In the 8th week of my internship at WANM, 90.5, FAMU's radio station, the tasks and responsibilities continue to be an after thought. I find myself delegating only 2-3 hours per week on tasks relating to sales and promotions. Last week I drafted a contact list of record labels in order to seek collateral from them that promotes their artists. 90.5 can use this material as giveaways for homecoming week. I also drafted a contact list and spoke to business owners and managers for potential sponsorship opportunities for the 90.5 School of the Month. This is a activity the radio station hosts, picking a deserving class of students and treating them to a pizza party with interaction with the radio personalities. After those tasks were complete I reported to the promotions assistant. Since then I have not heard anything.
I do enjoy planning the activities and promotional efforts that can be implemented for the radio station, however I think the lack of stucture keeps me from making this internship my first priority. I am mostly concerned with measurable results. It seems as if the ideas and action items I present are not carried out at all, or not in a strict time bracket, which then allows me to busy myself with other things. I wish I was able to interact more with someone in a official leadership role for the radio station where I could be in charge of more meaningful tasks. As far as me learning from this experience, I am gaining practice with intereacting with business owners for sponsorship and becoming more knowledgeable with those companies involved in the music industry.
In my earlier blogs I relayed some very ambitious long-term goals I had hoped to acheive during this internship experience. They were to contribute to all parts of radio in some way, gain new clients for radio sales packages, shadow the operations manager for 90.5 and appear as a guest commentator on one of the variety shows. Of all of these goals, I have not reached one whole-heatedly. I have suggested new businesses to management as well as innovative promotions tactics but they have not been carried out. And I have not yet appeard on any variety show but have contacted two persoanlities to appear sometime this semester. As for the other tasks, time simply has not allowed me to intereact with any other managers outside of promotions. At this point I am a little disapointed and disinterested with my internship. However I am determined to do my best when I can and make this experience meaningful for me in some way.
Lindsey, don't give up. It's really not to late to reach a couple of your goals. Think outside of the box and start helping around the station in whatever capacity you can. If people see you really have an interest in serving the station and not just being that "PR intern," maybe they will be more receptive to your ideas. I happen to know Keith Miles, and he is a very kind man. If you do not get to see him around the station, there's a huge chance you will see him in the hallowed halls of J-School. PR is bigger than press releases, this may be the kind of PR where you need to build relationships, starting with those you work for. I hope I helped a little. I wish all the best for you and I pray this works out for your good.
ReplyDeleteKnowing the type of person that you are, I have the highest expectations of you. Knowing that you've always been the person to go above and beyond the call of duty, I have faith that you'll not only reach all of your planned goals, but you'll be writing out new ones soon. Have faith and know that everything will work out for the best.
ReplyDeleteI know how you feel I oftern feel like that myself but dont give up ! I know that you a great intern just be persistent because I am sure that you are the type of person that the station needs! This is great prep for things you may encounter in the entertainment industry once your doing PR for them so its good practice, better learning how to deal with it now than learning later. :) Keep up the good work !
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