<html><body><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000"><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: monospace; font-size: 13.3333px; background-color: #fdfdfd;" data-mce-style="color: #333333; font-family: monospace; font-size: 13.3333px; background-color: #fdfdfd;">"...pumpkin-flavored stucco"</span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: monospace; font-size: 13.3333px; background-color: #fdfdfd;" data-mce-style="color: #333333; font-family: monospace; font-size: 13.3333px; background-color: #fdfdfd;"><br></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: monospace; font-size: 13.3333px; background-color: #fdfdfd;" data-mce-style="color: #333333; font-family: monospace; font-size: 13.3333px; background-color: #fdfdfd;">really?</span></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;"><b>From: </b>"Marco McClean" <memo@mcn.org><br><b>To: </b>"kzyxtalk" <kzyxtalk@lists.mcn.org><br><b>Cc: </b>"discussion lists" <discussion@lists.mcn.org><br><b>Sent: </b>Thursday, November 26, 2015 3:30:40 AM<br><b>Subject: </b>[Kzyxtalk] On the one hand, um... But on the other hand...<br><div><br></div> Stuart Campbell wrote this to the Anderson Valley Advertiser. Warning, <br>have a paper bag ready.<br><div><br></div> >KZYX PROGRAM DIRECTOR, MARY AIGNER, TO RESIGN<br><div><br></div> >Everyone who has come through the door at KZYX in living memory knows <br>what Mary Aigner looks like. Just about anyone who has ever listened to <br>the station knows what she sounds like. That voice asks questions, tells <br>stories, sells pumpkin-flavored stucco, and reels off Mendocino musical <br>lore like it belongs to a living encyclopedia. There is just a little <br>bit of a slide into a diphthong when its owner says, “You’re listening <br>to kayee-zee-wye-ex;” at which point, you know you’re in good hands, <br>because even if the earth cracks open and the station falls in, the <br>voice at the mic will continue informing you what you are hearing and <br>why it’s so good.<br><div><br></div> >By the end of January, that voice will be replaced by another. As of <br>January 30th, Mary Aigner will resign her position as Program Director <br>at KZYX.<br><div><br></div> >“If the radio’s on, I’m working,” Aigner said, before describing just <br>how much work it was to get a program on the air in 1993, when she <br>started working “very part-time” as underwriting manager. Programmers <br>then had to physically cut recordings that existed in material space, <br>using tools they held in their hands. They had to time things so they <br>happened in real time. According to programmer Jerry Karp, who drifted <br>in while Aigner was being interviewed, the station had “one Mac Plus, <br>but every room had an abacus.”<br><div><br></div> >This led to a detailed discussion of DACS machines, with their tractor <br>feed printers. Karp remembered seeing them in certain chain stores when <br>he was young. “Fascinating!” Aigner exclaimed. Karp looked puzzled. “Are <br>you saying the topic of DACS machines at grocery stores in the 70’s is <br>fascinating?” he verified.<br><div><br></div> >She was. Aigner is interested in everything and everyone. According to <br>former General Manager John Coate, she has an “uncanny ability” to reel <br>in good programmers. She is always recruiting, always keeping an eardrum <br>peeled for a voice that “can do radio that people actually want to <br>listen to.”<br><div><br></div> >She should know. Aigner herself is a professional listener, taking in <br>the nuances of tales about drag queens, acid kings, and “the archetypes <br>within” at every community radio station. She claims “you never know <br>who’s hiding in the hills;” but she knows Captain Clearlight, Mama Bear <br>Scott, and what ‘Lilly-Jack’ means in Boont. If you say the words, <br>“Native American women’s chorus,” Aigner says, “Ulali,” and comes up <br>with a recording.<br><div><br></div> >This expert listener is keeping her plans quiet for now, but she <br>divulged that “I do intend to keep doing my music show and have a <br>project in mind that I’d like to pursue, so I do intend to stay involved.”<br><div><br></div> >We at KZYX are grateful that she has been involved for as long as she <br>has. That voice has guided our chorus for so long, and trained so many <br>of the voices that remain. Thank you for your decades, Mary Aigner. Tune <br>in any time. We hope you’ll keep listening.<br><div><br></div> >--Stuart Campbell, Interim Executive Director & General Manager<br><div><br></div>---<br><div><br></div>And I replied:<br><div><br></div>Re: Stuart Campbell's paean to Mary Aigner.<br><div><br></div>This is as though it's late 2008, say, and imagine Dick Cheney has just <br>resigned slightly ahead of his humiliating ouster, shredding evidence <br>left and right, and George Bush, anticipating his own ouster, has a lot <br>of nice things to say about Dick. How he puppet-mastered the entire <br>situation to rally the club and put a lot of good people in charge of <br>important projects ("Heck of a job, Brownie!"), and they read children's <br>books upside down together for photo ops to emphasize the importance of <br>edumacation, and got the economy on track and protected us from <br>terrorism by pissing away a borrowed fortune in all directions to smash <br>and grab and hold on to the reigns of power, smiling, smiling, and see <br>that Mission Accomplished was declared in advance of, during and after <br>years and years of futile destructive self-congratulatory tax-funded <br>oppressive mediocrity. That's how it reads to me, knowing Stuart <br>Campbell and Mary Aigner, and remembering what really happened, and what <br>could have been.<br><div><br></div>Rather, here's a short, honest, appropriate statement on Mary Aigner's <br>resignation: About time. Thank Christ. Good riddance, darlin', and don't <br>let the screen door hit you in the ass on the way out.<br><div><br></div>Marco McClean<br>memo@mcn.org<br>http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com<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><div><br></div></div></body></html>