“Frankly, there isn’t a lot to change. But Pete and I have a few suggestions that might improve your standing in the area and strengthen your financial foundation too. We’ll go over those with you next week on a video conference call, OK?”
Jack reached out his hand, “Kevin, that’s great. I appreciate your time and look forward to our talk. Pete, thanks for coming up here with Kevin. I think it helped us already. As we prepared for your visit and went through our files, we learned a lot about ourselves. Thank you very much. Drive safe.”
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Jean Marberg was finishing up in the nursery when she saw the car pull into the driveway. She conspired with Jake on setting up a few things for the little guy – some brand-new items and a few things she had as a baby.
“Hello, Emjay. Hi Jake. And whom do we have here?” Jean offered her arms to hold Robert while Emjay sat down and Jake brought the rest of things in from the car.
“Hey, mom. It’s good to see you and nice to be home. The hospital staff was great, but I don’t think I slept more than an hour at a time.”
“I think the nurse’s station has a monitor designed to keep anyone from getting a good night’s sleep.” her mom said. “Don’t worry about it, I’m glad to help as much or as little as you want, it’s up to you.”
“Thanks. I think Bobby should be fine for an hour before he gets hungry again, so why don’t we just talk. Jake? Could you make some tea for mom and me?”
“You got it, babe. How about some cookies to go with it?”
Emjay and Jean replied together, “Of course!”
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“Pete, I’m curious as to what your thoughts are about our friends in Ironwood?”
“I think they are in good position to expand the relationship with their listeners. The on-air programming is solid, but I think the all-request format like we put on WMJM could give the ratings on their FM station a boost. Another thing they could do is strengthen their internet presence with live streaming of area ballgames when they resume, and podcasts.”
“That’s good. I was thinking along those same lines, but how the sales team might bundle the various advertising opportunities, so the station becomes less of a radio station and more of a media company.”
“Excellent, Kevin. They could manage websites for local businesses and coordinate ads across all the various platforms. I think they might need to add a couple people to the staff as it picks up but should be able to move into it gradually. What do you think?”
“I agree. They really can’t add staff now. In fact, the first thing they need to do after the first tweaks is the same thing we did; I want to recommend setting the station up as employee-owned and create a plan to increase pay for staff as revenue increases.”
“Nice.” Pete leaned back in his chair, “Why don’t we meet tomorrow to get our thoughts organized. The day after that, let’s get our presentation together. Sound good?”
“Sure does, thanks Pete.”
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When Jake walked back into the living room with a tray of cookies and a pot of tea, Jean was slowly rocking her first grandson back and forth. Her eyes were locked on Robert as he stared back up at the friendliest face he would ever know.
Emjay poured the tea into cups for mom and herself then settled back in her chair with both hands wrapped around the cup.
“Mom, it looks like you, made a friend.”
“More than a friend, Emjay, you guys made a grandson. In fact, I want to tell you and Jake that I opened a 529 plan for Bobby and plan to do all I can to help him get a college degree with as little debt as possible.”
“Gee, Mom, we haven’t started thinking about pre-school yet, but this is a wonderful and thoughtful gift. It might not mean much to Robert for a long-time, but he will. He will.”
Robert woke back up as the room erupted into laughter, then snuggled back into his grandma’s arms.
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