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Who is Elaine Herring? And why has she passed this task on to a former employee of the station? <br />To shield her personal contact information I would guess. <br /><br />Ms.
Herring (not of the Anderson Valley Herrings) resided in Ukiah two
years before she managed a seat on the Board of Directors of KZYX/Z.
And now she is the Chair. <br />A Chair who shudders at the prospect of
in-person, public, and video-streamed Board meetings. Who has reduced
the frequency of those public meetings to even less than what the Board
itself recently agreed to. <br /> <br />Herring has no Institutional memory regarding the station. She is
comparing John Coate's performance with Belinda Rawlin's, the ditz who went through the bank draw and
then vanished. <br /><br />Does anyone have contact information for Elaine
Herring to share. She's not listed in the phone book. The Board does not
list their email addresses on the station website. <br />Elaine does not answer email directed to her through the station website. <br />I'd
like to know, for instance, how Elaine Herring is connected to RemCo, a
plant along Highway 101 on the fringe of Ukiah, which manufactures
parts for nuclear weaponry. And whether that connection (if it exists)
has any bearing. <br /><br />So the statement below, devoid of any opportunity for Public Input, made behind the curtain of the board
listserv--where they are not supposed to meet as a full group to come to
decisions regarding the station: those are tasks to be performed in
Open Board meetings or NOTICED Closed Sessions. <br />I am really interested in how these board members came to what they profess to "know."<br /><br />And
Paul Lambert. He too with the tiny
Institutional memory; he too with a smidgen of experience of residency
in Mendocino County: who was paid the full $20,000 of the allotted News
Department budget to do a daily 5 minute reading of submitted PR pieces,
plus excerpts from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat and (occasionally)
Ukiah
Daily Journal, often without attribution. The most criticized venture
ZXYX has ever engaged in. And was rewarded with the slot previously
held by Open Lines. <br /><br />For those of you with Institutional memory:
Remember the struggle at Pacifica. The struggle against the machinations
of the Pacifica Board & General Manager of the nework. And remember
the role and the strategies of Juan Gonzalez to restore those stations
to their memberships. <br /><br />--beth bosk <blockquote><br />----- Original Message -----<br /><div style="width:500px;background:rgb(228,228,228);"><div style="font-weight:bold;">From:</div> "Paul Lambert" <paul.lambert55@yahoo.com></div><br /><div style="font-weight:bold;">To:</div>"kzyxtalk@lists.mcn.org" <kzyxtalk@lists.mcn.org>, "kzyxtalk-request@lists.mcn.org" <kzyxtalk-request@lists.mcn.org><br /><div style="font-weight:bold;">Cc:</div><br /><div style="font-weight:bold;">Sent:</div>Tue, 18 Feb 2014 11:16:28 -0800 (PST)<br /><div style="font-weight:bold;">Subject:</div>[Kzyxtalk] The KZYX's board letter to Members<br /><br /><br /><div style="color:#000;background-color:#fff;font-family:HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:12pt;"><div>The State of the Station February 2014</div><div> We are eight of the nine Directors on the Board of Mendocino County Public Broadcasting. We are pleased to report on the remarkable STATE OF THE STATION.</div><div><br /></div><div>· We know that KZYX&Z is financially secure. </div><div><br /></div><div>· We know that the station is ready and able to provide the community with critical, lifesaving information and news when needed in an emergency.</div><div><br /></div><div>· We know that we offer programs that listeners enjoy and depend on hearing in their daily lives.</div><div><br /></div><div>· We know that the station has a devoted, stable
membership.</div><div><br /></div><div>· We know that the station is making necessary technical improvements to its infrastructure and equipment to improve our signals and minimize/eliminate downtime. </div><div><br /></div><div>And we know that we owe much of this progress, this success, to the efforts and accomplishments of our General Manager John Coate and his staff. </div><div><br /></div><div>Business/Finances:</div><div><br /></div><div>We give our General Manager full credit for turning around the station’s finances. When John Coate was hired in 2008, KZYX was more than $200K in debt. At this time (Feb. 17, 2014) we have more money in the bank than we owe. We could pay every bill we have, past and present, and still have funds in the bank. Our $75K line of credit has not been touched since November, and has been untouched for 8 out of the past 12 months.</div><div><br /></div><div>For the past 3
years our audits, prepared by an independent professional, have included a cover letter declaring that there are no irregularities or problems with our bookkeeping and accounting practices.</div><div><br /></div><div>John retired $116K in old debts last fiscal year. He restructured our remaining debt into a single no-interest monthly payment, which we have made without fail for almost two years.</div><div><br /></div><div>John reorganized our membership department to ensure more timely and consistent mailings, such as pledge acknowledgement letters. </div><div><br /></div><div>John shares all financial information with the Board in a way that is prompt and upfront. During his tenure as GM he has become an expert in managing a highly unpredictable cash flow and implementing cost control measures.</div><div><br /></div><div>Operations/Infrastructure:</div><div><br /></div><div>We installed a new backup power generator at the Philo studio. In
the past, the entire station would go off the air every winter, sometimes for days at a time, due to power failure. This no longer happens.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now we have</div><div><br /></div><div>a new Emergency Alert System</div><div>a new main control console in Philo</div><div>a new state-of-the-art antenna for KZYX 90.7</div><div>a new and improved program automation system</div><div>a digital storage unit to begin building a comprehensive digital music library.</div><div> backup equipment for various parts of the signal path resulting in far less downtime when something breaks</div><div>We have changed the way the satellite studios connect to Philo, saving hundreds of dollars each month in phone charges.</div><div><br /></div><div>We rebuilt every part of the equipment required for the 88.1 signal on Bald Hill above Fort Bragg. Now it is trouble-free.</div><div><br /></div><div>We replaced the unit that converts audio to a radio
signal to a higher quality unit that greatly improves the fidelity of the broadcast.</div><div><br /></div><div>We completely rebuilt the kzyx.org website in 2012, relying primarily on the efforts of staff and volunteers</div><div><br /></div><div>There have been numerous improvements to office and studio components such as computers, microphones, CD players, etc. and the Philo studio building has been rewired for better reliability. </div><div><br /></div><div>Programming: </div><div><br /></div><div>We have a dedicated volunteer staff of about 100 programmers who provide a quality product, week in and week out. We have 31 local programmers and 17 local programs on the air today that were not on the air in August 2008 when John began. These include Mendo Matters, Give and Take, Consider This, The Sonic Blender, Portrait in Jazz as well as many others. We are constantly looking to update our programming to keep it fresh, and we continue to
welcome new programmers and new program ideas that will help us to better serve our community. We expanded our local news coverage with the addition of Michael Kisslinger and veteran reporter and producer Sheri Quinn.</div><div><br /></div><div>We, the undersigned trustees on the MCPB Board of Directors, are very grateful to John Coate and to his A-Team staff for their excellent contributions to our station. We are diverse, independent-minded individuals who believe wholeheartedly that they are doing a fine job of day-to-day management, and that they are moving the station forward in the right strategic direction. </div><div><br /></div><div>February 17, 2014</div><div><br /></div><div>Eliane Herring, Board President, Attorney (admitted to practice in Wash. D.C. and Tex., not Cal.)</div><div><br /></div><div>Holly Madrigal, Board Vice-President, Mayor of Willits</div><div><br /></div><div>Meg Courtney, Board Secretary, Vice-Mayor of Ft.
Bragg</div><div><br /></div><div>Stuart Campbell, Programmer-Elected Representative, College Professor</div><div><br /></div><div>Fran Koliner, Retired Teacher, Visual Artist</div><div><br /></div><div>Bob Page, Managing Partner, Airport Health Club, Santa Rosa</div><div><br /></div><div>Laviva Dakers, Mother and KZYX programmer</div><div><br /></div><div>Ed Keller, Realtor and Property Development Consultant</div></div>
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