Research/SWOT

Strengths

One of the greatest strengths of The Fortress is that it is locally based. It seeks to cultivate
community relations, broadcast local programming and air news events that focus on
community happenings.

The Fortress is a non-commercial station. This permits the music department to expand
the repertoire of songs and allows for more time for music/entertainment.

The Fortress is an excellent example of a public relations model. The station focuses on
the public relations ideal of building mutually beneficial relationships (see partnerships,
page 2-3).

There is 24/7 streaming opportunity available anywhere at wiwi.fm.

Someone is live on the air from 10 a.m. - 12 a.m. every day.

Weaknesses

There is a lack of maintaining relationships with local businesses due to high turnover
rate of the executive staff.

Technological difficulties exist due to multiple operators.

Internal communication and information is prominently conveyed by word of mouth;

there is a lack of concrete information or written documents.

The staff does not equate with the demographic (the staffs characteristics do not match
the target demographic which is women ages 25-54).

There is a lack of internal information regarding demographics, number of listeners, etc.

o

No previous internal research base

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This is an educational radio facility, first and foremost, rather than a professional radio
station.
o

The staff are college students learning the craft, not professionals

Com lab student inexperience (with board operation as well as on-air talent)

Opportunities

The Fortress can partner with even more Grant County businesses through opportunities
like underwriting and remote broadcast sessions.

Fortress Featured Events - community update program which encourages businesses to

submit events they have going on at their establishment (e.g. VBS, fundraiser dinners)

Texting line - listeners can text the station for song requests, shoutouts, contest entries,
etc.

Adverse event log formation - documents problematic issues that occur at the station
(what went wrong, how was it fixed, who was contacted)

Insert survey link to Facebook page and/or webpage (listener feedback and create
demographic survey)

Threats

Internet radio (Pandora, Spotify, etc.) and satellite radio are threats to FM radio since
they can be streamed anywhere and individualized to the persons tastes

Possibility of Dr. Perry leaving in the near future. Dr. Perry accepting another position
and leaving the University.

KLove out of Ft. Wayne. These overlap in the sense that they are the same music genre
whereas The Fortress is local.

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Objectives
1. To increase number of business partnerships by 25 percent
a. Strategy: Contacting business owners and sustaining an ongoing, two-way
relationship
b. Tactics:
i.

Facebook/Twitter (liking their business on social media)

ii.

Calling

iii.

Face-to-face interaction

iv.

Email (sending press releases)

2. To develop and sustain internal communication efforts

.

Strategy: Creating documentation and updating it regularly

a.

Tactics:

Start recording incidents (documenting technological errors, etc.)

i.

Create a digital rolodex (with community partnerships and IWU partnerships)

3. To adequately train staff and increase their skillsets (including com lab students and
executive staff)
.

Strategy: Increase training time at beginning of the year for executive staff and have more

observations for com lab students

a.

Tactics:

Allocate two days for technical and specific position training for executive staff with one
on one time with Dr. Perry

i.

Assign each of the oncoming/new staff a mentor

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Internal Secondary Research:

What information exists within the organization?
Handbook, format information, policies
Partnerships

Grand Cupcakery

Top Dog Carwash

5 Points Mall

IWU

Cub Scouts Troop

Walkway of Lights

Tree of Life

Grant County Rescue Mission

The Potters House

ADD Answers

Gods House - Center for Success

Tree of Life Church

Angela Herrington

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External Secondary Research:

Competitor: WBCL (90.3)- Wide coverage based in Fort Wayne

o

Schedules to air live events

Competitor: KLove

Competitor: Satellite Radio

o

Typically ad-free

You can listen to whatever you want

STRENGTH: you dont have to subscribe to The Fortress like you do with
satellite radio

Satellite radio can be accessed anywhere around the continent -- were only Grant
County

FM radio has advertisers who pay to have advertisements on the air, which allows them
to stay on the air.

Huge competitor for the FM radio industry is also Pandora, Spotify or other internet
radios
o

Radio is not dying necessarily; its just changing its format to adapt with the
times and what the people want Therefore, The Fortress is somewhat oldfashioned. What efforts are we putting forth to engage with younger people?

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Organizational chart -

** Com Lab students are underneath the directors but are not a part of the executive staff. They
are all students.

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Crisis Communication Project - 94.3 The Fortress

A potential crisis The Fortress staff could experience would be a major fire destroying all
of the key equipment needed to perform a radio broadcast. The fire, which would have to
consume much of the first floor of Elder Hall, would not only destroy the equipment but also
incinerate any documents or files from previous years. The fire would most likely cause dead air
on the station until essential communications were repaired. This would require the staff to move
elsewhere until Elder Hall was inhabitable again. If and when the staff relocated, the General
Manager and Dr. Mark Perry would have to coordinate new schedules and standby until
equipment and procedures were restored.
Most crises are completely unexpected, especially in the case of a fire. Preparing for a
fire is rather difficult, but there are certain steps the staff can take to prevent starting an electrical
fire from the radios equipment. First and foremost, staff should be aware of all fire hazards and
taught how to avoid them at all costs. This could be accomplished with a presentation at the
beginning of every year where Dr. Mark Perry and the General Manager of The Fortress address
the new staff and Com Lab students about safety precautions. These precautions could include
monitoring for any damaged cables or wiring and notifying someone immediately if there is a
concern. The General Manager should also enforce the no food or drinks policy in the on-air
studio. Spilling liquids on any sort of electrical equipment could lead to serious consequences.
Another step would be to train Com Lab students and new staff members on every piece of
equipment they will be using in order to minimize improper usage or accidents.
Because we are renting the space from IWU, the fire code of the rest of the building is
out of our control. Elder Hall should already be following state fire codes in regards to having

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smoke detectors and a designated number of fire extinguishers, but it would be beneficial to
place additional fire extinguishers in fundamental areas of the communication department. For
example, a fire extinguisher should be placed in the on-air studio, which we know someone will
always be occupying between 10 a.m. and midnight. During the safety meeting at the beginning
of the year, the General Manager should inform the students of each of the new extinguisher
locations. Everyone would be made aware of the rules put in place by the fire Marshall as well.
Fortunately, the Fortress already has an organizational chart that can be used in the event
of such emergencies. The General Manager would be the first WIWU staff member contacted
(following the school calling Dr. Fiebig, who calls Dr. Perry), and the rest of the phone tree
would be used to inform the rest of the staff. The remaining individuals of influence would know
within a few hours of the incident. The campus would be notified via emailed announcements,
and other publics would observe the stations Facebook page.
As quickly as possible, we would want the station to broadcast music from the satellite
feed that is used when no one is live in the on-air studio. This would still take time, but it would
be cost effective and better than having dead air. Wed also need to replace the stations
equipment in a timely manner. This is extremely expensive, and it is very unlikely that we would
receive full reimbursement from IWU for the lost and damaged items. The station should have
all of the equipment insured, and that could potentially cut the costs. Unfortunately, the
equipment we currently have is outdated and not worth as much as most modern equipment, so
there is still a discrepancy we would have to make up. To help, we could have a Save the
Fortress fundraising event, calling on former staff members, the community, families, IWU
donors, etc. to donate money that would help in purchasing up-to-date equipment for the new
radio station. We could also ask some local radio stations if they have any equipment they are

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looking to get rid of. There is also an opportunity to capitalize on whatever press coverage we
would get and ask the writers to include the fundraising event information in their articles. They
would show people they care about the community, and we would get free publicity. The price of
the total replacement of equipment would be entirely dependent on where we found the
equipment, and how much it cost. Unfortunately, there is no standard, and when trying to go as
cheap as possible with large equipment, searching in catalogs is not really an option.
As for the station itself, the best place to move it would be to Center Hall. The Computer
Science program used some space there for years before moving to Ott, and the art students do
not occupy the entire building. The location is obviously less than ideal, but its readily available
space that would not be a burden to relocate to. The antenna might pose a technical issue, and we
would have to work around that. (Center Hall is very flat. Were not sure how much extra
infrastructure has to exist for it to broadcast.) But that could be fixed by finding a suitable
location and setting up a Virtual Private Network between the computer controlling the antenna
and the computer in the On-Air Studio. This would allow the antennas computer to be
controlled as though it were in the same physical space.
Upon having new equipment, we would have to move it into whatever space we would be
occupying, which would be a lengthy and intensive process. We could see if there were any
talented carpenters of the community willing to help us design the new On-Air Studio. A portion
of the fundraising money would go to hiring a professional carpenter. Dr. Perry and members of
the WIWU staff/IT department would help us get all the pieces of the station in broadcasting
order, and hopefully we would get the station in working order as soon as possible.

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Plan
Situation
The Fortress needs improved and more effective communication efforts, both with Grant County
community members and within the staff.
Objectives
1. To increase number of business partnerships by at least 25 percent
a. Strategy: Contacting business owners and sustaining an ongoing, two-way
relationship
b. Tactics:
i. Facebook/Twitter (liking their business on social media)
ii. Calling
iii. Face-to-face interaction
iv. Email (sending press releases)
2. To develop and sustain internal communication efforts
a. Strategy: Creating documentation and updating it regularly
b. Tactics:
i. Start recording incidents (documenting technological errors, etc.)
ii. Create a digital rolodex (with community partnerships and IWU
partnerships)
3. To adequately train staff and increase their skillsets (including com lab students and
executive staff)
a. Strategy: Increase training time at beginning of the year for executive staff and
have more observations for com lab students

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b. Tactics:
i. Allocate two days for technical and specific position training for executive
staff with one on one time with Dr. Perry
ii. Assign each of the oncoming/new staff a mentor

Audience
Grant County business owners and Fortress staff
Calendar/Timetable
Some of the strategies can be implemented once materials are produced. The revamped training
efforts will begin at the beginning of the 2015 academic year. We plan to have contacted at least
four Grant County businesses by April 20. Well also schedule a time with Dr. Perry in the
coming weeks to discuss training efforts.
Budget
This plan is cost-effective and should not require a budget. If a budget is necessary, it will be of
minimal cost to the station.
Evaluation
We will evaluate the effectiveness of our plan by counting the number of partnerships we have at
the end of the semester as opposed to the beginning. In order to evaluate training efforts, The
Fortress should document the number of recorded incidents in the next several months. If the
training efforts were effective, there will be a lesser amount of incidents.

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Fundraising Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Mark Perry

March 16, 2015

Phone: 765-677-1838
Email: 94.3@indwes.edu

MARION, Ind. -- Due to a fire that destroyed Indiana Wesleyan Universitys Elder Hall on
March 15, 94.3 The Fortress has lost all of its equipment and offices. The radio station will be
decommissioned until the equipment necessary for broadcast is replaced.

We lost all of our facilities, Dr. Mark Perry, professor of broadcast media at IWU said. We
would love for you to partner with us to rebuild The Fortress.

In response to fire, the staff of 94.3 The Fortress will host a charity concert March 21 at Abbey
Coffee Co. from 5 to 8 p.m. The concert will feature student musicians from Indiana Wesleyan
and Taylor universities.

Ten percent of every drink order at the event will go directly to the replacement of WIWU
equipment. There will also be an area for charitable donations.

###

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Email Template for Connecting with Business Owners

Dear [business owner],
Hello, my name is [name] and I am the [position] at 94.3 FM The Fortress a radio
stations serving Grant County. We strive to serve the community by connecting our audience
with positive music, presence at community events, connections with churches and other means.
We also believe in creating relations with several Grant County businesses, and wed like you to
be a part of that.
By connecting with you, we hope to learn more about your business and the word you do.
We also hope to start featuring you on our weekly community update program, Fortress Featured
Events. FEE is a chance for businesses to share about any of their upcoming events, fundraisers
or outreach programs on the air.
If youd like more information on FEE or creating a relationship with us, please email me
back. Wed love to connect with you. You can also call us a t 765-677-1838.

Thank you,
[Name]

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