[Kzyxtalk] to yet another shill

[sako4 at comcast.net]

A guy named Tom Melcher, a.k.a. Tom Pope, just wrote a hit piece. I was attacked every which way. Just like former KZYX Board President, Bob Page, did in the Sunday Ukiah Daily Journal two weeks ago. 

Ad hominem attacks are fine and dandy, but I'm the the issue at KZYX. Never was. Never will be. Change is the issue. Returning KZYX to the people of Mendocino County is the issue. 

My response to Melcher is found below. 

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



RESPONSE TO TOM MELCHER, A.K.A.TOM POPE 

The name Tom Melcher rang a bell. So I did a little research. Isn't this the same Tom Melcher who ran for the KYX Board in the last elections cycle? 

Indeed it is! 

Melcher was recruited by KZYX management to split the vote against Doug McKenty! 

What a guy! 

To review a little recent past history, Doug McKenty is a former KZYX Board member and popular radio show host. In fact, he had several shows on the schedule. 

A few years back, Doug McKenty started to ask all the right questions about mismanagement at the station. He challenged sketchy facts, and weak excuses, and the almost total dominance of the station by General Manager and Executive Director, John Coate, and Program Director, Mary Aigner. Doug McKenty promised much-needed reform. Consequently, Doug McKenty was purged. He was summarily kicked off the air. His programming privileges were indefinitely suspended and his shows were cancelled. In other words, he was offed by station bullies John Coate and Mary Aigner. 

For those not familiar with the day-to-day operations at KZYX, John Coate and Mary Aigner run KZYX like Stalin ran the Kolyma Gulag.-- and I am familiar, because, not only am I an KZYX Board member, I had a radio show at KZYX for going on seven years. 

Yes, Coate runs KZYX like a Gulag. 

Or like how the feds ran the Apache reservation at Fort Still, Oklahoma. 

I'm not overstating the case. Programmers like myself, Doug McKenty, Norman De Vall, Johanna Schultz, Jay Johnson, Beth Bosk, and many others all have been purged over the years by Coate and Aigner. Many other excellent programmers, like Marco McClean, who broadcast their shows from low power stations elsewhere in Mendocino County, and who are critical of Coate and Aigner, never even get a chance to air their shows at KZYX. 

So back to recent history. 

Once he was purged, Doug McKenty ran for the KZYX Board. It would have been his second term as a Board member. He promised reform. 

What reform? Was Doug McKenty really so "revolutionary"? 

No, not really. Doug McKenty wanted the station's 2,300 members to be more involved in governance. Right now, the KZYX Board has ceded all control of station operations to Coate. By all control, I mean all control. 

I'll give six simple examples. 



    * Two different women have suffered battery at the hands of men on KZYX premises. But Coate and Aigner refused to have the incidents investigated by the Sheriff's Office. Why? They don't want outsiders prying into things, thank you very much 
    * Membership wants to make the programming choices. But right now, Aigner is the sole decider on what shows get put on the air. She is the sole arbiter of style and content. Ever since Norman De Vall got canned for starting www.kzyxtalk at lists.mcn.org, we've had no really solid local programming. 
    * Transparency and accountability in station finances is nonexistent. Even a simple thing like staff salaries aren't disclosed at KZYX. Also, $5,000 raised by the community for a Ukiah studio, and another $5,000 from a family foundation grant stipulated for a Ukiah studio, have both gone missing. Ten thousand dollars in missing monies. That's a very bad thing at a nonprofit corporation like KZYX. 
    * Broadcast equipment fails, and fails often. The listeners of KZYX often get dead air or irritating scratchy signals. Why? Because our equipment is old and held together by bailing wire and masking tape. Money goes to salaries instead of equipment and technology. 
    * We need a studio in Ukiah. KZYX's main studio is in Philo, population 349, and far from anything that's newsworthy. We have no studio in Ukiah, our county seat, population 16,075. Why Philo? Is it because three of the station's four managers live in the Philo area? 
    * Station management scoffs at the spirit of the law for affirmation action and equal opportunity. They should advertise or post all jobs, even part -time jobs. But they don't. Jobs go to friends and friends of friends. 
Long story short, Melcher got 19 percent of the vote. Not enough, but just enough. Just enough to cause Doug McKenty to lose. Mission accomplished. A station loyalist and card carrying blowhard named Paul Lambert got elected over Melcher and Doug McKenty. 

So who is Tom Melcher? Besides being a shill for Coate and Aigner, who is this Tom Melcher, a.k.a., Tom Pope? 

According to his bio, Melcher, a.k.a., Pope, is a "seed collector" and "food blogger". 

Dear Lord! 

Only in Mendocino County! 

Can person really make a living being a seed collector or a food blogger? 

And what's with the Pope name? Is it Tom Pope? Or Pope Tom? Pope Thomas Aquinas? Or Pope Thomas Beckett? 

And this Melcher, a.k.a. Pope, accuses me of megalomania! 

Oy vey! 

Back to the facts. Melcher, a.ka. Pope, does a lot of mudslinging. So let's establish a few facts. 

Know this much: I've been vetted every which way by the state, by the county, by law enforcement, and by underwriters. A "snapshot" of my FINRA file which can be located at the County CEO's Office documents working most of my adult life on Wall Street. Additionally, I received training as a public trustee at Stanford Law School, received advanced training in the management of public monies at both UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and UCLA's Anderson School of Management, was a recipient of commendations for community service from both the Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives, earned an MA and BA from the Johns Hopkins University. I've worked for law enforcement. I've had the clearance that got me into General Bob Kehler's Christmas party at Peterson AFB. I'm a bonded fiduciary. I've served on grand juries. 

Additionally, I've appeared many times as a guest on national and international media, including on Al Jazeera, opposite President Obama, on November 13, 2010, in Yokohama, Japan, at the APEC Conference. 

Check it out, Pope Tom: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2010/11/20101113431621378.html 

I''m sorry if I don't have any seed collecting or food blogging credentials. 

Another thing, Pope Tom. What you read online is disinformation. Google has as much disinformation on it, as it has information. Did you know I could create a few blogs, write you up as someone who is into kiddie porn, create hyperlinks among those blogs, and when I'm finished your name and kiddie porn would be my first hit on you in a Google search? Did you know that? That why firms like reputation.com are making a killing right now. Billions. Reputational harm is easy peasey in the digital age. You can't un-Google yourself. You can only bury the disinformation way down in the search results. 

Another thing you should have fact checked, Pope Tom. It's about my being getting kicked off the air for "dropping the f-bomb," as you say. The incident occurred about seven months ago when I had retired CIA senior analyst, Ray McGovern, on my show. My call with him dropped several times. The fourth time, Aigner stepped into the studio. She ordered me off the engineering board. She took control of the show, as she attempted to get Ray McGovern back on the air. I uttered the f-word once while standing a foot or two behind Aigner, which was three or four feet from the engineering board. I had every reason to believe she had potted down the board. In any case, the f-word was ambient sound. The bottom line is Aigner ordered me off the board and had control of the show. I repeat: Aigner had control of the show. And there were witnesses to the incident. Also, the FCC received no complaints about the incident following the show. 

When I attempted to appeal my suspension, I requested that an objective third-party, who is external to KZYX, hear my appeal. My request was denied, which is absurd. A clear conflict of interest exists between myself and the two-headed hydra of Coate-Aigner (sort of like Melcher-Pope, but different). 

Any questions? 

Final thing. I worked my ass off when I was with KZYX. The last show when I hosted a pledge drive show -- Fall Pledge Drive, 2013 -- I raised $2,500. One hour. $2,500. In my six years of hosting a show on KZYX, I raised thousands of dollars. I never didn't meet the pledge drive goals set for me. 

I also got great guests -- A-listers -- for the entire time of going on seven years that I had a show on KZYX. Who you may ask? Members of Congress. C-level executives. Nobel Prize winners. Pulitzer Prize winners. Top guys from the military, national security, and intelligence. Top law professors, bankers, traders, leaders in any number of fields. Even an FCC commissioner. No. Actually, two FCC commissioners. 

It was a gift, Pope Tom. My gift. My gift to KZYX and its listeners. Twice a month. For going on seven years. And not once did Coate or Aigner help me schedule a guest, help me prepare, help me archive my shows, or even thank me. 

Not once. 

All I got was to have my youngest daughter read in the Anderson Valley Advertiser of how Coate didn't "approve" of me. Didn't approve of me? He made my daughter cry. She knew how hard I worked for KZYX. 

I'm still working for KZYX. I've moved my show to KMEC, but I'm working as a KZYX Board member to change KZYX. To save the station. Coate and Aigner simply have to go. The reservation mentality has got to go. 

If you don't agree with my tactics, that's okay. I can live with that. I take my inspiration from Geronimo. He and his band of Apache reused to live on the reservation. They fought hard. Attacks and counter-attacks were common. The war with the feds lasted for years. It was bitter, terrible fighting. In the end, Geronimo lost. The pursuit of Geronimo and his little band of Apache by the feds wore them down. They had no time to rest or stay in one place. The feds were tenacious and in constant pursuit. Geronimo surrendered. He was subdued, but his spirit was never dominated. He wouldn't shut up. Geronimo brought attention to the plight of Native Americans. How the white man betrayed Native Americans. Broke treaties. Stole land. Massacred Native Americans. Impoverished them. Enslaved their children. Raped their women. 

History remembers Geronimo kindly. When Geronimo surrendered he had in his possession a Winchester Model 1876 lever-action rifle, with a silver-washed barrel and receiver bearing Serial Number 109450. It is on display at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. 

Finally, I continue to do good shows. At KMEC. Sid Cooperrider and I just interviewed NSA whistle blowers Bill Binney and Kirk Wiebe. That's pretty damn good for a low-power station, all-volunteer statio. We hope to have Tom Drake on soon. We're even hoping that we can connect with Edward Snowden. 

So, what should the good people of Mendocino County do? 

Support KMEC, KNYO, KYBU, the low-power, all-volunteer stations in Mendocino County. Support them until real and meaningful change comes to KZYX. 

Starve the beast. Coate and Aigner don't deserve your money. 

Thank you. 

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

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