It’s a problem that a lot of businesses and industries are facing. Recruitment. The broadcasting industry is no different.
Terry Stevenson, the Vice President of Seehafer Broadcasting and a member of the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association’s Legislative Committee, was recently in Washington D.C. where he and the Committee spoke with federal leaders on the topic.
Stevenson tells us “It’s a real struggle,” as a lack of workers has been devastating to the broadcasting industry.
“There are a lot of radio stations that are being forced to close, or not continue because they don’t have the people,” he explained.
Terry and his cohorts met not only with legislators but also with the FCC to make sure they were fully aware of the issue.
In fact, Seehafer Broadcasting is not immune to it either.
“Here at our company, when I started 20 years ago and we only had two radio stations, we had four, five, six sales people,” he revealed. “Now we are down to one, two.”
And that is with six stations running out of one building.
Also, that’s only the sales department.
Other departments within our building are short-staffed, including the news department.
As for how the government can help, Stevenson said it’s simple.
Stop implementing new regulations.
“We are doing the best we can just to continue to serve our communities,” he said. “We are a regulated industry, where part of our regulation is we need to serve our community. Let us do that, but we are also trying to find people to keep doing that.”
The WBA also requested that Congress pass legislation that would ensure increased access to capital and diverse representation in broadcast station ownership, such as the Broadcast VOICES Act, and the Expanding Broadcast Ownership Opportunities Act.
Terry said that he and his team had some “good conversations” with the leadership team at the FCC.
Tomorrow we will cover one more subject they brought up in Washington, how big tech is damaging broadcasting.
