<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:12pt"><div><span>Tim:</span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16.000003814697266px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span><br></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16.000003814697266px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span>Kudos for your direct statement to sako who promised at the last Board meeting to reduce and moderate his statements, but has not done so.</span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16.000003814697266px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color:
transparent; font-style: normal;"><span><br></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16.000003814697266px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span>All I can figure is that there's a very bruised ego wanting to get back at John Coate but unwilling to admit its personal and using the station as a stand-in.</span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16.000003814697266px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span><br></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16.000003814697266px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span>Paul</span></div><div class="yahoo_quoted" style="display: block;">
<div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <font size="2" face="Arial"> On Wednesday, April 2, 2014 11:26 AM, "sako4@comcast.net" <sako4@comcast.net> wrote:<br> </font> </div> <div class="y_msg_container"><div id="yiv6113338610"><style type="text/css">#yiv6113338610 p {margin:0;}</style><div><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Hi Tim,<div><br clear="none"></div><div><font face="Arial" style="background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dead air for the better part of a week is unacceptable. Our station needs equipment that works more than it needs a GM. </font><div style="font-size:12pt;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br clear="none"></div><div style="background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255);"><div><font face="Arial">The issue has nothing to do with John Coate personally. Really and truly. In speaking with a few Board members who served long before Coate or I arrived at the station, I learned that it was a matter of discussion years ago as to whether it was advisable to eliminate the GM position, and to take the money that was saved and reinvest it in infrastructure. </font></div><div><font face="Arial"><br clear="none"></font></div><div><font face="Arial">In retrospect, I would say that would have been the right call. </font></div><div><font face="Arial"><br clear="none"></font></div><div><font face="Arial">Let me put it another way: From where we sit now, do you think paying Belinda Rawlins $50,000 a year for several years, only to have Ms. Rawlins nearly bankrupt the station, was a good deal? Or would it have been a a better deal to take all that money and invest it in the equipment you are now
replacing?</font></div><div><br clear="none"></div><div><font face="Arial">Again, my position is clear: Given the precious few dollars with which we have to work, I vote we spend that money on keeping our signal up over spending it on top-heavy management at the station. A Program Director, Mary Aigner or someone like her, is all we really need in the way of management. A GM is a luxury. A signal is a necessity.</font></div><div><font face="Arial"><br clear="none"></font></div><div><font face="Arial">Our budget is $675,000. How are we going to spend it? I say spend the dough on equipment and technology, and spend it on a few salaried staff who, as their primary job function, keep the equipment working and upgraded, and help our hundred volunteer programmers with technology.</font></div><div><font face="Arial"><br clear="none"></font></div><div><font face="Arial">Keeping the signal up is job one. Growing the station's audience and membership through
technology, podcasts, audio archives, RSS feeds, social media, marketing, and promotion, is job two. </font><span style="font-size:12pt;">Grow or die.</span></div><div><font face="Arial"><br clear="none"></font></div><div><font face="Arial">Best always to you, Tim,</font></div><div><font face="Arial"><br clear="none"></font></div><div><font face="Arial">John</font></div></div><br clear="none"><div class="yiv6113338610yqt8913637691" id="yiv6113338610yqtfd45864"><hr id="yiv6113338610zwchr"><b>From: </b>"Tim Bray" <tbray@wildblue.net><br clear="none"><b>To: </b>kzyxtalk@lists.mcn.org<br clear="none"><b>Sent: </b>Wednesday, April 2, 2014 11:14:03 AM<br clear="none"><b>Subject: </b>Re: [Kzyxtalk] Open Letter to the Board of Directors of Mendocino County Public Radio<br clear="none"><br clear="none">
<div class="yiv6113338610moz-cite-prefix">Dear John: <br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
I presume you are volunteering to do the work currently being done
by the GM, including going up to the transmitters on snowy winter
nights/mornings when the signal goes bad. Please reinforce your
case by letting us know exactly what you have been doing to help
with the current difficulty. <br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
I agree that we should have more of our programs archived,
podcasted, and extended to social media. Where I am confused is
your apparent proposal to have staff do this, after eliminating a
full-time staff position. Two questions come to mind:<br clear="none">
1. Are you proposing to add staff to do this work? With a
hundred volunteers producing 85 hours of programming per week,
this is a massive job.<br clear="none">
2. If this is so important, why aren't you already doing it for
your own show, instead of waiting for someone else to do it for
you?<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
Oak & Thorn has its own Website and its own Facebook page, and
I didn't require any staff time to get it done. I'd have podcasts
and archives too, if there were no legal issues with copyrighted
music. It's not that hard, and I'd be happy to help you or any
other programmer learn how to do it yourself.<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
As for an interactive Web page - we already have one, as you
surely know, since you post on it frequently. Of course it could
be extended, if someone has the time and expertise. Again, are
you volunteering? Or is this just another thing "someone else"
should be doing?<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
We have no shortage of good ideas for improving the station. We
do have a shortage of resources to get them implemented. We need
people who have the expertise, and the commitment, to do the work;
and yes, it takes money, too. I get frustrated by people who come
up with great ideas without offering to do the work themselves.
Are you offering to do any of the things required to make your
ideas happen?<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
Cheers,<br clear="none">
Tim<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
On 4/2/2014 9:30 AM, <a rel="nofollow" shape="rect" class="yiv6113338610moz-txt-link-abbreviated" ymailto="mailto:sako4@comcast.net" target="_blank" href="mailto:sako4@comcast.net">sako4@comcast.net</a> wrote:<br clear="none">
</div>
<blockquote>
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<div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
<div><span style="font-size:12pt;">2 April 2014</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
<div><font face="Arial"><br clear="none">
</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">Dear Board:</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial"><br clear="none">
</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">It's unacceptable that KZYX remains
off the air. It's been three whole days now with no end
in sight.</font></div>
<snip>
<div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br clear="none">
</span></div>
<div><span style="font-family: Arial;">As I have been
telling everyone who will listen during these last few
days. KZYX needs equipment that works more than we need
top-heavy management. Period. End of story. We need a
signal. We don't need a General Manager -- GM John
Coate. We don't need an Executive Director -- GM Coate's
additional title per his insistence in his contract. </span></div>
<div><font face="Arial"><br clear="none">
</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">With no disrespect to Coate who
seems to have convinced the KZYX Board of Directors that
he walks on water and turns water into wine, the Board
should eliminate the GM position, and use that money to
make necessary investments in infrastructure.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial"><br clear="none">
</font></div>
<snip>
<div><font face="Arial"><br clear="none">
</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">I see a day when KZYX's one hundred
or so volunteer programmers have their shows archived by
staff. People ask me all the time, "Where can I listen
to a rebroadcast of your show?" My show airs on Friday
mornings when most people work. I, and other
programmers, have been shown how to archive my shows,
but it's a technical process that requires a fair amount
of computer literacy. Hence, only a handful of our
hundred programmers have archived their shows. Audio
archives are so important in growing an audience and our
station. </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial"><br clear="none">
</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">I see a day when our hundred
volunteer programmers each have their respective show's
own Facebook and Twitter accounts. LinkedIn is also
important. And PinInterest, Google Plus+, Tumblr,
Instagram, VK, Flickr, Tagged, and Ask.fm. Again,
marketing and promotion is so important in growing an
audience and our station, and staff should be dedicated
to helping programmers use social media.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial"><br clear="none">
</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">I see a day when our hundred
programmers have podcasts. It's so obvious. Podcasts.
Podcasts allow the individual to be content creators.
Our one hundred volunteer programmers are nothing, if
not content creators. Many media production tools for
podcasts that were once only available to a few are now
free and easy to use. Podcasts can be created, viewed,
distributed, modified and preserved by our station's one
hundred volunteer programmers, all on on their laptops
or even smartphones.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial"><br clear="none">
</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">I see a day when our hundred
volunteer programmers have RSS feeds —which stands for
Really Simple Syndication. RSS could easily be a really
convenient way to get audio, video, and text content
from KZYX. An RSS feed may contain audio and video
files, headlines, summaries, and links to full articles.
These feeds are viewed through an RSS feed reader (also
called an RSS aggregator). Most modern web browsers can
serve as rudimentary feed readers. Another popular, free
choice is Google Reader. </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial"><br clear="none">
</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">I see when we have an interactive
webpage for KZYX, where listeners can submit program
ideas and other other content. The new webpage would
also have sections for KZYX e-newsletter,
events/community outreach, membership benefits program,
pledge challenge grants, sponsorship help, and new
sponsorship opportunities. A section for breaking news
would be really cool, too.</font></div>
<br clear="none">
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<snip><br clear="none">
<div class="yiv6113338610moz-signature">-- <br clear="none">
<a rel="nofollow" shape="rect" target="_blank" href="http://oakandthorn.wordpress.com/">Oak & Thorn</a><br clear="none">
Facebook: Oak and Thorn</div>
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