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EEO Narrative
This EEO Narrative is filed on behalf of WIIL, WLIP, WEXT, WXLC, WKRS, WZSR and WWYW (collectively, the Stations) in compliance with the FCC’s EEO reporting requirements. WIIL and WLIP are located in Kenosha, Wisconsin; WEXT is located in Sturtevant, Wisconsin; WXLC and WKRS are located in Waukegan, Illinois; WZSR is located in Crystal Lake, Illinois and WWYW is located in East Dundee, Illinois. The stations all share several employees including a General Manger, a Chief Engineer, a Business Manager and several creative staff members. Next Media sold WEXT during this time period.
This report includes information from August 1st 2005 through July 31st 2006 and will be placed in the station’s public files and on the station’s respective websites.
JOB VACANCY INFORMATION
WIIL, WLIP, WEXT, WXLC, WKRS, WZSR and WWYW are equal opportunity employers that are committed to meeting the Stations’ EEO obligations. All full-time vacancies are posted with several sources. The Stations’ list of recruitment sources has been updated frequently. We subscribe to the BROADCAST COMPLIANCE SERVICES WEBSITE that also updates the list with additions from radio stations throughout the country. The Stations will continue to actively seek out new sources. The Stations encourage organizations which distribute employment information or refer prospective candidates to contact us so that they may be placed on our mailing list to receive notification of future vacancies. The stations have been broadcasting 10-second on air announcements in rotating dayparts inviting interested organizations to be added to our mailing lists. Notices on the stations’ websites extend a similar invitation. Finally, the Stations have run prominent print ads in the Kenosha News, Waukegan News Sun, The Daily Herald and the Northwest Herald, major area newspapers, and on ALLACCESS.com seeking to further disseminate information about job openings to as wide a circle as possible.
RECORD KEEPING
In compliance with the EEO record keeping requirements, the Stations create a file for each position to be filled. The file contains copies of the job listing for all sources used to recruit interviewees for the position. The Stations’ procedures require approval by the Stations’ General Manager and applicable Department head prior to extending a job offer. In addition, the Stations will document their long-term recruitment initiatives. These files will include the nature and date of each activity, the scope of the Stations’ participation, and the names or titles of the Stations’ personnel involved.
LONG-TERM RECRUITMENT MEASURES
The Stations participate in long-term recruitment measures both individually and as a group. Every year, the Stations participate in several community Job Fairs including the recent Illinois Broadcasters’ Job Fair held at their annual convention. We also participated in a Job Fair at the Kenosha, Wisconsin Job Center and two job fairs at the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association meetings. Each property also hosted their second annual in house Job Fair in July of 2006. We also promoted this year’s Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Job Fair at their annual meetings.
Each of the stations also held an on site NextMedia Job Fair at the end of July 2006. We sponsored and paid for the entire fair. We advertised in local newspapers and on each of our radio stations.
Each of the Stations has established a college Internship Program designed to assist qualified students in acquiring skills needed for employment in the broadcast industry. This also allows students to receive college credit. The average collage internship is three to four months in duration depending on the needs of the student and the requirements of the college. The stations are in frequent contact with area colleges and the Illinois School of Broadcasting to promote these internships. The goal of the Internship Program is to provide students with hands-on experience within their field of choice by exposing students to real-life situations and day-to-day duties and responsibilities encountered by professionals in the radio industry. The Stations strive to teach interns how the world of radio works and to provide them with valuable experience that will help them pursue a career in broadcasting. An intern’s duties range from helping out at promotional events to assisting at on-air remotes and various sales and promotions related duties.
Our Crystal Lake property has an annual Internship Scholarship. The top intern during each summer session receives a $1000 scholarship fully funded by the Stations.
The radio stations promoted this year’s Wisconsin Broadcasters Internship Program with on air announcements.
The Stations participate in the Wisconsin Broadcasters Scholarship Program. We donate money to the fund and the General Manager was on the panel that reviewed all of the applications and made recommendations on who should receive the scholarship. We will continue to participate in this program.
General Manager Kira Lafond attended two training sessions through the WBA called “Discrimination Law for Broadcasters” and “Non-Discrimination and Outreach in Hiring.”
The stations hosted two Scout Days during which area scouts and their families were given tours of the stations, a description of the jobs available in broadcasting and were able to ask questions about careers in broadcasting. One Scout day was held in November, and the other was offered in March.
During the summer of 2005, Stew Cohen (news director for Star 105.5 and Y 103.9) employed student Rob Maday as his news intern. Mr. Maday wrote news copies, interviewed for sound bites, and produced a series on the new 2005-2006 school year.
Throughout the summer of 2006, student Brittney Misialek worked alongside news director Stew Cohen as his news intern. Ms. Misialek worked in the newsroom twice a week producing stories with sound bites. She also developed a series on the first anniversary of the pit bull attacks in Cary.
Promotions interns worked together with Kim Ciesco, the promotions director for 102.3 XLC and 1220 WKRS. The interns coordinated and implemented station events, managed the listener database, and assisted with contests and promotions. The interns also worked with different departments inside the station to encourage a well-rounded experience. The departments included sales, programming, production, news, on-air, and of course, promotions. The internship program focused heavily on hands-on learning with equipment training.
Stew Cohen was a guest speaker at the Marengo Community High School (MCHS) Freshman Career Day on Wednesday, April 26, 2006.
Student Caleb Schultz of Woodstock Community High School shadowed Stew Cohen on Friday, April 7, 2006.
On Thursday, February 23, 2006, students Alexandra Mackey and Jon Cowan of McHenry High School were given a job shadowing opportunity. The students spent three hours in the news department observing and asking questions of the morning news anchor for both WZSR-FM and WWYW. They also visited the Y 103.9 studio, where Jon talked briefly to Jim Shea about American Idol. Jim Shea was interested to hear that Jon had previously eaten lunch with Crystal Lake American Idol contestant David Radford.
During this time period, Stew Cohen participated in a number of community outreach activities for WZSR-FM, Star 105.5. Stew was involved in the job shadowing program in which students were brought into the station to discuss news with Stew (off-air) and watch how to put together newscasts. Stew read to Indian Prairie Elementary School students. The 50 students who heard him read on Dr. Seuss's birthday were part of District 47 in Crystal Lake. To help out with the Read Across America program, Stew read to 50 Canterbury School students in Crystal Lake's district 47. Stew was the pronouncer for the McHenry County Spelling Bee Finals at McHenry County College. Stew Cohen was a Love to Read Volunteer Reader for 50 students in two different classrooms at Woodstock district 200's Dean Street School. Stew attended the Support for the Challenger Learning Center in Woodstock for their 20th anniversary observance of the 1986 Challenger explosion. He also co-hosted the 6-hour cablethon for the Rehab Center of McHenry County in Woodstock.
WZSR-FM held their annual Scout Day, which is one of the outreach programs presented to scout groups in Northern Illinois twice during the calendar year. The Fall/Winter Scout Day occurred on November 19, 2005. Several hundred scouts viewed the radio station facilities, received an education on news, traffic, weather, production, promotion, sales, and talked to announcers. The scouts all received a letter qualifying the scouts for a communicator badge. Scout Day ran from 9AM to 2PM.
On October 25th, station personnel from WZSR-FM spent 4 hours (8AM – Noon) at the Woodstock High School Career Fair. Gary Castaldo, Paula McKay, and Russ Wilkes were there to talk to students about careers in radio.
On May 3, 2006, a member of our staff shared information regarding radio careers at Whittier Elementary School's Career Day.
John Perry, Program Director for WIIL and WLIP, visited Columbia college of Chicago to scout talent for on-air openings. While he was there, he provided feedback and advice on air checks and production reels.
Cassie Clark of the Kenosha stations coordinated programming, sales, promotions, marketing, and engineering interns. Many of these interns moved on to paid positions within the company.
General Manager Kira Lafond participated in WBA's scholarship program in which $200 was donated to the scholarship fund. She also helped review and grade the scholarship applicants.
NextMedia is dedicated to training staff so that they can grow in their radio career. We have paid for and hosted the RAB Sales Training in April of 2006. We also have ongoing air check sessions (minimum of one per month) with all full-time air staff. The Sales Managers hold once weekly training meetings with the full staff and individuals. In spring of 2006 we held our annual News Training Conference in Schaumburg, Illinois. All news staff participated.
We promote on air that organizations who would like to be notified of job openings can be added to the list of people who receive notifications.
8/1/05 – 7/31/06 SPECIFIC POSITIONS FILLED
During the reporting time August 1st 2005 to July 31st 2006 the employment unit hired 25 people for full-time positions. We let several postings expire with no hires because we did not find the best person for the job. We then posted again for similar positions.
1 – We hired 14 Account Executives this past year. We advertised in the Kenosha News, Waukegan News Sun, Daily Herald and Northwest Herald for these positions. We also promoted these positions on our radio stations and at job fairs. Unfortunately of the 14 hires – 6 departed within the first year.
2 – In the summer and fall of 2005 we recruited for a Chief Engineer for our cluster. We advertised on national websites and in local newspapers. All of our respondents were from the websites. In November 2005 we hired Ron Baker who is our engineer today.
3 – In summer and fall of 2005 we recruited for a Program Director for WWYW and WZSR. We promoted the position on national websites and local newspapers. We interviewed four people for the position and hired Paul Walker in September of 2005.
4 – In fall of 2005 we recruited and interviewed for a Sales assistant for our Kenosha office. We promoted the job in the newspaper and on the radio stations. We hired Jillian Cioni in October of 2005.
5 – In August of 2005 we started looking for a Promotions Director for our Crystal Lake location. We recruited with newspaper and on air advertising and hired Nicole Chesley for the position. She did not last more than a couple of months. We rehired for the position from the original pool of candidates and hired Russ Wilkes who was already on staff for the position. We did not refill his job.
6 – In September of 2005 we started searching for a new Program Director for a new Hispanic Radio station that we were starting. We promoted the position in newspaper. Since the current program director did not know of the format change we were limited in what we could do. We interviewed two prospects and hired Armando Ulloa for the position. We sold that radio station within a couple of months and Armando no longer works for NextMedia.
7 – In September of 2005 we started searching for a new Sales manager for the Hispanic station. We promoted in newspaper, but again had to be careful, as staff did not know about the change in format. We put a current sales rep into the job as a temporary measure, but as we sold the station we never filled that position permanently.
8 – In October of 2005 we promoted a reception job in Kenosha. After reviewing the candidates and our workload we decided not to hire a full time person and hired a part-time position instead.
9 – In October of 2005 we promoted the Business Manager position for the cluster. We promoted the position in newspaper and on air and interviewed several candidates. We hired Deb Rosinski who heard the ad on the radio. We also used a temp firm for candidates, but did not hire anyone from that group.
10 – In February of 2006 we started promoting the two midday positions that we had available at WXLC and WIIL. We promoted the ad in the newspaper and online. We hired the WXLC position first. We hired a temporary person for WIIL and made that hire permanent in summer of 2006.
11 – in February of 2006 we promoted a News Director and Morning Show Host position for WLIP. We promoted the position in newspaper and online. During the search part-time staff fulfilled the duties. We hired part-time staff to fill these positions.
12 – In Fall of 2005 we promoted the position of Morning Show Host for WWYW. We promoted the position in the local newspaper and online. We interviewed four people for the position and hired an ex-employee Jim Schea for the position in October of 2005.
13 – In July of 2006 we posted the reception job for the Kenosha property in the Kenosha news and on air. We interviewed five people for the position and Melissa McKinney was hired in late July.
We currently have positions open for Sales Manager for WIIL, Program Director for WZSR and WWYW and various Account Executive positions.
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