[Kzyxtalk] Reply to Jonathan Middlebrook.

[Marco McClean]

jm wrote:
 > Dear Trio [Scott Peterson, Doug McKenty, Marco McClean]--
 >
 > Maybe a real advantage to being a newbie on the KZYX&Z board is that 
I was not party to whatever actions or inactions have so angered 
you.--Also I'm unclear about what concrete proposals you have for the 
station, going forward.
 >
 > I'd really like to discuss both action or inaction and your specific 
proposals with each of you, individually, over coffee, at Black Oak in 
Ukiah. I'm never free on Mondays or Tuesdays, but with enough notice I 
can show up WThFri (though not Th, 6/9).
 >
 > Please let me know if you're interested in such a discussion.
 >
 > Sincerely, Jonathan M.


    I'm on the kzyxtalk digest, which saves it up and squirts it all out 
the next day, so I won't be privy to whatever you're talking about until 
tomorrow. Also I'm not enganged with Scott or Doug. You should consider 
also talking with Derek Hoyle (he's one of the men Tim Bray threw his 
drink at in the Fort Bragg meeting). And you'll want to talk with John 
Sakowitz, and Norman de Vall, and Facilitator One (aka Joanna Schultz), 
if you can find her. And the only time I'm ever in Ukiah is when I have 
to appear for jury selection. The newspapers I published in the '80s and 
'90s served Ukiah and I had to sell there and serve there and deliver 
there, but honestly I dislike actually being in Ukiah almost as much as 
I hate being at that ridiculous Philo bunker. It is a claustrophobic, 
politically and financially corrupt environment. It's crying out for a 
creative radio can opener.


    John, I'd be happy to talk with you about all this on the air, 
Friday night, on KNYO/KMEC, depending on the time (9-midnight it's only 
KNYO; after midnight it's both). This Friday night I'm doing my show 
from the Fort Bragg studio --325 N. Franklin, the storefront next to the 
TipTop bar, and the number there is 707 962-3022. There's only one line; 
if it's busy, please try again in ten minutes. If by chance you're in 
Fort Bragg then, just walk in and get my attention. I always have tea 
and crackers and various sorts of fruit available.


    You can listen via http://knyo.org or TuneIn.com before you call, if 
you like, but the internet connection that gets the signal to you (and 
to the transmitter) introduces like a ten-seconds-or-more delay, so 
don't worry that you'll be interrupting anything; just call and I'll be 
thrilled to have my first normal human-to-equal-human spoken 
conversation with anyone in the hierarchy at KZYX ever.


--Oh, speaking of specific proposals, here's one I emailed yesterday to 
KZYX's current program director. So far, no response. I just corrected 
it a little; there were typos and I left some names out.

---->

Subject: About scheduling Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio on KZYX.
From: Marco McClean <memo at mcn.org>
To: pd at kzyx.org

  Hello, Alice. My friend Mark just emailed me and said you're the 
"likable new program director at KZYX" and that I should write to you. 
My name is Marco McClean. For almost fifteen years I did my weekly 
6-to-8-hour show on KMFB. Since then I've been on KNYO-LP and now I'm on 
KMEC-LP too.

  Here's what I do:

  To start with, I put twenty-plus hours of concentrated prep into 
getting each show ready, then I read aloud on the air everything sent to 
me. I read the interesting bits of whatever I've been reading all week. 
I read a swap-shop-like segment of notices and events. I put callers 
immediately on the air with no swear delay and they read their material. 
People walk in off the street and play music and talk about their 
projects. Eventually I get tired or run out of material, and I put on an 
old-time radio show to play while I clean up my mess. Then, or next day, 
I upload a recording of the show and make it available on my weblog.

http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

  I do every show live, in real time, via the web, starting 9pm Friday 
night, sometimes from KNYO's studio on Franklin, sometimes from my wife 
Juanita's apartment and sometimes from an all-night coffee store. The 
show's on KNYO-LP, Fort Bragg. At midnight KMEC grabs the stream and I'm 
on in Ukiah as well.

  I can do the show from anywhere; I have a portable studio that just 
requires low-tier broadband. (And I build portable live-remote radio 
studios for others to use.) At midnight KMEC automatically grabs the 
show in progress and I'm on in Ukiah as well. (If you want to know how 
to set up KZYX to do something like that, call Sid Cooperider, Els' son. 
To hear him describe it, it was a trivial task. Jerry Fraley can 
probably rig it up for you in five minutes.)

  When I was at KMFB my show easily paid for itself (and paid me by the 
hour, both for the show and for maintenance work I did at the station). 
I brought along my own underwriters and advertisers from my newspaper 
projects. At KNYO just the underwriters of my late-night show are paying 
for a sizable chunk of the station's entire budget. This is a viable, 
tested, mature, appreciated product. It isn't any kind of a risk to you.

  I've been trying to get my show scheduled on KZYX for four years now. 
The board says it's up to the manager. The manager says it's up to you. 
Can we get on this quickly, please; I've been waiting a very long time 
and my show is better than most of what's on KZYX, including the shows 
you're paying a lot of money for that come from very far away and so 
don't really fit with the idea of community radio.

  Just download one of my shows and spend five minutes skipping around 
in it to get a sense of what it's like. If you need references, let me 
know and I'll have the managers of all the radio stations I've every had 
anything to do with (KKUP, KMFB, KNYO, KMEC, etc.) write you their 
stories of how good I have been for them.

  Wait, no, Sean Donovan was king of KZYX when I had a show there for a 
short while in 1989. He yanked my show when I brought on a guest who 
he'd kicked out and apparently banned for not kowtowing to him properly. 
So no good reference from KZYX except for Jamie Roberts, Eduardo 
Smissen, Joel Waldman, Susie Zipp, Liz Helenchild, Derek Hoyle, Larry 
Hacken, Gordon Black, Lilia Albuquerque, Les Tarr, and like five or ten 
more; I can't think of them all right now. Several of them have died of 
old age while I was waiting for my show to be scheduled... children's 
show readers-- Fran and (Somebody) Koliner-- I can't remember their 
names. The Koliners were  MCPB boardmembers awhile ago, too; I used to 
have them on my show on KMFB. Oh, right: also King Collins, Doug 
McKenty, two more former MCPB boardmembers. Norman de Vall. John 
Sakowicz will likely speak up for me-- that would be interesting to 
hear. John Sakowicz is a former boardmember.

  Here's what happens in real life when my show is on your radio 
station: I show up on time every time. I've never missed an air date in 
over 30 years of radio. I do my show. If it's in somebody else's studio 
I clean up the place so it's nicer than it was when I got there. If 
something's broken that I can fix, I fix it, and if I don't feel 
qualified to fix it, I leave a note and send email to the station's 
engineer, describing the problem. That's it. No problems with or for 
management as a result of my show since 1983. (Except for Sean Donovan, 
and that was all his bad.)

  And, if you like, I can announce on my show on KNYO and KMEC for 
people to write to you in favor of scheduling my show on KZYX. I mean, 
if you think that'll help.

  Please respond. Mary Aigner would not help me. I wrote to Raoul at 
least once a week for a couple of months and he never wrote back, never 
responded in any way. I'm smiling, here, expecting you to be the hero 
exception to the way things have been in the KZYX office so far. Let's 
see what you can do.

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