

Alexis: For every story- having a social and environmental impact might be interesting. Turns off
notifications for news. Wants news that’s relevant to her. What’s going on well in this community?
Solutions to problems.

Matt: Long form pieces and best analogy- the Daily based on Washington topics. What’s happening in
the river, etc., also something that’s more of a survey and can hit many topics in a short form (20 or 30
minutes) may cover some politics. News magazine with possibly a podcast.

Sojin: Would like a quick survey of local news- series of headlines- local version.

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Who has listened to WAMU on smart speakers? 10
New morning edition? 1
Who is consuming more local than 3 years ago? 3 or about the same?
New program: format, length and style and host

When it’s announced…what would blow the opportunity?

 Play it safe
 Seeming like we just impressed ourselves
 Don’t duplicate things that everyone has already said they have access to
 Too close to what’s already happened to
 Facebook discussion groups
 Don’t do too much in a small space
 Local is also international- look at diversity to enrich the way we look at local news.
 A major failure for the new WAMU program would be a lack of cultural diversity on their
host/reporting staff. 

IV. Manager’s Update – JJ Yore, General Manager

JJ shared a proud moment for WAMU - the DC Council presented Kojo with a 20 th anniversary
recognition resolution. Councilmember Elissa Silverman made remarks recognizing Kojo’s career and his
contribution to the region. Staff from the Kojo Nnamdi show and Tom Sherwood also attended the
event.

1A host Search
1A’s host, Joshua Johnson’s last day is December 20. Todd Zwilich, an experienced host/reporter will
manage host responsibilities through April. The process has started to find a new host, Rupert is leading
the search along with Andi and Sr Producer, Paige Osbourne. The preliminary list of candidates has
expanded to nearly 40 people. The pool of candidates is heavily weighted towards woman and diversity.
JJ would like to continue the practice of bringing new talent to WAMU.

Dashboard
JJ shared highlights of the Dashboard: WAMU’s digital audience is increasing – thanks to DCist and
localized NPR.org. We hope to have arrested the decrease in members (due to abandoning our
"sustainer recapture" effort early this year). We are beginning to see what we hope is a historic pattern
of increasing audience during presidential campaigns.

Sonic Signature
JJ played the new sonic signature to Council members after reminding the group that Ben Privot played
options at the September meeting. Have received feedback from many constituents including the AU
Board. We will have a gradual rollout beginning on Monday, December 16, after the December
fundraising campaign.

Fundraising
The membership team is preparing for the fundraising campaign. December is WAMU’s biggest revenue
month each year. On-air campaign goal is only half of our $2.375 million campaign, the rest of the funds
come from Giving Tuesday and other year-end appeals. The Council’s $5k member match will be held on
December 13 during The Kojo Nnamdi Show.

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WAMU Board
JJ provide an update on the WAMU Advisory Board. WAMU is seeking well-connected, well-resourced
people who can help with strategy and give personal philanthropy. JJ is currently work with a steering
committee of five people: Nicole Quiroga, Head of Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; Andy Shallal-
Busboys & Poets; Tamara Copeland- former head of Washington Regional Area Grantmakers; Janice
Kaplan-well-connected PR person; & Michele Manatt. We have a long list of prospects, with about 15
who are top-tier candidates. The committee has also identified several potential Council members.

JJ shared a chart to illustrate the role difference between the Community Council and The WAMU Board.
The Council’s focus is to represent our region more closely and to provide more dialogue about our
content. The Council is focused on community feedback and outreach, while the Board will have a keen
focus on strategy & philanthropy.

V. New Business

2020 Community Council Nominees

Navroz Gandhi described the regional and demographic needs of the Council illustrated by a chart in the
presentation. The nominations team looked at gender, ethnicity and geographical locations. Looked at
target composition for Council. PG Council and Wards 7 & 8 were areas we needed. Council members
reviewed the final slate of four candidates who represent the needs of the Council. Michele Manatt
suggested including a military veteran on a future Council.

In person and phone conversations made it easier to learn more about candidates. The nominations
committee met with each person over three days. Members were asked to review the proposed slate of
nominees.

Motion to appoint slate of council nominees was approved, seconded by Gene Sofer and Susan Weiss.
The Motion was approved.

Gene made a motion to nominate Navroz Gandhi as chair, Susan Weiss as vice-chair, Michele Manatt
seconded the motion. The council approved the motion to nominate Susan and Navroz to chair and vice-
chair. Gene also thanked Huda Asfour for her service on the Council.

Members were reminded about the WAMU Holiday party on December 17 at The Reach at the Kennedy
Center. Members were also reminded to attend the new member reception on January 14.

VI. Public Comments

Steve Kaffen made comments about local news. The public should be more engaged to participate in
local news in a more robust way. Mr. Kaffen also made recommendations around the WAMU schedule.
He also made suggestions about shows that would fit a local news profile.

Leon Peace from Montgomery County suggested covering areas with respect to education. Believes that
we need to look at issues around school systems to share more around areas that don’t get attention.

Carol Ann Greenberg mentioned creating a travel show. She brought up the idea of creating a segment
around travel.

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Gene Sofer adjourned the meeting at 8:48 pm. The motion was seconded by Navroz Gandhi.