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College Radio Advisor taking to much control.

D

DashingDukeDaring

Hey guys. First off, this is my first post here; I've been looking for a good place to ask this question and look for some advice, and I think I've found it.

First, a slight set up:
I am the promotions director at my college's radio station. Over the course of this summer I've also served as Program Director and Music Director on top of this, because there are only a handful of students near our university during the summer. (private liberal arts school, not to many of us hang around)
I've been a part of our organization here for almost 3 years now. I've been on the paid staff since last year, and really love this station and college radio in general. I also produce shows for our tv station like news and gameshows.
Anyway.
We've had a major issue with our advising professor for the radio station. She is the Station Manager, runs all of our meetings, and a lot of other things. Having an advisor I think is something any school organization needs, but she keeps talking control away from the students.
We have the motto of saying our station is '100 percent student run'. Well, it isn't. She sets up times to do remotes, times for shows, times for special broadcasts, and even our weekend programming! She controls most of our budgets, including our sports travel and broadcast budget. She also doesn’t let us do a lot of the stuff we feel needs to happen. For example, I get a lot of requests for sororities and other organizations to DJ bonfires, get together, etc. (All dry/registered parties, btw). It was like fighting a wall to get permission to use the equipment for something, even though I asked 3 weeks in advance.
Same thing when the athletics department asked if we’d like to remote at tailgates and the like for the sports teams. Sports games are probably our most listened to programming, and tons of people are at these remotes, but she was still hard to get through to make this remote happen.
She sets the time for a lot of our normal events. We have a weekend where we do a lot of events (example, I bring a lot of local bands in for a battle of the bands style concert) and she went ahead and set the day and time for these events, without running it by us, the staff.
And probably the thing that annoys us the most; changing format of shows without running it by the staff or even telling us it may happen. We have certain slots for specialty music shows, that DJs apply to get (another thing we don’t actually control on paid staff). But just before the semester let out, she changed this format completely, and was confused as to why not that many djs applied. (7 slots, we have about 60 kids on staff, about 10 are paid ‘management’ staff like myself)
Basically, this is what I’m asking: Have you had an experience where your advisor for campus radio takes to much control? How do you get them to give it back to the management/leadership students? We’re supposed to be there for the community, AND the college, but my advisor likes to just focus on the community. We have a lot of requests from loyal fans to do a lot of great things, but as long as our advisor keeps butting heads with us, I don’t think we’ll ever get to do something we want.
And it’s not just a selfish thing; she takes all of the control away from the management staff, stuff that in our job descriptions we are supposed to be doing….
So….how can we stop this? How can we get control back? (not that we ever had it)

Thanks a lot guys!

_Duke
 
It sounds like you have a major communications issue with your advisor. My first question is have you ever sat down with her face to face to discuss these issues? She may think that everything is fine and wants to make the station better. Do you give her a list of events in writing, so that she is aware of things that are planned?

Speaking as an advisor/Operations Manager/Program Director(I am an administrator that runs the radio station), she maybe getting directives from her boss or the college president. Our station serves the community and the college.

Put the schedule in writing and maybe use something like a google calendar that the entire paid staff has access too as well as your advisor.

If you have already had a talk with her, then you may need to talk to her boss about the situation.

Commercial radio is the same too. Station management can change anything they want when they want.
 
Thanks for the reply.
We've had a few small discussions with her, and anything we want to do we submit in writing far ahead of time. For events staff, we use Doodle, and I think we use a yahoo calander for equipment reservations and event dates. We also have annoucments and such in the studios.
She's openly admitted she doesn't trust us. Not sure why, because no one on our staff has ever done something horribly wrong that paid staff hasn't dealt with in a professional manner.
As far as her boss is concered, the college president and the like don't really get invovled with our operations to much. They do, but as far as I know, they don't oversee/cordinate/request to much of anything.
when talking to her, she always has this air of 'youre betraying me, and i can fire you for doing your job' kind of pressence. And she looks like shes going to cry. <_<
I think my biggest problem is shes also most of us on staff's professor, and making her mad may result in bad notes in class. (unprofessional, I agree, but thats whats happening.) And while yes, SM's should be able to change whatever, whenever, I feel that if we're going to be branded as a student run station, we should atleast be involved in the decsion making process, rather than being surprised like the rest of the staff.
We want to be student run, not student staffed, I guess is a good way to put it.
Shes great for a lot of the legal things and format stuff and all that, but you're right, there is a communitcation boundry. She just refuses to budge or comprimise.
 
Are you under the Student Government or are you under an academic department? In a nutshell, who is funding the station's operation?

If you are under the Student Government, then I don't see a good reason as why your advisor is the Station Manager, she should only be serving in the advising capacity, not a overall management one. As you point out, it should be student-run and not student-staffed.

If you are under an academic department (Communciations Dept., etc.), then I could possibly see why she is the Manager. Your recourse in this situation can be going to the Department Chair, Dean, etc. but that will definitely create further discourse and will anger her since you will be going above her head.

Either way, I think it would be best to first speak to your station staff and make sure that all staff feels the same way. Then speak to your student organization council chair (or whichever organization handles the clubs) as they will have undoubtedly have experience in situations where there is a problem between advisor and student staff.
 
Thanks for the advice. I'm not actually sure what department we are under, but we do not get a direct cut of funds from student government, where I serve. Also, a lot of people who take classes in Communications or Digital Media have to join certain programs we do (half hour news show once a week is an example). So I would say we are part of the academic department. Hm.
Thanks for the advice!
 
Based on your description, for some of the classes at least, the station acts as a lab that pairs to these classes. Which can be good and bad, and it sounds like you are experiencing the bad.

Additional advice that I thought of:

I would also see if the station has any operating documents (such as bylaws, a constitution, etc.), as it has been in my experience there is a section that references the role of the advisor in station affairs or specifies how the station management is to be staffed. This will be a far easier solution then having to go above heads.

If you and your staff feel that the station is focusing too much away from students, then point out that a private school is not a taxpayer-funded institution. Yes, it is great for public relations and finding advertisers and I am not saying that you should do away with community programming; but it shouldn't be to the point where you are no longer serving students.

I would poll the student body on their thoughts about the station. I wouldn't consider it as an attack on your advisor, but as a routine poll on what the student body suggests and wants to see from their station. You can ask things like what kind of music/programming they want, what they want to see less of or more of, etc.
 
Well, when you're a student, there's a limit to how much you can fight The Man. ;D There's not a college in the US that doesn't know...and exploit...the concept that any "problem student(s)" can be waited out because in four years or less, they'll be gone.

That said, one thing that leapt out at me was that the advisor openly said she doesn't trust you. That's not a good situation. It could be a personal thing. It could be that what you consider "normal" is something she...or the institution...considers "abnormal". On that note, it could also be that you're paying for the sins of the father (i.e. students of a previous generation) which is a lousy situation to be in, but it happens all the time.

I think you could do worse than to schedule a meeting and come right out and say: "We have heard that you don't trust the student management here. What can we do to earn back that trust?" That may involve eating a lot of humble pie. It may involve a process that will last longer than your four years at the institution, too. But you can be clever, too! For example: offer to help set up a web-only "station" where students can more quickly "prove" their trustworthiness. Those that have the skills and desire can work hard on the web station and be "promoted". Those who just wanna "play in the sandbox" can do so with near-zero risk of repercussions. Make sure you work with her to set up clear goals for how someone gets "promoted". Even if they are a tall order, it's important that they be clear and agreed-on by BOTH sides in advance.

Regardless of whether such a setup quite plays out that cut-n-dried, this is the sort of reasonable, low-risk proposal that colleges generally love. And FWIW, a lot of college radio stations have something like that; a "training ground" web-only station that students must "pass through" before they get on the main signal.
 
aaronread said:
Well, when you're a student, there's a limit to how much you can fight The Man. ;D There's not a college in the US that doesn't know...and exploit...the concept that any "problem student(s)" can be waited out because in four years or less, they'll be gone.

That said, one thing that leapt out at me was that the advisor openly said she doesn't trust you. That's not a good situation. It could be a personal thing. It could be that what you consider "normal" is something she...or the institution...considers "abnormal". On that note, it could also be that you're paying for the sins of the father (i.e. students of a previous generation) which is a lousy situation to be in, but it happens all the time.

I think you could do worse than to schedule a meeting and come right out and say: "We have heard that you don't trust the student management here. What can we do to earn back that trust?" That may involve eating a lot of humble pie. It may involve a process that will last longer than your four years at the institution, too. But you can be clever, too! For example: offer to help set up a web-only "station" where students can more quickly "prove" their trustworthiness. Those that have the skills and desire can work hard on the web station and be "promoted". Those who just wanna "play in the sandbox" can do so with near-zero risk of repercussions. Make sure you work with her to set up clear goals for how someone gets "promoted". Even if they are a tall order, it's important that they be clear and agreed-on by BOTH sides in advance.

Regardless of whether such a setup quite plays out that cut-n-dried, this is the sort of reasonable, low-risk proposal that colleges generally love. And FWIW, a lot of college radio stations have something like that; a "training ground" web-only station that students must "pass through" before they get on the main signal.
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This is a really cool idea, but I guess I forgot to point out that the things she doesn't trust us with has nothing to do with anything we do on air. It's mostly stuff that has to do with our events, and maybe some stuff from other shows that I know nothing about. You are righting about the 'sins of the father' kind of thing though. A few years ago, right after she joined the department here, we had a very 'naughty' management team, and I do agree that maybe this has something to do with it.
Hm. We're working on a list to present to her next week during our back-to-school-week operations. It has stuff we think needs attention to, and how we propose to handle it, and that we want more direct control over certain things.
Thanks for the advice guys; I'm working on a survey now as well for the students!
 
A few years ago, right after she joined the department here, we had a very 'naughty' management team, and I do agree that maybe this has something to do with it.
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Bullseye. I've advised a few stations that have dealt with situations like this. One college had a group of engineering students that decided to run a pirate FM radio station at 20 watts in the middle of a major city....until the FCC busted them. There was a lot of hell to pay and NOBODY trusted any students involved with the station for years afterward. Even after the original "problem students" had long since graduated.

In your case, it's possible your advisor was personally reamed out by her superiors for the actions of the students. I can't quite blame her for being "overprotective" in that sort of situation. She may even be under orders to "make sure that sort of thing never happens again". Colleges hate risk and they hate being blindsided.

FWIW, I would also recommend you sign up for the College Broadcasters Inc (CBI) listserv and post your situation there. There's a lot of excellent radio professionals in the college type who can provide advice on this situation. www.askcbi.org
 
College is supposed to prepare you for the real world. Guess what? You will encounter this kind of thing if you get a job. Working for an employer is not a democracy. It can be a dictatorship. She is the one who is responsible. As others say, I'm sure she's under a certain amount of pressure from her employer, and she's passing that on to you. Consider that some colleges have completely taken their radio stations away from students, turning them over to professionals. You have a chance to do something that other students don't get. Don't squander that opportunity.
 
TheBigA said:
College is supposed to prepare you for the real world. Guess what? You will encounter this kind of thing if you get a job. Working for an employer is not a democracy. It can be a dictatorship. She is the one who is responsible. As others say, I'm sure she's under a certain amount of pressure from her employer, and she's passing that on to you. Consider that some colleges have completely taken their radio stations away from students, turning them over to professionals. You have a chance to do something that other students don't get. Don't squander that opportunity.
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Some colleges (Georgetown, Hopkins, Dayton come to mind) have taken it a step further and sold their radio stations, mostly because they thought the stations (students) were too much trouble. The schools cashed the checks and life got a lot simpler.

The kids who really paid the price were the future students, who missed out on a great opportunity because their predecessors were screw-ups.
 
TheBigA said:
College is supposed to prepare you for the real world. Guess what? You will encounter this kind of thing if you get a job. Working for an employer is not a democracy. It can be a dictatorship. She is the one who is responsible. As others say, I'm sure she's under a certain amount of pressure from her employer, and she's passing that on to you. Consider that some colleges have completely taken their radio stations away from students, turning them over to professionals. You have a chance to do something that other students don't get. Don't squander that opportunity.
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I understand that. But I'm on paid staff to be part of the management. We don't get to manage anything. I guess I've made this situation sound a lot more dramatic then it really is; There's no FCC violations, theres no dead air, programming is going, but we want to...breath new life into the station, get the students more involved, do more events, increase listenership, all of that.
If we can't do it here, with an advisor who makes things more personal that business, then I worry about us when we graduate.
I've interned at a NBC affiliate station, and most of our other staff have interned at other stations and another, I think, interned at Clear Channel. We all agree that the stuff we go through doesn't happen there, or atleast not on a personal level like we deal with here.
 
We all agree that the stuff we go through doesn't happen there, or at least not on a personal level like we deal with here.
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Well, to a certain degree a college defines its own reality separate from the rest of the world...but personal politics are at EVERY place of employment. As a low-level intern, you probably just didn't have to deal with it. Don't worry, someday soon you'll be out in the "real world" and you'll have office politics to deal with every day! (sarcastic grin)

If we can't do it here, with an advisor who makes things more personal that business, then I worry about us when we graduate.
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Exactly. If you can't learn to get what you want/need in college, dealing with people who act irrationally, then you're not prepared for the "real world". You might not be in an ideal situation for learning how to manage things, but you certainly are in a realistic one. Without knowing the specifics, I can offer some good general advice: kiss a lot of ass. Do whatever it takes to stroke your advisor's ego and get her to trust you any way you can. It will probably mean being very humble, asking her for advice at every step of the way, flattering her as much as you can, doing whatever she wants you to do - no matter how useless or demeaning it is.

Speaking of CBI, a lot of colleges have freezes on their travel budgets but see if you can convince her to go to the big Fall Conference for CBI in Louisville, KY this Halloween. Maybe take a few student managers with her. Conferences are a GREAT place for recalcitrant people to learn that maybe their way of doing things is really stoooopid, but without any risk of losing face in the process. It's a win-win for all involved!

BTW, I know I'm kinda rah-rah on CBI so in the interest of fairness, I would also suggest you look at IBS, too. Although their website has a history of making claims that, ehem, stretch the facts a little...their conferences are nonetheless fun to attend and fairly informative. I just think CBI's are a lot better. If you have a campus newspaper, maybe you can piggyback with them since CBI's conference is part of the larger joint CMA/ACP Conference for student print publications.
 
We'd all love to go to a CBI function. We've attended a few Ohio broadcaster's events, and they're all very informative, so it'd be great to see the real deal.

I guess when it comes to dealing with this stuff out in the 'real world', I think, I at least, expect this. I guess I just don't expect it at this level in college. Yeah, as a low level intern who mostly did remotes and AM morning shows and FM afternoon drive I never got to see any real 'office problems', but I saw a lot more attention being paid to the whole staff. Not in the 'oh are your need being met' kind of way, more in a 'this is what I think we should do, what do you think we should do/any alternate suggestions.' type of fairness.
Maybe it was just the place I was at, which is a pretty small market station.
Thanks for the advice.
 
I would recommend having a talk with the head of the broadcasting department at your school. Generally that person can get things done. Any head of that area will do. Withholding station control from the students is sort of an academic breach of trust. The students work at the radio station to get experience to work at professional ones. Your adviser should only be advising.

This is going to sound really shady, but at this point you really have to work at convincing anyone and everyone who is capable of enacting change that the station is in dire straits while it's under the control of the adviser. It's politics, and it sucks; but when you have a situation like yours, something really needs to happen. The station is not fulfilling its duty as a learning aid to the students.
 
Question..What was the format and what did the advisor change it to? One word of advice stay away from the tailgates..there will be drinking and next thing a staff member is drinking or accused of drinking..not a good idea for you guys.I was the PD for WDBK NJ years ago...The college wanted an excuse to shut us down..we were a dance station and did remotes from nighclubs. A member of the Communications board made accusations that we were drinking and representing the college(which was totally false). Be carefull. I feel the advisor should be an advisor and a student should be station manager. Unfortuantly the college has a lot to risk with their name being associated with the school. Does yur statio have a huge student following? How about in thesurrunding community..is it a big listening audience or very moderate?
 
a few questions/clarifications from a former Station Manager:
1. Is your campus rural or urban? reason for me asking is community service may not matter as much in an urban setting thus giving you a stronger case for more student specific programming.
2. Do you have an updated public file and can you get access to it in case your advisor is not present and someone wants to see it?


3. Dayton does still have a radio station, not 99.9, but none the less they still have one with updated studios.
4. Have any of you discussed the possibility of having a mentor from a commercial FM station in your local area? What it sounds like is the prof wants somebody with credibility, and that could be an option. The person from the FM would *not* be your advisor.

5. Any change will take time, and require staff unity and lots of patience.

Good luck to you!
 
TheBigA said:
College is supposed to prepare you for the real world. Guess what? You will encounter this kind of thing if you get a job. Working for an employer is not a democracy. It can be a dictatorship. She is the one who is responsible. As others say, I'm sure she's under a certain amount of pressure from her employer, and she's passing that on to you. Consider that some colleges have completely taken their radio stations away from students, turning them over to professionals. You have a chance to do something that other students don't get. Don't squander that opportunity.
Click to expand...

You took the words right out of my mouth.
 
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