<html><head><style type='text/css'>p { margin: 0; }</style></head><body><div style='font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000'><font face="Arial">http://www.ukiahdailyjou</font><span style="font-size: 12pt;">rnal.com/letterstotheeditor/ci_25843823/more-problems-kzyx</span><br><br><hr id="zwchr"><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000"><br></div><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000"><h1 id="articleTitle" class="articleTitle" style="margin: 0px 0px 11.326px; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.2; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); text-rendering: optimizelegibility; font-size: 33px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">More problems for KZYX?</h1><div id="articleByline" class="articleByline" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: italic; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22.65199851989746px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">John Sakowicz<div id="articleDate" class="articleSecondaryDate meta" style="font-style: normal; font-size: 10px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(128, 128, 128); text-transform: uppercase; white-space: nowrap; border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding: 2px 0px;">05/21/2014 <br></div></div><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 22.65199851989746px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span fd-type="start" fd-id="default" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 22.65199851989746px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></span><div class="articlePositionHeader" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 22.65199851989746px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><span fd-type="end" fd-id="default" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 22.65199851989746px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></span><div id="articleBody" class="articleBody" style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 22.65199851989746px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="articleViewerGroup" id="articleViewerGroup" style="float: right; border: 0px;"><span class="articleEmbeddedViewerBox" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;"></span><span fd-type="start" fd-id="default"></span><span fd-type="end" fd-id="default"></span></div><span fd-type="start" fd-id="default"></span><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">To the Editor:</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">The problems at KZYX never seem to end. Mary Aigner's dismissal of Norman De Vall, from his usual hosting of the candidates forum series at KZYX, if substantiated, is appalling -- absolutely appalling.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">Mr. De Vall is our friend. Moreover, he is a former, highly respected, member of the Mendocino County Board of Supervisor. And, he is a KZYX radio show host emeritus, having hosted the station's most popular public affairs show for many years. </p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">His dismissal, if substantiated, is appalling, especially at a time when the station is trying to heal, and trying to build bridges back to the five people who filed an objection to the renewal of the station's FCC licenses, and also trying to build bridges back to the 107 members, programmers, and listeners who are the "KZYX Members for Change" at Facebook.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">To replace a trusted household name, like Norman De Vall, with Michael Kisslinger, Paul Lambert, or some other newcomer to the station, for the candidates debates is simply a bad decision. But to tell Mr. De Vall that anybody who is publicly critical of the station can expect their programmer privileges to be revoked -- or words to that effect -- as Ms. Aigner is alleged to have told Mr. De Vall, is grounds for Ms. Aigner's immediate termination.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">I hope Mary Aigner didn't say this to Mr. De Vall.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">Truly.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">Then. there's the separate issue between David Steffen and myself. Steffen is KZYX's presumptive "Business Development Manager." Steffen's niggly-piggly harassment of me, including threats at throwing me off the air, constitutes harassment of a member of staff toward a volunteer. It is also appalling. And I will be filing a grievance.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">Steffen's threat was based on the accusation that I didn't read station ID, an FCC requirement, at the start of my last show. Steffen's claim was totally false, of course. He has since acknowledged his mistake.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">But Steffen isn't one to eat crow for long. In his windy, and rather gassy, reprimand, Steffen threatened to throw me off the air by further saying I didn't read the underwriting during my last show at the top of the hour. True, I didn't read the underwriting at the top of the hour. But I did read it at the half hour -- every word of it.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">Why wait? Because my first guest was the director of the American Friends Service Committee, and he made it crystal clear to me before the show that he could only do the show if we did quick interview. He had very limited time. A scheduling conflict. The subject of the show was the new defense pact that Obama signed with the current Benigno Aquino government -- something that almost certainly will inflame relations with China for both the U.S. and the Philippines.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">I waited until my first guest signed off to respectfully introduce my second and third guests -- the two women who are the chair and vice chair respectively of the indigenous group of native Filipinos, many of them women, known as Banyan-Asia --and it was only then that I read the underwriting. The time was thirty-three minutes into my program.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">And that was that.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">So now, I guess I'm left with the larger question: Why isn't Steffen out there finding new underwriters -- his real job -- instead of listening to hour-long programs from the archives? Why is he there sitting in his office, maybe donut and coffee in hand, instead of out there in the county beating the bushes for new business?</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">Factoid: Our underwriting revenues have fallen off in each of the last few years.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">For the record, before these last two dust-ups, I had recently spoken with KZYX General Manager, John Coate, on several occasions. I felt we had sincere, heart-to-heart talks. I told John Coate that my only motivation in filing my FCC complaint was that I wanted to fix what's wrong with the station. I wanted to fix the station, not destroy it. I wanted public radio back. KZYX is public radio, not the private clubhouse it often seems to be.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">I offered to write letters to the local newspapers urging listeners to support KZYX during Spring Pledge Drive. I even offered to withdraw or modify my FCC complaint.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">I thought John Coate and I were in a good place. I thought the Board and I were in a good place. I thought my fellow brother and sister programmers -- many of whom felt betrayed by my FCC complaint -- and I were in a good place.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">Now this! The shabby treatment of Norman De Vall. Absolutely unacceptable. And Steffen's niggly-piggly harassment of me. Less than absolutely unacceptable, because I don't have Norman's stature at KZYX, but still pretty damn shabby.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">Why?</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">Why now? As relationships were healing at KZYX?</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">Why now? As KZYX is panhandling for loose change during Spring Pledge Drive?</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">This just in. On Monday, May 12, at 12:17 p.m., Norman De Vall posted to the KZYXtalk listserv (kzyxtalk@lists.mcn.org). Mr. De Vall confirms the following: "After a brief meeting with Mary (KZYX Program Director, Mary Aigner), I was told that KZYX staff would conduct the (candidate) interviews; she followed with (and this is almost a direct quote) -- anyone who criticizes the station, or enables others to do so, won't have a microphone."</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">The question now is: Will KZYX General Manager, John Coate, terminate or otherwise discipline, Ms. Aigner? Will Ms. Aigner be allowed to prevent Norman De Vall, a highly respected, retired public servant, who also hosted a popular and long-running public affairs show on KZYX, from hosting the candidates debates on KZYX, as he has normally done for many years? Will be the abuse of a volunteer be tolerated at KZYX?</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">More to the point: Will censorship be tolerated at KZYX? Will the KZYX Board of Directors allow such a blatant violation of Mr. De Vall's right to free speech or freedom of association? Will the Board allow such an abuse of authority -- authority placed in Ms. Aigner, and her boss, Mr. Coate, by the station's 2,396 members. Will the public allow this abuse of authority?</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">John Sakowicz</p><p style="margin-bottom: 11.326px; line-height: 22.652px !important;">Ukiah</p></div></div><style>p { margin: 0; }</style></div></body></html>