[Kzyxtalk] Another in a series of proposals for KZYX: Bob Woelfel for manager, program director and business coordinator.
Marco McClean
memo at mcn.org
Tue Jun 16 13:43:47 PDT 2015
On 6/15/2015 10:14 AM, Doug McKenty wrote:
> ...Mary Aigner's fate depends on who the next manager will be, and
what happens in the meantime.
Again, if KZYX must have a manager, please put forth Bob Woelfel's
name. He can do all the management paperwork tasks, and the program
director tasks, and the ad sales (business underwriting) tasks, and the
intelligently-conciliating-disgruntled-members-and/or-airpeople stuff,
and do it all with good cheer; he's been doing it all his life since he
got home from military service, and he knows Mendocino County's business
and social and political scene like the back of his hand, and I don't
know anyone who doesn't like him.
I have seen people in the office screaming at each other and the
world, and he walked in, glanced at them, continued on into the kitchen,
ate a pickled egg, then put up his hand and said a few simple calm
things and they all shut up and went to do their jobs and have their
lives, and they were all satisfied that they'd been heard, by each other
and by him, and they were amused at how they'd been carrying on. It was
magical.
I can't count the times something about KMFB --a single piece of
equipment or a complicated system-- was seriously messed up and Bob
called me in to fix it, and I said something like, "That's too hard. We
need a whole new [fill in blank]," and he said something that put it in
a new light and made it easier, and I fixed it. There were times he had
a special project for me and I couldn't figure out how to do it, and he
said, "How about if we..." and it became clear, and I did it. He knew
that what he wanted could be done, and that made it so I did too. And
when it was something I wasn't qualified to touch, he knew that, and
he'd call one of half a dozen radio engineers he's friends with, and
they'd jump to help him.
He saw that all of us were paid. He set up a system where we were
responsible for bringing in advertising money for our own shows, and we
were paid by the hour /and/ we got a generous cut of the money we
contracted. This would work with noncommercial KZYX with business
underwriting as well as it worked for commercial KMFB, which had the
same broadcast range as KZYX and cost a fourth the money to operate,
even after paying all the airpeople and engineers.
He loves to practically live in the radio station, leisurely
accomplishing things and enjoying himself in the background and leaving
the independent airpeople alone to do their thing, and when he's
required by the more dependent airpeople he appears and helps them.
He attracts real radio people and lets them do their work in their
own way, and when someone goes entirely off the rails he waits until
their show is done and then tells them his concerns and they correct
themselves. In all the years I've known him, I'm sure he had his own
politics and his own opinions and /I don't know what they are/; think
about that for a moment, really. He gives everyone a chance to shine, no
matter what they believe in or are for or against.
That's the sort of person who should run KZYX. And once we were in
the printer room talking about the general subject of appropriate
language and he said to me, "I don't mind shit or goddammit, but if you
can, Marco, please hold the motherfuckers and cocksuckers until after
midnight." (That was the only time I ever heard him say any of those
words.) In all the years that Bob Woelfel oversaw KMFB there was not a
single audience complaint to the FCC on any subject, and KMFB was way
more free than KZYX has ever been, and there was no electronic profanity
delay nor any need for one.
Some people are too much. Sister Yasmin drove Bob crazy with her
drama and anguish and so on, yet he kept her on for nearly ever anyway,
and even when he was pushed beyond any administrator's endurance he
didn't fire her-- look at what he did: he had me build a special studio
just for her out at the transmitter site, so she could keep doing her
show and he wouldn't have the aggravation of her being all in his face
at the office, until she could control herself and things could be
normal again. See this? He didn't fire her; he made a way for her to
solve the problem herself, and trusted her to do it, and of course she
did. That's his way.
Some of the best people at KZYX and KOZT and probably four or five
other stations around here started at KMFB.
He helped homeless people. He brought the animal-rescue people in
to talk about their work, and when they were having trouble homing
abandoned exotic dragon-creatures he set up habitats and kept them in
the office and did a show about them at random with the rescue people
until they had homes. When an airperson couldn't afford a doctor, he
took him to the doctor and paid for it and let him convalesce in his own
apartment. He helps with local events like the Film Festival... I could
go on for miles, here, and not run out of reasons why Bob Woelfel should
run KZYX. All by himself he can handily replace John Coate, Mary Aigner,
David Steffen, et al., and the station will save a ton of money and will
improve and not continue to stagnate. He is a saint, a fricking saint.
There is no-one else with Bob's Woelfel's skills and
qualifications. I admire Bob Young, who runs KNYO, and Ed Nieves, who
runs KMEC, but they're needed at KNYO and KMEC, and that's the only
reason I'm not recommending them too.
-end-
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