[Kzyxtalk] For Doug McKenty

[Doug McKenty]

SM,

10 years ago when the station followed the board policies, the station had about 1000 more members and consistently made $100k-200k more per year from the community than it does now. Those are the facts.

 To get an accurate count of the number of members lost, I would have to sue the station.  I have asked but the establishment refuses to tell me.  The dollar amounts are posted on the website and can be looked up by any member. 

Since that time, a handful of individuals defied board policy and began producing and purchasing programs to there liking. They gave programs to there friends and eliminated alternative programs, replacing them with more NPR.  

The results have financially devastated the station and given it a bad reputation throughout this community.  Many volunteers have left and are now working at other low-power stations. 

My not so radical notion, that following board policy might help bring back some of the lost community support, has been met with stonewalling from the KZYX establishment.  

I have attempted to organize, as you suggest, but find it difficult to communicate with the membership as the only opportunity to discuss station policies on the air is during the board debate, a few minutes per year.  Staff and the current board, conversely, are able to use station resources at their leisure, which they have used to lobby against me and others running for the board that are not to their liking. 

I have tried to organize a membership meeting, per the bylaws, but the establishment will not let me know who the members are. 

Most people in this community have simply given up on KZYX. As you say, I am involved in the activist community and none of my friends, other than the ones on this list serve, care enough to make the effort.  They have moved on. Most of them live where they can listen to KMUD or KMEC and are very satisfied with what those  stations have to offer.  

Doug. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jun 1, 2016, at 4:15 PM, smmail <smmail at gotsky.com> wrote:
> 
> Doug McKenty, my understanding of what you are complaining about 
> regarding KZYX is that you think that changes in station management 
> caused a loss of members. You have claimed that there are a thousand 
> folks out there who would pay their dues if the more recent changes in 
> programming and administration were reversed. For the sake of argument, 
> I claim that your group is in the tens of listeners, not a thousand. So, 
> now we have a disagreement about an unknown fact. We could yak about 
> this forever. In actual fact, the Board, staff, and programmers would 
> all try to accommodate a verified large group of listeners. Verified.
> 
> If you want to support your contention, you have to come up with the 
> thousand listeners. You are not going to find proof of dissatisfaction 
> and loss of membership in the back rooms of the Philo studio. I can’t 
> even imagine how this could be done reliably. Your enthusiasm for 
> finding this info at the station is rightfully regarded by the Board, 
> station personnel and, probably all of the programmers as harassment. 
> Bad move.
> 
> What you need to do is to gather up your dissatisfied group because one 
> thousand is considerably more than the number of members who actually 
> vote on a Board election. You could take over an election. You don’t 
> need any information from the station to do this. This is Mendocino 
> County where advocacy is rampant. You have recent experience with the 
> Charter County question. You must know some of the group that you wish 
> to organize, and you could get them to help. Make a few handbills. 
> Advertise a meeting, and then build. All of this fumbling around about 
> what is fair or legal or transparent or democratic is just dumb because 
> these concepts are quite variable in the context of the operation of a 
> real organization.
> 
> I hope you understand the reality of what I am saying, but here is some 
> further advice if you wish to be successful. Distance yourself from the 
> dissatisfied and noisy minority here at KZYXtalk. They all appear to be 
> playing a very different game that you are. If you advertised a meeting 
> about the future of community radio and said that John, Sheila, Scott, 
> King, Norman, Richard, and Jeff (and I am forgetting a few) were part of 
> your junta there would be people in attendance with vigorous opposing 
> views. The reality you have to deal with is that two thirds of the 
> membership don’t even vote on Board elections. Well, not exactly. These 
> people vote by plunking down many thousands of dollars for the station. 
> The only interpretation of this behavior is that these folks like what 
> they are getting from the station as it is. If the crew of wreckers, I 
> identified above, got involved, then the great majority of members who 
> are satisfied would wake up. Oops! You have to, at least, appear to be 
> reasonable. SM
> 
> 
> 
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