Regional organisation is responsible for the effective distribution of radio and TV programmes in their area. Risto Kelahaara, Jani Huhtala and Jukka Penttonen are area managers responsible for different parts of Finland.

Risto Kelahaara is in charge of the Lapland service area. Over the course of his long career at Digita, Kelahaara has collected a wealth of experience, joining Yle in July 1985 and being part of Digita’s journey right from company’s founding in 1998. “The company’s operations and my job have changed over the years. At one time, I was a service engineer. As an area manager, the most important part of my job is overseeing the maintenance and repair work in my area, as well as any customer work.” The environment in Lapland adds a touch of spice to the role. “In the winter, we use snowmobiles, which are necessary to reach many of the locations we work on.”

The area manager of the Middle Finland service area, Jani Huhtala, has been aware of Digita since he was a small child. “When I lived in my childhood home, whenever I looked up, I would see one of Digita’s masts.” Did the mast have an influence on the young Jani’s future career? “When I was in primary school, we took a field trip to learn about a radio and TV station. Years later, in 2003, I got a summer job at Digita, then became a radio network specialist at the company in 2006.” Jani describes his duties as multifaceted. Nonetheless, his weeks always start the same way. “On Mondays, we review the situation with the maintenance teams and plan out the week.” Administrative tasks and work coordination also take up a chunk of Jani’s time, but he says the most important part of his job is to ensure the right people with the right skills are in the right place so that maintenance and repair work gets done.

Jukka Penttonen, who is currently the area manager for Southern Finland, was originally brought to Digita by radio. “At the time, Digita was running a radio campaign to recruit radio technicians. I decided to apply and was offered a job in Mikkeli that I started in the week of Midsummer 2009.” Jukka says his job is varied, because it is hard to predict what kinds of faults will crop up. “We have a key role and we connect the different business functions together”, Jukka says.

Jukka, Jani and Risto all have a background in fieldwork. “Having experience of working in the field helps a lot and makes it much easier to put your tasks into perspective and to understand the challenges that come up”, all three area managers agree.