FALL 2008 / Volume 8 - Issue 1
Elizabeth Bartz-Chames, ’80, M.A. ’82: Alumna Endows Support for WKSU’s Local Election Coverage
By Pamela Anderson ’89
Director of Philanthropic Giving, WKSU-FM
Most people driving from Warren to Akron take the easiest and most direct route: west on I-76. But former Warren-ite Elizabeth Bartz-Chames, ’80, M.A. ’82, president and CEO of State & Federal Communications, took a more circuitous path before making Akron her home. She made a pit stop in Washington, D.C.
Bartz-Chames, the oldest of three daughters, was given only one college option from her father: Kent State University’s Trumbull Campus. “I was the first one to go to college and had to pave the way for my sisters,” she remembers. “But I also made the most out of my time at Trumbull. I joined the newspaper staff, met my future college roommate and eventual best friend, and became a student advisor. I loved it.”
Two years later, Bartz-Chames convinced her father that the Kent Campus was a natural progression. He somewhat reluctantly allowed her to transfer, and in 1980 she earned a bachelor’s in journalism and accepted a temporary job with Kent State’s public radio station, WKSU-FM (http://wksu.org/). But one degree was not enough for this ambitious, forward-thinking alumna.
“The job at WKSU was perfect!” she remembers. “Al Bartholet and (former WKSU general manager) John Perry hired me to fill in for their director of public information, who was on maternity leave. That job got me back to school at Kent State.”
While pursuing a master’s in political science, Bartz-Chames was an advisor to the university’s Undergraduate Student Senate. “Advising other students was an important part of my college life at Trumbull. I learned a lot about people and the university by helping future students decide to enroll at Kent State. It was another perfect fit,” she says.
She also became Kent State’s assistant director of the Washington Program in National Issues (WPNI) (http://cms.kent.edu/polisci/ServiceLearningOpportunities/WPNI/) program, and it was that assistantship that took her to Washington and the heart of the American political scene. When she left for D.C., she told her parents that she planned to stay no more than three months. Twelve years — and countless experiences later (including a “house call” from an F.B.I. agent, in response to an invitation that she mailed to the Russian Embassy for a WPNI event) — she returned to Northeast Ohio.
Elizabeth Bartz-Chames and Al Bartholet at WKSU
She says that her company — which is located in a 10,000-square-foot office building in downtown Akron — is great for Summit County because 95 percent of its income comes from outside the county and, even more important, outside of Ohio. “We keep our money here, too, by paying taxes and hiring employees and paying for their benefits,” she says proudly.
Bartz-Chames acknowledges that she was part of Northeast Ohio’s “brain drain” years ago. “I left Ohio for 12 years, but I came back with a job that I knew worked,” she says. “In Akron, rent, benefits, and services are all inexpensive, and we have something to offer our employees: a safe working environment. But it’s a huge responsibility for me. I have to make sure that we can take care of our employees and their families. We pay for health coverage, dental care, and life insurance — and those are long-term things. You have to be able to say, ‘I can be in business for at least five years.’ And you have to keep state, city, and county governments happy and the federal government very happy.”
Bartz-Chames believes that giving back to the community ensures that cultural opportunities are available to everyone. “People don’t just want to go to work. They want balanced lives, and that doesn’t happen without everyone pitching in,” she says. “It’s one of the reasons why I’m a member of WKSU and why I sponsored Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! for WKSU and why I have underwritten election coverage on the station. It’s a no-brainer.”
With the presidential elections coming up in November 2008, Bartz-Chames decided to take her support of WKSU one step further by establishing an endowment at the station to support local election coverage. “I hope the State & Federal Communications coverage on WKSU reminds people to get out and vote on Nov. 4. Every election day, I give my staff an hour off work in the morning to vote. I don’t want anyone to say, ‘I didn’t have time to vote,’” she says.
In recognition of her involvement with WKSU and commitment to the community, longtime friend and former boss Al Bartholet asked Bartz-Chames to serve on WKSU’s Community Advisory Council. This 30-person volunteer leadership group advises station management on everything from finances to fundraising to strategic planning and marketing.
“I’m going to put everything into this,” says Bartz-Chames, “partly because it is a reflection on my company and partly because I love WKSU. I don’t often join groups because I don’t have the time. But this is important.”
She says that WKSU has improved a great deal over the years — partly, she believes, because “it is affiliated with Kent State University but is not managed by the university.” According to Bartz-Chames, “WKSU is, by far, the best NPR station in the United States.” She continues, “We’re lucky in Northeast Ohio to have WKSU. My cousin lives in Key West, and they don’t even have public radio. And here I am, a part of WKSU. Whenever I hear ‘State & Federal Communications’ on WKSU, I want to scream and cheer. When I’m driving, it’s a wonder I don’t cause a car wreck because hearing the name of my little company — associated with something so fabulous — is great.”
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