Carol Cox: You're gonna love my conversation with Judith
Smelser, president and GM of Central Florida
Public Media, about not only the importance
of local journalism and local stories,
but also how authenticity is the best way to
get through imposter syndrome.
On this episode of the Speaking Your Brand
podcast. Hi, and welcome to the Speaking Your
Brand podcast. I'm your host,
Carol Cox. Today I have a very special guest.
Judith Smelser is president and general
manager of Central Florida Public Media.
Now, you may be wondering what exactly a
public media organization is.
We're going to get into that.
We're also going to talk about her earlier
career as a reporter and a journalist.
What got her to be president of Central
Florida Public Media, the things that she has
learned along the way,
especially being a woman leader.
And I know you're really going to want to
tune in to that.
We'll talk about the importance of
storytelling, of course,
the importance of public media now more than
ever. And I'm also going to ask you to a
little bit about the speaking engagements
that she does, because I know you're going to
want to hear how she goes about thinking
about and preparing for her speaking
engagements. I met Judith because she was the
speaker back in February of an organization
that I'm a member of here in Orlando,
Florida, called Florida Executive Women.
And as soon as I heard Judith talk about the
importance of public media and her role as
president, I knew that I wanted to have her
on the podcast.
So, Judith, welcome to the Speaking Your
Brand podcast.
Judith Smelser: Hi. Thank you so much for having me,
Carol.
Carol Cox: Well, let's dive into what exactly is a
public media organization.
Judith Smelser: Well, that is a changing answer,
actually. It's changing as we speak.
Public media was actually set out.
Public broadcasting was set out by Congress
in the 1960s in the Public Broadcasting Act,
when Congress recognized that there was a
growing need for media organizations that
operated in the public interest,
as opposed to in a commercial interest and
for a commercial interest.
Um, you know, back then and still the,
uh, the broadcast frequencies are considered
public airwaves.
And the Congress took that very seriously and
felt that it needed to set aside a certain
band of those frequencies.
Um, in radio, it tends to be the lower end,
the left end of the dial,
what used to be the left end of the dial,
um, for, for media organizations that
operated again in the public interest instead
of to serve a commercial interest now.
And also Congress provided some funding for,
for this. Uh, now just recently,
as you may or may not have heard,
um, our public funding,
our government funding was taken away,
um, was eliminated and in fact rescinded.
Um, And so now we are in a new era of public
media. Public media had been evolving to meet
different needs of audiences that have been
migrating to digital platforms and other
platforms. And that that evolution has been
has been ongoing.
And now we're in a situation where our
funding model is also changing and also must
change. But what hasn't changed is that
public media is committed to operating in the
public interest. We are committed to
providing, in our case,
at Central Florida, public media,
news and information and civic discourse that
serves no agenda other than to empower and
connect and inform our community here in
Central Florida.
Carol Cox: Well, that was an excellent answer, Judith.
It sounds like one you've given before,
which you have.
And of course, as a as a reporter and a
journalist in your early part of your career,
you're very good at this,
which I appreciate. So let me ask you a
couple of things that I learned about from
your presentation that I think would be
helpful for the listeners is that as a public
media organization, you can have sponsors.
So everyone's probably seeing their local PBS
station, you know, ask for their do their
sponsorship drive and they, and they want
individuals to be monthly members or to do
some type of contribution.
I am now a monthly donor to Central Florida
Public Media since meeting you,
because I realize the importance of it and I
want to make my contribution.
But from what you had said at the speaking
engagement, is that.
So you can have sponsors and there could be a
company even that could be a sponsor,
but you cannot run advertisements.
So you can't say run a 32nd ad or,
or something like that.
That's a commercial. So talk to us a little
bit about the difference between having
sponsors versus running ads.
Judith Smelser: Sure. So first off, I should probably make
the distinction between PBS,
NPR and your local public media
organizations.
Here in Central Florida,
we have two local public media organizations.
There's Wusf, which is the local PBS
affiliate. And then there's Central Florida
Public Media, and we are a member station of
NPR. Um, but neither of us are owned by NPR
or PBS. So, um, Central Florida Public Media
is an independently owned,
community licensed local non-profit.
So I want to make that very clear because
that's a, that's a big sort of myth that
people don't. A point of misunderstanding
that people don't always realize is that that
that we are an independent local non-profit.
Um, but yes, just like other non-profits,
we can take sponsorships from local
businesses. Um, so, you know,
much in the same way that you might see an
event that, let's say second harvest Food
Bank puts on that is sponsored by,
say AdventHealth.
Um, some of our programming can also be
sponsored, but because of the type of license
that we have for our broadcast outlet and
Central Florida Public Media,
we operate two non-commercial radio stations,
90.7 and 89.5, and those are non-commercial,
FCC licensed broadcast outlets.
And as a condition of that license.
And there are several benefits that go along
with having that type of license.
But but, but as a condition of that,
there are things that we cannot do.
When we acknowledge our sponsors,
we are allowed to acknowledge our sponsors on
the air. Um, but we are not allowed to do any
calls to action.
We are not allowed to use any,
uh, superlatives or comparative language.
So for example, um, you couldn't have an
acknowledgement spot on the air that says,
uh, go to Bob's car dealership.
It's the best car dealership in Central
Florida. That would be illegal.
So we can't we can't do that.
But we can say central Florida Public Media
is supported by Bob's car dealership,
which sells cars at this location in Central
Florida. So it's a fine line,
but it's an important one because again,
the whole point of public media is that we
are here to serve the public interest,
not corporate and commercial interests, but
we also want to be able and are allowed to
thank our sponsors.
Carol Cox: Well, you mentioned when you were describing
what public media is, and here just with the
sponsorship about this idea of like using
superlatives and using certain kinds of
language. And I know one of the biggest
challenges that a lot of we call legacy
media, and especially public media
organizations are having,
I imagine, is that with the rise of the
internet and no more gatekeepers.
And everyone has a voice and a microphone and
a webcam, which of course,
there's a lot of benefit to that.
But the downside is that the algorithms,
like certain types of content,
clickbaity content, outrage,
content, content that pushes people's
buttons, pushes people's emotions,
elicits a type of reaction from them,
and the type of news, content and information
content that you are putting out is very much
not that. So how are you figuring out how to
still get this news information in front of
citizens and, you know,
in front of all of us, residents and
citizens, citizens of a community in a way
that we want this.
Many of us want this information, but it
probably has. It's probably very hard with
the way the algorithms are tuned to get it
seen.
Judith Smelser: It is a challenge, and the first thing I'll
say is, the first answer to that question is
we have to be on those platforms.
Um, you know, we are now at Central Florida
Public Media, a digital first news
organization. We are a multimedia,
multi-platform news organization.
We operate two radio stations,
but we also operate one of the most
comprehensive local news websites in our
region. And we also have a mobile app.
And we also offer a weekly newsletter where
we offer local news and we produce for local
podcasts. So we are, we are,
we are full service.
Um, and, and to your point,
we do have to, those are our owned platforms,
platforms that we own and put out content on,
but we also have to be in front of people
where they are and often where they are is on
those social media platforms.
We are not going to, um,
we are not going to adjust or change who we
are or our values based on what the
algorithm, um, prioritizes.
But what we are doing is providing content in
a way that those audiences like to consume
it. And a great example of,
of how we've pivoted along those lines is
that we're doing about 75% more video now
than we were a year ago.
Um, and, and some people might think that's
funny because they primarily think about us
as a radio station, but we're not primarily a
radio station anymore.
And our, and our people have been,
I must say, remarkably adaptable to this
shift. We have people who actually have grown
to love doing video.
Our morning edition host,
our local host of our morning show.
Um, she, she's been in radio for many years,
but turns out she loves video.
And so she started a newscast three times a
week that she does on video,
on TikTok and Instagram and YouTube shorts.
And that's a way that we can put accurate,
fact checked, vetted local news in people's
feeds in places where people already are.
So that that that they can discover what it
is that we have to offer.
You know, what we find is that people really
don't enjoy the outrage,
the clickbait, the negativity and people
shouting at them all the time.
Um, even though that's what the algorithms
want you to see that that raises people's
blood pressure and people appreciate the fact
people tell me that all the time. Thank you
for not yelling at me.
You know, people appreciate that.
Um, but we have to we have to get it out
there in front of them. And we know that one
thing that we can do that the algorithms
prioritize is more video.
And so that's one of the things that we've,
we've, we've concretely pivoted some
resources towards so that we can,
we can get in front of folks where they
already are.
Carol Cox: Oh, I'm glad to hear that.
Uh, okay. So let's, let's back up to the
first part of your career.
And you decided to go into journalism and you
were a reporter. So what drew you to that?
Why did you decide that you wanted to be a
journalist?
Judith Smelser: You know, I didn't want to be a journalist
when I was growing up.
That was not my ambition.
I actually went to college for international
relations and I was going to be a diplomat.
Um, and I went to D.C.
after college and had the privilege of doing
a junior fellowship at a think tank up there
at the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace. And they did a wonderful job of
letting us interact with all of their senior
folks and understand what their career paths
had been. And I came to the realization that
actually, I don't think I wanted to do any of
that. Um, and so I had to kind of reinvent
myself in that year.
And I, I sort of stumbled onto journalism by
accident. And part of the reason,
honestly, that I stumbled onto journalism is
because of public media is because public
media was such a.
Public radio in specific was such a.
An omnipresent factor in my childhood.
My parents had it on all the time.
I was what we call in the public media world
a back seat kid.
Um, it was it was always on in the car.
Whenever I hear the theme song,
to All Things Considered,
I am back in my mom's kitchen,
sitting on a stool watching her cook dinner.
Um, and, and so that, that was always in my
ear and I, and, and I thought perhaps I could
pivot to a place where I could still be
involved in current events.
International affairs at the time,
I started interning for an international news
agency. Um, and, and keep my hand in that
side of it while also,
you know, moving into a different space that
was a little more fast paced than the sort of
policy world that I found myself not really
gravitating towards as much as I thought I
might. And so that's I really stumbled into
it. I talked this, uh,
this news agency into giving me an unpaid
internship that I did.
At the same time I was working at the think
tank and, um, and then I convinced them to
hire me somehow and that the rest,
I guess, was history.
Carol Cox: Oh, that is so fascinating. Jude.
I am relieved to hear that you have had a
winding career path as well,
right? I think most of us have,
but we feel we look at someone who's so put
together, you know, the president and general
manager of the Central Florida Public Media,
surely Judith knew from,
you know, eight years old that this was the
path that she was going to go on.
Yeah. Well, and it's also funny because when
I was a senior in undergrad,
I also wanted to go into diplomacy,
into the State Department. And I looked at
the Foreign Service and also the Carnegie
Endowment for for peace.
I very you're the only person I have talked
to since then who has mentioned the Carnegie.
Judith Smelser: Wow. Small world.
Carol Cox: Very small world.
But as I to learn more about the Foreign
Service and I was like,
you know what? Maybe that's not quite for me.
You know, I'm a reader. Like I'm an
intellectual. I don't know about like getting
dirty, really, like, you know,
out in the field is my thing. So I decided to
go to graduate school to get a PhD in history
instead.
Judith Smelser: So there you go.
Yeah, there we are.
Carol Cox: And it made a turn into doing political
analysis on the TV stations here in Central
Florida, which I've been doing now for 20
years during the mostly the presidential
election cycle. So you just never know.
But I feel like all the seeds are there,
like, and then they just end up sprouting in
different places.
Judith Smelser: I think that's one of the most important
skills you can have, is the ability to be
self-aware enough to follow the path that
you're meant to be on,
as opposed to the one you thought you were
going to be on. Um, it's,
it's, it's not easy necessarily,
and it can be very disorienting.
But I think it's, I think it's,
uh, big, um, key to success.
Carol Cox: Yes. So how did you end up president and GM
of Central Florida Public media?
Judith Smelser: Well, that's, that's, that's another winding
road. That's another, that's another,
this job is another thing that I never in a
million years thought I would be doing, never
in a million years.
So in journalism there's something called the
firewall, right.
The firewall is, is a is a bright line in
between the journalists in a news
organization and anyone involved in money.
So you have to wall off your.
If you are running an ethical news
organization, you have to wall off editorial
decision making from anything that could
taint that decision making other than the
facts. Right.
And so, um, the people who are in charge of,
in a nonprofit news organization.
Fundraising, sponsorships,
anything to do with revenue cannot touch the
editorial side.
I spent 20 years in journalism.
I spent 20 years as a reporter,
as a news director, then later as a
consultant to news organizations.
I never imagined stepping on the other side
of the firewall, because now the irony is I
am not allowed, per our ethics policy,
to make any editorial decisions.
I have to check that expertise at the door in
a large way, in a large part when I come into
work, which has been an interesting shift.
Um, yeah, never did I,
did I intend or set out or even want to run a
news organization, a public media
organization, but about four and a half years
ago or so, um, I was, I was running my
consulting business and I then NYU,
MFA. So Central Florida Public Media used to
be known by our radio call letters w m f.
They had had a leadership transition.
They'd had a couple of leadership transitions
in in short order.
And I felt like, uh, I needed to do something
to help. And I reached out to a friend of
mine who was a member of the board of
trustees, uh, who I'd known from my time in
the newsroom here.
Um, and, and asked how I could help.
Um, meanwhile, I had a couple people in the
public media sphere that I'd known throughout
my career reach out to me and ask me why I
wasn't doing this job.
Why wasn't I taking this job?
Why wasn't I throwing my hat in the ring?
Um, and, and I'd had people asking me that
question for a couple of years and once,
once it that those voices kept adding up.
I thought, you know, maybe I ought to listen
to these people. Maybe I ought to at least
consider this. And one thing that I realized
was that I had a stereotypical view of what a
president and GM of a public media
organization looked like.
And it wasn't me.
Um, it was an older white man.
It was someone who dressed in fancy suits.
Um, someone who drove around in their car
listening to classical music all the time.
Nothing. No aspersions on my parents are both
musicians, so it's okay.
So I love classical music too.
But I also listen to 80s and 90s music when
I'm driving around in my car, sometimes when
I'm not listening to 90.7.
Of course. Um, you know,
I realized I had this preconceived notion of
what a GM of a public media outlet is.
And I, even though I had plenty of friends,
people I had had as consulting clients,
people I had known who were women leaders of
public media organizations.
I still had this, this preconception in my
mind. So that was part of it.
But I started doing some,
some research and, and some conversations
with people I knew who held the role.
Um, I, I started asking questions about,
you know, the parts of the business that I
didn't have direct experience or expertise
in. Um, and, and long story short,
um, I ended up in this role in an interim
capacity for a few months,
um, while the board did a national search.
Um, and, and it was sort of a trying it out.
Do I like this?
But at the same time, I was the need at that
time for leadership in the organization was
so great that I didn't do that job as an
interim. I didn't do that job as a
placeholder. Um, because that's not what the
organization needed. And even if the board
had made a different decision,
it still wouldn't have been what the
organization needed. The organization needed
somebody. They didn't need a band aid. They
needed somebody that was going to come in and
take it and run with it as long as,
as, as they were there.
And so I, I invested quite a lot of my own
emotional energy.
Um, and I, and I felt a great deal of
ownership, um, in the place by the time I was
offered the position and I,
I mean, I was, I was already doing it,
I was bought in and by that time I was kind
of hooked. Um, and I was on a path with the
organization that I certainly didn't want to
step off of at that time.
So long story short, this is none of this is
what I thought I was going to be doing. If
you had told me five years ago that I would
be doing this job, I would have said,
you're, you're you're nuts,
you know? Um, but again,
it's about listening to the voices,
not only your own, but some voices that can
see things that you can't.
Um, and I'm grateful that I did because it's
been one of the most fulfilling things I've
ever done.
Carol Cox: Well, and I know our community is grateful
that you're at the helm and that you are
leading public media through a lot of these
changes that have been going on.
So let's talk a little bit about being a
woman president and GM of,
of an, you know, a good sized organization
and very visible and important organization
in the community and in public media itself.
So what have been the parts that have
surprised you in the positive side,
so that you've really enjoyed? And then what
have been some of the challenges either
expected or unexpected?
Judith Smelser: Well, I'll start with the challenges.
Um, again, never in a million years would I
have thought that I would be leading this
organization through the Elimination of
federal funding and state funding.
Federal funding that has been supporting
public media for decades and decades longer
than I have been alive.
Um, that's one of those things where if you
had told me four and a half years ago when I
was trying to decide whether I wanted to put
my hat in the ring, if you told me I would
have to be leading through that kind of
change, would I have stepped up?
Would I have done it? I don't know because I
don't I don't think I would have had the
confidence that I would have known how to
how, how to navigate that.
But what I know now is that none of us knew
how to navigate that.
And we're all we're all figuring it out.
We're all figuring it out together as a
public media family, and we're all figuring
it out in collaboration with the communities
that we individually serve.
You know, and I think that is,
um, that has been a real bright spot in the
challenges that last year and the rescission
of our funding faced, was seeing how this
community stepped up and came out for this
organization, came out for public media.
When they realized the need and and one of
the things that surprised me,
it's not positive or negative. It's just
true. Um, one of the things that surprised me
before we got to the, the point of rescission
of funding, um, was, was the level of
misperception of how public media was funded
in the first place.
You know, once I was in a position to start
talking to people in the community,
talking to donors, foundations,
corporations, um, I, I became aware of how
deep the misperception is.
People thought that we were mostly funded by
the government.
People thought that we probably people
thought we got the vast majority and that
anything that came from individual donors or
the community in any way was sort of gravy.
That was not true.
Even before we lost our funding,
we at Central Florida Public Media got about
11% of our funding from the government.
The rest of the funding from the community.
Now, I will say that 11% represents $400,000
every year. So it's no small potatoes,
right? It's not something that we can just do
without, um, without significant cutbacks.
Uh, but, but that misperception and then
there was also a misperception and still is
of our relationship with NPR,
as I was talking about before,
a lot of people think that we are owned by
NPR, that we are governed somehow by NPR.
I had a I had a leader in the community,
um, talked to me about,
about how I reported to the chair of the NPR
board. I do not report to the chair of the
NPR board. The chair of my board would be
very surprised to hear that because I report
to the to the chair of my board,
um, who, which is a board of trustees that
are from this community.
Um, you know, people thought that we were
subsidized by NPR.
There were all of these misperceptions about
how public media actually works.
And, and, and I think that is,
that is partly because we as public media
organizations have ridden the strong brands
of our national partners.
Um, but the fact of the matter is that we pay
NPR, we pay NPR to be a member.
We pay NPR to run their programming all.
And we're proud to do that.
But but that has been a real eye opener is
how, um, is how people perceived that
relationship, uh, and misperceived that
relationship. But when,
when our government funding was taken away,
even the people who thought that,
you know, we got all of our money from the
government, well, they realized that that
they needed to step up And that was really
encouraging. Um, I think one of the,
one of the nice surprises also has been that
this position really has allowed me to lean
into the idealistic side of my nature,
which might seem counterintuitive given,
you know, that we're talking about funding
cuts and all of that.
Um, but when you're leading an organization,
part of your job is, is to inspire
aspiration.
Part of your job is to be aspirational and to
inspire your team, your board,
your community, your funders to dream along
with you. And I've always been a dreamer in a
way, but that's one thing that you can't
really do as a journalist.
Um, you know, in a lot of ways,
journalists right now have to be optimists
because it's a very challenging time for the
industry in general.
Um, and to believe that you're making a
difference by sharing facts,
um, right now is, is an aspirational,
um, position to take.
Um, but, but in many ways,
when you're a journalist,
your job is to shine light on challenges and
is to shine light on problems.
It is also to shine light on joy.
And I want to be very clear about that.
Um, but, but you do have a tendency and a
need as a journalist, as a,
as, as a, as a sort of whistleblower on
things, um, to, to look for the problems in
some, in some cases as a leader of a news
organization or any organization,
your job is to look for the possible.
And, and I love that.
I love the fact that I get to,
to help my organization and the community see
the potential for what this organization
could mean to this community,
with the investment from the community that
frankly, it needs and deserves.
This community deserves a first class public
media organization.
It does. And, and, and we're ready.
You know, I can tell you my team now is
chomping at the bit.
Um, should the community want us to move
forward with that vision and,
and I, and I love that part of it.
And I love the part of it where I get to be
someone who stands up in this community and
talks about the importance of local
journalism and talks about local journalism
as a public good.
I'm the one that gets to speak out for that.
Not that I'm the only one who can speak out
for that, but I get to play that role and
that is an incredible privilege.
It's so important.
It's something I believe in so strongly.
And and now I get to really speak that truth
to people who can make a difference in making
it happen.
Carol Cox: Oh, Judith, I, I can hear your passion as
you're sharing that and the energy you have
behind that of having this vision and,
and wanting to take people along with you to.
And I love this optimistic take and seeing
what's possible and showing the community
what's possible. And this idea of public
media and local journalism being a public
good, I feel like the pendulum has swung so
far to one end as far as everything being
privatized and corporatized,
you know, in almost all aspects of our
society that I feel like the pendulum is
bound to swing back to more people
recognizing the need.
Public spaces, reinvestment in public
education, public media and so on.
So public health, lots of things that we
maybe have taken for granted over the years
that don't so much take for granted.
Okay. So you mentioned this,
you know, the importance of local journalism.
And then I think about stories and the
stories that local journalists tell and about
whose voices get heard and whose don't.
So talk to us a little bit about the
importance of local voices and local stories
for how a community understands itself,
how it shapes itself, how it imagines what
its future is going to be,
and what is what is possible for that
community.
Judith Smelser: That's such a great question because it gets
to the heart of what journalism is.
In my view, journalism,
the job of journalism is to hold up a mirror
to the community.
It's to hold up a mirror and reflect the
community to itself as it is,
warts and all. Right.
It's it's it's it's it's to hold up that
mirror and allow the community to see the
wonderful things that are going on,
the challenges that it faces,
the, the many different perspectives and
types of people who make up that community.
Um, and, and at the core,
that really is what journalism is supposed to
do. Journalism isn't supposed to tell you how
to think, tell you how to act,
tell you what to do.
Um, it's supposed to give you information and
reflect back what is really going on in your
community that you yourself may or may not be
seeing, you know, and it's to help you see
yourself and your community through perhaps
the eyes of other people who have a different
lived experience than you do.
Um, you know, you mentioned whose stories get
told, right? And, and that is a really
important question.
And it's an important responsibility that
local news organizations have.
Um, really, particularly local news
organizations have to find those stories that
are often untold and amplify voices that are
often unheard.
Um, you know, we have,
we have a long history in,
in the news, in the news,
business and media business of,
of telling you what we think you need to
know. But we haven't historically been so
great at asking you what you need to know,
what's really going on in your community and
your little slice of our,
of our region.
Um, and, and reflecting that back,
um, and meeting the needs of the community.
And that's something that we have a real
responsibility to do.
I think public media particularly because it
has an obligation to serve the whole public,
um, has a responsibility to do.
Um, and that's something that we've been
investing a lot of resources in at Central
Florida public media over the past few years.
And we can talk more about that if you want.
But I think the, the point is that if,
if we don't do a good job of reflecting all
those different voices in the full tapestry
that makes up a community,
our community, then the mirror that we're
holding up to, the community is distorted.
It's not an accurate picture.
It's not a full picture of what the community
looks like. And that matters because we,
we, we want to be providing a full picture so
that individuals in the community and
decision makers in the community can take
that information and go and make decisions
about the best way to move forward as an
individual, as a family and as a community
and a region. And if we're holding up as a
distorted or incomplete version of that
picture, then the decisions that are being
made based on it are going to be skewed.
Carol Cox: Judith, I remember during your presentation
that you mentioned an example that there was
a, I think it was a county commission
meeting, and there was a report that you had
done, and then some of the commissioners had
seen it. Can you tell us a little bit about
that? I think it's a great example of the
importance of local media and finding those
stories and voices.
Judith Smelser: Yeah. So this was, um,
this was a question of an eminent domain
process, this technical stuff that the
commission deals with,
but it was an eminent domain process where
the expressway authority,
this is an ongoing issue,
wants to acquire some land from Orange County
to build an expressway,
part of which will go through a place called
Split Oak Forest, which is some
environmentally sensitive, environmentally
preserved land.
And a lot of environmentalists in the
community are concerned about it.
Um, we have a beat reporter who covers the
environment, the local environment issues.
Her name is Molly Derrig.
And, um, and she'd been,
you know, covering this blow by blow,
every twist and turn of this very technical
process. And she had reported out when the
expressway authority was,
was, was considering, uh,
this eminent domain, um,
process and, and elevated it in the public
debate and at a county commission meeting,
not not long after this reporting had come
out, um, one of the county commissioners,
Nicole Wilson, said in the meeting that if it
had not been for our reporter Molly's work
and reporting on this issue,
that the commission probably wouldn't even be
having the conversation that day about that
issue, that it probably would have just gone
through the expressway authority board on
consent, meaning without discussion,
without anything but but a perfunctory vote.
But because Molly had had shown a light on it
and allowed the public to start talking about
it, then of course, the public talks to the
commissioners because that's how democracy
works. And and the commissioners then brought
it up in that meeting.
They actually decided to reject the
expressway authority's bid to acquire this
property. Now, this is still going back and
forth, and Molly is still reporting on it.
She's still on the case.
Um, the point is here that we as a news
organization, as Central Florida Public
Media, we do not have a position on where
this should come out.
That's not our job.
Um, our job though is to elevate the issue,
let people know, shine a light on what's
going on so that people in the community who
do care about it on both sides can see.
Oh, this is happening.
And there's something critical that's going
to. Going to be voted on here.
Um, and if if I want my position to be heard,
then I need to contact my elected
representative and tell them that again.
That's how democracy works.
You know, the press, the free press is is in
the First Amendment for a reason.
It's called the fourth estate for a reason.
Because if the founding Fathers,
in their wisdom, realized that if there is
not accurate independent information,
then a democracy can't work.
You know, if there's if there's not reliable
access and easy access to good information
about what decisions are being made and being
discussed, then the public can't participate
in their government. And then we don't have a
democracy. And that that story to me.
You know, I, I told Molly,
our reporter. I would rather that than a
whole stack of awards.
That is the impact that we're trying to have.
That is why journalism exists.
It's to give the community some shared,
trusted facts from which to go and have a
debate on the best way to move forward.
Carol Cox: Yeah, and I so appreciate that example.
And let's that's a good segue into the
speaking that you're doing as president and
GM of Central Florida Public Media.
I saw you speak and I remembered quite a bit
from your presentation, which I have brought
here to the podcast interview,
because the stories, the examples and your
passion, your vision that you have,
all of that comes through so clearly.
So tell me a little bit about how have you
found your voice, you know,
speaking on behalf of a public media
organization, which was,
as you mentioned, different than being a
journalist and being a reporter.
Judith Smelser: Yeah, it's true, because as,
as a journalist, we, we are always taught
that the story is not about you.
The story is about the people you're
reporting on and the issues that you're
reporting on. So that's a that's a different
type of voice. You're you fade into the
background so that your,
the stories that you're telling can, can rise
to the top. Um, in my role now.
Yeah, it's a different,
it's a different thing.
Um, and I think finding my voice has been an
interesting process. My voice in that role.
Um, I, I somehow organically just felt,
um, a need to, as I said earlier,
have someone speaking out for local
journalism, not just for my organization,
but for local journalism as a whole.
Um, and the importance of it as a public good
in our community.
And so I even from the first opportunity that
I had to speak, I really focused on that,
um, on the power of local journalism,
on the importance of it as a public good.
And I've, I've expanded on that theme.
Um, as I've spoken over time.
The other thing I think I have really leaned
into in terms of finding my voice,
both as a spokesperson,
but also as a leader of my own organization
internally is really leaning into
authenticity and transparency.
Um, you know, you said earlier you could,
you could hear the passion in my voice.
I couldn't do this job if I didn't believe in
it. I couldn't go and,
and run some organization or company that I
didn't feel a real passion for the mission
of. Um, because that's just not who I am.
And so I think, um, you know,
I value authenticity over polish and over
perfection because I think that resonates
more and it's more in my comfort zone.
Um, I think the transparency piece,
especially internally,
but externally as well is also really
appreciated. Um, and really critical,
especially at a time when so much is unknown.
Um, you know, being comfortable and
vulnerable about the things that you don't
know, taking a page from Brene Brown,
right? Um, vulnerability is,
is, is power in a lot of ways,
but there is no way that anyone in a role
like, like mine could possibly have all the
direct expertise, um, that you would need to
be hands on in all the different facets of
the organization, um, and of the industry.
And so leaning into what you know,
and what you don't, leading through
uncertainty in funding,
in industry trends, etc.
means admitting what you don't know and being
clear about, you know,
when we were going through that whole funding
fight last year and my,
my team was asking me for for answers that I
didn't have.
It was so frustrating.
But all I could do was to say,
you know, I really leaned into my,
my reporting background at that time.
Here's what I know.
Here's what I don't know.
And I will tell you as soon as I know.
Um, and, and that was just the mantra it had
to be, uh, and I think that that was part of
finding my voice too was,
was acknowledging that I cannot know
everything I need to know.
Anyone who sits in a role like this and tells
you they know everything is being
disingenuous.
Um, and, and people really appreciate when
you are honest with them about what,
you know, what you don't know what you're
trying to find out.
Carol Cox: I appreciate the, the emphasis on
authenticity over perfection.
I know that I work with a lot of clients over
the years. And some of them have,
um, you know, feel felt.
This probably is the perfectionist side of
them. And, you know, I have a little bit in
me as well. And, uh, in recovery,
you know, I'm much better than I was when I
was younger, but they feel like they have to
have everything so perfect before they can
use their voice, whether it's stepping on a
stage or a podcast interview or a media
interview or what have you. And of course, we
try to coach, coach them through that.
And then what also creeps up for a lot of
them is imposter syndrome.
No matter how credentialed and accomplished
and experienced they are,
is that they feel like someone in the
audience is going to almost like stand up and
be like, you're a fraud.
You know, you don't know what you're talking
about. And of course, this is all in their
head and they recognize it's mostly in their
head, but they feel it and it does tend to
hold them back.
And, you know, our mission here is speaking
your brand is to amplify women's voices and
encourage more women to be in positions of
leadership, business, media,
politics and so on.
And so I'm always encouraging them to put
themselves out there because we need we need
them to. Yet. And I, and I know that,
you know, you're shaking your head that you
can relate to this, but but so many of us and
I have done this in my career,
hold ourselves back.
So what do we do? Judith.
Judith Smelser: I don't have all the answers for you,
Carol. I feel imposter syndrome all the time.
Um, you know, it's it's gotten a little
better over the over the years I've been
doing this job, but I still have it.
Absolutely. You know, I remember,
um, sitting in a meeting.
I was invited to be in a meeting that the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting,
which is the dearly departed organization
that was the conduit for our federal funding,
um, had organized to sort of have
conversations about the future of the
industry. And I was very honored to be in
this room. I'd probably only been in this job
for a year or so, and I'm in this room with,
um, probably about 20 of public media
organizations from around the country,
most of whom were men.
Um, and I will, I will tell you in the spirit
of vulnerability that I walked out of the
second day, this was a two day meeting.
I walked out of the second day of this
meeting. I came downstairs in the hotel that
it was being held in, and I was meeting my
husband in the in the cafe there,
and I burst into tears.
I, I felt completely out of my depth.
I felt like, you know,
what am I doing here? I have no idea.
These people know everything. I don't know
anything. Um, and I, I had a conversation
after this meeting, um,
after I was back home with a guy who was in
that room, who was one of the GM's that was
in the room. And I had known him for a very
long time in the, in the system,
in the public media system. And he had he had
had a very similar path to mine in that he
was a reporter and a news director and then
and then CEO of a couple of public media
organizations. And he'd been doing it for
longer than I had, and I told him how I felt.
And he said, he said, and he he is the
definition of an ally.
Um, he, he said, you know,
men have a tendency to say things that
they're not quite sure of as though they know
them for sure. And women generally have a
tendency to only speak confidently when they
are 100% sure.
And, um, I appreciated him saying that I've
never really been someone who spent a lot of
time thinking about differences between men
and women, spent a lot of time dwelling on
sexism in the workplace,
any of that, even though certainly I've
experienced it. But having somebody who was a
man say that to me in those terms really has
helped me think about things a little
differently. Um, and, and to not just assume
that when someone, whatever gender they may
be, says something with confidence and
authority that they, they actually know
everything that they're saying to be true.
Um, and so I, I think,
you know, that's, that's a big part of it.
Um, I'm a perfectionist too.
I was on the radio for many,
many years in my career.
Uh, you're not supposed to stumble.
You're not supposed to mess up.
I remember the first time I guest hosted,
uh, at the time we had a call in show.
Um, I overprepared.
I had so many stacks and stacks of notes,
uh, so much more than I ever could have
needed, because I wanted to be prepared for
every eventuality.
You can't be prepared for every eventuality.
Um, you just have to jump in and do it.
Uh, and you're probably if you are a
perfectionist, like I tend to be,
um, you're probably incapable of being
unprepared, you know?
You know, even if you prepare what you think
is 80%, it's probably still 110%.
So, you know, I think just being thrown into
these situations can sometimes be the way
through. You know, you've got to go through a
few of them and realize that the world didn't
end when you put yourself out there and maybe
you stumbled on the air.
In my case, yes, I've done it.
You can tune in to the next fund drive and
hear me do it. Um, you know,
maybe, maybe you maybe you made another
mistake that you feel stupid about,
and no one died in the world didn't end.
So I think, you know, you just.
And if you make a really bad error,
you know, in in journalism,
general ethics commits us to being
transparent about our mistakes. We all have a
corrections policy. Any bona fide news news
organization should have a corrections policy
where if you make a mistake,
an error of fact, you go back and correct it
and you and you say what you did,
you know, and that's sometimes you got to do
that. We're all human.
Um, but there's no magic bullet.
It's just it's just jumping in there and
doing it.
Carol Cox: Well, thank you for sharing that vulnerable
story. I know that, you know,
I appreciate that and the listeners will as
well. And, uh, I also appreciate that you
said about just the repetition,
keep doing it because I know,
you know, I've done live TV so many times now
and in the first few times.
Yeah. Like my heart's race,
like beating out of my chest.
I don't know how I was going to make it
through, right? Like the nerves.
If you only do it once every few years,
of course it's going to be nerve wracking
because your body, your mind,
you're not used to it.
But if you're doing it weekend and week out
or day in or day out or whatever it happens
to be. It's like, I got another podcast
episode next week that comes out.
I got the next video that's going to come
out. I can't worry so much about the one that
just happened because I got to keep doing the
next one.
Judith Smelser: That's absolutely right.
Yeah, repetition is key.
And, and, and the public speaking that I do,
if I haven't done it in a while.
Yeah, I get the butterflies and,
and the other thing I would say is,
you know, I grew up, I grew up on stage.
As I said earlier, my parents are both
musicians and I've been performing all my
life. A little bit of butterflies is a good
thing. That's adrenaline.
And it's what it's what fuels you.
It's what sharpens your mind.
If if there's too much of it,
it overwhelms you. But a little bit of it is
good. And so if you get to the point where
you don't have any before you step on stage,
then something's wrong.
Um, but, but a little bit is good and the
more you do it, the more it's the good
adrenaline and not the paralyzing kinds.
Carol Cox: Right? Yes, exactly.
Judith, I have so enjoyed this conversation.
Thank you for so much for coming on the
podcast. I would love for you to share with
the audience calls to action because we're
allowed to do that here.
So you can tell us how great Central Florida
Public Media is the best organization in the
country. I will say that.
And, uh, so I'm just going to make a pitch
though, and have you make a pitch for public
media organizations across the country. No
matter where listeners are,
I'm sure they can Google and find their local
public media.
Judith Smelser: Yes, absolutely.
Please find your local public media outlet
and know that they depend on you for 100% of
their funding. Now, um,
if you have the capability to give a gift,
they all have big donate buttons on their web
pages. I encourage you to make an investment
and know that it's not just throwing pennies
at something. It's it's really making an
investment in your community when you make a
gift to public media.
You're investing in a community that is more
engaged, more informed,
more connected, more educated,
and frankly, more civil because that's what
we're about. We're about civil dialogue,
civil civic dialogue.
The other thing I would encourage you to do
is go out to their events.
You know, we we all host really,
really interesting and sometimes even fun
events. Um, you know, we've got an event
coming up next month called engage in the
community, which is an event series that's
tied to our local public affairs show,
which is called engage.
And this one's going to be about
redistricting, and we're going to have a
conversation about redistricting.
And we're going to have interactive
activities and ways that people can give
input and share their own perspectives,
their own voices, their own experiences.
And public media outlets around the country
are doing that type of engagement work
because we all want to do a better and better
job of reflecting those those quiet voices,
those voices that we don't always hear.
So find out what your local public media
outlet is doing.
Go out to an event, get involved,
and of course, make a donation if you can.
Carol Cox: Yes, just sign up $10 a month,
whatever it happens to be,
it goes a long way and makes a big
difference. And of course,
if you are here in the Central Florida area,
make sure to support Central Florida Public
Media. The link is in the show notes.
And also make sure to connect to Judith and
let her know that you heard her on the
podcast. Well, Judith,
thank you so much for being here.
Judith Smelser: Thank you Carol. It's been a real pleasure.
Carol Cox: Until next time. Thanks for listening.