[Kzyxtalk] A modest proposal to each KZYX airperson to expect to be paid to work.

[Marco McClean]

A modest proposal to each KZYX airperson to expect to be paid to work.


Marco here. I've been advocating for years for airpeople at KZYX to be 
paid. I'd like you to think about being paid for the work you do. KZYX 
has always brought in enough money to pay you, and when the matter has 
been raised and pointed out, your bosses have always lied about that and 
chortled it away.


I read that the goal for the upcoming pledge drive is $60,000. Think of 
it like this: every penny of that $60,000 will go to pay the salary of 
one person in the office, the manager. Other small stations with a much 
lower cash flow (and no CPB grant), that pay their airpeople nothing, 
get by fine with a manager who volunteers just like you do and is not 
paid. And next to the manager there are others in the office at KZYX who 
are paid, whose presence is not at all essential to keeping the station 
going. The business underwriting coordinator, for example. And plenty of 
radio stations get by without a so-called program director; automation 
can fill the time with appropriate content on the /extremely rare 
occasion/ when an airperson gets a flat tire and has to show up late. 
No-one needs to sit in the equipment garage all day and all night and 
watch the lights on the computer blink. On top of that, you have a real 
engineer now, going through the nuts and bolts and making things even 
more reliable.


You real-time airpeople are doing what the radio station is there for in 
the first place; Your work is valuable, and you should be paid a fair 
amount by the hour for the time you're on the air, and also at least for 
an hour of prep for each show you do. All the people from out of the 
county whose shows fill much of the airtime on KZYX get paid, because 
they expect to be paid. Why shouldn't you?


You're grateful to have a show and you don't want to rock the boat, 
anyone can understand that, but when the bosses are paid very well to 
exercise authority and everyone actually doing the real work is 
/volunteering/, that's not right. And it doesn't just hurt you, it hurts 
all workers everywhere. And John Coate is gone, fled, and Mary Aigner 
has no power over you anymore. The chilling effect of Mary, on your 
freedom of expression and freedom to innovate, is in the past. The 
agreement you signed to never speak your mind about station business on 
the air was never legally binding; you can't be forced to sign away your 
rights. And Safe Harbor is federal law.


KZYX gets a fat grant from the government every year that, if the 
station were managed properly, would easily pay for every aspect of its 
upkeep and operation, without the need for pledge drives. With the 
drives, you could have been paid all along, all those years. And if you 
truly didn't need the money, you could have been showering it upon a 
needy cause --really, anything: cancer research, the dog pound, the 
Senior Center, the Audubon Society, the ACLU, the SPLC, Doctors Without 
Borders, the food bank, music in the schools, a web subscription to the 
Anderson Valley Advertiser; use your imagination.


Think about all this when you're reciting the script about how KZYX 
needs pledges of listeners' dollars in order to "keep the great shows on 
the air". If that were true, you'd be paid for your great show. Consider 
speaking up for yourself on the air during your show, during the pledge 
drive, when it counts the most, when the board members and bosses are 
listening.


Further, when you vote amongst yourselves for a programmers' 
representative to sit on the board of directors, make sure it's not 
Stuart Campbell again. What has he ever done for you? When has he ever 
advocated for you?


--

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