[Kzyxtalk] letter

[sako4 at comcast.net]

OPEN LETTER TO STUART CAMPBELL, ACTING GM AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF KZYX 




Dear Mr. Stuart Campbell: 




I wish you had asked the entire Board for its input on the press release regarding KZYX Program Director Mary Aigner's resignation, instead of writing the press release yourself. but once again you prove yourself to be exclusionary. You exclude the one third of the station's membership who voted for change in the last Board elections. Your press release about Aigner is so false, it's delusional. 




My take on Aigner's resignation? 




Mary Aigner was responsible for much, if not most, of the divisiveness here at KZYX. She wormed her way on the payroll 22 years ago and stayed there despite a lack of transparency about her salary, job description, if any, and record of actual productive work. 




She was a bully. She purged programmers who were her critics. She purged those who even dared to ask questions. Those programmers who were purged include Beth Bosk, Marco McClean, KC Meadows, Els Copperrider, Christina Aanestad, Doug McKenty, Norman De Vall, myself, and many others. 




She censored on-air content, as in her new unilateral policy of doing away with the "no safe harbor" after 10 p.m. 




She cowed a long line of GMs and Executive Directors. She intimidated them, manipulated them. 




She resisted having a formal job description, refused to keep work logs, refused to submit to job performance evaluations. She came and went as she pleased. 




She spent a lot of time on personal emails and phone calls, surfing the Internet, badmouthing many of our members, and chain smoking at the picnic table that serves as our station's break room. I know because for six and a half years, I had a biweekly show at KZYX. I saw a lot. 




There's more. 




Aigner thwarted every effort by the station's 2,100 Corporate Members to communicate with one another and organize. 




She interfered with the inspection of financials and other records by Members and former Board Directors by making a false report to the police. 




She kept the Program Advisory Committee weak and ineffective. She killed the Community Advisory Board. 




How did Aigner get away with all this for 22 years? How? I'll tell you how. Aigner had no real boss at KZYX. Not you. Not John Coate. Not Belinda Rawlins. Not anyone. 




She was the head of the dragon. 




With Aigner finally gone, now is the time for meaningful change at KZYX. One third of the station's members voted for the two reform candidates in the last Board election. A third. This is not a small group of people. That's a myth. 




If the station's 2,100 members were actually allowed to communicate with one another as an online community, and allowed to organize, like at KMUD, we'd have even more than a third of members who would vote for change. 




Change. 




We need a strong and vibrant Program Advisory Committee (PAC), not one person -- Mary Aigner -- unilaterally making all the programming decisions. 




The public should should have a strong voice in making the programming decisions. 




We also need a strong and vibrant Community Advisory Board (CAB), who meet monthly to gather public comments and advise as to whether the programming and policies of KZYX meet the specialized educational and cultural needs of the community. 




The CAB, as required by federal law, reviews the programming goals established by the station, the service provided by KZYX and the significant policy decisions rendered by the station, and assesses whether the programming and other policies of the station are meeting the specialized educational and cultural needs of the communities served by the station. The CAB deliberates independently of station management and Mendocino County Public Broadcasting's Board of Directors, determining its own agenda and electing its own leadership. The CAB is an advisory body only, and is not authorized to exercise any control over KZYX daily management or operations, but the CAB conveys its findings and recommendations based on public input to the Board of Directors for their action. 




Public input! 




Why are we so afraid? 







John Sakowicz 


KZYX Board of Directors, 2013-2016; Board Treasurer, 2013-2014 




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