[Kzyxtalk] Budgets & news

[sako4 at comcast.net]

More evidence that Coate has strangled the news department. Coate sets the agenda for what news will, or will not, be reported. 


More evidence that Coate has got to go. 


Thank you, Shelia. 

----- Original Message -----
From: "she-la" <sheila.dawn50 at yahoo.com> 
To: kzyxtalk at lists.mcn.org 
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2014 12:22:07 AM 
Subject: Re: [Kzyxtalk] Budgets & news 

Rick, 
Let me be clear about Annie's News Program. The actual news was about 25 minutes with weather and underwriting taking up the other 5 minutes. This broke down into 5 or 6 stories most of which had interview segments by people in the community. Annie had a vast compilation of phone numbers in her Rolidex ? file. She also had at least 5 stringers to call in or write stories for her. 
Annie was a great editor with a lot of patience for cutting out people's stutters, stammers and blank moments, making everyone seem remarkably coherent. That is why she had no trouble getting people to report to her. 
This community connection was built up over many years of competent, hard work. It is why I was so disheartened to see Paul Hanson turn to the computer for his main news source. To be fair, Paul tried but was stunted by Coate's micro managing the News Budget and was heavily influenced by Coate 's sense of what news he wanted reported and how he thought it should be done. No one ever tried to tell Annie how to do her job. 
It is why someone from outside the community has a harder time finding the real news--people who take the time to go to meetings of general interest and report to those who can't be there. Plus he lacked Annie's people skills and, very importantly, a voice that could keep one interested in the material. 
Annie was a wonderful mentor not only to me but H.S students as well. 
What is generally unknown is that even before Coate arrived on the scene, someone ( the Program Director or GM?) convinced the Board that the station could apply for a grant if they expanded the News Program to 1 hour. Programs were put in different time slots, eliminating my subbing for Annie, engineering on the Friday night show so she could leave at 5 instead of 8. Annie filled in the extra half hour by doing interviews. That didn't last too long. 
After she retired, the person who was to take her place changed their mind leaving the station w/o any news for five months. When Paul got hired, all thoughts of grants and hour long news programs went out the window. I always felt there was some mean spirited intention to make Annie work twice as hard just before retirement and all to no benefit. A story still to be researched further. 
Another little known fact gleaned from the station's public files is that the News Director has the authority to negotiate the budget needed for the production of the news program. Part time News Directors and split shifts of two News people may not have that same authority or if they do they don't know they do. So who gets to make all the decisions of how much money goes into producing the news? Not the Board of Directors but the current General Manager! 
How sweet for him. 
To sum it all up, there has been a lot of manipulation around news production. It weakens a community if we don't have a good idea of who is doing what. There is more going on than any one of us can possibly know in our isolation. Reports from the police docket, fire marshal's, & City Administrator's desk have their place but I want to know what are the activities people in the community are organizing around. College of the Redwoods, a public bank, community rights ordinances, a charter County-- there is a lot going on but you have to be part of the community to realise it. 
Enough said. 
Sheila Dawn 

Rick <rbharris11 at comcast.net> wrote: 


I think the reason that KZYX can't sustain a 50-minute local news program is simple: Not that much actually happens out here in Ruralland. Only Annie Esposito could make a 50 minute news program work and sadly Annie, as we all know, has retired. (Come back Annie! Come back!). Sadly, nobody has been able to fill Annie's shoes and those were some big shoes to fill. But maybe the new news guys could take a page or two out of Annie's program and emphasize local human interest stories and the connectedness that makes Mendocino unique. 


Tim, there are days out here in Ruralland where nothing, and I mean nothing happens and that is a good thing as far as I'm concerned. Because the squirrel that has been raiding my birdfeeder gets run over doesn't mean that this is news. The current program of "if it bleeds, it leads" is interesting I suppose but not really sustainable. Just taking police reports and reading them over the air isn't really journalism in the Mendocino spirit if you ask me. Maybe the story behind the story might help fill the minutes. Hmmmmm..... 


For instance, there was a recent story about a man being eaten by his dogs beside the road. Yuck. But definitely news. However, isn't there maybe a less sensational story behind the story? Like about poverty and vicious dogs maybe? Or maybe about how this could happen in a civilized country like America, or maybe who the man was, or.... You know, like journalism and an actual story that would interest people. This would fill the minutes. Of course this would take time, investigation, writing and would cost money. But maybe it is more about journalism than it is about money? 


Rick 
Little River 



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

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 
_______________________________________________ 
Kzyxtalk mailing list 
Kzyxtalk at lists.mcn.org 
http://lists.mcn.org/mailman/listinfo/kzyxtalk 

_______________________________________________ 
Kzyxtalk mailing list 
Kzyxtalk at lists.mcn.org 
http://lists.mcn.org/mailman/listinfo/kzyxtalk 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/kzyxtalk/attachments/20140221/4ef4288e/attachment.html