Female Radio Managers Are Still Mostly Non-Existent.

The Most Influential Women in Radio group (MIW’s) has released their annual Gender Analysis Summary showing that opportunities for women in radio are still far below the management opportunities for men, according to the MIW annual gender composition analysis based on June 2002 information provided to them by M Street publications. “Under 15% of all station General Managers in the top 100 markets are female; the same as last year,” announced Joan E. Gerberding, President of Nassau Media Partners and spokesperson for the MIW group.

The percentage of stations with female General Sales Managers has gone down from 30% to 27% this year; female Program Directors have stayed the same at just under 10%. “We’ve made little to no progress in the top 100 markets,” said Gerberding, “And that means that we’ve made little to no progress in the major broadcasting companies. We’ve done only a slight bit better in markets 101 through 298 with 31% female GSM’s. PD’s and GM’s are either the same or have lower percentages.” The 2002 M Street data added an interesting category this year: “All Positions”, and radio women fare even worse. Out of the 11,270 radio stations in all Arbitron and non-Arbitron rated markets, in all positions surveyed (GM, GSM, NSM, LSM, and PD), only 19.3% are held by women.

“The broadcasting industry has undergone such rapid changes in recent years,” continued Gerberding. “Yet, as these changes heighten competition and supposedly increase the demand for qualified managers, women, a vital resource in any business, are still not present in the world of broadcast management as much as they should be. We still need substantial progress in the development of a diverse broadcast industry and it is clearly just not happening.” The MIW group of top-level radio women across the country has dedicated themselves to using their influence and resources to help put more women in positions of leadership in radio. “We have staffed panels, spoken at almost every industry event since 1999, we have a successful ongoing MIW Group Mentoring Program and we’re individually and as a group practicing what we preach.” said Gerberding. “So we are not just advocating improvement in the number of women in management positions, we’re actively working to make it happen. But the status quo prevails.”

For more information at http://www.RadioMIW.com