Midsize companies, ranked No. 13
For more than 60 years, WHRO Public Media has been making a big impact as a public service and educational resource in Hampton Roads.
From a simple handshake agreement in 1961 between Vince Thomas and Hunter Andrews, school board chairs of Norfolk and Hampton, respectively, Virginia’s first noncommercial, educational television station was born.
Since then, the broadcast facility has grown into a network of four television stations, six radio channels and the only broadcast operation in the country owned by 21 local public school districts. And now after four consecutive years as on the Hampton Roads Top Workplaces list, the employer is obviously a big hit with its employees, too.
“WHRO is a family-first caring environment,” said Heather Mazzoni, chief content officer and 24-year employee at WHRO. “It starts at the top and includes all employees.” For example, Mazzoni noted the company’s shared sick leave policy, which allows longtime employees to donate accrued sick leave to new employees when needed.
“We recently had an employee involved in an auto accident and before the end of the day, over 20 employees went to human resources to donate some of their sick leave so he wouldn’t miss a paycheck,” Mazzoni said. “We’ve done this about three years and it’s been fantastic.”
She said the organization always tries to hire from within when positions open up, and many employees came for entry-level positions and have since grown through training opportunities and mentorship.
“We have fantastic employee growth,” Mazzoni added.
Work schedules are now “about one third virtual, one third hybrid and one third in the building,” said Bert Schmidt, president and CEO. “We have individualized conversations with each person to determine what is best for them to do their work.”
COVID-19 laid bare the mission of call letters WHRO, which means “W-Home Room One.” School superintendents from its partner districts and the state education superintendent called on Schmidt for help in reaching thousands of students unable to be at school.
“Virtual learning is great for high school kids but for elementary kids, virtual learning just wasn’t working,” Schmidt explained. “Lots of people in rural areas don’t have robust internet. We created this TV show called ‘Virginia TV Classroom.’ It was, in effect, Zoom lessons with dozens of teachers offering lessons and we broadcast them for three hours a day for nine months and every public TV station in Virginia carried them.”
WHRO Public Media continues to be a vital partner for school districts in Hampton Roads, and the entire commonwealth benefited from its products during the pandemic, Schmidt said. Growth and company finances remained strong.
“Financially, things are better than ever,” Schmidt said. “We’re having healthy surpluses each year. The amount revenue from members are higher than they’ve ever been. Forty-five percent of our members are sustainers and during the pandemic, the philanthropy of Hampton Roads was amazing.”
A new addition to the WHRO family is WFOS-FM, formerly the Chesapeake Public Schools radio station. Reformatted as the Time Machine Radio Network, the idea is to enable listeners to tune in to their favorite music era from nostalgic big band sounds of the 1920s to oldies and blues of the 1960s. And WHRO apps are available to allow listeners to replay any of their programming on demand, Schmidt said.
Local journalism is the company’s latest commitment, Schmidt said. A current newsroom staffed with six reporters is only the seedling of a planned bigger operation.
“Clearly, the big thing is to become a significant player in local journalism,” Schmidt said. “We know what has happened to journalism locally and around the country, especially newspapers. And we know what happens in a news desert — corruption, higher taxes. If nobody’s watching the shop, things happen.”
WHRO plans to add at least three more reporters to its staff by the summer’s end, Schmidt said. A nonprofit endowment is being established to pay reporters’ salaries and as the endowment grows, more staff and equipment will be added to the newsroom.
Expansions will not come at a sacrifice to existing employees, Schmidt notes. “Money matters,” he said. “We are a nonprofit but recently we did a pay equity study to ensure that we are paying our people well. We expect to get the results of that study back in a few weeks, which will tell us how we’re doing.”
WHRO ended fiscal year 2021-22 on June 30 and in July, celebrated with a sunset cruise aboard the American Rover with staff, including spouses or significant others, Schmidt said. In addition, the company has employee committees that schedule game nights, including yoga and meditation and other activities.
“We’re trying to be flexible enough to allow everyone to be highly productive and allow people to have a personal life along with their careers,” Schmidt said.
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About the organization
“We strive each day to promote the kind of journalism represented only by public media, the kind of inspiration only WHRO brings to your home every day, along with the best use of digital learning resources as important tools in the education of our next generation.”
Address: WHRO Public Media-Norfolk, 5200 Hampton Blvd., Norfolk; WHRO Public Media-Williamsburg, 1408 Richmond Road; Williamsburg
Phone: 757-889-9400
Website: whro.org
Top executives: Bert Schmidt, president and CEO; Heather Mazzoni, chief content officer
Employees: 104
Benefits include: Health, dental, vision, pet and long-term disability insurance; 403(b) retirement plan; paid holidays; annual/emergency/sick leave; personal days; employee assistance program; legal resources; dry cleaning and car detailing services
Fun factor: Staff events committee hosts an annual picnic, a winter holiday party and potlucks, baking contests and other holiday celebrations.
Community service: We are a community service and are involved in many initiatives such as America Graduate, Veterans Coming Home, Race: Let’s Talk About It and more. Learn more at whro.org/community.
