MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF TRENT RADIO, held at Private Dining Room at Peter Robinson College, Trent University, Peterboro, Ontario, on Thursday, 17 November 1995 at 7 p.m. P R E S E N T : Mia Biasicci, Andrew Cousins, and Harrison J Windeler, being Directors of the Corporation, Also Present: Kristina Rawlings (Radio Drama Animator), Barb Woolner (Programme Director), and John K Muir (General Mgr) The meeting was called to order with Andrew Cousins acting as Chair, and Harrison Windeler acting as Secretary. With three of the four directors being present in person and Brenda Sedgwick not having a telephone, and thus not able to be found or given notice, the meeting was declared regularly constituted. An agenda was agreed upon and discussion followed. Previous Minutes; Previous minutes from summer meeting not available at this time. Harrison shall put the minutes he has on computer disc and submit them to Trent Radio. It was noted at this time that the major item of business for that meeting was to determine a severance agreement with Rob Phillips, who had served Trent Radio in the capacity of Manager for six years. Trent Radio Corporate Seal It is missing. Harrison recalles Rob sending out to be repaired late last spring. Christmas Shutdown Trent Radio shall cease broadcast operations on 18 Dec 94 for three weeks, signing on in the new year on 9 Jan 95. Staff shall take two week off and be back in the office on 3 Jan 95, excepting Jeff Stewart who shall start back on 9 Jan 95. John will look at changing the lock to the doors over the shut down. Sundry Equipment Purchase Policy It was noted that we no longer have any of the cheap handheld taperecorders that have been purchased in earlier years. Loss and damage appear to be the culprits. It might be a wise idea to put half the cost of machines for particular individuals and put these machines in their care and control so long as they are producing programming for Trent Radio. At the end of the broadcast season these machines shall become these individuals property. Purchase of hand held cassette recorder costing $120 was discussed. John Andrews, News Co-ordinator shall put up $50.00 towards the purchase price of this machine and shall use it in his capacity as News Co-ordinator until the end of the broadcast season (19 May 1995) at which time the unit becomes his own property. The net cost to Trent Radio shall be about $70 including taxes, and this is to help facilitate the production of college news, lectures and other spoken word foreground material. Peterboro Computer Contra Spots Trent Radio is thus far delinquent on its commitment to Peterborough Computers to produce and air commercial spots per the arrangements made by Andrew Cousins regarding the purchase of the 486 cpu. It was note at this time that Chris McNally shall be approached to produce these spots which are to air three times daily for forty weeks. Program Director's report received and accepted. Unpaid community & corporate memberships discussed. Only three paid up to date. Balance will be solicited. General Manager's Report Report and Budget not yet completed - in process. In brief; Money There appeared to be about $279.75 run up on "Call-A-Cab" taxi service account. Some of these charges were needless. Also a former programmer had tried to charge Trent Radio's university account for use of the Geography van - $600.00/2,900 km. This has been cleared up with the Geography department and Trent Radio will not be charged. There were also about $100.00 in needless long distance charges made during the summer by the same person. The party has been telephoned in Toronto but will not return the calls. One of the upstairs tenants is still in arrears with rent but has made considerable strides to catch up since summer 1994. The Red Dog Tavern has an outstanding debt with us for advertising dating back to 1992 in the amount of $1,350. There is still some Community Radio Outreach Programme (CROP - Provincial) grant money left over - this is being used toward paying our Programme Director. Will look into pursuing further governemnt grants available. Power Increase & Protected Frequency We have been in contact with John Matthews recently. Mr. Matthews has sent us a brief of completed work for Trent Radio. It was noted at this time that in spite of some concerns regarding delays in executing the applications John Matthews services shall be secured to proceed with the work. Operational Concerns 89.5 hrs./wk. on air at present. The on air studio (Studio A) is being used in the afternoon for production as Studio B is out of commission. John Muir and Harrison John W. agreed to endeavour to have it up and running by beginning to January 1995 programming. Logger tape machine Problems with logger not running when it should be. CKCU (Radio Carleton) licence period was reduced at renewal as they were unable to provide CRTC with logger tapes - a sobering reminder of importance of this procedure ... John Muir and H. John to help retrain operators and appropriate programmers in concert with Programme Director. A VHS system has been looked into and rejected at this time. Archives Shortly after 15 August 1995 the main computer crashed and the data for the archives has been severely corrupted. There may be problem with with the version of "DBaseIV" we have and we may have to switch to "DBase III+". The repair of the data will be done by the General Manager but is not a high priority given that the year end and budget has yet to be completed. It was noted that there continues to be a high rate of theft from the music archives so far this season. Also there seems to be a lack of diversity in the type or style of music coming in to station John Muir was thanked for the General Manager's report Annual General Meeting It is anticipated that the Annual General Meeting shall be held on Wednesday, January 25th, 1995. Nominating committee shall be Mia Biascussi, Andrew Cousins and Barb Woolner. ___________________________ _________________________ Andrew Cousins, President H J Windeler, Secretary ------ Programme Director's Report - Barb Woolner direction partnership programming is the most important BROADCAST HOURS - evening programming; 5 - 11pm Monday to Friday began September 6; experienced programmers only - by end of September, evening schedule more formallized present broadcasting hours are: Monday 9:00am - 12:00 noon; 5:00pm - 2:00am Tuesday 7:00am - 12:00 noon; 5:00pm - 2:00am Wednesday 7:00am - 12:00 noon; 5:00pm - 2:00am Thursday 7:00am - 12:00 noon; 5:00pm - 2:00am Friday 7:00am - 1:30 pm 5:00pm - 2:00am Saturday 10:00am - 2:00 am Sunday8:00am - 2:00am total broadcast 89.5 hours (only hours prior to midnight included) problems: *the production studio is not functioning *lack of enough "quality" programming ideas to fill a day long schedule. PROGRAMME SELECTION - updated programme proposal was prepared - all potential programmers filled out a proposal outlining their ideas for a programme - one evening a group reviewed and categorized proposals - potential programmers had an "interview" at which the expandeding on the proposal; other ideas and suggestions were given problems: *one person doing bulk of selection - very tiring! not everyone may be comfortable speaking with that one person *initially lack of "quality" programme ideas; "so old, same old" too many boys wanting to play "alternative" music *the process of writing an idea may not be suitable for all ie literacy skills or "creative undefinable ideas" TRAINING - studio training by experienced programmers - trainers used a guide which outlined topics to cover - training time varied from 45 min to 2 1/2 hours problems: *not all trainees learned the same things; perhaps two trainings necessary or a "sit in" *importance of logger needs to be stressed OPERATORS - each night (5 - 10pm) there is a volunteer who assists in the running of the station; assisting programmers, fielding phone calls and a thousand other tasks that arise problems: *how do we thank operators? RADIO PROJECTS - special broadcasts including On-Air Open house and Remembrance Day Programming (TWO planned for December) - a volunteer organizes the day with assistance from PD - opportunity for community members and non-regular programmmers to participate - "increase awareness of the power and potential of radio" problems: *burn-out; a lot of work for one or two people to organize *additional tech assistance needed MUSIC - Brian Hughes is music archivist; catalogues and labels all new material - a diversity of music genres on air - programmers have been asked to include 15mins of "forground programming" problems: *lack of music direction *recording companies driving me crazy! RADIO DRAMA - Kristina Rawlings (OSWP) and Tony Ross work with a 6 member group to produce radio shorts PUBLICITY - articles to the Arthur on a regular basis - radio schedule for distribution being produced - Gopher site on the Trent system OTHER EXCITING TIDBITS - participated in the NCRA day of action to protest the CRTC censorship decision for CKDU Halifax - Trent Radio weekly news programme hosted by Kristina Rawlings - continue to air programmes produced by others involved in radio incl, Alternative Radio, Global Rendez Vous, Earth Chronicles Radio Project and Women's International News Gathering Service - two radio projects planned for December (December 6 memorial and issues of violence towards women; radio art - radio plays, sound collage...) prepared 17 Nov 1994/bdw