PMJA CONFERENCE CANCELED • A STORY OF HOPE & A STORY OF LOSS

The Public Media Journalists Association (PMJA) announced on Thursday (4/2) that it is canceling the organizations annual conference scheduled for June 25-27 in Seattle. 

Terry Gildea, PMJA Executive Director, said in a notification sent to PMJA members:

“We are deeply disappointed as we reach this conclusion. The health and safety of our members and conference participants remains our top priority. We believe it’s impossible for us to facilitate an in-person conference this year.”

PMJA also said that anyone who registered for the conference or purchased a conference sponsorship has been offered options for refunding or holding their payments toward future events. People made reservations at the conference hotel will receive a confirmation email verifying the cancellation.

If you need more information, please contact Terry Gildea, at terry@pmja.org, 801-556-1904, or Christine Paige Diers, PMJA Business Manager, christine@pmja.org, 605-490-3033.

Attention now shifts to Greater Public’s upcoming Public Media Development and Marketing Conference (PMDMC), scheduled for July 21-24 in Atlanta. 

There has been no public statement by PMDMC [link] about the plans for their conference, so we assume that it still on. 

We will keep you informed if the conference status changes.

The PRPD Content Conference, scheduled for September 14-17 in New Orleans, is also still on. Abby Goldstein, President and Executive Director of PRPD. sent us the latest news via email:

It’s still too early for us to make a decision about the conference. I am communicating frequently with our conference planning team and we are monitoring activities within the conference industry. We would normally open registration in May, so we’re keeping an eye on how things unfold in the next four weeks.

SPARK NEWS IS TAKING A BREAK NEXT WEEK

Your humble publisher

We will not be publishing new posts next week, April 6-10. New posts will return on Monday, April 13^th.

Though we won’t be posting next week, we will be working all week while being safely sequestered  in our Minneapolis apartment. 

You can contact us anytime – in fact we would appreciate any distraction.

We will update our conference status chart if/when there are changes. In the meantime, we are encouraging random acts of kindness.

A STORY OF HOPE FROM SEATTLE

KEXP morning show host John Richards works in the main DJ booth

during his show, with a reflection of an empty Gathering Space

and courtyard at Seattle Center reflected in the window.

(Photo by Steve Ringman The Seattle Times)

We saw a wonderful article about John Richards, morning host on KEXP, in The Seattle Times [link]. Here is the part of that story:

HEADLINE: Live from Quarantine City: KEXP’s steady voices ‘see us through’ coronavirus pandemic

PUBLISHED: April 1, 2020 at 6:00am

John Richards is used to beating the crowd. KEXP’s longtime man in the morning typically strolls into the station’s Seattle Center offices well before its public-facing Gathering Space opens.

By the time La Marzocco’s baristas start slinging their first espressos across the room, Richards is already an hour into his drive-time show.

But these days there is no crowd. The stream of laptop-toters and curious tourists who normally give KEXP’s spiffy, 4-year-old headquarters its pulse are gone, chased out by the global COVID-19 crisis that’s upended life in Seattle and across the world.

“It’s like I’m back at KCMU, DJ-ing in the dark,” says Richards, referring to the station’s predecessor and its solitary digs. It is really symbolic, as we DJ, to look upon an empty Gathering Space, an empty courtyard. It reminds us what’s going on. I gotta say, I don’t like it. But it tells me every day this is the world I live in.”

KEXP’s offices are a ghost town, too, with few staffers coming in beyond the DJs, who now rotate between two booths as a safety measure. However, amid the physical isolation of a quarantining city, the community-funded station has been overwhelmed by messages from listeners eager to share their stories and offer words of encouragement. Even for a nonprofit indie station that prides itself on listener engagement, the volume has been high.

On a recent Friday, Richards says he received 500-600 emails and texts — an unprecedented amount that has been flowing in since the beginning of March.

TO READ THE ENTIRE STORY CLICK HERE.

A STORY OF LOSS FROM PITTSBURGH

Stephen Chatman, 1965-2020

We received an email from Mike Sauter, General Manager of WYEP in Pittsburgh. He said in the message:

All of us have been affected by the coronavirus in ways both large and small, but the gravity of the situation really hit home when we started this week with the sad news that a member of the WYEP family passed away due to COVID-19.

Stephen Chatman was the co-founder and host of The Soul Show from its debut in 1995 to 2009. We learned recently that he had tested positive for COVID-19, and on Monday found out that, tragically, Stef didn’t make it.

Mike Sauter

For 14 years, Stephen was a beloved voice on the airwaves every Saturday afternoon, spinning soul and R&B music with a style all his own. I once hosted a program that took place right before Stephen took over the WYEP on-air studio for The Soul Show. 

It was a great joy every week to joke around and have conversations with him about music and the world around us. Stef was a fun guy who loved music dearly.
 

He left an indelible mark on all those who worked with him at WYEP.

YOU CAN READ THE ENTIRE EMAIL BY CLICKING HERE: