Vacancies and Recruitment

1. Job Title: Resource Manager
   Date Filled: 6/29/07
   Number of interviewees: 4
   
   Recruitment sources:
   UB Jobs
   BuffaloNiagaraJobs.com
   New York State Department of Labor
   Hispanics of Buffalo
   Buffalo Urban League, Inc.
   Department of Mental Health
   County of Erie Office of Public Advocacy
   YWCA
   Native American Community Services
   International Institute of Buffalo
   Commission for the Blind & Visually Handicapped
   Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 77
   NYS Education Department
   Buffalo News
   UB External Affairs staff listservws
   
   Referral source:UB Jobs site
   
   
2. Job Title: Producer-Reporter Buffalo Avenues/Buffalo Music Project
   Date Filled: 9-25-07
   Number of interviewees: 3
   
   Recruitment sources:
   UB Jobs
   BuffaloNiagaraJobs.com
   UniversityJobs.com
   HigherEdJobs.com
   JobSearch.org
   UB Alumni Relations website
   UB External Affairs staff listserv
   
   Referral source: UB Jobs site
   
   
3. Job Title: Talent Producer/Music Reporter/Buffalo Music Project
   Date Filled: 9-25-07
   Number of interviewees: 3
   
   Recruitment sources:
   UB Jobs
   BuffaloNiagaraJobs.com
   UniversityJobs.com
   HigherEdJobs.com
   JobSearch.org
   UB Alumni Relations website
   UB External Affairs staff listserv
   
   Referral source: UB Jobs site

Outreach Activities
WBFO's EEO outreach activities during the period covered by this report include:

• Career Fair
  
  WBFO is a participant, co-host and co-sponsor of NYSBA Broadcasting Career Fair, 2005, 2006 and 2007. The New York State Broadcasters Association helps WBFO prepare and identify people looking for a broadcasting career through their web site and career fair. The NYSBA seeks to guide individuals to career opportunities and describe the media work environment.
  David Benders, Program Director
  Mike McKay, Underwriting Sales Associate
  
  
• Internships
  
  College students at the University at Buffalo and local colleges are sought for WBFO’s internship program, which is designed to provide young candidates with an opportunity to learn about radio broadcasting and its supporting areas while providing meaningful and practical professional experience.
  David Benders, Program Director
  Gabe DiMaio, Assistant Program Director/Producer
  Mark Scott, News Director
  Kelli Bocock-Natale, Community Relations Associate
  
  
• Job Tours
  
  WBFO-FM provides tours to the community who are interested in learning about all aspects of communication and public broadcasting. Throughout the year, tours are provided upon request to local k-12 students, scout troops, and other students interested in visiting the station. For example in July, 2007 some 35 minority high school students attending the University at Buffalo Office for University Preparatory Programs (OUPP) Pre-Collegiate Program visited WBFO offices and studios as part of their educational enrichment program that prepares inner city, minority, female and other under-represented students for careers in science, engineering, and technology.
  
  
• Part-time jobs
  
  WBFO and the University at Buffalo provide opportunities for Federal Work Study students on a part-time basis to work in several areas throughout the station. These positions provide an excellent opportunity for college students to earn income while acquiring necessary skills for continued employment in the industry. These students work in various departments that include general office, production, development, special events and music library.
  
  
• Speaking
  
  Over the past year, several staff members participated in community events and activities to promote the continued interest in careers in Broadcasting. These activities included staff attending and participating in career days. For example, Mark Scott, News Director, speaking at St. Bonaventure University, and Mike McKay, Underwriting Associate, speaking at Medaille. Also staff speak individually with college and college-bound students interested in broadcast careers as requested.
  
  
• Special news activity and reporting
  
  WBFO won 11 awards from the New York State Associated Press Broadcasters Association in 2007 -- including a Special mention for Best Enterprise Reporting with the story "Rosa," in which Eileen Buckley talked frankly with activist Rosa Gibson about her tireless efforts to eliminate the blight in her East Side Buffalo neighborhood.

  Other news stories and activity WBFO reported on from the community that might otherwise be unaware of public broadcasting:
  
  

  • Alvin Ailey -- feature interview and report on the African-American cultural expression and the American modern dance tradition to the world’s stages. Alvin Ailey performed at Shea's Performing Arts Center.
  • Women and Child Care -- reporting a new, local study finds that child care is an important part of Buffalo's economy. The Cornell study, "Buffalo Child Care Means Business," examines the strong need for quality child care in the city.
  • Diversity and Buffalo Mayor Brown -- reporting Mayor Brown says he plans to launch a new program called Neighborhoods of Choice.
  • Diversity and Human Rights -- report on The International Institute of Buffalo with its foreign affairs program topic on war crimes. Elise Keppler, Counsel to the International Justice Program of the Human Rights Watch is featured.
  • Diversity and justice -- feature report on the racial comments of radio talk show host Don Imus about the Rutgers University women's basketball team. Imus has been suspended for two weeks. In Buffalo, two women working to promote the accomplishments of African-American woman (co-founders of Buffalo's Uncrowned Queens) say his remarks were not only racist, but sexist.
  • Community crime and peace, non violence -- featured report about the tragic murder of a Roman Catholic nun, Sister Karen Klimczak was murdered by a parolee living at the Bissonette House where she worked on the city's segregated east side. Since the murder, her message of peace and non violence has been distributed across Western New York and even the world. Those who were close to Sister Karen reflect on her work one year later.
  • Poverty and soup kitchen -- Poverty levels in the city of Niagara Falls are almost double the national average. But a soup kitchen continues to reach out to the growing number of poor. Heart, Love and Soul on Ontario Avenue in the Falls is celebrating its 25th anniversary with an annual fundraising and recognition dinner tomorrow night. WBFO'S Eileen Buckley recently visited this popular soup kitchen finding out that it is not just serving meals.
  • African American history -- The Uncrowned Queens has started a national project. They are helping to collect and preserve the history of African American women in Oklahoma and Western New York.
  • Literacy -- reporting on the Junior League of Buffalo, which recently selected Literacy Volunteers of Buffalo and Erie County as its new community project. WBFO'S Eileen Buckley met with the leaders of the Junior League and Literacy Volunteers executive director about this collaboration.
  • Women -- A group of women in Allegany County came up with a unique way of supporting those diagnosed with breast cancer. They created what is known as the "Women of SWILL" calendar. As WBFO'S Eileen Buckley learns, this calendar tackles a serious topic in a revealing manner.
  
  
• Special public events activity and interviews
  
  WBFO's Meet the Author series
  The purpose of Meet the Author is to create a public square within our public radio community and the Western New York community. The series features contemporary writers and interesting books for open, thoughtful discussion. Each live broadcast includes a reading from the author, a provocative interview of the author by the host, and questions from the studio audience. A reception follows featuring a book signing, thus giving the author opportunity to speak one-on-one with studio audience. Every Meet the Author event is free and open to the public.

  Examples:
  

  • Author Susan Eaton, The Children in Room E4: American Education on Trial. In a country long divided by race and class, Eaton investigates if separate can ever really be equal.
  • Author Jeremy Schaap, Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler's Olympics
  • Author Karolyn Smardz Frost, I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of The Underground Railroad
  • Author Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History
  • Author Ben Ratliff, Coltrane: The Story of a Sound
  • Author Scott E. Casper, Sarah Johnson's Mount Vernon: The Forgotten History of an American Shrine
  • Author Louis P. Masur, The Soiling of Old Glory, The Story of a Photograph That Shocked America (coming June 10th.) Masur’s evocative “biography of a photograph” unpacks this arresting image in a tour de force of historical writing. The photograph offers a dramatic window onto the turbulence of the 1970s and race relations in America.
  
  
• Special music activity and community presence
  
  In 2007 WBFO expand on-air access to musicians from Western New York with the New York State Music Fund Grant. Two components provide more people with access to and awareness of the station and station activities; many not traditionally drawn to NPR public broadcasting. "Buffalo Avenues" reviews live music in Western New York from venues outside of the WBFO studios. By seeing our additional interviews-reporters out in the community as they visit venues new people come into contact with the idea of public radio. A second program presents free, live concerts weekly supporting music education and appreciation for the benefit of New York State residents. These program ideas are part of our on-going efforts to develop and serve new audiences within the Buffalo, Niagara and Southern Tier communities.

WBFO Community Partners

• UB Distinguished Speaker Series
• Rockwell Performing Artists Series, Buffalo State College
• Buffalo and Erie County Arts Council
• Elmwood Avenue Gallery District
• Center for the Arts, University at Buffalo
• Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society
• Kenan Center
• Lewiston Council on the Arts
• Reg Lenna Civic Center, Jamestown
• Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts
• AIDS Community Services of Western New York
• University at Buffalo Art Galleries
• Road Less Traveled Productions