WOSU Public Media is a licensee of The Ohio State University and President Gee took great pride in WOSU being a critical part of the land grant mission of Ohio State — extending the University’s reach into the community. Yet, he was also cognizant that we are a journalistic organization and respected the lines that couldn’t be crossed as we covered sometimes controversial issues surrounding Ohio State.  He even touted our news team a couple weeks ago when he tweeted to his some 48,000 followers: “Kudos to WOSU for cleaning house at this year’s Ohio Associated Press Awards.”

President Gee’s infectious energy and humor will certainly be missed.  In my 30 years working at three Universities, I’ve worked for a dozen University presidents — many are so programmed, academic and plain boring.  None has been as authentic a leader as President Gee.  Let’s be clear — all leaders are flawed.

But with authentic leaders like President Gee, you see someone who is genuine, who leads with his heart his mind and doesn’t hide from his mistakes. I would much rather have that kind of leader than one who is acting the job and not being real to himself or anyone else.

We have been lucky to have President Gee supporting our initiatives and being there when needed. And as an aside, how many presidents leave Universities and the students actually feel they know them and will miss them?  Perhaps the saddest person in my household is my daughter who just graduated from Ohio State. She was pleased to have met Dr. Gee several times during his many forays into student life at OSU. 

We look forward to the new leadership at Ohio State, but wanted to acknowledge how much President Gee’s leadership has meant to WOSU and the community we serve.

The station was then at 570 AM, operating at just 1.8 watts and had the call letters WEAO.  The tower and transmitter for the station were moved to the University Golf Courses in 1938. As the station’s reputation and growth continued, Youngstown’s WKBN paid for WOSU-AM to move its frequency from 570 to 820 kilocycles in March 1941.

What caused Ohio State to get interested in AM radio in the early 1920s?  You may be surprised to learn it was a local natural disaster- the 1913 Flood of Franklinton/Columbus.  During the weeks following the devastating flood that left 93 people dead and 5000 citizens of central Ohio homeless, it was the wireless telecommunications system at The Ohio State University that carried news of the flood to telegraphs across the state.  That public service led the Engineering department at OSU to look forward at this new technology 0n the horizon called AM radio. Thanks to our community, WOSU has grown tremendously over the past nine decades — adding WOSU FM broadcasting in 1949 and our Columbus  WOSU TV station in 1956, plus additional FM stations across the region in the late 1990s.

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“We’ve had a strong partnership with University Communications over the years, and are excited about the program’s new direction and home,” said Kiplinger Director Debra Jasper. “We have so much in common with WOSU, and share its strong commitment to journalism and innovative approaches.”

The move comes as the Kiplinger Program completes its shift from a six-month academic fellowship program to a shorter-term executive leadership program that helps journalists learn new digital skills and tools. Jasper said the 2011 fellowship class, for example, learned how to leverage Facebook, tweet strategically, better understand search engine optimization, and take advantage of emerging news models.

The shift to the new format attracted a world-class field of journalists this spring, from top newsrooms such as CNN, Washington Post, Kyiv Post, 60 Minutes, NPR, Frontline, El Tiempo, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today.

The three-month fellowship brings journalists to campus for seven intensive days of digital media sessions, and then provides coaching, webinars and other training to reporters once they return to their newsrooms. Fellows can also nominate an editor to attend a shorter-version of the fellowship.

“The Kiplinger Program is one of the most advanced digital media programs for journalists in the country,” Tom Katzenmeyer, senior vice president of University Communications said. “We’re thrilled to be collaborating closely with them, and of course WOSU’s journalism focus makes it an ideal place for the program to be housed.” Katzenmeyer also noted that University Communications had worked closely with the program on two previous national conferences for journalists—one on alternative energy and another on climate change.

Knight Kiplinger, trustee of the Kiplinger Foundation and editor in chief of The Kiplinger Letter and Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine, said the deep demand for the Kiplinger Program’s new offerings show that the program’s move toward shorter-term fellowships was the right one. Nearly 600 journalists from 56 countries applied to take part in the 2011 class. “Newsrooms today are making a rapid transition to social media reporting and journalists need to get up speed quickly,” he said. “The Kiplinger Program helps them stay relevant in a digital age.”

The new approaches are very much in line with the program’s rich history of journalism innovation. The Kiplinger Program was created on Ohio State’s campus in 1973 by Austin Kiplinger in honor of his father, W.M. Kiplinger, one of the university’s first journalism graduates in 1912.

W.M. pioneered a new kind of journalism when he became publisher of The Kiplinger Letter and later Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. He has been described by his son as “a dedicated journalist, a muckraker and an inspiration to young journalists… a very original thinker.”