[Kzyxtalk] Budgets & news

Thu Feb 20 14:04:46 PST 2014

Dear, Dear John S.

Must you smear someone to attempt to make a point? As was pointed out weeks
ago, the newsperson never worked for VOA. Like other stringers and
reporters, including others who've come through KZYX in prior years, stories
are sent out for other organizations to pick up and rebroadcast, usually
with some payment to the originator of the story. Picking up a story no more
makes a reporter an employee of VOA than it does for Pacifica, or any other
news service. Tell me, was it that 2009 story "Plants as Important in Space
as on Earth" that was a clear example of subversive reporting picked up by
VOA? Or maybe it was "Rainforest Research Yields Promising Medicines and
Creates Jobs" that upset you. 

Please know what you're talking about before you go on the attack.

You have become so petty and unjust in your rants that you'd rather smear
someone than offer an honest critique. 

David

David Steffen

KZYX Business Development

(707) 895-2324 office

(707) 322-9895 cell

(707) 895-2451 fax

  _____  

From: kzyxtalk-bounces at lists.mcn.org [mailto:kzyxtalk-bounces at lists.mcn.org]
On Behalf Of sako4 at comcast.net
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2014 12:42 PM
To: kzyxtalk at lists.mcn.org
Subject: Re: [Kzyxtalk] Budgets & news

I tried being a stringer for Paul Lambert. No go. I was made to feel like I
was twisting his arm on covering the meetings of the Mendocino County Board
of Supervisors (BOS). Lambert blew a perfect opportunity.

It made perfect sense for me to file stories on the BOS, because, at that
time -- 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 -- I was the member of Grand Jury  Mendocino
County assigned to attended all BOS meetings and file reports with the
entire Grand Jury on BOS business. County Counsel reviewed my final reports.
They were factual, vetted, relevant.

It felt like a hard sell trying to get Lambert to run my stories, so I gave
up.

I would remind readers on this listserv that my news instincts are fairly
decent. Not only do I do my bi-weekly show, but I regularly filed stories
with David Brooksher, and before Brooksher, with Paul Hanson. 

For a few years after the financial crash of 2008, Hanson had me on the air
2-3 times a week, and sometimes more. That was back when "Community News"
was an hour-long. Brooksher ran my stories about once every two weeks.

And now? And now we have two talking heads read press releases or excerpts
from the Ukiah Daily Journal for ten minutes. And these talking heads? One
is a friend of Coate. The other is a friend of Board member, Holly Madrigal.

Neither one of these two part-time news jobs were posted or advertised. The
hiring process was an inside job all the way.

The final insult? One of these two part-time news reporters once worked for
the Voice of America (VOA). Many critics of the VOA regard it to be a
mouthpiece for both the U.S. Department of State and the CIA. The VOA
broadcasts its propaganda in most of the developing world, and their signal
regularly drowns out local broadcasts. The VOA will even jam local
broadcasts that they regard as being particularly unfavorable to the
American point of view. They do this all the time in Cuba.

Does KZYX really want someone who worked for the U.S. propaganda machine to
be working for us?

Were we even asked?

I know for certain that the Board wasn't asked. Coate runs the show. The
Board has ceded all authority to him.

  _____  

From: "doug mckenty" <dougmck at gmail.com>
To: pkovner at yahoo.com, kzyxtalk at lists.mcn.org
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2014 12:14:20 PM
Subject: Re: [Kzyxtalk] Budgets & news

According to David Brookshire, with whom I recently spoke, KMUD recently
doubled the amount of money it spends on the news department including
$10,000 set aside to pay for community stringers.  They have also recently
expanded to digital radio.  

I advocated for some time that KZYX look to this successful model for
inspiration but was told by management that KMUD represented a niche market
and a station like that would only work in Humbolt.  While I was advocating
this, KMUD encountered a hiccup in its financing when it had to sell a
property for much less than it's budgeted value.  As a result they went
about 40k in debt.  Management sent me the article about this as if to prove
KMUD was just as insolvent as KZYX.  KMUD instantly had an on air board
access program to explain the situation and apologize.  They then held one
special pledge drive that made up for the 40k debt and they were back in
black.

At the board meeting where we approved the budget eliminating the news
department, which I voted against, Annie Esposito explained the success of
KMUD without NPR.  Her pleas fell on deaf ears.

Doug 

On Thursday, February 20, 2014, Patricia Kovner <pkovner at yahoo.com> wrote:

Thanks for that info.  I don't know what you mean by restricted income for
NPR at KMUD, as they don't have NPR.  They do, however, have many reporters
contributing to their news show, but I don't know who is paid or how much.
I bet some of them are volunteers.
--------------------------------------------
On Thu, 2/20/14, Tim Bray <tbray at wildblue.net <about:blank> > wrote:

 Subject: Budgets & news
 To: pkovner at yahoo.com <about:blank> , kzyxtalk at lists.mcn.org <about:blank> 
 Date: Thursday, February 20, 2014, 10:07 AM

     According to
 the financial reports,
       KMUD has a slightly larger income than KZYX.  Looking
 at the 2012
       Annual figures (available on each station's
 Website), KMUD
       received $562K and KZYX received $521K.  Those
 figures are for
       "Unrestricted" income; KMUD had an
 additional $147K of "Restricted
       Income" which is tied by the donor to a specific
 use.  I can't
       quite find what all of that is supposed to be
 earmarked for, but a
       chunk of it is CPB grants and direct contributions
 restricted to
       NPR programming.

       KMUD does not have a full hour of local news, it is a
 half-hour
       program.

       I don't think there is a single, simple reason why
 KZYX could not
       sustain a 50-minute local news program.  (It was
 never quite a
       full hour.)  It takes a lot of effort to produce that
 much news,
       more than one full-time newsperson, and so the
 budgetary
       restriction is a big part of it.   It isn't a
 simple matter of
       trading 28 hours/week of NPR for 5 hours/week of local
 news.

       Tim Bray

       On 2/19/2014 3:07 PM, Patricia Kovner wrote:

       Is the reason KZYX no longer has a full news
 hour, because NPR programming has priority and there is not
 enough $$ for both?  I'd like to know how KMUD budgets
 it's much smaller income to expand its already full news
 hour, with several reporters, and no NPR.

     --

       Oak &
 Thorn

       Facebook: Oak and Thorn

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