[Kzyxtalk] Budgets & news

[nsi at mcn.org]

----- Original Message -----
From: "she-la" 
To:
Cc:
Sent:Fri, 21 Feb 2014 00:22:07 -0800
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, font-size:12pt;color:#000000;">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?
RickLittle River

-------------------------
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 [1]
 Facebook: Oak and Thorn 
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