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Lisa Trapani Shumate hired to manage KUHF, KUHA and KUHT TV.

The U of Houston has hired a well known commercial TV professional to manage the new tri-partite public radio and TV operation known collectively as Houston Public Media.

This new entity is made up of KUHF 88.7 FM, KUHA 91.7 FM and KUHT TV Channel 8. They will all be managed by Lisa Trapani Shumate, a former TV news anchor who moved into upper level management positions at KHOU and KTRK TV.

I think it may prove to be the best hire they've ever made. Shumate will bring top level commercial broadcasting thinking to a TV station that has stagnated and almost died under managers who often had no idea what they were doing. She's a real pro and she'll be a breath of fresh air in that place.

Here's the news release from the University of Houston.

Lisa Trapani Shumate, an Emmy Award-winning veteran of the television industry who has been a member of management with both CBS affiliate KHOU and KTRK/TV/ABC 13, has been named executive director and general manager of Houston Public Media.

Houston Public Media encompasses the combined operations of public radio stations KUHF-FM and KUHA-FM, and public television station KUHT. Located in the Melcher Center for Public Broadcasting on the University of Houston campus, Houston Public Media has an annual budget of $25 million and 165 staff members, and 65,000 individual member/contributors.

“Leading Houston Public Media is an opportunity I find both challenging and rewarding,” Shumate said. “The newly merged entity is poised for growth and the ability to contribute more to the University of Houston, as well as the Houston community.”

Shumate will report to the University of Houston Provost/Senior Vice President John Antel.

“We are so pleased to have an individual of Lisa's caliber in this important new role,” Antel said. “Her passion, experience, vision and determination to lead Houston Public Media to financial health and greater stature make her an exceptional choice for this position. I commend the search committee for its fine work.”

Shumate is the director of programming and marketing for KHOU-TV, CBS-BELO in Houston, where she oversees 30 full-time employees and three revenue-generating departments. She oversees the production of 26.5 hours of local programming each week on KHOU. Previously, she was the executive director of Belo Marketing Solutions in Dallas, where she was in charge of statewide multi-platform sales and marketing that generated $6.7 million.

During her 11 years with KTRK, she moved from being an anchor, host and producer to become manager of marketing and special projects. She negotiated KTRK’s first multi-year, multi-million dollar broadcast rights deal with the Houston Texans. She received the 2010 American Marketing Association Marketer of the Year, media, award for “Great Day Houston.” And, she received a 2010 Lone Star Regional Emmy, community service, for “Star of Hope for the Holidays.”

In the Houston community, Shumate has been an active member of the Greater Houston Partnership and is a member of the Salvation Army Advisory Board and the Baylor College of Medicine Campaign Cabinet. She holds an undergraduate degree in communications from Loyola University in New Orleans.

“The relationship and contacts I have built in the last 20 years go beyond liaison to the very heart of how one person can make a difference by getting the right people involved and working toward a mutual goal,” Shumate said. “There are significant challenges facing all broadcasters – TV, radio, commercial and non-profit. The old ways of thinking and doing business are no longer effective. I am confident I can infuse the insight, energy, leadership and experience necessary to take Houston Public Media to increased audience and funding levels.”

As executive director and general manager of Houston Public Media, Shumate will be responsible for the development and implementation of effective strategic and tactical planning in coordination with University of Houston executive management; oversight and direction of electronic media programming, services and operations; ensuring sound fiscal planning, financial management and fund development; serving as primary liaison for the merged organization within/outside the University community and with the greater Houston area, the Association for Community Broadcasting, the Federal Communication Commission, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and other related professional and community groups.

Additional responsibilities will include: managing, directly or through station managers, the personnel, departments, activities and finances associated with media operations and distribution, fund development, membership, underwriting, marketing, engineering, programming and production; analyzing, developing and implementing an optimal Houston Public Media organizational structure for efficient use of existing and future resources; regular monitoring of industry trends, technologies and the Houston media market; compliance with relevant government and licensee regulations and university policies/procedures.

http://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2011articles/Oct2011/1004HPM.php
Link added as a courtesy of Radio-Info.com
 
FilioScotia said:
I think it may prove to be the best hire they've ever made. Shumate will bring top level commercial broadcasting thinking to a TV station that has stagnated and almost died under managers who often had no idea what they were doing. She's a real pro and she'll be a breath of fresh air in that place.

Which mean that the longtime listeners will hate her guts and will be suspecting that she'll try to "dumb down" KUHF and KUHA (and the KTRU people will be hating her on general principle). Unfrotunately, part of becoming management in public radio seems to be accepting the fact that what you're going to do, even if it's dropping the most obscure program in the most out-of-the-way time slot, is going to piss off a group of longtime listeners who basically want KUHF to sound exactly the way it did in 1979 when it became an NPR station.
 
I don't know about the radio stations, but KUHT is a huge mess right now. For the past 3 weeks, they have been airing the same few pledge drive programs (most notably the "My Music" series) over and over, and have even preempted major PBS programs such as Masterpiece with this crap. I can't imagine many people are donating right now with them alienating their audience by preempting their regular programming with the same garbage.

Hopefully this change in management will improve the situation.
 
KUHT is a basket case

The radio stations -- KUHF and KUHA are both doing fine. KUHF is completely self supporting, and it's made or come very close to making its on-air campaign goals every six months for years, even when the goal reached a million dollars.

This has allowed KUHF to grow in size and scope, and upgrade its programming and technology to keep up with what's going on in the industry. Let's just say that CEO John Proffitt is in love with technology and he's made sure KUHF gets as much of the new stuff as possible, although the jury is still out on HD. I expect he's doing the same with KUHA.

KUHT TV is another story. For all the reasons "someperson" has mentioned, plus a lot of other reasons, KUHT has been a basket case for a long time. Hasn't made or even come close to making a campaign goal in recent memory.

Staff is down to half of what it was when it moved into that new building ten years ago. Local programming is down to almost nothing, and the station is on life support. The second floor of the Melcher Center is a ghost town. As it is with most broadcasting failures, they can blame lousy management.

Several years ago they started looking for ways to get a share of KUHF's funding, and they finally succeeded with formation of this new tri-partite entity Houston Public Media.So things are looking up, financially, but KUHT has a long way to go to be "viable" again.

Incoming HPM boss Lisa Shumate has her work cut out for her. I believe she has the good sense to leave the radio stations alone because they're doing just fine thank you. KUHF has been so successful for so long that NPR hired the station's Director of Development and On-Air fund-raising manager/producer, and gave her the job of teaching other NPR affiliate stations how to do what KUHF does so well.

Shumate's biggest job will be to bring a nearly dead public TV station back to life, and given her experience in TV management, I think she can do it.
 
I was told a story about a meeting where KUHF staff was invited to meet with KUHT staff to discuss ways to improve the TV programming several years ago. A KUHF staffer suggested doing some research to see what the audience found entertaining and was shot down immediately by the TV brass: "Our job is to educate, not entertain."

It sums up what's been wrong with channel 8 for a long time. I can't tell you the last time my remote stopped on KUHT. It's to the point where I forget it's there.
 
There has been a number of those meetings over the past four or five years. Because of my work hours, I managed to avoid them, but the story you tell has the ring of truth to it.
 
When I think of KUHT, I think of Lawrence Welk. Now THAT is education!

The whole thing will be a train wreck.
 
Will be a train wreck?

It already is a train wreck, and that's what Shumate has been hired to fix. I expect her to follow the examples of some of the very successful public TV stations around the country. Those stations buy a lot of PBS programming, but they also have very strong local programs.

Her first job will be to rebuild the station's membership and donor base, and that's not going to be easy. A lot of longtime supporters have bailed out in recent years because of the station's endemic mediocrity.

As the donor base regrows and funding increases, Shumate will be able to focus on rebuilding KUHT's local identity, which will in turn attract old and new donors. They need to be able to project "Quality" to Houston viewers, because that's what will build success.
 
I guess I was assuming that the radio would be run like the TV, which would be a train wreck if that were to occur. Hopefully, things will go better than that.
 
Shumate is a veteran programming manager in commercial TV, and she has the good sense to not try to fix something that isn't broken. KUHF is one of the most successful public radio stations in the country, and it got that way because it is very good at raising money and giving listeners what they want to hear. They even bought another radio station so they could give listeners the full universe of public radio news/information programs and classical music 24/7..

My point is that I think Shumate will leave KUHF and KUHA pretty much alone, and let them continue doing what they're doing. We know KUHF will be expanding its news and information programming, with more focus on local news and issues, and that's worthwhile, but she would be an idiot to make any radical changes at KUHF, and I don't think she's an idiot.
 
Seems like KUHF came in just behind KTRH is the last Arbitron release. Can't recall what the exact numbers were but it was pretty impressive that they caught up to them like they did. So, yes. KUHF is doing pretty good as a news station goes.
 
I expect KUHF's numbers to get even better now that KTRH is officially out of the news and information business.

KUHF is now Houston's only station completely devoted to news and information.
 
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