[Kzyxtalk] Fear & Loathing at KZYX’s Philo Fortress

[sako4 at comcast.net]

Here's the link to Shelia's fine article in the current issue of AVA: http://theava.com/archives/28852 




My response to Shelia's fine article is found below: 





Great article, Shelia. Thank you for reporting truth to power. And thanks to the Anderson Valley Advertiser (AVA) for publishing your article. 


Your reporting of how the station's dissidents have been shabbily treated in the past -- management's way or the highway -- puts in context the very serious issues that now confront Mendocino County Public Broadcasting (MCPB) as we find ourselves two months into 2014. 


Past is prologue. History tells us all we need to know. 


The tragedy of five separate objections to the renewal of the KZYX and KZYZ license renewals that have been currently at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to date is yet another chapter in the ongoing story of organizational dysfunction. The intensifying civil war that has plunged MCPB into crisis could put the station's survival at risk -- but it's a risk worth taking. 


We at "KZYX Members for Change" -- the de facto resistance movement -- look forward to the day when the station's 2,300 members, and 100 volunteers hosting shows, have some say in governance. Currently, we have virtually no say in governance. 


The station's current management model of total, autocratic control has proven to be utterly unworkable, with a small minority of staff -- and a Board of Directors handpicked by the station's general manager -- now controlling decision-making, while the voices of the members and many of the volunteers hosting shows are ignored. 


As a footnote to the Board's elections, note how the political left justifiably denounces the credibility of elections in countries where only a small percentage of the potential electorate votes, yet here at MCPB we have the same phenomenon. Management has created an electoral process that continually produces few voters and small turnouts. 


Barring any true democratic process of governance at MCPB, we'll see how the FCC weighs in. 


The Corporation for Public Broadcasting ((CPB), which funds public broadcasting, may also weigh in. 


As they say in the Occupy Movement, ""Resistance is fertile." And so, my friends, I guess we'll see what grows in the fertile soil of resistance at MCPB. 




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