Shannon Galofaro
A speech was presented to the Pierce College community by Doug Mitchell Wednesday,
a former radio voice of NPR radio. It is apparent why he is now known as “the former”
career coach and project manager of the Washington, D.C. based radio station.
This is a story of a not so successful creator of NPR’s online radio station.
He is now an “independent” Journalist. Meaning the radio is still alive. But is he?
Is this man paid to motivate students? If so I want my money back!
The future of the “next generation” radio is unknown.
“It won’t exist in its current state,” said Mitchell. “I’m not taking on any new clients.”
I have yet to see a business of any kind survive without taking on any new clients.
This un-inspiring speech was presented in the Great Hall and stole over an hour
of my life unfortunately, can’t get back.
If you have any common sense at all, it’s not necessary to sit through an hour long
speech to know that you must try something to accomplish it.
He should currently and successfully be running a radio station before giving advice to
anybody, let alone the Pierce community.
Taking advice from Mitchell is like taking diet advice from a fat man.
“It’s all about the relationship you’ve built and maintaining that relationship,” said Mitchell.
Well… duh!!
On the other hand, he did give us very helpful Web sites to go to self-market. One
particular site was linkedin.com.
“There’s 60 million people there, you should be there,” said Mitchell.
Transom.org and airmedia.org are a couple of other Web sites he encouraged us to visit.
The four steps Mitchell recommends to students when job hunting is, first and foremost,
have public records of your work. Then research the place you are applying to, also be
sure to bring it to the attention of the company of interest that you have researched
them. Next you must always be honest, with yourself and your potential employer. Last
but not least, “never get discouraged,” said Mitchell.
You are probably wondering how this “successful” career coach and project manager of
a radio station ended up at our school.
Mitchell landed at Pierce College as a result of the hard work of Natalie Yemenidjian,
Pierce radio station manager.
They were both at an Online News Association Conference in San Francisco.
Yemenidjian approached Mitchell and spoke about Internet radio and exchanged
personal information. She contacted Mitchell within hours of their meeting. Her amazing
follow up skills were intriguing to Mitchell.
I really do appreciate Mitchell taking the time to speak to the Pierce community about how
to successfully self-market. As a full-time student dedicated to my education I honestly
believe that you are only as good as your advisor. I would feel more comfortable taking
advice from a more successful broadcast journalist.
If you don’t trust my word, I encourage you to look Mitchell up yourself and make your
own decision. He can be contacted via email at nextgenerationradio@gmail.com and
twitter@nextgeneration.com.
—sgalofaro.roundupnews@gmail.com
