<html><body><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000"><div aria-label="Compose body">Tim, my good man, during the last show when I hosted a Pledge Drive show -- Fall Pledge Drive, 2013 -- I raised $2,500. One hour. $2,500. In my six years of hosting a show on KZYX, I raised thousands of dollars. I never -- never -- didn't meet the Pledge Drive goals set for me.</div><div><br></div><hr id="zwchr"><div style="color:#000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;" data-mce-style="color: #000; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><b>From: </b>"Tim Gregory" <tgregory@saber.net><br><b>To: </b>"kzyxtalk" <kzyxtalk@lists.mcn.org><br><b>Sent: </b>Saturday, February 21, 2015 12:39:42 PM<br><b>Subject: </b>Re: [Kzyxtalk] op-ed to the SF Chronicle<br><div><br></div>did i mention no capacity for self-examination? sako never worked so hard FOR and<br>WITH the Board, but he's possessed by his grandpa's spirit, apparently....<br><div><br></div>sad.<br>---<br><div><br></div><br>To the Editor:<br><div><br></div>In The Ukiah Daily Journal on Sunday, February 15, I was the subject of an ad<br>hominem, personal attack by former KZYX Board President, Bob Page. Yesterday, I was<br>the subject of an ad hominem, personal attack, on the air, by KZYX General Manager<br>and Executive Director, John Coate.<br><div><br></div>Following yesterday's on-air incident, I sent the following letter to the FCC.<br><div><br></div>John Sakowicz<br><div><br></div>Ukiah<br><div><br></div>******************<br><div><br></div>February 20, 2015<br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div><br>Peter H. Doyle<br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div>Chief, Audio Division<br><div><br></div>Media Bureau, Federal Communications Commission<br><div><br></div>Washington, D.C. 20554<br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div>In Reply Refer to:<br><div><br></div>Facility ID No. 41157<br><div><br></div>File No. BRED-20130724AAG<br><div><br></div>Dear Mr. Doyle:<br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div>Mendocino County Public Broadcasting (MCPB) holds two FCC licenses, KZYX and KZYZ,<br>and it is currently seeking renewal of the same. The FCC has held up the station’s<br>license renewal for almost a year due to the fact that five members of the public<br>submitted objections to the renewal.<br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div>I am one of the five people who wrote to the FCC serving as a member of the Board of<br>Directors of MCPB and elected by the majority of MCPB's 2,300 members for the term<br>2013-2016.<br><div><br></div>I was appointed by the Board to serve as Board Treasurer for 2014. I also hosted a<br>popular public affairs show, "All About Money", from 2008 until June of this year,<br>when I was suspended for filing the FCC complaint.<br><div><br></div>As host and producer of the show, I was a finalist last year at the Norman Mailer<br>Society for a fellowship, and I am currently under consideration in the final round<br>for another major fellowship. The basis of my application includes archives of my<br>program and the recommendations of several past guests on my show, who,<br>incidentally, have included two former FCC commissioners.<br><div><br></div>I have not been permitted to appeal my suspension by MCPB management, against whom I<br>filed my FCC complaint, by an objective, third-party who is external to MCPB.<br>Therefore, I shall appeal my suspension once there is a change in management at MCPB<br>and no such obvious conflict of interest exists.<br><div><br></div>At this time, I am writing to complain of an abuse of airwaves that occurred today,<br>Friday, February 20, 2015, by MCPB host, Gordon Black, an on-air volunteer, Ana<br>Lucas, and MCPB General Manager and Executive Director, John Coate.<br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div>Today, just after 11 a.m., during the "World of Music" program, Mr. Black and Ms.<br>Lucas broke into programming to pitch for listeners to pledge to KZYX. The station<br>is in the middle of its winter fund drive with a goal of $70,000. It was announced<br>that the station had raised about $25,000 by Friday, February 20th, 11 a.m. This is<br>four days into a six-day fundraising drive.<br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div>Ms. Lucas began to read comments by donors who had just pledged. Ms. Lucas stated: "<br>A listener from Ukiah said she was put over the top by Sakowicz's recent newspaper<br>comments and that she decided to pledge." Mr. Black chimed in that he had "tussled<br>on the op-ed pages with Mr. Sakowicz recently, and that a letter was printed in<br>response to Mr. Black's letter in the Ukiah Daily Journal from Mr. Sakowicz, but<br>that Mr. Black hadn't read it, and couldn't find it."<br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div>Shortly after this exchange, General Manager and Executive Director, John Coate,<br>entered the studio, sat down in front of a microphone, and began to talk. He stated<br>that five (5) individuals had written to the FCC asking that the station's license<br>not be renewed. Mr. Coate said the five individuals made "erroneous statements" in<br>their complaints to the FCC. He further stated: "The station had proved several of<br>these statements as being untrue." He continued and said, "unfortunately, $13,500<br>had been spent on legal fees thus far to rebut these written comments to the FCC."<br>Mr. Coate concluded by saying: "Our lawyers in Washington DC are doing a good job,<br>but that the money could have been used, say, for equipment."<br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div>I am writing at this time to add to my original complaint. Today, Mr. Black and Mr.<br>Coate, and Ms. Lucas, have abused their on-air positions at KZYX and KZYZ.<br>Specifically, they have used the airwaves to do the following: to publicly discuss<br>matters currently pending before the FCC; engage in a personal attack on me, a<br>current Board Member and on-air programmer; engage in a personal attack on all five<br>members of the public who were within their right to offer written objections to the<br>renewal of the station's licenses per the FCC's own policy; and; use the yet-to-be<br>resolved issues before the FCC as a way to blame those of us who made these<br>objections to the FCC for both the failure of the station's current fundraising<br>drive and the failure of the station's broadcasting equipment.<br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div>The renewal of the station's licenses is a matter of the greatest public importance,<br>and station management should not be allowed to voice a one-sided opinion on<br>unresolved matters currently under review by the FCC. This is a blatant abuse of<br>power under the color of authority.<br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div>Finally, the FCC may be interested in the matter of the regular, frequent, and<br>predictable failure of broadcasting equipment at MCPB.<br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div>Here in Mendocino County, the listeners of KYX and KZYZ get a signal that's often<br>down. We're used to it. We get dead air. Or we get an irritating scratchy signal.<br>Why dead air and a scratchy signals? It’s because the station uses Korean War-era<br>equipment. The equipment is old and held together by used replacement parts.<br>Consequently, the signal has been down for as many as three days at a time in<br>late-March, 2014.<br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div>Three days of dead air! That's shocking for a public radio station.<br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div>Then, there's this year, 2015. Let's look at the problems during just the first two<br>months of 2015. The following are all admissions. I quote from General Manager and<br>Executive Director John Coate's own blog on the KYX website.<br><div><br></div>On February 12, Coate wrote: " Use 91.5 if you can tune it in. There is an<br>intermittent noise problem with the 90.7 transmitter that we are trying to get<br>repaired."<br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div>On February 9, Coate writes on his blog: "The web stream is down during this power<br>outage." He continues, "...generator up and down, fuses blown, UPS systems keeping<br>us on at times, and more than one of them also gave out."<br><div><br></div>On January 29, Coate writes: "The signal is back on the air. Our Napa-based engineer<br>configured a loaner unit for us." Coate continues, "Our backup STL transmitter unit,<br>that we put in place because the regular ones were misbehaving, has failed<br>completely. We will send our broken STL in for rebuild."<br><div><br></div>On January 27, Coate writes: "As we have had to report many times over the years,<br>KZYX/KZYX has chronic problems with its set of STL radios. " He continues, " We have<br>tried various adjustments which have helped, but we have not yet succeeded in<br>eliminating an irritating scratchiness in the audio."<br><div><br></div>On January 12, Coate writes, "STL (Studio Transmitter Link) radios send the signal<br>from Philo up to the main transmitter up on Cold Springs Peak. We tend to have<br>fairly chronic issues with these radios."<br><div><br></div>To summarize, with respect to technical problems, the above five incidents are only<br>the technical problems to which Mr. Coate admits -- and incidents only in the first<br>two months of 2015. Mr. Coate makes other admissions about dead air in his reports<br>to the MCPB Board of Directors, which are part of the minutes for Board meetings. He<br>can erase his blog posts, but the Board minutes are a permanent record.<br><div><br></div>How does this involve the FCC?<br><div><br></div>It seems to me that it is the highest priority for any radio station is keeping the<br>signal up. MCPB has failed miserably in this area, and those failures are well<br>documented. On this basis alone, the FCC should withhold the renewal of the<br>station's licenses until there is a change in management. There are also other<br>issues, i.e. the station's lack of compliance with both the spirit and the letter of<br>affirmative action and equal opportunity laws, the station's inability to staff<br>station premises at all times during business hours, the station's refusal to<br>investigate two incidents of battery on women that occurred on station premises, the<br>station's failure to account for missing monies stipulated to open a studio in Ukiah<br>(the county seat of Mendocino County), and the station's refusal to disclose staff<br>salaries.<br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div>Finally, of course, there is today's matter of the abuse of the airwaves to make<br>personal attacks on the five FCC complainants. Three separate persons, including the<br>station’s general manager and executive director, should not blame the<br>complainants on-air, for the failure of equipment. It's a blatant case of abuse of<br>the authority that the FCC has vested in MCPB. Those personal attacks showed poor<br>judgment, and they caused reputational harm to five members of the public.<br><div><br></div>For the above reasons, I reaffirm my objection to the renewal of MCPB's licenses at<br>this time.<br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div>Yours very truly,<br><div><br></div>John Sakowicz<br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div>MCPB Board of Directors (2013-2016), Board Treasurer (2014); host and producer of<br>"All About Money" (2008-present)<br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div>_______________________________________________<br>Kzyxtalk mailing list<br>Kzyxtalk@lists.mcn.org<br>http://lists.mcn.org/mailman/listinfo/kzyxtalk<br><div><br></div><br><div><br></div><br>_______________________________________________<br>Kzyxtalk mailing list<br>Kzyxtalk@lists.mcn.org<br>http://lists.mcn.org/mailman/listinfo/kzyxtalk<br></div><div><br></div></div></body></html>