A search committee headed by James Tidwell, chair of the journalism department, interviewed the first of four candidates, selected from a pool of 30, to potentially fill the position of general manager for WEIU FM & TV.

Kent Weiland, Station Manager for WKAR-TV (PBS) at Michigan State University, was the first of the candidates to visit Eastern on Thursday.

Howard Meagle, a partner at Heartland Marketing in Memphis, Tenn., will meet with the search committee today.

Tidwell said the committee is looking for someone who knows the television business, who has had management experience at a television station – PBS experience is a plus – and someone who is comfortable with and adept at fundraising.

Tidwell said all four candidates the committee is bringing in have the needed skills and have had the sort of experiences that would qualify them to fill the position.

“We’re just trying to determine who would fit best,” Tidwell said.

Tidwell said he, and the other members of the committee, were very happy with the quality of the pool.

Ke’an Armstrong, publicity manager, Linda Kingery, programming manager and Kelly Runyon, news director, will all report directly to the new general manager.

All agreed that the ability to attract membership and raise funding for WEIU are of the utmost importance, but Runyon best summed up their feelings.

“There are many agencies and organizations in dire need of financial support, and public television is just one of those,” Runyon said. “So, I definitely think that we need someone that will be a champion in securing, maintaining and tapping into other funding sources – it’s vital for our survival.”

Tidwell said for a PBS station, memberships, pledges and underwriting is key; federal funding through the corporation for public broadcasting is not guaranteed.

“That’s an area WEIU needs to maybe bolster, and so the new general manager will play a major role in determining where external funds come from,” Tidwell said.

Tidwell said, among PBS stations, WEIU is unique in its level of student participation.

“So many public broadcasting stations conducted at universities are really fully-professional operations where students need not come around – students don’t get involved – and WEIU is a completely different model where students play a major role in productions, in the newscast and so forth,” Tidwell said.

Tidwell said the radio and TV center has two primary purposes; one is to act as a lab for journalism and communications studies students, and the second is community outreach.

“We want to make sure that the new general manager is supportive of that model,” Tidwell said. “Why have a TV station if it doesn’t have an educational purpose.”

Runyon said she is looking for someone who has passion for the station and its mission, as all of the staff does.

“I’m also looking for someone who can act as a good liaison between the station and the community,” Runyon said.

The two other candidates will meet with the committee next week; Jack Neal, Station Manager for KUHT-TV (PBS) at the University of Houston, on Tuesday and Phil Zeni, Vice President of Development for WTVP-TV (PBS) in Peoria, on Thursday.

Jason Hardimon can be reached at 581-7942 or at jrhardimon2@eiu.edu