A new report published by the website Current.org focused on the high amount of burnout and turnover at public radio stations across the country.
The report said stations are struggling to retain employees at their public media outlets. Data from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting showed around 18,077 employees worked in some capacity for a public radio broadcaster in January 2022, about 1,150 fewer than the number reported two years prior.
Current.org said university-licensed public radio stations might have restrictions on who they can hire, which could impact the ability to draw in qualified candidates and keep them at an outlet. Some may have policies, like restriction on remote working, that could also discourage prospective workers, the website said.
At some stations, vacancies have been left open for a significant amount of time, and outlets are having a tough time finding people who are interested in applying for them.
The issue is particularly problematic in small- and medium-sized markets, Current.org said, where one executive said staffing levels aren’t able to keep up with the public’s appetite for news and information.
“Most people that are drawn to journalism want to go home at the end of the day really feeling like they’ve accomplished something and not feeling like they’re just putting out fires,” Jim Rondeau, the general manager of KLCC (89.7 FM) in Eugene, told the website. “And I think that the workload has led people to just feel like they’re just running from one thing to another without a lot of achievement.”
To read the full story at Current.org, go HERE.
