Yesterday, I went to CBS Radio to interview Jason, the sales manager, for Fresh 105.9.  The interview will be used as a case study assignment for first semester graduate students of the Arts, Entertainment and Media Management program at Columbia College Chicago.  The first semester seminar is meant to introduce the students to the concept of arts management and give them a sense of what types of assignments to expect during their graduate careers.

This isn’t the first of these case studies I’ve completed for this course- last summer, I interviewed the Marketing department at Lookingglass Theatre Company.  However, this year’s case study is different.  We decided to integrate the same case study across more of the graduate core curriculum than just the first semester seminar.  To accomplish this, I have been working with several colleagues from Columbia.  One of the Data Analysis and Statistics instructors has been working to create a survey and data set for use in his course.  In order to incorporate this case study into Accounting and Finance courses, I worked with the accounting coordinator’s assistant to manipulate CBS Corporation’s 10K report to reflect the needs of Accounting and Finance.  The interview script was drafted in conjunction with another of my Columbia colleagues who also works for Fresh 105.9 in order to make sure the questions asked in the interview reflect current situations within the company.

The ultimate goal of this case study project is to create case studies that are relevant and pertinent to the industries in which graduate students want to work.  CBS Radio and Fresh 105.9 chronicles an up-and-coming radio station and considers the future of the music industry.  The Lookingglass Theatre case study that was filmed last year considered the performing arts and live theatre industries, as well as marketing issues and subscriptions.  Next on the docket are Media, Visual Art, and Arts in Youth and Community Development.  This process has been fascinating as it has given me a great perspective on the arts industry in this difficult economy.  I am constantly learning how companies are struggling and creating paths around their struggles in innovative ways.  In difficult economic times like these, I am reminded of just how creative many arts organizations are, not only with their art forms and aims, but with their business practices.