[Kzyxtalk] from the AVA's "Mendocino County Today", April 13

Mon Apr 13 10:46:29 PDT 2015

NOT STFU-ING 

To the Editor: 

KZYX Executive Director-General Manager, John Coate, writes the following on his Facebook page : 

John Coate , April 1 at 2:24pm — “The KZYX Board of Directors election ballots were counted and the hate group candidates got clobbered. One got 37% of the vote and the other got 31%. They can STFU now. Not that they will.” 

Hmm. 

Is Coate kidding or what! 

Hate group? Really? From a guy who shut down the Community Advisory Board? >From a guy who tried to shut down the Program Advisory Committee, and who now keeps it as weak and ineffective as possible? From a guy who will not allow the station's 2,100 members to communicate with one another? Who keeps them in the dark? From a guy who has taken the "public" out of public radio? 

Hate group? Really? From a guy who purges popular programmers from the air who are his critics? From a guy who makes programmer grievance hearings into a kangaroo court? 

Hate group? Really? From a guy who has double standards for "discipling" or otherwise purging programmers? For example, Doug McKenty was purged when a caller dropped the f-word. The station did not have the seven-second delay at that time. Also, Norman De Vall was purged merely for setting up the Kzyxtalk listserv, so that the public might have a forum to discuss their presumably public radio station in the absence of "Open Lines" being canceled and its host, Doug McKenty, being purged by Coate. Meanwhile, I, a programmer of more than six years and Board member, was purged for uttering the f-word as ambient sound while standing 5-6 feet from the engineering board, as the station's Program Director, Mary Aigner, had control of both the show and engineering board -- the very same Mary Aigner who, without consequence, did not preview her feature and allowed the s-word to be uttered on 7:10 p.m., on March 30 on "Women Voices". (Yes, we taped the show for a future lawsuit.) 

Hate group? Really? From a guy who tried to censor news reporter, Christina Aanestad, or otherwise have editorial control over the news department, and who tried to get Ms. Aanestad to work without pay, nearly forcing her to complain to the California Labor Board? From a guy who eliminated the two full-time jobs in the station's news department? 

Hate group? Really? From a guy who keeps staff salaries and other financials secret? From a guy who gives his staff raises instead of making necessary investments in infrastructure? From a guy who gave himself a 10% raise in June, 2013, at precisely the time county workers were either getting pink slipped or being forced to take a 10% pay cut in a massive downsizing of the county's payroll? This raise for John Coate still stinks two years after the fact. 

Hate group? Really? From a guy who has allowed 10 incidents of dead air or fuzz outs in only the first three months of 2015 alone, as Korean War-era broadcast equipment continues to fail, and is held together by bailing wire and masking tape. This is to saying nothing of a frequent scratchy, irritating broadcast signal, or a webstream that's often down. 

Hate group? Really? From a guy who refuses to open a Ukiah studio? From a guy who arrogantly refuses to collaborate with other local public radio stations, like KMEC or KNYO? 

Hate group? Really? From a guy who has spent $15,000 of KZYX's scarce resources in legal fees defending his poor management decisions at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which still has not renewed both of the station's licenses -- even after a year! 

Hate group? Really? From a guy who has seen KZYX's annual federal bailout funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) slip from $187,000 to $132,000 -- apparently, the CPB, like the FCC, is losing patience with John Coate and his rubber stamp Board of Directors. 

Hate group? Really? From a guy who refuses to post or advertise part-time jobs at the station, or otherwise support the spirit of affirmative action and EEO laws, thereby favoring friends and other insiders for jobs? 

Hate group? Really? From a guy who refused to investigation two separate incidents of battery on women -- battery on KZYX station premises, nonetheless. Julia Carrera, former co-host of "Trading Time" was grabbed by the neck in the station's studio by her co-host and then-boyfriend. Meanwhile, Mary Massey, a WPLN, Nashville Public Radio veteran and potential volunteer programmer at KZYX, was spit at in the station's parking lot by the station's operations manager, who is a man. 

That's a whole lotta hating goin' on, John Coate. 

Question: Who's hating whom? 

Another question, John Coate: What's with the STFU? Shut The F*** Up? Really? Seriously. Really? From a groovy old hippie like yourself? Shame on you, John Coate. We will not STFU. No, siree. Your so-called "hate group" is trying to save KZYX -- trying to save it from you. 

John Sakowicz 

MCPB Board of Directors (2013-2016), Board Treasurer (2014) 

Ukiah 
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