[Kzyxtalk] Response to Marco

[Richard Louis Miller]

Dear Marco

Thank you for your  excellent modest proposal.

If, and when, I am elected to the Kzyx Board I will argue for certain aspects of your proposal specifically  the "employee" status of volunteer programmers. I believe it is imperative that all programmers be legal employees with all the rights and entitlements due all employees, even if they receive an extremely modest paycheck.

As for your comments regarding the "chilling effect" of the previous kzyx management ,  nothing could be more accurate. 

I have been working for 65 years and more people have been fired from kzyx in my 10 years at the station then in all of my career combined.  Jim Tarbel summed it up when I started at kzyx when he said "Richard, do your program, get out of the studio and keep your head down from the station."

These past ten years have been very satisfying in terms of what I have been able to bring to our community while at the same time I have worked under the most horrific working conditions ever.

 Ultimately the Kzyx Board and the membership are responsible and it is time for a very significant change.

Wishing you good health,

Richard

Dr Richard Louis Miller
Clinical Psychology
MindBodyHealthPolitics.org 
Wikipedia: Dr Richard Louis Miller
Wikipedia: Wilbur Hot Springs
Psychepedia.org

> On Mar 2, 2016, at 5:19 AM, Marco McClean <memo at mcn.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> 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
> 
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