10 Minutes at Annual Meeting with Tom Burton, WHRO, Chief Development Officer
How long have you been working in Public Television?
15 years
Can you share with us details about a project you’re currently working on that really excites you?
WHRO is implementing a station wide CRM tool to provide an organization-wide platform for collecting and sharing information. Development is the first group to be integrated into that new system – so exciting!
What was your favorite or most useful part/session of Annual Meeting?
Always enjoy the personal ‘recharge’ that results from the annual meeting. Exciting new programs, important services and a large group of professionals who truly care – it’s very powerful.
What is your biggest Annual Meeting takeaway… that you’ll incorporate in your work back at your station?
We’re ramping up conversations about the continuing evolution of on-air pledge, the importance of continuous messaging about the need for station support, and the creative ways stations are changing.
What is your favorite PBS series or program?
PBS NewsHour. So very important.
If you could switch places with any PBS character, who would it be and why?
Probably the little kid who peers out of the PBS Kids logo, if he qualifies as a ‘PBS character’. Imagine how proud you’d be to be associated with and to represent such important and loved programming.
On days that you’re feeling a little tired or overwhelmed, and you imagine going ‘off-the-grid’… what is your ideal situation? Where do you go?
Off the grid? Does it really exist? Actually, I’ve ALWAYS found that instead of some of the thousands of fields that I might have wound up in, I’m so lucky to have wound up in public media development where I’m always be able to get ‘untired’ or ‘unoverwhelmed’ by remembering how important PBS is and how so many families across America agree. Powerful stuff.
