[Kzyxtalk] On the one hand, um... But on the other hand...

[Marco McClean]

  Stuart Campbell wrote this to the Anderson Valley Advertiser. Warning, 
have a paper bag ready.

 >KZYX PROGRAM DIRECTOR, MARY AIGNER, TO RESIGN

 >Everyone who has come through the door at KZYX in living memory knows 
what Mary Aigner looks like. Just about anyone who has ever listened to 
the station knows what she sounds like. That voice asks questions, tells 
stories, sells pumpkin-flavored stucco, and reels off Mendocino musical 
lore like it belongs to a living encyclopedia. There is just a little 
bit of a slide into a diphthong when its owner says, “You’re listening 
to kayee-zee-wye-ex;” at which point, you know you’re in good hands, 
because even if the earth cracks open and the station falls in, the 
voice at the mic will continue informing you what you are hearing and 
why it’s so good.

 >By the end of January, that voice will be replaced by another. As of 
January 30th, Mary Aigner will resign her position as Program Director 
at KZYX.

 >“If the radio’s on, I’m working,” Aigner said, before describing just 
how much work it was to get a program on the air in 1993, when she 
started working “very part-time” as underwriting manager. Programmers 
then had to physically cut recordings that existed in material space, 
using tools they held in their hands. They had to time things so they 
happened in real time. According to programmer Jerry Karp, who drifted 
in while Aigner was being interviewed, the station had “one Mac Plus, 
but every room had an abacus.”

 >This led to a detailed discussion of DACS machines, with their tractor 
feed printers. Karp remembered seeing them in certain chain stores when 
he was young. “Fascinating!” Aigner exclaimed. Karp looked puzzled. “Are 
you saying the topic of DACS machines at grocery stores in the 70’s is 
fascinating?” he verified.

 >She was. Aigner is interested in everything and everyone. According to 
former General Manager John Coate, she has an “uncanny ability” to reel 
in good programmers. She is always recruiting, always keeping an eardrum 
peeled for a voice that “can do radio that people actually want to 
listen to.”

 >She should know. Aigner herself is a professional listener, taking in 
the nuances of tales about drag queens, acid kings, and “the archetypes 
within” at every community radio station. She claims “you never know 
who’s hiding in the hills;” but she knows Captain Clearlight, Mama Bear 
Scott, and what ‘Lilly-Jack’ means in Boont. If you say the words, 
“Native American women’s chorus,” Aigner says, “Ulali,” and comes up 
with a recording.

 >This expert listener is keeping her plans quiet for now, but she 
divulged that “I do intend to keep doing my music show and have a 
project in mind that I’d like to pursue, so I do intend to stay involved.”

 >We at KZYX are grateful that she has been involved for as long as she 
has. That voice has guided our chorus for so long, and trained so many 
of the voices that remain. Thank you for your decades, Mary Aigner. Tune 
in any time. We hope you’ll keep listening.

 >--Stuart Campbell, Interim Executive Director & General Manager

---

And I replied:

Re: Stuart Campbell's paean to Mary Aigner.

This is as though it's late 2008, say, and imagine Dick Cheney has just 
resigned slightly ahead of his humiliating ouster, shredding evidence 
left and right, and George Bush, anticipating his own ouster, has a lot 
of nice things to say about Dick. How he puppet-mastered the entire 
situation to rally the club and put a lot of good people in charge of 
important projects ("Heck of a job, Brownie!"), and they read children's 
books upside down together for photo ops to emphasize the importance of 
edumacation, and got the economy on track and protected us from 
terrorism by pissing away a borrowed fortune in all directions to smash 
and grab and hold on to the reigns of power, smiling, smiling, and see 
that Mission Accomplished was declared in advance of, during and after 
years and years of futile destructive self-congratulatory tax-funded 
oppressive mediocrity. That's how it reads to me, knowing Stuart 
Campbell and Mary Aigner, and remembering what really happened, and what 
could have been.

Rather, here's a short, honest, appropriate statement on Mary Aigner's 
resignation: About time. Thank Christ. Good riddance, darlin', and don't 
let the screen door hit you in the ass on the way out.

Marco McClean
memo at mcn.org
http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com