NSMC Seattle: Sessions

Let AI Do the Boring Stuff …
Joe Amditis, Associate Director, Center for Cooperative Media
Looking to reclaim some time from tedious tasks so you can focus on what really matters? This session will demonstrate how AI tools can manage routine tasks, allowing you to focus on what truly matters: human-centred reporting, community engagement, etc.

Rebuilding Revenue: Fundraising, Underwriting, and More, On and Off the Airwaves
Bobbi Washechek, General Manager, KJHK, University of Kansas
Caroline Blanke, Communications Director, KJHK, University of Kansas
Over the past three years, KJHK has increased our revenue from $10,000 a year to $30,000 a year with continuing a plan of growth of at least $10,000 a year moving into the future of the station. Caroline and I will discuss our underwriting kit and tactics, membership drives, merchandising, fundraising events and event sponsorships with samples of our work for attendees to take home with them.

How to be a Screenwriter
Rick Dunkle, President, UINDY Studios, University of Indianapolis
Screenwriter Rick Dunkle, WGA West, discusses how to be a screenwriter and what elements make a good script. He’ll teach screenwriting basics while also detailing the path he took to become a writer-producer on one of the most popular crime dramas in primetime: “Criminal Minds.”

Stand Out! Why Creating Distinctive Content is Critical to the Future of Radio
John Owens, Adviser, BearCast Media, University of Cincinnati and CBI Vice President
Sean McDonald, Adviser, Neumann Media, Neumann University and CBI Treasurer
Greg Weston, General Manager, WPTS, University of Pittsburgh and CBI Past President
Audiences today have 24-7 access to an infinite amount of customizable audio and video content through their phones. Developing distinctive programming is not only important to the growth of your college station, but it’s also critical for the survival of commercial radio. Come learn what it means to engage your audience in 360°, tell us about innovative content you’re currently producing and brainstorm ideas that can help your station stand out!

Visual Storytelling
Noah Cooper, TEGNA Senior Content Recruiter
Joseph Huerta, Producer, KING-TV, Seattle
Learn the key things you’ve never before considered on a story scene to capture the best video and sound to maximize emotional storytelling through the eyes and ears of the best photojournalist in the country, KING 5’s duPont-winning Joseph Huerta.

They Said WHAT?
Anabella Poland, General Manager, WMSC-FM, Montclair State University and CBI President
Chris Keppler, General Manager, WZIP-FM, University of Akron
A presentation of our Top 10 List of things on our stations that make us say, “What did they just say?” Overdoing it, underdoing it and a couple of things in between.

The Ins and Outs of Managing a Content Team
Rose Kelley, General Manager, WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1/HD-2, North Carolina State University
Clara Ketchell, General Manager, KJHK, University of Kansas
Prior to being General Manager, I was my station’s Content Manager. The session would cover important skills needed to ensure a team of content creators (bloggers, podcasters, videographers, etc.) can produce quality content on a consistent schedule. Lessons learned from successes and failures would also be covered to avoid easy mistakes.

Radio/TV/Multimedia Show and Tell
Brian Lucas, Director of Radio, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Whitewater, Wisconsin, Dan Schumacher, General Manager/Faculty Adviser, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas
A fun, free-wheeling session where participants share their best work—on-air, online and in the studio. Producers, show off your completed projects or works in progress. This can include airchecks and reels, news or sports packages, music videos, podcasts and more. We ask that clips not exceed three minutes. Bring a drive or post the clips online ahead of time so we can hear or see them. Constructive feedback will be provided by the moderators and session attendees.

Charts, Playlists, and Connecting With The Music Industry: Why It Matters
Eva Papp, Director of Business Development, Spinitron
David DeKeyser, Music Industry Representative, Spinitron
How does your music director connect with the right people sending the right music? How do your DJs share what they play publicly? How does your program director shape the voice for a station? And why is it so tough sometimes to do any of that? Learning the ways to better connect with your audience, musicians, and the wider music industry is a responsibility and need of any station, and you should know about the ways you can easily and quickly do just that. Join this panel to find out just how important that work is and how you can simplify and publicize it with services like Spinitron and others.

Connecting With the Audience
Greg Weston, General Manager, WPTS, University of Pittsburgh and CBI Past President
There’s so much competition for the audience’s attention these days. It’s difficult to get your message through the clutter. It’s especially hard for college radio stations that might have dozens of DJs and play almost that many genres. This presentation will show you how to connect with your audience by applying basic marketing principles to your imaging.

Digital Accessibility for Student Media
Jamie Lynn Gilbert, Associate Director of Student Media and Station Adviser, WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1/HD-2, North Carolina State University
Student Media tends to be a very welcoming place that values diversity, but is the content you are creating accessible to people with disabilities? In this session, learn about digital accessibility as it applies to websites, podcasts, interviews and social media. Specific topics include audio/video transcripts, descriptive link text, alt text, color contrast and color blindness.

I’m In Charge. Now What?! (Parts 1 and 2)
Jamie Lynn Gilbert, Associate Director of Student Media and Station Adviser, WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1/HD-2, North Carolina State University
Steven Hames, Adviser, Viking Fusion, Berry College
Rose Kelley, General Manager, WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1/HD-2, North Carolina State University
You’ve become a manager at your student-run media outlet. Congratulations! In part one of this two-part session you’ll learn about getting started in a leadership role, writing job descriptions, setting goals and running effective meetings. Then come back for part two to learn more.

Working with your Athletic Department
Jasen Sokol, Director/General Manager, WJCU 88.7 FM, John Carroll University
Bobby Gerome, Co-Sports Director, WJCU 88.7 FM, John Carroll University
Is trying to work with your school’s athletic department more like trying to work with a brick wall? This panel will explain why you should have a good relationship with your athletic department (even if you don’t cover sports!) and how your outlet can do this through game coverage, shared staffing, game entertainment, recruiting and more.

Storytelling is Everything
Rick Dunkle, President, UINDY Studios, University of Indianapolis
Writer-Producer Rick Dunkle (“Criminal Minds”) discusses how storytelling skills are fundamental to success in all business endeavors. Everyone has a story do to tell or to capitalize upon and Rick will show you how to take your storytelling to the next level through transmedia narratives aimed at making the best of each platform available to you.

How to get Your First Job in TV News and Sports
Noah Cooper, TEGNA Senior Content Recruiter
Emma Ferguson, Producer-in-Residence, KREM-TV Spokane
Lianna Johnson, Producer-in-Residence, KING-TV Seattle
Sarah Mahaney, Producer-in-Residence, KING-TV Seattle
Learn from TEGNA senior content recruiter and KING hiring manager the key things you need to know to land your first job in TV news/weather/sports.

Show Prep and Effective Social Media Tips
GregR, Morning Show Host, KNDD 107.7 The End, Seattle

Play-by-Play basics
Everett Fitzhugh, Radio PBP for Seattle Kraken and 2023 Washington Sportscaster of the Year

Build a Better Reel
Noah Cooper, TEGNA Senior Content Recruiter
Learn from KING hiring managers and a TEGNA recruiter what they look for in on-air talent reels to make decisions on who they contact for interviews.

Community Engagement Through College Radio
Nour Currie, Station Manager, UWave Radio, University of Washington
Samantha Boggs, Program Director, UWave Radio, University of Washington
Ari Pereira, Studio Engineer, UWave Radio, University of Washington
This presentation explores effective strategies for campus community engagement through college radio. We will discuss leveraging volunteer programmers to produce original content like radio shows and podcasts, the importance of radio station tours for connecting the UWave team and students with professionals, and hosting large-scale events like Open Mic Night to directly engage the student body. Event DJing will be discussed as a means of promoting UWave through word-of-mouth marketing and community engagement. Finally, we will consider the advantages of engaging a smaller campus community, where outreach efforts can more easily reach a higher percentage of students.

The Studio Method
Rick Dunkle, President, UINDY Studios, University of Indianapolis
Hollywood alum Rick Dunkle details how the Media Program he oversees at University of Indianapolis transformed its practices to bring the radio and tv organizations under one umbrella: a production arm creating content for every platform — radio, tv, film, digital, etc.

Podcast Kickstart
Jeremy Whiting, General Manager, Impact 89FM, WDBM-FM, Michigan State University
You have a great idea for a new podcast, or maybe you’re looking for the best way to share an existing broadcast talk show online. There are a lot of options — where do you start? We’ll run through our process of planning, producing, hosting and distributing podcasts on all of the major platforms. You’ll leave with a few handouts and specific steps to easily get your show online today.

Developing a Podcasting/Radio Camp for High School and Middle School Students
Rodger Smith, Faculty Adviser, WGMU, George Mason University
Looking for a project which connects you with your community and promotes and raises revenue for your station? Learn how to develop and produce this summer camp that teaches basic podcasting and radio skills to high school and middle school students.

Don’t Sell My License! Staying Relevant at Your University And Using Data To Explain Why
Jasen Sokol, Director/General Manager, WJCU 88.7 FM, John Carroll University
Chris Keppler, General Manager, WZIP-FM, University of Akron
Shrinking budgets, and a perception held by some that radio is “dead” anyway, makes it more important than ever to prove your relevancy on campus. Learn how to keep your station safe and discover the quantitative and qualitative data you need to make the case to the people who need to hear it most.

Cut, Edit, Create: First Steps in Video Editing
Adelina Cooper, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Visual Arts and Media, Raider Student Media Adviser, University of Mount Union
This session is perfect for beginners and will cover some essential tools, key techniques like cutting and transitions, and tips for enhancing your videos. Bring your creativity and any footage you’d like to work with as we help you start editing with confidence! Be sure to download a digital video editor before the session (DaVinci Resolve is a fully functional free editor. iMovie works too.)

Editing Essentials: Tricks for Better Video
Adelina Cooper, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Visual Arts and Media, Raider Student Media Adviser, University of Mount Union
Take your video editing skills to the next level in this follow-up session! Discover essential tips and tricks that will enhance your editing efficiency and creativity. We’ll explore some advanced techniques, effective workflow strategies, and tools to polish your projects. Perfect for those ready to refine their skills, this session will help you create stunning videos with ease. Bring your questions and any work-in-progress projects for a hands-on experience!

Resolving Conflict in Difficult Situations
Jeremy Whiting, General Manager, Impact 89FM, WDBM-FM, Michigan State University
Student media just happens to be one of the best places to get thrown into leadership training. You certainly have a great staff, but problems will inevitably come up. How will you handle them? Let’s talk through some examples of difficult situations (all based on true stories!) to prepare for conflict resolution with your own staff.

Care and Feeding of Alumni
Warren Kozireski, General Manager, 89.1 The Point, SUNY Brockport
John Devecka, Operations Manager, WLOY, Loyola University Maryland
Your alumni can be a reservoir of knowledge and help for your current media operation, but only if you choose to use them. This session will help with ideas from initial contact to regular communication, and dive into reunions and a Hall of Fame.

How Are We Going To Pay For This?
Jasen Sokol, Director/General Manager, WJCU 88.7 FM, John Carroll University
Bobby Gerome, Co-Sports Director, WJCU 88.7 FM, John Carroll University
Zachary Sinutko, Events Director, WJCU 88.7 FM, John Carroll University
Emily Davala, Social Media Director, WJCU 88.7 FM, John Carroll University
Let’s face it, running a college media outlet is expensive. With university money dwindling, it’s important to have an effective fundraising strategy of your own so you can get the money you need to survive and thrive (and maybe even put some away for a rainy day!). We’ll show you how WJCU raises nearly $70,000 at its pledge drive every year, including our timeline, strategies, successes, failures, swag that works, etc.

How To do Music Criticism: Writing Album and Concert Reviews
Joseph Mazzola, Local Music Director, WUOG 90.5, University of Georgia
An in-depth look into music criticism. This session will discuss the craft of writing music reviews with a focus on concert and album reviews for student radio station publications. We will explore what does work in reviews, what doesn’t work, what review and criticism mistakes you and your staff should avoid, and ultimately, how to make engaging material for your readers.

Media Production for Study Abroad and Service Learning Projects
Michael G. McFarland, Assistant Professor, West Texas A&M University
Randy Ray, Director of Broadcast Engineering, West Texas A&M University
The session will discuss how West Texas A&M University has incorporated media production into our study abroad and service learning projects. We’ll discuss and show video examples of our study abroad trips to South Africa, Israel and England, and the projects completed by the Advanced Media Production class for the cities of Canyon and Amarillo, Texas.

RCS Sponsor Session: The Future of Radio Automation 
Nate Mumford, Director of Sales Engineering, RCS
As radio continues to evolve into the Cloud with AI voices and workflows, automation remains a staple to help assist broadcasters with everyday tasks. Between building logs, voice tracking, remote work and more, radio automation is made to work with the broadcaster. We’ll discuss automation’s role in a typical workday, how engineers are incorporating the Cloud and AI from the automation perspective, and review why programmers include automation as part of their radio solution.

50 (more) Low-Cost or No-Cost PR Ideas in 50 minutes
Warren Kozireski, General Manager, 89.1 The Point, SUNY Brockport
Get more attention for your media outlet with these fun, inexpensive or free ideas that target your campus and community.

Underwriting 101: Ins and Outs of Selling Underwriting 
June Fox, Radio Station Manager, KNHC/C895, Seattle Public Schools
Bobbi Washechek, General Manager, KJHK, University of Kansas
Interested in starting, or restarting, underwriting for your station? Learn all you need to know from pricing, building relationships and sales to writing compliant copy and getting it on the air.

Working with your Administration
Sean Ahern, Associate Professor, Communication Arts, Wayne State College
Warren Kozireski, General Manager, 89.1 The Point, SUNY Brockport
Jasen Sokol, Director/General Manager, WJCU 88.7 FM, John Carroll University
Tips for improving your image and relationship with campus partners including IT, Athletics, academic department and/or higher administration

Small School Student Media
Steven Hames, Adviser, Viking Fusion, Berry College
Michael Carvaines, Assistant Director of Media Communication, Muskingum University
Grant Ferrell, Station Manager, KWSC 91.9 The Cat, Wayne State College
Media outlets at small schools deal with unique challenges in comparison to larger universities. This roundtable will be led by students and station staff involved with Radio and TV at small colleges and universities. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss and learn from one another about some of the obstacles and successes including student engagement and retention, convergence, web and social media presence, and app integration, strategic partnerships, promotions, planning, funding, and more.

Curating the Sound of your Station
Cade Williams, Station Manager, KLSU, Louisiana State University
Becca Arkfeld, Promotions Director, KWSC 91.9 The Cat, Wayne State College
Evie Richard, Music Director, KLSU-FM, Louisiana State University

AI in Adobe Audition, Premiere Pro and More
Sean McDonald, Adviser, Neumann Media, Neumann University and CBI Treasurer
John Morris, Faculty Adviser, 95.7 The Spin, University of Southern Indiana
Artificial intelligence is having a impact on the entertainment industry.  The plethora of Adobe products are including new AI with each update. In the session, you will learn about some of the news AI in both Adobe Audition and Premiere Pro as well as a quick look at some other Adobe programs. 

Building a Personal Brand
Leslie Scott, Brand Strategist

Election Night On-air Strategy
Mel Bridges, News Director, KLSU-FM, Louisiana State University
Steven Hames, Adviser, Viking Fusion, Berry College
Pat Janssen, Mass Communication Lecturer/KWSC-TV Adviser, Wayne State College

Critical Consumption of Information
Andrew Bock, Consultant, MazMan Media

Photo and Video Lighting
Presenters TBD

Ask the Broadcast Lawyers
Presenters TBD

Legal Need-to-Know for Webcasting
Presenters TBD

Legal Underwriting/Promo Language
Presenters TBD

Advisers-Only Roundtable
Moderator: Cam Stone, Adviser, KTXT-FM 88.1 The Raider, Texas Tech University

Roundtable: Radio Program Directors
Moderators: Sasha Sperry, Program Director, KCSU, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Kelsey Brannan, General Manager, WSUM Madison Student Radio, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Roundtable: Queer in Student Media
Moderator: Mel Bridges, News Director, KLSU-FM, Louisiana State University

Roundtable: POC in Student Media
Moderator: Student leader TBD

Roundtable: Radio and TV Promotions
Moderators: Kaz Mull, Program Director, 95.7 The Spin, University of Southern Indiana and Mackenzie Jackson, Promotions Director, WJCU 88.7 FM, John Carroll University

Roundtable: Student Radio Station Managers
Moderators: Bella Lardin, Station Manager, WPTS Radio, University of Pittsburgh
Cade Williams, Station Manager, KLSU, Louisiana State University

Roundtable: Student Radio Music Directors
Moderator: Megan Groves, Music Director, WMCO, Muskingum University

Roundtable: Student Sportscasters
Moderator: Liam Hoffman, Sports Director, 89.1 The Point, SUNY Brockport

Roundtable: Web-only Radio Stations
Moderator: Rodger Smith, Faculty Adviser, WGMU, George Mason University

Roundtable: Women in College Media
Moderator: Alex Bennett, Technical Assistant Station Manager, WPTS Radio, University of Pittsburgh

Roundtable: TV/Video Production 
Steven Hames, Adviser, Viking Fusion, Berry College

Roundtable: News 
Moderator: Grant Ferrell, Station Manager, KWSC 91.9 The Cat, Wayne State College

More sessions to come as they’re approved!