[Kzyxtalk] Budgets & news

Thu Feb 20 15:23:49 PST 2014

I take an insider approach to fighting the enemy. Think of me as being one of those Greeks hiding in the Trojan horse. 

Or take a page out of the Vietcong's book: To defeat your enemy, you have to know him, understand him. 

I'm being metaphorical here, David, but in all seriousness I now use my Wall Street experience do killer interviews regarding Wall Street's many frauds. 

I also use my Wall Street experience for another noble purpose. I am very pro-worker, pro-union. And now I get to be a trustee of our county's $400 million pension system. 

I work tirelessly to ensure the solvency of the retirement system, and the pensions of the county's 1,200 retirees and 1,100 workers. 

On January 7, 2014, I was unanimously reappointed for a second term to the Retirement Board by the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors. I've been trained as a public trustee at Stanford Law School, and received pension administration training at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business. 

But most of all, I bring bring my Wall Street experience to the job. I'm a pretty decent money manager. 

And I work for no compensation. 

----- Original Message -----
From: "David" <uw at kzyx.org> 
To: kzyxtalk at lists.mcn.org 
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2014 2:48:17 PM 
Subject: Re: [Kzyxtalk] Budgets & news 

We could just as easily say that we don’t want a program host who’s ever worked on Wall Street trading floors, for Swiss banking giant UBS, at Dean Witter Reynolds, Colonial Management Associates, Merrill Lynch and Alex Brown & Sons, managed a Hedge Fund, etc. 

The broad brush approach applies to all or to none. 

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 2:34 PM 
To: kzyxtalk at lists.mcn.org 
Subject: Re: [Kzyxtalk] Budgets & news 

The VOA reference is highlighted in Ms. Quinn's resume. It was also on her LinkedIn profile until she purged it. 

And it's still on her profile at Utah Public Radio, and I quote: " She is a veteran reporter who has interviewed numerous world-leading scholars, corresponding for Voice of America and NPR." 

God bless those Mormons over there at Utah Public Radio! 

God Bless America! 

Speaking for myself, I don't want anyone who has ever worked for VOA to be working at KZYX. I champion progressive media. Our venues are few enough. We are shouted down by mainstream media. Dwarfed by media conglomerates. 

Enter the era of Super PACs. Citizens United. Corporate personhood. Big money. Big bullies. Big mouths. And members of Congress who are bought, sold, and traded like so many Topps baseball cards. 

We must protect the fragile thing we have here at KZYX. 

Besides, why wasn't Christina Aanestad ever considered for the part-time news job? Why would even consider someone from VOA, NPR, and Mormon Public Radio -- I mean Utah Public Radio -- over Christina? Why? Why? Why? 

----- Original Message -----

From: "David" <uw at kzyx.org> 
To: kzyxtalk at lists.mcn.org 
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2014 2:04:46 PM 
Subject: Re: [Kzyxtalk] Budgets & news 

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 pay ment 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. 

----- Original Message -----

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 > wrote: 

Subject: Budgets & news 
To: pkovner at yahoo.com , kzyxtalk at lists.mcn.org 
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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