<html><body><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000"><div aria-label="Compose body">Nonviolent communication, Tim -- focusing on the issues, not the personalities -- will be what finally turns things around at KZYX.</div><div aria-label="Compose body"><br></div><div aria-label="Compose body">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_Communication</div><div><br></div><hr id="zwchr"><div style="color:#000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;" data-mce-style="color: #000; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><b>From: </b>"Tim Gregory" <tgregory@saber.net><br><b>To: </b>"kzyxtalk" <kzyxtalk@lists.mcn.org><br><b>Sent: </b>Friday, February 20, 2015 7:04:54 PM<br><b>Subject: </b>Re: [Kzyxtalk] Fwd: draft of letter to the FCC<br><div><br></div>one self-inflated total shitheel, i'd say, and very proud of it.<br>poor impulse control, even when he had the privilege of a show on kzyx.<br><div><br></div>i expect he won't be the last gleefully claiming 'tactical victory', and maybe moral<br>'validation' if pledge drive doesn't do well...[sigh]...<br>---<br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div>DRAFT<br><div><br></div>Peter H. Doyle<br>Chief, Audio Division<br>Media Bureau, Federal Communications Commission<br>Washington, D.C. 20554<br><div><br></div>In Reply Refer to:<br>Facility ID No. 41157<br>File No. BRED-20130724AAG<br><div><br></div>Dear Mr. Doyle:<br><div><br></div>Mendocino County Public Broadcasting (MCPB) holds two FCC licenses, KZYX and KZYZ,<br>and it is currently seeking renewal of the same. Renewal has been held up by the FCC<br>for almost a year due to the fact that five members of the public submitted<br>objections to the renewal. One of these five people is a myself, a member of the<br>Board of Directors of MCPB. I was elected by the majority of MCPB's 2,300 members<br>for the term 2013-2016, and I was appointed by the Board to serve as Board Treasurer<br>for 2014. I also hosted a popular public affairs show, "All About Money", from 2008<br>until June of this year, when I was suspended for filing the FCC complaint. As host<br>and producer of the show, I was a finalist last year at the Norman Mailer Society<br>for a fellowship. I shall appeal my suspension once there is a change in management<br>at MCPB.<br><div><br></div>At this time, I am writing to complain of an abuse of airwaves that occurred today<br>by MCPB host, Gordon Black, on-air volunteer, Ann Lucas, and by MCPB General Manager<br>and Executive Director, John Coate.<br><div><br></div>Today, Friday, February 20, 2015, just after 11 a.m., during the "World of Music"<br>program, Mr Black and Ms Lucas, broke into programming to pitch for listeners to<br>pledge to KZYX. The station is in the middle of it's winter fund drive with a goal<br>of $70,000. It was announced that the station had raised about $25,000 by Friday,<br>February 20th, 11 a.m. This is four days into a six-day fundraising drive.<br><div><br></div>Ms Lucas began to read comments by donors who had just pledged. Ms Lucas stated: " A<br>listener from Ukiah said she was put over the top by Sakowicz's recent newspaper<br>comments and that she decided to pledge." Mr Black chimed in that he had "tussled on<br>the op-ed pages with Mr Sakowicz recently, and that a letter was printed in response<br>to Mr. Black's letter in the Ukiah Daily Journal from Mr Sakowicz, but that Mr Black<br>hadn't read it, and couldn't find it."<br><div><br></div>Shortly after this exchange, General Manager and Executive Director, John Coate,<br>entered the studio, sat down in front of a mic, and began to talk.. He stated that<br>five (5) individuals had written to the FCC asking that the station's license not be<br>renewed. Mr Coate said the five individuals made "erroneous statements" in their<br>complaints to the FCC. He further stated: "The station had proved several of these<br>statements as being untrue." He continued to say that "unfortunately, $13,500 had<br>been spent on legal fees thus far to rebut these written comments to the FCC." Mr<br>Coate concluded by saying: "Our lawyers in Washington DC are doing a good job, but<br>that the money could have been used, say, for equipment."<br><div><br></div>I am writing at this time to add to my original complaint. Today, these Merrs. Black<br>and Coate, and Ms Lucas, have abused their on-air positions at KZYX and KZYZ.<br>Specifically, they have used the airwaves to do the following: to publicly discuss<br>matters currently pending before the FCC; engage in a personal attack on me, a<br>current Board Member and on-air programmer; engage in a personal attack on all five<br>members of the public who were within their right to offer written objections to the<br>renewal of the station's licenses per the FCC's own policy; and; use the yet-to-be<br>resolved issues before the FCC as a way to blame those of us who made these<br>objections to the FCC for both the failure of the station's current fundraising<br>drive and the failure of the station's broadcasting equipment.<br><div><br></div>The renewal of the station's licenses is a matter of the greatest public importance,<br>and station management should not be allowed to voice a one-sided opinion on<br>unresolved matters currently under review by the FCC. This is a blatant abuse of<br>power under the color of authority.<br><div><br></div>Finally, the FCC may be interested in the matter of the the regular, frequent, and<br>predictable failure of broadcasting equipment at MCPB.<br><div><br></div>Here in Mendocino County, the listeners of KYX and KZYZ get a signal that's often<br>down. We're used to it. We get dead air. Or we get an irritating scratchy signal.<br>Why dead air and a scratchy signals? Because MCPB has Korean War-era equipment. The<br>equipment is old and held together by used replacement parts. Consequently, the<br>signal has been down for as much as three days at a time in late-March, 2014.<br><div><br></div>Three days of dead air! That's shocking for a public radio station.<br><div><br></div>Then, there's this year, 2015. Let's look look at the problems during just the first<br>two months of 2015. The following are all admissions. I quote from General Manager<br>and Executive Director John Coate's own blog on the KYX website.<br><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;">On February 12, Coate wrote: " Use 91.5 if you can tune it in. There is an</span></div>intermittent noise problem with the 90.7 transmitter that we are trying to get<br>repaired."<br><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;">On February 9, Coate writes on his blog: "The web stream is down during this power</span></div>outage." He continues, "...generator up and down, fuses blown, UPS systems keeping<br>us on at times, and more than one of them also gave out."<br><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;">On January 29, Coate writes: "The signal is back on the air. Our Napa-based engineer</span></div>configured a loaner unit for us." Coate continues, "Our backup STL transmitter unit,<br>that we put in place because the regular ones were misbehaving, has failed<br>completely. We will send our broken STL in for rebuild."<br><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;">On January 27, Coate writes: "As we have had to report many times over the years,</span></div>KZYX/KZYX has chronic problems with its set of STL radios. " He continues, " We have<br>tried various adjustments which have helped, but we have not yet succeeded in<br>eliminating an irritating scratchiness in the audio."<br><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;">On January 12, Coate writes, "STL (Studio Transmitter Link) radios send the signal</span></div>from Philo up to the main transmitter up on Cold Springs Peak. We tend to have<br>fairly chronic issues with these radios."<br><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In conclusion with respect to technical problems, the above five incidents are only</span></div>the technical problems that to which Coate admits. And only in 2015. It seems to me<br>that Job #1 for any radio station is keeping the signal up. Well, MCPB has failed<br>miserably in this area. On this basis alone, the FCC should withhold the renewal of<br>the station's licenses until there is either a change in management. </div><div style="color:#000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;" data-mce-style="color: #000; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br></div><div style="color:#000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;" data-mce-style="color: #000; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Then, of course, there is today's matter of the abuse of the airwaves to make personal<br>attacks on FCC complainants. The complainants should not be blamed on-air by three<br>separate persons at the station for the failure of equipment. It's a blatant case of<br>abuse of the authority that the FCC has vested in MCPB. Those personal attacks<br>showed poor judgement, and they caused reputational harm to members of the public.<br><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Yours very truly,</span></div><div><br></div><br><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;">John Sakowicz</span></div><div><br></div>MCPB Board of Directors (2013-2016), Board Treasurer (2014); host and producer of<br>"All About Money" (2008-present)<br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div><br>_______________________________________________<br>Kzyxtalk mailing list<br>Kzyxtalk@lists.mcn.org<br>http://lists.mcn.org/mailman/listinfo/kzyxtalk<br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div><br>_______________________________________________<br>Kzyxtalk mailing list<br>Kzyxtalk@lists.mcn.org<br>http://lists.mcn.org/mailman/listinfo/kzyxtalk<br></div><div><br></div></div></body></html>