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10 Things I Liked About My First Day as KOPN Community Radio General Manager

Today was my first day as general manager at KOPN community radio and I was pretty excited about it. I really do think I have found a professional home where I can make a difference and where we can be a leading force for good in the community.

Here are 10 things I liked about my first day.
  1. The music collection is massive and diverse. I had never seen the whole thing before, and it kind of freaked me out.
  2. Volunteers were in and out of the office all day (even when I arrived at about 7:00 am).
  3. The volunteers all had time to talk with me and share what they thought I should know on my first day, what was important to them.
  4. One volunteer, Rhett, gave me a great idea and now I am planning an informal coffee where I will sit in a coffee shop and anyone in the KOPN family is welcome to come hang out with me and help build the KOPN community.
  5. Interactions throughout the entire day reinforced the whole "KOPN is a community" idea.
  6. Great meeting with board president Dan Hemmelgarn and outgoing interim general manager Tao Weilundemo, who are both being so helpful.
  7. Staff Sarah Catlin and Jill Sheets were both great to have around. I am looking forward to becoming more and more of a team.
  8. The programmers -- the folks running the radio shows -- really are cool, and they know so much about so much that I do not.
  9. I really do like my personal office. It overlooks downtown Columbia and is very cool.
  10. In the afternoon, I sent an introduction e-mail to everyone on the newsletter list (over 1000 people), and I have been getting "welcome" and "congratulations" sponsors from people throughout the community, some I know and some I do not. That is totally making my day (and probably my week!) 
Can't wait for tomorrow!

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