KVBPR’s Aileen Katcher was named one of the 2012 Most Powerful Women by the Nashville Post for her leadership skills, influence and ability to affect positive change in the community.

The below profile on Aileen ran in the May 2012 issue of the Nashville Post.

Aileen Katcher ranks among Nashville’s most successful and admired business leaders.

However, the long-time local communications pro struggles to pinpoint a defining moment in her career evolution.

“I can’t say there was an ‘a-ha moment,’” she responded when asked at what point she realized she was prepared to oversee employees, budgets, company decision-making and the like.

But Katcher, a partner with Katcher Vaughn & Bailey Public Relations, does recall a situation that helped define the person she is today.

“Some years back, I did have a real leadership test in a non-profit leadership role for my congregation,” she remembered. “During my year as chair-elect, our beloved, founding rabbi announced he was leaving to teach. The next two years of searching for a replacement — serving as board chair and a consistent face of leadership to our members during the year of an interim rabbi — taught me many great leadership lessons.”

One of those lessons learned involved the importance of declining, even though tempted otherwise, to “triangulate.”

“If a congregant called me to complain about the rabbi, I redirected [the congregant] straight to him,” she said. “If necessary, I offered to go with them to discuss the issue.  But not to do it for them.”

Katcher tries to do likewise at KVB.

Click here to continue reading Aileen’s profile.

*Photo by the Nashville Post.

By: Aileen Katcher, APR, Fellow PRSA

This piece first appeared in the Nashville Business Journal’s Women of Influence Blog on May 3, 2012.

When I moved to Nashville in 1978, the city and business community were controlled by a “good ol’ boy” network. Women in positions of authority and leadership were few and far between. In fact, women were not allowed in most business clubs and civic organizations. “Mad Men” was alive and well.

In 1985, the Nashville Women’s Breakfast Club was founded for women business leaders because they were not allowed in the existing men’s business networking and service organizations. The first time I went to the Nashville City Club in 1979, I was not allowed in the main dining room. Our party (made up of five men and myself) was moved into the Ladies’ Tea Room for our lunch meeting.

Much has changed in the 33 years I have lived here.

Click here to read the rest of Aileen’s piece on the progress of businesswomen in Nashville.

*Photograph by Nashville Business Journal

By: Aileen Katcher, APR, Fellow PRSA

The announcement this week that Gannett will begin charging for online content for all of its publications except USA Today is part of a growing trend to charge for news content.  The question is, how will this affect the local newspaper market?

We have already seen a shift in news consuming habits of the younger generation (under 40) to seek news from national sources rather than local sources.  Even if they do occasionally read a local outlet online, will they do so if they have to pay for it?  While those of us in my generation are used to paying for newspaper and magazine subscriptions, those who grew up in the computer era are not.

What about TV and radio sites?  Will they start charging or is the revenue generated by the on air and web ads sufficient to keep them in the black?  And if they do charge, will people pay or just wait to hear or see the news broadcast on radio or TV?

What are your thoughts about this?  Will you pay to read the Tennessean online?

*From a presentation to the Transit Alliance of Middle Tennessee and Lipscomb University’s Transit Citizen Leadership Academy.

By: Greg Bailey, APR

In her one-woman play, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, Lily Tomlin remarks, “What is reality anyway? It is nothing but a collective hunch.”

Let’s consider the current and possibly future reality of regional mass transit … hopefully answering the question, “So, where do we go from here?”

And an even more important question: “What do we do when we get there?”

The vision of regional mass transit rests in the Metropolitan Planning Organization’s 2035 long-range transit plan.  I am excited by the words BOLD NEW VISION – love those words and the pathway that this plan stretches before us. It doesn’t take much to be sucked into the vision vortex.

You don’t even have to close your eyes to imagine riding the streetcar coming down the hill at Broadway and Seventh Avenue  — honky-tonk heaven before you … the river ahead … without having the hassle of parking, and jumping off at Fifth to head to the arena or The Ryman.

You don’t have to close your eyes to think about light rail between Gallatin and downtown Nashville, the sitting-in-traffic commute replaced by a seat by the window speeding past Hendersonville and Madison and into downtown Nashville.

When you consider today’s reality, you want to close your eyes.

If it’s after 5 in Middle Tennessee, it’s stop -and-go traffic; there is a collision up ahead; a semi wants in the right lane … and the ribbon of cars and trucks is miles ahead and miles behind.

The biggest challenge facing adoption of mass transit in Middle Tennessee is: CHANGING BEHAVIOR. I am excited by the challenge.  As a practitioner of public relations – this is what I do. What do we do to change their minds?

First of all, nobody can accomplish the goal on their own. That is why there is a Mayor’s Caucus and a Transit Alliance. Second, I am a firm believer that the only way to meet this goal is a county-by-county, grassroots education and awareness campaign.

Who will take the lead? Will it be your county mayor? A city mayor? A business leader?

Maybe it should be you.

Visit the Transit Alliance of Middle Tennessee for information on how you can join in on the change.