Stephanie Kosta, VP of Government Affairs for Comcast’s Freedom Region tells us about the Comcast Rise Program which provides resources and support for small businesses in the form of grants, marketing services, media campaigns, and technology upgrades to help these businesses grow and thrive. It was designed to address the disparities faced by minority-owned businesses, particularly in the face of challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic but is now open to all small businesses. Application is open now until June 30th.
www.ComcastRISE.com
It's not often that the tables are turned an I become the subject of an interview but that happened last month when Lucas Gonzalez, a senior at Ben Franklin High School asked to interview me as part of his senior project.
First I speak to Nilda Ruiz, President and CEO of Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha, Inc., whose Our programs include affordable housing, food security, employment assistance, early child education and daycare, foster care and adoption, substance abuse treatment and behavioral health for adults. APM is sponsoring Sugar Cane Festival 2023 Jun 10th from noon to 4 pm at 6th and Germantown Avenue, featuring Music, food, community resources and fun for the entire family.
https://apmphila.org/
www.ComcastRISE.com
It's not often that the tables are turned an I become the subject of an interview but that happened last month when Lucas Gonzalez, a senior at Ben Franklin High School asked to interview me as part of his senior project.
First I speak to Nilda Ruiz, President and CEO of Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha, Inc., whose Our programs include affordable housing, food security, employment assistance, early child education and daycare, foster care and adoption, substance abuse treatment and behavioral health for adults. APM is sponsoring Sugar Cane Festival 2023 Jun 10th from noon to 4 pm at 6th and Germantown Avenue, featuring Music, food, community resources and fun for the entire family.
https://apmphila.org/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Good morning, welcome to What's goingon? A show about making a difference
in our lives and our communities.I'm Lorraine Ballot Morrow. Comcast Rise has
given small businesses a shot in thearm with both grants and technical assistants.
Will tell you how to access thisresource. Lucas Gonzalez is a senior at
Ben Franklin High School and as partof his senior project, he interviewed me.
(00:23):
It was fun and I'm sharing thatinterview with you today. But first
coming up is a wonderful felshival thatis sponsored by the APM organization and it
is a wonderful event for all ofus to enjoy. Joining us is the
CEO of APM, which is NildaRuis Nilda, great to see you again
and tell us about the Sugarcane Festival. Lorraine, great to see you too.
(00:45):
It's just great that after the pandemicthat we have this venue where people
can come and have a great time. This year, usually we bring bigger
artists that this year we're bringing upand coming artists. It's good and we
have another traditional music and the samething we've had over the nineteen years,
but this year we're going to havea Domino's tournament with prizes. The first
(01:06):
prize is three hundred dollars, thesecond two hundred and one hundred cash for
the third. We still have alot of activities for children music, so
it'll be a great time. AndI wonder if you can just talk about
it. You mentioned Dominoes, andI love that the significance of Dominoes in
the Latino community. The Sugar CaneFestival, the reason that I started is
because a lot of people don't realizethe deep history that Puerto Ricans have with
(01:30):
this city. The out workers,the ships, and the sugar cane for
dominoes and foster sugar used to comefrom Puerto Rico right to peer. I
don't know if it was one nineteenor twenty eleven, so I just thought
it was a cool way of bringingthat cultural thing back to Philadelphia as a
reminder. It's a great activity toshow the community the resources that APM has
(01:53):
and O and other community agencies inthe community. And dominoes. It's like
the number one sport in Puerto Rico. And if you go by our neighborhoods,
you always see a little table andfour men gathered around, and then
others watching and they get really intenseover it. We just thought, hey,
let's just make it part of thesugar cane as well. I love
(02:15):
that. And also let's talk aboutsugar cane. And it's important not only
to the Latino community, but Philadelphiasugar cane was really very much a part
of the fabric of the community.Not only was it a resource, but
it was also something people enjoyed justas a snack. Right. But we
will have it there and we havevolunteers that are cutting it up so everybody
(02:38):
will be able to get I thinkthe younger generation have no idea. So
we have the little sugarcane. Theycan chew on it, they can put
it in their drinks. It's alot of fun and a lot of people
don't realize that's where a lot ofour sugar was coming from, right right,
right, So it's going to bea great opportunity for folks to see
(02:58):
the richness the Latino community, particularlyelements of the Bird Weekend community. But
it's really also a festival that allof us can enjoy. The Sugarcane Festival
is Sunday, June tenth. Tellus more, we do get a great
mix of everyone. I mean,Philadelphia is just a melting pot or a
salad of different cultures and ethnicities,and we do get them all and we
(03:22):
just love it. It's going tobe June twelve, from twelve noon to
four, and it's going to beright as six and Susquehanna down to Norris
Street. It's within that block,which is one that we're looking to improve
economically and bring businesses. So you'llstart seeing some constructions that are going there.
But we're doing it on purpose becausewe want the community to start seeing
(03:44):
the things that are growing there.A lot is happening. APM has really
been a real engine for redevelopment ofthe community, providing not only resources like
healthcare, but also housing. AndI wonder if you could tell us a
little more about what APM does providefor the community. A lot of people
don't realize that ninety percent of whatwe do with social services and then the
(04:05):
sexy part of the agency of thehousing development. So we have four mental
health clinics in different parts of thecity. We have four Keystone Start,
pre K and head Start. Wealso do children protective services, so we
have foster care, adoptions and alsocase management for families in the twenty fourth,
(04:28):
twenty six, and now thirty fifthdistricts. We just got cop in
number five. And then in additionto that, we have our Community and
Economic development side, where we dofinancial literacy, we do housing counseling and
preparing families to become homeowners. Formany of us, that is the first
step to wealth creation and generational wealth. And in addition, we actually do
(04:51):
real estate development, so we havevarious low income housing units. We just
finished forty four units of housing forseniors at sixty two and older that are
at sixty percent of median income.And I know that's a word that gets
thrown out a lot, but it'sfor low income seniors. I don't want
(05:12):
to say the number because people cancome out and if you don't quite qualify,
we can help you or refer youto other places. So we have
over three hundred of rental units.But we've also done homeownership. We really
are big advocates of homeownership. AsI said, I think that's the first
step. So we have done alittle over two hundred units of affordable housing.
(05:36):
We have the Bredada homes. Whenthe city thought they weren't getting a
lot of population, we took twolots and make these suburban like homes,
so they have a little cardboard andthree bedroom homes. We also have the
homes that we created that are goldlead that are shared in homes. Those
are green homes that have a vegetablegarden up top. It has solar panels
(06:00):
and the paneling around it is madeto make sure that the house stays cool
in the summer and it stays warmin the winters. We're still doing other
housing development for people in the communityright now. We're looking at a third
and Berks. That's the area thatwe're looking for. Moralme ownership while you
do a lot for the community.If people want more information about APM all
(06:21):
the services you provide, and alsoof course more information about the Sugarcane Festival,
where do they go the best daysto go to our website wwt apm
filla dot org and then they canalso call two six seven, two nine
six seventy two hundred fantastic anything elseyou want to add before we close.
(06:42):
I hope to see the community out. It's it's a very fun event.
There's plenty of food and activities.Come and have a great time and at
the same time see all that APMdoes and other city agencies that will be
there. Pico will be there andof course we need Siona and Rumbau will
be there. So I'm hoping everyonewill come out. It'll be lots of
(07:03):
fun and I look forward to seeingeveryone. They look forward to being with
you at the Sugarcane Festival. NildaRuiz, who is the CEO and president
of a PM, thank you somuch. Thank you, Loring, you're
listening to what's going on. ComcastRises opening up its program to assist not
(07:24):
only BIPOC businesses but all small businesses, and we're going to provide you with
information on how you can connect withall of this. We're speaking with Stephanie
Costa, VP of Government Affairs forComcast Freedom Region. Thank you so much
for joining us, and Stephanie tellus more about Comcast RISE. I just
love this program. It is thethird year we've had it in Philadelphia area
(07:46):
and it really does make a bigimpact on small businesses. Just a little
background, RISE is a community outreachprogram that was created back in November twenty
twenty to help small businesses hardest hitby COVID nineteen, from bakeries to barbershops
to childcare centers by providing grants thatthey may have needed to survive and recover.
(08:09):
Now we're in our third year,we've gone through a little bit of
a renovation, so the program nowis open to all small businesses a hundred
employees or less that have been inbusiness for three years or more that are
located within Philadelphia. We would loveto be able to give to those small
businesses our Rise Investment grants, andthat's a five thousand dollars grant. But
(08:33):
there's even more. There's wraparounds servicesincluding consultation, business consultation, education resources,
and creative production and media resources whichincludes a turnkey production of a thirty
second TV commercial and a technology makeover. We are comcasts, so technology makeover
right off our alley, which iscomputer equipment and internet, voice and cybersecurity
(08:56):
services for twelve months. So it'sfive thousand dollars plus. All of these
services really a way to help oursmall businesses continue developing in their communities and
contributing all to the great economy wehave here in Philadelphia. That's fantastic,
and it's so important to support smallbusinesses and particularly BIPOC businesses because of the
(09:20):
challenges that have existed for these businessesin the past, but you're opening it
up, which is awesome to allsmall businesses. Now, let's talk a
little bit about these grants, becausesometimes grants have certain limitations, but it
seems like there's a lot of leewayin terms of where these grants can be
applied. So tell us more aboutthat. So the grants themself, that
(09:41):
five thousand dollar component, it's reallyunrestricted. Concasts really didn't want to constrict
our small businesses from what they reallyneed. One small business might need a
new side, another small business mightneed to hire a part time employee,
you know, and a third smallbusiness might need help with inventory whatever.
Really the small business needs to thrive. We wanted to be able to provide
(10:05):
that grant to give them that freedomto figure out what their business needed,
you know. And then knowing thatabove and beyond that, small businesses really
need a lot of help in allthese other areas, areas where Comcasts could
be helpful with these consultation services andeducation resources and the creative production of medium
technology makeovers. To add that inwith a five thousand dollars grant, and
(10:28):
you really are going to set awonderful foundation for those small businesses to rocket
into the future. I love theidea about the marketing services. So many
small businesses are really stretched and don'tnecessarily have the bandwidth to do those types
of marketing which are so important tolet people know where they are and who
(10:50):
they are, so to have thatis just really tremendous. Now, for
those out there who are listening andwho would love to take advantage of all
of these incredible services, what aresome of the steps they need to take?
Easiest ray way is to go toour website Comcast Rise dot com.
It's from now until June thirtieth isthe application period, and then we will
(11:11):
make the announcements in August, andthen the award is happening in September.
Because we know small businesses when theyneed the help, they need the help
right now, so it's all veryquick. And remember now until June thirtieth,
that's when the application is open atwww dot comcast Rise dot com.
And you've had such tremendous success insupporting these small businesses, that's true.
(11:35):
You know, this program is inits third year and we've been able to
help a tremendous amount of small businesses. It includes two hundred Philadelphia small businesses
that received over two million dollars ingrant awards and nearly four hundred that have
received marketing and technology and service packages. And nationwide we've touched over thirteen thousand
(11:56):
small businesses that have been awarded monetary, marketing or technolology grands. It really
is an excellent program. We haveit here in Philly once again. Fantastic
And what is the website www dotcomcast Rise dot com. Fantastic. What
a great opportunity. Stephanie Costa,vice President of Government Affairs for Comcast Freedom
(12:18):
Region, thank you so much.Thank you. It's not often that the
tables are turned and I become thesubject of an interview, but that happened
last month when Lucas Gonzalez, asenior at Ben Franklin High School, asked
(12:41):
to interview me as part of hissenior project. So what's your name?
My name is Lorraine Ballard Morrel.I'm directive News and Community Affairs for the
six iHeartMedia Stations, Power ninety nine, w das Q one O two one
h four five, Roomba six oneand Fox Sports The Gambler. Wow,
(13:05):
it's a lot of stations. Yeah, well that's not only that's just Philly.
We have over eight hundred stations acrossthe country that are owned by iHeart
for the biggest radio group in thecountry. That's that's impressive. Do you
enjoy your position now? I loveit. I have the most amazing job.
(13:26):
It is a job that I've beenat for a long, long,
long, long, long, long, long, long long time, and
it's been a great ride. Istarted out when people were playing music with
records and record players, so that'show that's how long ago it was so
long. But now everything is digitalwith these terabyte you know, hard drives
(13:50):
that contain all of our music andall of our commercials and everything. Everything
is all digitized and uh and thebusiness has changed a lot too. But
I still love it because I getto do a lot of work with a
community, and that's really why Ido what I do. What do you
like about your job right now?And what's your favorite thing about it?
I like the fact that there's somethingnew every day. It's just great for
(14:13):
someone with a short attention span,which is to me, every day is
a new adventure. For instance,today I was the moderator for a mayoral
panel, which was fun, andthe other day I was on stage for
a big luncheon that we did forhonoring women. Wdas was the sponsor.
(14:37):
Sometimes I go out and cover stories. Sometimes I organize our community outreach,
so I get to help nonprofit organizationsand community groups and things. I love
that, and I love the performancepart of it too, because I do
interviews and I enjoy that. Ienjoy talking to people. I enjoy hearing
(14:58):
this stories, and I enjoy givingpeople voice to have their voices heard.
Have you been in any other positionsin jobs and what were your thoughts on
those. Well, I've mostly beenin radio. Most of my career has
been in radio, but I've hada few jobs here and there leading up
(15:20):
to radio I got to Fortunately,I've been very lucky in that I kind
of got my first big job attwenty five as a news director, which
is kind of crazy. I wentfrom being a basically someone who had done
a lot of radio through college,but getting my first job in public radio
(15:41):
was a huge leap and it wasamazing. I've had other random jobs,
but they're really pretty forgettable, sonothing major. I'd say that the vast
majority of my working career has beenin radio? What did it take to
get to this point? You know, I often get to talk to people
(16:04):
about how I got to this point, and I would say that it's a
combination of things. One is thatpersistence pays off, because once I decided
that radio was what I wanted todo, because I originally started out as
a dance major. And then whenI said I don't think that's happening,
(16:26):
I actually accidentally volunteered. In otherwords, I walked into the student radio
station and not really realizing that theyweren't hiring people for money, but they
wanted volunteers. So I said,well, you know, let me try
it out. People always said Ihad a nice voice, so I took
a chance and I said yes.And there's a producer named Shonda Rhimes who
(16:49):
wrote a book called The Year ofSaying Yes, or the Year of Yes,
And I think that's part of thesecret, is saying yes even when
it seems a little scary or alittle improbable or why do this. I
was always saying yes to things.So they said, you know, you
want to try out? And Isaid yes. And then I got a
(17:11):
shift, and then I did news, and then I did music, and
then I ended up transferring to schooland working at MIT's radio station because they
had an opportunity for volunteers to workthere. I became the news director there,
and I just kept saying yes todifferent opportunities, and by doing all
(17:33):
the things that I did, whichwas get my name known even though I
was a student, I was outthere covering stories, getting to know people.
People started to know who I waseven though I was a student,
and so I guess that was alsothe lesson was branding. You know,
(17:53):
I didn't they always talk about brandingnow and about connecting and about you know,
all that stuff. Well, Idid it instinctively, not because anyone
told me to. But I gotto know people in the business. So
by the time I actually applied formy first job, people knew who I
was because I had made a namefor myself. I hosted a show it
(18:15):
on I T I was covering stories, and so when the opportunity opened up,
I was ready for it, eventhough it was a big leap going
from not having any professional position butsaying, Okay, I'm going to apply
for this job. I don't thinkI'm going to get it, but let
me try anyway, And much tomy surprise, I got that job.
(18:41):
So you know, persistence, onceyou figure out what you love, just
do everything to be in that environment. I did a million internships so that
I could be in radio stations andget to see people doing what I ended
up doing, so that I gotto experience what that was like, and
ended up again continuing to love itand I connected with everybody. I introduced
(19:07):
myself and I got to know people, and then the story that I tell
is that I used to tell peoplethat I loved radio and people. I
think what's kind of interesting is thatwhen people kind of know what you're into
(19:27):
and you declare it, then there'sa magic that happens. Because I was
working as a teacher's aide, thatwas my job job after graduation, making
like minimum wage. But I wasstill working at my teas radio station,
still doing everything that I was doing, and this classmate of mine, who
(19:48):
I didn't know that well, butshe picked up the phone and this was
that moment of fate where she calledme up and said, you know what
I saw that there was a jobopening at w BURE, you should apply
for it. I did not knowthis person that well. I knew her,
but I know It wasn't like mybest friend or anything, but because
(20:11):
people knew that that's what I wantedto do, somehow that registered and she
was moved to call me and tellme to apply for a job that I
didn't even know existed. I appliedfor that job, and that was my
first job in radio. So it'simportant to declare who you are. I'm
(20:32):
radio. I want to do radio. This is what I want to do,
and if enough people start hearing that, then this kind of magic happens
is called exceeding critical mass. Youknow, it's like and if enough Adams
bounce around, then it explodes.Right, So it's kind of like that.
Wow, what a journey from wantingto be a dance a dance major
(20:56):
to being a teacher's aide and theneventually a new open radio. Yes,
it's quite quite a journey, forsure. It would have been cool to
see you breakdance, though breakdancing wasn'tinvented when I first wanted to do this.
But yeah, I was more ofthe you know, ballet and stuff.
But but yeah, would you havedone anything differently? I I don't
(21:23):
think so, because I, okay, here's one thing maybe I would have
done differently, and that every mistakethat you make, if you learn from
it, then it becomes some ofthe best lessons. Right. So my
second job, I was fired fromthat job. And I was fired from
(21:45):
that job for a number of reasons. One was that it wasn't a good
fit for me. It was workingat a rock station. You know,
it was all guys. They wereall not very nice to me, and
I didn't know how to befriend people, how to make connections and get supporters
(22:07):
inside of that environment. That wasa mistake and that just is very common
to the model minority, which Iwas. In the model minority scenario.
You think you have to be perfect. You can't show anybody that you have
any weaknesses or that you don't knowwhat you're doing. That is often that's
(22:32):
a problem. That's not a goodway to be. You know, you
try to be perfect, but you'renot. And if you don't want to
admit that you need help, thensometimes you fall. And that's what happened
to me. I needed help andI didn't know how to ask for it,
and so eventually things escalated. Andthere's other stuff, politics and all
(22:53):
that stuff, But I say thatfor me, I learned that you need
to really have allies wherever you go, and you need to create those.
You need allies, you need sponsors, you need people who are who have
your back. And I didn't reallycultivate that, and so when I was
fired, there was really no onewho came to my defense really. So
(23:17):
it was a difficult lesson but probablythe best lesson that I ever had,
because I number one, realized thatI'm not my job, so that even
though I got fired from this fancyjob, that it was very public that
I was still me and I wasokay. Secondly, I found out who
(23:38):
my friends were, because when you'rein a very high profile job in entertainment
or whatever, people are attracted toyou for what you do, but not
for who you are. So alot of people who were my friends kind
of disappeared, and the ones whoreally were my friends, and people that
(24:00):
I didn't even consider my friends butcame to my defense or came to my
aid, showed up, and Igot to see who was really for me
and who was not, and thatwas important. And then I also realized
that I needed to work on myself. I needed to figure out what are
(24:22):
the things that I could have donebetter? And that I could do better
to not only be a better professional, but to be a better person.
And so I learned a lot fromthat very difficult experience. Is there anything
you would like to say to thepeople that or younger people that want to
get into the radio broadcasting field inthe future run Now, I'm just kidding.
(24:48):
I think that the people who wantto get into radio now have to
really want it, because it's notlike I think. I think the glamour
has gone out of it a littlebit. I think there was a time
when there are so many people whowanted to do this business. I think
it's a little different now because thebusiness is changing. It's there's major disruption.
(25:11):
People your age don't necessarily too.You don't listen to the radio,
do you. Yeah? So,I mean that's a reality that radio and
broadcasting is coming to grips with that. The audience that we could depend on
before is going to other places.They're listening, You're listening to YouTube,
(25:33):
You're going on Spotify, You're there'sprobably other things that you're doing that you
know, other forms, and there'salways going to be new platforms that people
would use to consume entertainment. SoI think my My advice for anyone who
(25:56):
wants to get into this business isto be good at creating content. So
what that means is, you know, you need to be able to communicate
well. You need to be ableto tell stories well, because stories and
content will always be king whatever theplatform is. That can change. Like
(26:21):
YouTube didn't exist when I first startedin radio, but now I do videos
and social media, I do allthese different things. You need to really
be on top of the technology becausetechnology is changing at a breakneck speed and
that means that people who didn't knowhow to use the Internet, and they
(26:45):
were quite a few of them alongthe way, they fell by the wayside.
People who weren't willing to learn aboutsocial media. They're not here anymore.
So you need to always be agile, always learn, never stop learning.
Always listen to people like you,to younger folks, because you have
(27:06):
lots to tell us and teach us, and sometimes be willing to experience difficulty.
You know, I had to move. I went, you know,
when I was fired from that jobin Boston. I had to upload my
whole uproot rather my whole life,and move to Philly, which turned out
(27:27):
to be the greatest thing ever becauseI got to meet you eventually. So
it's a very it's a tough business. It's downsizing a lot, a lot
more people, a lot more stationsare using syndication, they're doing voice tracking,
there's not as much live in local. But I would say that if
(27:51):
it's something that you love, doit, go for it. Do whatever
it takes, because it will takea lot. It's a challenge, challenging
feel to be in, but it'salso fun. You get to meet amazing
people. I've met amazing people Andif you're like me, you can utilize
this medium to do good and ifthat's in your heart to do, then
(28:17):
this can be a wonderful business tobe in. Well, thank you Loraine
for giving me your time, youranswers, and the space to do this
interview. Well, you're very welcome. This has been fun. Thank you.
You can listen to all of today'sinterviews by going to our station website
and typing in keyword Community. Youcan also listen on the iHeartRadio app Keywords
(28:41):
Philadelphia Community Podcast. Follow me onTwitter and Instagram at Lorraine Ballard. I'm
Lorraine Ballard Morrow and I stand forservice to our community and media that empowers
what will you stand for You've beenlistening to what's going on. ED.
Thank you time I I time,time,
Good morning, welcome to What's goingon? A show about making a difference
in our lives and our communities.I'm Lorraine Ballot Morrow. Comcast Rise has
given small businesses a shot in thearm with both grants and technical assistants.
Will tell you how to access thisresource. Lucas Gonzalez is a senior at
Ben Franklin High School and as partof his senior project, he interviewed me.
(00:23):
It was fun and I'm sharing thatinterview with you today. But first
coming up is a wonderful felshival thatis sponsored by the APM organization and it
is a wonderful event for all ofus to enjoy. Joining us is the
CEO of APM, which is NildaRuis Nilda, great to see you again
and tell us about the Sugarcane Festival. Lorraine, great to see you too.
(00:45):
It's just great that after the pandemicthat we have this venue where people
can come and have a great time. This year, usually we bring bigger
artists that this year we're bringing upand coming artists. It's good and we
have another traditional music and the samething we've had over the nineteen years,
but this year we're going to havea Domino's tournament with prizes. The first
(01:06):
prize is three hundred dollars, thesecond two hundred and one hundred cash for
the third. We still have alot of activities for children music, so
it'll be a great time. AndI wonder if you can just talk about
it. You mentioned Dominoes, andI love that the significance of Dominoes in
the Latino community. The Sugar CaneFestival, the reason that I started is
because a lot of people don't realizethe deep history that Puerto Ricans have with
(01:30):
this city. The out workers,the ships, and the sugar cane for
dominoes and foster sugar used to comefrom Puerto Rico right to peer. I
don't know if it was one nineteenor twenty eleven, so I just thought
it was a cool way of bringingthat cultural thing back to Philadelphia as a
reminder. It's a great activity toshow the community the resources that APM has
(01:53):
and O and other community agencies inthe community. And dominoes. It's like
the number one sport in Puerto Rico. And if you go by our neighborhoods,
you always see a little table andfour men gathered around, and then
others watching and they get really intenseover it. We just thought, hey,
let's just make it part of thesugar cane as well. I love
(02:15):
that. And also let's talk aboutsugar cane. And it's important not only
to the Latino community, but Philadelphiasugar cane was really very much a part
of the fabric of the community.Not only was it a resource, but
it was also something people enjoyed justas a snack. Right. But we
will have it there and we havevolunteers that are cutting it up so everybody
(02:38):
will be able to get I thinkthe younger generation have no idea. So
we have the little sugarcane. Theycan chew on it, they can put
it in their drinks. It's alot of fun and a lot of people
don't realize that's where a lot ofour sugar was coming from, right right,
right, So it's going to bea great opportunity for folks to see
(02:58):
the richness the Latino community, particularlyelements of the Bird Weekend community. But
it's really also a festival that allof us can enjoy. The Sugarcane Festival
is Sunday, June tenth. Tellus more, we do get a great
mix of everyone. I mean,Philadelphia is just a melting pot or a
salad of different cultures and ethnicities,and we do get them all and we
(03:22):
just love it. It's going tobe June twelve, from twelve noon to
four, and it's going to beright as six and Susquehanna down to Norris
Street. It's within that block,which is one that we're looking to improve
economically and bring businesses. So you'llstart seeing some constructions that are going there.
But we're doing it on purpose becausewe want the community to start seeing
(03:44):
the things that are growing there.A lot is happening. APM has really
been a real engine for redevelopment ofthe community, providing not only resources like
healthcare, but also housing. AndI wonder if you could tell us a
little more about what APM does providefor the community. A lot of people
don't realize that ninety percent of whatwe do with social services and then the
(04:05):
sexy part of the agency of thehousing development. So we have four mental
health clinics in different parts of thecity. We have four Keystone Start,
pre K and head Start. Wealso do children protective services, so we
have foster care, adoptions and alsocase management for families in the twenty fourth,
(04:28):
twenty six, and now thirty fifthdistricts. We just got cop in
number five. And then in additionto that, we have our Community and
Economic development side, where we dofinancial literacy, we do housing counseling and
preparing families to become homeowners. Formany of us, that is the first
step to wealth creation and generational wealth. And in addition, we actually do
(04:51):
real estate development, so we havevarious low income housing units. We just
finished forty four units of housing forseniors at sixty two and older that are
at sixty percent of median income.And I know that's a word that gets
thrown out a lot, but it'sfor low income seniors. I don't want
(05:12):
to say the number because people cancome out and if you don't quite qualify,
we can help you or refer youto other places. So we have
over three hundred of rental units.But we've also done homeownership. We really
are big advocates of homeownership. AsI said, I think that's the first
step. So we have done alittle over two hundred units of affordable housing.
(05:36):
We have the Bredada homes. Whenthe city thought they weren't getting a
lot of population, we took twolots and make these suburban like homes,
so they have a little cardboard andthree bedroom homes. We also have the
homes that we created that are goldlead that are shared in homes. Those
are green homes that have a vegetablegarden up top. It has solar panels
(06:00):
and the paneling around it is madeto make sure that the house stays cool
in the summer and it stays warmin the winters. We're still doing other
housing development for people in the communityright now. We're looking at a third
and Berks. That's the area thatwe're looking for. Moralme ownership while you
do a lot for the community.If people want more information about APM all
(06:21):
the services you provide, and alsoof course more information about the Sugarcane Festival,
where do they go the best daysto go to our website wwt apm
filla dot org and then they canalso call two six seven, two nine
six seventy two hundred fantastic anything elseyou want to add before we close.
(06:42):
I hope to see the community out. It's it's a very fun event.
There's plenty of food and activities.Come and have a great time and at
the same time see all that APMdoes and other city agencies that will be
there. Pico will be there andof course we need Siona and Rumbau will
be there. So I'm hoping everyonewill come out. It'll be lots of
(07:03):
fun and I look forward to seeingeveryone. They look forward to being with
you at the Sugarcane Festival. NildaRuiz, who is the CEO and president
of a PM, thank you somuch. Thank you, Loring, you're
listening to what's going on. ComcastRises opening up its program to assist not
(07:24):
only BIPOC businesses but all small businesses, and we're going to provide you with
information on how you can connect withall of this. We're speaking with Stephanie
Costa, VP of Government Affairs forComcast Freedom Region. Thank you so much
for joining us, and Stephanie tellus more about Comcast RISE. I just
love this program. It is thethird year we've had it in Philadelphia area
(07:46):
and it really does make a bigimpact on small businesses. Just a little
background, RISE is a community outreachprogram that was created back in November twenty
twenty to help small businesses hardest hitby COVID nineteen, from bakeries to barbershops
to childcare centers by providing grants thatthey may have needed to survive and recover.
(08:09):
Now we're in our third year,we've gone through a little bit of
a renovation, so the program nowis open to all small businesses a hundred
employees or less that have been inbusiness for three years or more that are
located within Philadelphia. We would loveto be able to give to those small
businesses our Rise Investment grants, andthat's a five thousand dollars grant. But
(08:33):
there's even more. There's wraparounds servicesincluding consultation, business consultation, education resources,
and creative production and media resources whichincludes a turnkey production of a thirty
second TV commercial and a technology makeover. We are comcasts, so technology makeover
right off our alley, which iscomputer equipment and internet, voice and cybersecurity
(08:56):
services for twelve months. So it'sfive thousand dollars plus. All of these
services really a way to help oursmall businesses continue developing in their communities and
contributing all to the great economy wehave here in Philadelphia. That's fantastic,
and it's so important to support smallbusinesses and particularly BIPOC businesses because of the
(09:20):
challenges that have existed for these businessesin the past, but you're opening it
up, which is awesome to allsmall businesses. Now, let's talk a
little bit about these grants, becausesometimes grants have certain limitations, but it
seems like there's a lot of leewayin terms of where these grants can be
applied. So tell us more aboutthat. So the grants themself, that
(09:41):
five thousand dollar component, it's reallyunrestricted. Concasts really didn't want to constrict
our small businesses from what they reallyneed. One small business might need a
new side, another small business mightneed to hire a part time employee,
you know, and a third smallbusiness might need help with inventory whatever.
Really the small business needs to thrive. We wanted to be able to provide
(10:05):
that grant to give them that freedomto figure out what their business needed,
you know. And then knowing thatabove and beyond that, small businesses really
need a lot of help in allthese other areas, areas where Comcasts could
be helpful with these consultation services andeducation resources and the creative production of medium
technology makeovers. To add that inwith a five thousand dollars grant, and
(10:28):
you really are going to set awonderful foundation for those small businesses to rocket
into the future. I love theidea about the marketing services. So many
small businesses are really stretched and don'tnecessarily have the bandwidth to do those types
of marketing which are so important tolet people know where they are and who
(10:50):
they are, so to have thatis just really tremendous. Now, for
those out there who are listening andwho would love to take advantage of all
of these incredible services, what aresome of the steps they need to take?
Easiest ray way is to go toour website Comcast Rise dot com.
It's from now until June thirtieth isthe application period, and then we will
(11:11):
make the announcements in August, andthen the award is happening in September.
Because we know small businesses when theyneed the help, they need the help
right now, so it's all veryquick. And remember now until June thirtieth,
that's when the application is open atwww dot comcast Rise dot com.
And you've had such tremendous success insupporting these small businesses, that's true.
(11:35):
You know, this program is inits third year and we've been able to
help a tremendous amount of small businesses. It includes two hundred Philadelphia small businesses
that received over two million dollars ingrant awards and nearly four hundred that have
received marketing and technology and service packages. And nationwide we've touched over thirteen thousand
(11:56):
small businesses that have been awarded monetary, marketing or technolology grands. It really
is an excellent program. We haveit here in Philly once again. Fantastic
And what is the website www dotcomcast Rise dot com. Fantastic. What
a great opportunity. Stephanie Costa,vice President of Government Affairs for Comcast Freedom
(12:18):
Region, thank you so much.Thank you. It's not often that the
tables are turned and I become thesubject of an interview, but that happened
last month when Lucas Gonzalez, asenior at Ben Franklin High School, asked
(12:41):
to interview me as part of hissenior project. So what's your name?
My name is Lorraine Ballard Morrel.I'm directive News and Community Affairs for the
six iHeartMedia Stations, Power ninety nine, w das Q one O two one
h four five, Roomba six oneand Fox Sports The Gambler. Wow,
(13:05):
it's a lot of stations. Yeah, well that's not only that's just Philly.
We have over eight hundred stations acrossthe country that are owned by iHeart
for the biggest radio group in thecountry. That's that's impressive. Do you
enjoy your position now? I loveit. I have the most amazing job.
(13:26):
It is a job that I've beenat for a long, long,
long, long, long, long, long, long long time, and
it's been a great ride. Istarted out when people were playing music with
records and record players, so that'show that's how long ago it was so
long. But now everything is digitalwith these terabyte you know, hard drives
(13:50):
that contain all of our music andall of our commercials and everything. Everything
is all digitized and uh and thebusiness has changed a lot too. But
I still love it because I getto do a lot of work with a
community, and that's really why Ido what I do. What do you
like about your job right now?And what's your favorite thing about it?
I like the fact that there's somethingnew every day. It's just great for
(14:13):
someone with a short attention span,which is to me, every day is
a new adventure. For instance,today I was the moderator for a mayoral
panel, which was fun, andthe other day I was on stage for
a big luncheon that we did forhonoring women. Wdas was the sponsor.
(14:37):
Sometimes I go out and cover stories. Sometimes I organize our community outreach,
so I get to help nonprofit organizationsand community groups and things. I love
that, and I love the performancepart of it too, because I do
interviews and I enjoy that. Ienjoy talking to people. I enjoy hearing
(14:58):
this stories, and I enjoy givingpeople voice to have their voices heard.
Have you been in any other positionsin jobs and what were your thoughts on
those. Well, I've mostly beenin radio. Most of my career has
been in radio, but I've hada few jobs here and there leading up
(15:20):
to radio I got to Fortunately,I've been very lucky in that I kind
of got my first big job attwenty five as a news director, which
is kind of crazy. I wentfrom being a basically someone who had done
a lot of radio through college,but getting my first job in public radio
(15:41):
was a huge leap and it wasamazing. I've had other random jobs,
but they're really pretty forgettable, sonothing major. I'd say that the vast
majority of my working career has beenin radio? What did it take to
get to this point? You know, I often get to talk to people
(16:04):
about how I got to this point, and I would say that it's a
combination of things. One is thatpersistence pays off, because once I decided
that radio was what I wanted todo, because I originally started out as
a dance major. And then whenI said I don't think that's happening,
(16:26):
I actually accidentally volunteered. In otherwords, I walked into the student radio
station and not really realizing that theyweren't hiring people for money, but they
wanted volunteers. So I said,well, you know, let me try
it out. People always said Ihad a nice voice, so I took
a chance and I said yes.And there's a producer named Shonda Rhimes who
(16:49):
wrote a book called The Year ofSaying Yes, or the Year of Yes,
And I think that's part of thesecret, is saying yes even when
it seems a little scary or alittle improbable or why do this. I
was always saying yes to things.So they said, you know, you
want to try out? And Isaid yes. And then I got a
(17:11):
shift, and then I did news, and then I did music, and
then I ended up transferring to schooland working at MIT's radio station because they
had an opportunity for volunteers to workthere. I became the news director there,
and I just kept saying yes todifferent opportunities, and by doing all
(17:33):
the things that I did, whichwas get my name known even though I
was a student, I was outthere covering stories, getting to know people.
People started to know who I waseven though I was a student,
and so I guess that was alsothe lesson was branding. You know,
(17:53):
I didn't they always talk about brandingnow and about connecting and about you know,
all that stuff. Well, Idid it instinctively, not because anyone
told me to. But I gotto know people in the business. So
by the time I actually applied formy first job, people knew who I
was because I had made a namefor myself. I hosted a show it
(18:15):
on I T I was covering stories, and so when the opportunity opened up,
I was ready for it, eventhough it was a big leap going
from not having any professional position butsaying, Okay, I'm going to apply
for this job. I don't thinkI'm going to get it, but let
me try anyway, And much tomy surprise, I got that job.
(18:41):
So you know, persistence, onceyou figure out what you love, just
do everything to be in that environment. I did a million internships so that
I could be in radio stations andget to see people doing what I ended
up doing, so that I gotto experience what that was like, and
ended up again continuing to love itand I connected with everybody. I introduced
(19:07):
myself and I got to know people, and then the story that I tell
is that I used to tell peoplethat I loved radio and people. I
think what's kind of interesting is thatwhen people kind of know what you're into
(19:27):
and you declare it, then there'sa magic that happens. Because I was
working as a teacher's aide, thatwas my job job after graduation, making
like minimum wage. But I wasstill working at my teas radio station,
still doing everything that I was doing, and this classmate of mine, who
(19:48):
I didn't know that well, butshe picked up the phone and this was
that moment of fate where she calledme up and said, you know what
I saw that there was a jobopening at w BURE, you should apply
for it. I did not knowthis person that well. I knew her,
but I know It wasn't like mybest friend or anything, but because
(20:11):
people knew that that's what I wantedto do, somehow that registered and she
was moved to call me and tellme to apply for a job that I
didn't even know existed. I appliedfor that job, and that was my
first job in radio. So it'simportant to declare who you are. I'm
(20:32):
radio. I want to do radio. This is what I want to do,
and if enough people start hearing that, then this kind of magic happens
is called exceeding critical mass. Youknow, it's like and if enough Adams
bounce around, then it explodes.Right, So it's kind of like that.
Wow, what a journey from wantingto be a dance a dance major
(20:56):
to being a teacher's aide and theneventually a new open radio. Yes,
it's quite quite a journey, forsure. It would have been cool to
see you breakdance, though breakdancing wasn'tinvented when I first wanted to do this.
But yeah, I was more ofthe you know, ballet and stuff.
But but yeah, would you havedone anything differently? I I don't
(21:23):
think so, because I, okay, here's one thing maybe I would have
done differently, and that every mistakethat you make, if you learn from
it, then it becomes some ofthe best lessons. Right. So my
second job, I was fired fromthat job. And I was fired from
(21:45):
that job for a number of reasons. One was that it wasn't a good
fit for me. It was workingat a rock station. You know,
it was all guys. They wereall not very nice to me, and
I didn't know how to befriend people, how to make connections and get supporters
(22:07):
inside of that environment. That wasa mistake and that just is very common
to the model minority, which Iwas. In the model minority scenario.
You think you have to be perfect. You can't show anybody that you have
any weaknesses or that you don't knowwhat you're doing. That is often that's
(22:32):
a problem. That's not a goodway to be. You know, you
try to be perfect, but you'renot. And if you don't want to
admit that you need help, thensometimes you fall. And that's what happened
to me. I needed help andI didn't know how to ask for it,
and so eventually things escalated. Andthere's other stuff, politics and all
(22:53):
that stuff, But I say thatfor me, I learned that you need
to really have allies wherever you go, and you need to create those.
You need allies, you need sponsors, you need people who are who have
your back. And I didn't reallycultivate that, and so when I was
fired, there was really no onewho came to my defense really. So
(23:17):
it was a difficult lesson but probablythe best lesson that I ever had,
because I number one, realized thatI'm not my job, so that even
though I got fired from this fancyjob, that it was very public that
I was still me and I wasokay. Secondly, I found out who
(23:38):
my friends were, because when you'rein a very high profile job in entertainment
or whatever, people are attracted toyou for what you do, but not
for who you are. So alot of people who were my friends kind
of disappeared, and the ones whoreally were my friends, and people that
(24:00):
I didn't even consider my friends butcame to my defense or came to my
aid, showed up, and Igot to see who was really for me
and who was not, and thatwas important. And then I also realized
that I needed to work on myself. I needed to figure out what are
(24:22):
the things that I could have donebetter? And that I could do better
to not only be a better professional, but to be a better person.
And so I learned a lot fromthat very difficult experience. Is there anything
you would like to say to thepeople that or younger people that want to
get into the radio broadcasting field inthe future run Now, I'm just kidding.
(24:48):
I think that the people who wantto get into radio now have to
really want it, because it's notlike I think. I think the glamour
has gone out of it a littlebit. I think there was a time
when there are so many people whowanted to do this business. I think
it's a little different now because thebusiness is changing. It's there's major disruption.
(25:11):
People your age don't necessarily too.You don't listen to the radio,
do you. Yeah? So,I mean that's a reality that radio and
broadcasting is coming to grips with that. The audience that we could depend on
before is going to other places.They're listening, You're listening to YouTube,
(25:33):
You're going on Spotify, You're there'sprobably other things that you're doing that you
know, other forms, and there'salways going to be new platforms that people
would use to consume entertainment. SoI think my My advice for anyone who
(25:56):
wants to get into this business isto be good at creating content. So
what that means is, you know, you need to be able to communicate
well. You need to be ableto tell stories well, because stories and
content will always be king whatever theplatform is. That can change. Like
(26:21):
YouTube didn't exist when I first startedin radio, but now I do videos
and social media, I do allthese different things. You need to really
be on top of the technology becausetechnology is changing at a breakneck speed and
that means that people who didn't knowhow to use the Internet, and they
(26:45):
were quite a few of them alongthe way, they fell by the wayside.
People who weren't willing to learn aboutsocial media. They're not here anymore.
So you need to always be agile, always learn, never stop learning.
Always listen to people like you,to younger folks, because you have
(27:06):
lots to tell us and teach us, and sometimes be willing to experience difficulty.
You know, I had to move. I went, you know,
when I was fired from that jobin Boston. I had to upload my
whole uproot rather my whole life,and move to Philly, which turned out
(27:27):
to be the greatest thing ever becauseI got to meet you eventually. So
it's a very it's a tough business. It's downsizing a lot, a lot
more people, a lot more stationsare using syndication, they're doing voice tracking,
there's not as much live in local. But I would say that if
(27:51):
it's something that you love, doit, go for it. Do whatever
it takes, because it will takea lot. It's a challenge, challenging
feel to be in, but it'salso fun. You get to meet amazing
people. I've met amazing people Andif you're like me, you can utilize
this medium to do good and ifthat's in your heart to do, then
(28:17):
this can be a wonderful business tobe in. Well, thank you Loraine
for giving me your time, youranswers, and the space to do this
interview. Well, you're very welcome. This has been fun. Thank you.
You can listen to all of today'sinterviews by going to our station website
and typing in keyword Community. Youcan also listen on the iHeartRadio app Keywords
(28:41):
Philadelphia Community Podcast. Follow me onTwitter and Instagram at Lorraine Ballard. I'm
Lorraine Ballard Morrow and I stand forservice to our community and media that empowers
what will you stand for You've beenlistening to what's going on. ED.
Thank you time I I time,time,
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