Professional Bio.

Rich McClear brings more than 40 years of journalism, technical and management experience to projects he works on. Rich is a results oriented manager, consultant and trainer who has worked throughout the Upper Midwest and Alaska, and spent more than a dozen years living and working in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the Russian Far East.

Experience:

Managerial: Rich has been in media and project management since 1975. He managed the ProMedia Media Assistance programs in Albania, Slovakia, Yugoslavia and Serbia for the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) and is familiar with USAID management frameworks.

Community Radio Development.: Rich was part of the team that founded KAXE in Grand Rapids, Minnesota and served as its first president. He was founding manager of KCAW in Sitka, Alaska and is part owner of two successful Anchorage radio stations. He has worked with groups starting radio stations in Jordan and Egypt.

Technical: In Slovakia, McClear oversaw the model TV station template project that helped TV stations convert to digital production. He headed a project to provide radio and TV coverage to wide areas following the wars in former Yugoslavia. As manager of radio stations in Minnesota and Alaska, he has responsibility for planning stations and re-equipping them with digital studios. He helped the KOSMA network in Kosovo develop an internet based interconnection system. He was on the committee that drew up the technical plan for the Alaska Public Radio Network's satellite interconnection project. In his early career he worked as a radio and TV technician. He completed NAB digital radio certification in Sept. 2002. Currently he is working on issues of digital conversion with stations in Serbia.

Journalism Training: Rich has trained journalists throughout Eastern Europe as part of the ProMedia program. He was a Fulbright Lecturer in Albania where he taught journalism and helped develop the curriculum. He was on the team that developed the curriculum and conducted radio journalism training for ANEM and B-92 in Serbia. He oversaw journalism training for IREX in Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Slovakia. Rich helped develop media training centers in Egypt. McClear worked in radio news early in his career. He took a break from managing to report from Nicaragua in 1985, Prague in 1990, and Vladivostok in 1990 and 1991 and has won several reporting awards including awards from the Minnesota Education Association, the Alaska Press Club, and the Society of Professional Journalists.

Association and Network Development: As a resident adviser for ProMedia, McClear worked throughout Eastern Europe to develop independent journalism and broadcast associations and unions. He has worked on development plans with Radio Hay in Armenia and the KOSMA network in Kosovo. Earlier in his career he was chairman of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters Program Service Committee. He served nine years on the board of the Alaska Public Radio Network (APRN) including two terms as Chair. In 1993, he was awarded the APRN's "Elaine B. Mitchell Award" for "Outstanding Contributions to the Growth, Development and Health of Public Radio in Alaska."

Business Viability: Rich successfully managed a public radio station that thrived during drastic cuts in federal and state funds. As coordinator of CoastAlaska, a consortium of 6 public radio stations in Southeast Alaska, he planned the merger of business, finance and engineering activities at the stations. McClear worked as a consultant to several radio stations and networks in the US and abroad helping them to develop strategic and business plans.

Media Research: McClear worked on a project with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the APRN to write and produce a handbook on small market radio research. He oversaw overall media research projects in Slovakia and Serbia and trained media professionals in the use of research to both build audience and sell advertising. He consulted on a comprehensive media research project in Croatia and helped develop and interpret media research in Morocco and Egypt.

Legal Reform: In Albania, McClear worked with attorneys and on initial drafts of media legislation. As head of ProMedia Slovakia, he worked with associations on media legislation, produced a legal handbook for journalists, and a website outlining breaking legal issues. For several years McClear was the registered lobbyist for the Alaska Public Radio Network where he worked on public broadcasting reform legislation. He served as chair of the APRN committee that drafted media legislation.

New Media: Rich has developed radio station websites and worked with Cairo University in develop the first blogging course in Egypt (left). In Kosovo he worked with the Kosma network to develop an internet based interactive interconnection system. He worked in Georgia withGreen Wave radio ontheir project to distribute news via a mobile phone network

RESULTS: Rich McClear is a results oriented manager. Here are a few examples of his successes.

Rich headed the effort to start Raven Radio in Sitka and led the station to the number one slot in a four station market. Under Rich’s management Raven Radio became one of the top public radio stations in the country in listener contributions. During McClear’s thirteen years at Raven Radio the station won numerous state and national awards for broadcast news excellence.
Rich facilitated the national meetings of Native American broadcasters that led to the founding of the Indigenous Broadcast Center within the Alaska Public Radio Network. Later, following the plan developed at those meetings, the center, along with its flagship program, "National Native News", was spun off to a Native American owned corporation.

Rich started the ProMedia program in Albania and restarted the program in Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo following the NATO Bombing campaign. ProMedia Serbia was one of the USAID funded programs instrumental in helping the Serbian people move toward democracy.

Under Rich's leadershipProMedia Serbia worked extensively with Radio B-92 to provide training and aid that helped keep the station functioning under the Milosevic regime. After the fall of Milosevic research and consultation from ProMedia helped Radio B-92 quickly regain market dominance in Belgrade and become commercially self sustaining.

Rich and Suzi traveled to Kosovo for IREX only a few days after KFOR troops entered and helped Radio 21 get on the air as the first Albanian language independent radio station. This included selecting equipment and getting it delivered to the station.
In Slovakia, "RadioNet" an advertising sales network of 10 local stations was able to use training provided by McClear and research funded by ProMedia to return over 17 million crowns (about $500,000) to its stations in 1998. This return more than paid for ProMedia's total investment of about $70,000. For one station the returns from Radio Net represented half the station's annual revenue. RadioNet continues to provide substantial income to Slovakia’s independent local stations.

In Slovakia, Radio Lumen (a station not in RadioNet) saw billings grow from 100,000 SK a month in October 1997 to 350,000 SK a month in October 1998 after consultation with the McClears. In the next 10 months the station showed an additional increase in advertising revenues of 12% and an increase in the number of new advertisers of 17%. They credit this success to a marketing plan that Suzi and Rich developed.

Rich and Suzi helped Radio Ime (right) get on the air as the first independent radio station in Tirana, Albania. Radio Ime was operating when the pyramid schemes collapsed, providing residents of Tirana with the only independent broadcast news of what was happening in their country during the crisis.