[Kzyxtalk] [MCN-Announce]- KZYX Management

[Marco McClean]

  On 8/13/2025 10:11 PM, Robert Spies wrote:
 > ...I can't argue the finer points of its management but I suspect 
taking the size and complexity into account explains the difference in 
operational budgets between it and the other really small operations on 
the coast. Maybe a management audit would clarify the issues, but I 
would not advocate for it in this very, very difficult time. Right now 
it is survival.

Marco here, Robert. A radio station is a microphone and a transmitter. A 
bigger radio station just has a bigger transmitter. It doesn't require a 
mastermind babysitter to watch over it. The transmitter is as reliable 
as a refrigerator; it just runs and runs, turning electricity into radio 
waves. Everything beyond that is just bells and whistles and there are 
creative ways to acquire every one of those*. Once the transmitter is 
paid for, radio is practically free, compared to publishing physical 
media or operating a theater or a hamburger stand. KZYX's 4,000 watt 
transmitter,which was fully paid for 36 years ago, costs two dollars an 
hour to run, plus you can use it to beg for money. (A bigger transmitter 
has a much wider pool to beg from.) You have got a money mill that 
endlessly cranks itself and money comes out. If it can't survive on 
that, wow.

And all the local airpeople have to survive first, or what's the point? 
They should be the priority when money comes in. There are tower fees 
and music publisher fees and FCC-mandated gizmo fees, but all of it put 
together at KZYX can't possibly cost $200,000 a year, and you're somehow 
pissing /three million dollars/ every four years into the abyss. 
$175,000 per year of that was coming from the Corporation for Public 
Broadcasting. Where was all that money at KZYX really going, and where 
does so much of it continue to go? Wouldn't it be good to know that, 
Robert, for purposes of survival?

*You want to put bands or shows on the air from a storefront performance 
space? Rent a storefront downtown, get internet service there. You want 
to talk to callers on the air and have them sound good? There's a $10 
phone dongle and a couple of $2 adapter plugs. One end goes into your 
phone's headphone/mic jack, the other end goes to two jacks on the 
mixing board. If you don't have $14,  put the phone on speaker and hold 
it up to the mic. You want a website, make a website. You need pro radio 
automation? Any $100 laptop or desktop computer can run that, and 
several good automation programs are free. You need a piano? Say so on 
the air and next afternoon you have four pianos. You need a remote live 
studio? I've built several for less than $200 each, I do my show from 
one in Albion; I'll share product details and tips and tricks on request.

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