[Kzyxtalk] The crux of the biscuit.

Wed Feb 18 08:14:06 PST 2015

I do not legitimize Sakowitz's legal or verbal assault on the station Tim, except as far as to say that if he does sue the station, my fear is that he would win. I never advocated for anyone to go to the FCC either, believing that the stations issues should be dealt with in-house through free and fair elections. 

A year and a half ago, I wrote to the board (and met with a few members personally) warning them that I feared  some of their actions (or rather inactions) may have exposed the station to certain legal liabilities. I was concerned that if they did not clean house something like this would happen. I don't think these issues are anybody's fault, just the result of a kind of institutional malaise.  

I also wrote them to let them know some people were writing complaints to the FCC.  My hope was that they would act to assuage the hurt feelings by those in our community who were willing to go to such lengths to get their attention.  Many are frustrated because their ideas are not being heard. Many believe that the ideas of the membership are not given the proper venue for discussion and that those ideas are not reflected in the stations programming and operational philosophy as the mission statement requires.  This is the root cause of many problems including threatened legal action and this FCC debacle.  

Having issued these warnings, in the hopes of preventing what inevitably transpired, I was treated as if I was the one threatening to sue. Despite my repeated statements to the contrary, I am often treated as if I am the one responsible for the complaints to the FCC. I am afraid this is a case of killing the messenger. 
These issues are real. Denying them will not make them go away. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Feb 17, 2015, at 10:12 AM, Tim Gregory <tgregory at saber.net> wrote:
> 
> mm wrote:
> 
> --'So I say this time wait to pledge money, until something changes. How is that
> threatening to you?'
> 
> not to me, marco, i'm just disappointed. you don't bother to connect the dots
> between now, and your ideal. cutting off the head, to save the body is not good
> prognosis to me.
> 
> 
> --'And of course I'm going to say it during pledge
> week. When else would it make more sense to say it?'
> 
> it will make more sense to us as analysis/future planning when you are not
> monkey-wrenching at the same time.
> 
> mm, you more than most understand team play in radio [even if you do have a whole
> station in your suitcase]. but your 'love of radio' has obvious qualifications and
> DISqualifications at this point.
> 
> so i ask you in return, aside from therapy--what GOOD will come of giving your
> anecdotal experience to legitimizing sako's legal and verbal assault on mcpb? [Doug,
> same question.] do either of you think sako would win another term if he were
> running this time?
> 
> the 'starve-the-budget' tactic is very Republican to me. sandbagging,
> sabotage...whatever you want to call it, it's neither loving nor helpful.
> ---
> 
> 
> (K.C. Meadows, I’m sorry. I’m trying, but despite all my newspaper and radio
> experience I’ve never been much of a traditional editor. The more time I spend on
> cutting things like this, the longer it gets, and then I start over, and then I look
> up and it’s three in the morning and I haven’t started my real work. I have to stop
> now.)
> 
> (Here, if you can use this, use it. If you can’t, don’t. It won’t make me mad; I
> know you have space constraints.)
> 
> The Crux of the Biscuit
> --by Marco McClean
> 
> An open letter to the agitated KZYX people who clearly misunderstood what I wrote
> about thinking it over before pledging money:
> 
> Read MCPB's financial statement. In 2014 KZYX' managers were paid in total over
> $180,000. That's 3,600 $50 yearly memberships, when you only have 2,300 members.
> It's as if the managers are taking the money out of all the pledge envelopes and
> stuffing it in their own pockets, and then some. What am I saying? It’s not /as if/,
> that’s exactly what’s happening.
> 
> Radio is cheap. It costs surprisingly little to run a radio station. CPB grants paid
> $190,000 to MCPB in 2014; that's plenty to never need a pledge drive. And it is dead
> easy to make radio that’s smarter and better than commercial stations; it doesn’t
> require an all-powerful master deciding who enters and who stays and who goes-- and
> continuing to kowtow to these masters because you're afraid to lose your show is
> pathetic. And before you tell me /you're/ not afraid to lose /your/ airtime, try
> bringing this matter up on the air on KZYX and see what happens. Try recounting on
> your show any conversation you've ever had with anyone in the KZYX office. Try being
> exactly who you are, on the air, and not cramping your style down because of how
> Mary Aigner might view what you say and do, and see what happens.
> 
> And “the members control the station” is a lie. I was talking with Doug McKenty last
> week; he told me about arguments he had with Stuart
> Campbell, where Stuart said, "Members do /too/ control the station. They elect the
> board." But then the board transfers complete control to John Coate and Mary Aigner,
> neither of whom pay the slightest attention to what station members might have to
> say. And when you write to the board, using the form on the website, they don't even
> receive it. It doesn't get to them; and they don't care. They /like/ being as
> insulated from the members as they are from the general public.
> 
> Just for comparison, KNYO-LP in Fort Bragg has microphones, mixers, music players, a
> broadcast booth with a microwave oven and a bathroom, an STL link of sorts, remote
> studios, a transmitter, and even a
> storefront performance space downtown. The only operating difference between KNYO
> and KZYX is in maximum allowed transmitter power. KNYO’s manager’s real tasks are
> the same as the combined real tasks of all the managers of KZYX, but he’s paid
> nothing; he does it because he loves radio. Anyone who wants to do a show on KNYO
> can do it. When problems crop up they get solved. KNYO doesn’t get any tax grant
> money; every donated dollar goes to run the station. And radio is a thing that
> anyone can do if he isn't prevented from it by oppressive gatekeepers like the
> managers of KZYX. You don’t have to go to school for it; you just have to have a
> radio hero or two to emulate until your own style emerges. Or even just have an
> idea.
> 
> Everyone who has a show on KZYX would still have his or her show if the managers who
> insist on being paid like kings all went away, which is what I suspect they’d do if
> their salaries were yanked, because they’re not in it for radio. People who are in
> it for radio would replace them. That would be an improvement.
> 
> Without the people on top sucking all membership money and underwriting money out of
> the system, just the federal grant money would easily maintain KZYX, because that’s
> what it’s doing now, and what it’s been doing for 25 years of this.
> 
> So I say this time wait to pledge money, until something changes. How is that
> threatening to you? And of course I'm going to say it during pledge week. When else
> would it make more sense to say it?
> 
> Marco McClean, Albion
> memo at mcn.org
> http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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