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</head><body><p>ABOUT TIME. KZYX's primary funder, the federal government, is sending an auditor to Philo for a close look at the station's books and, by extension, station management. Even without an audit, and looking at Mendo Public Radio from a distance, which is the only way management allows even its membership to look, it's clear that fiscal chicanery is afoot, not to mention insider hiring, nepotism, a general manager who is permanently unavailable, and the positively weird and comprehensively baleful grip a former EST cult partisan presently has on station ops. This guy, Stuart Campbell, has direct access to the station's depleted purse and has recently hired his girlfriend as a station reporter. The entire apparatus curtsies to him.</p><p><br></p><p>FOR YEARS, KZYX limped along with a series of wacky-to-incompetent managers, but then an extremely unpleasant fellow named John Coate assumed the reins about ten years ago, and the station's ramshackle hippie-dippo-stoner vibe went to cult-secretive and, where women were concerned, cruel. One of Coate's first acts was to fire the capable reporter Christina Aanestad, and doing it with no notice on a Friday morning when Ms. Aanestad arrived for work, replacing her with a stone male nutcase who soon claimed that verified charges revealed in the ava (where else?) that he'd tried to forge a winning lottery ticket was the work of vengeful Oregon "bulldykes.” The bulldykes were stalking him, you see. Coate’s unerring bad judgement subsequently saddled the station with the creepy EST guy, and here we are with staff taking nearly half the station's annual revenue, and membership declining, and the general manager out when he’s in, in when he’s out.</p><p><br></p><p>SUSPICIONS CONFIRMED. It has belatedly occurred to me that Mendocino County Public Radio is indeed a cult. The station apparently went clear over into blood oaths and midnight dog's blood rituals with former manager John Coate, who brought in another eviscerated personality to succeed him in Stuart Campbell. Mos def a Moonie-like vibe prevailed during the lock-step candidate's affair at Mendo College, what with all these blissed-out looking old white guys creeping around in ancient birkenstocks, their eyes and speech devoid of all life. I understand a federal intervention is scheduled for May, but will it be soon enough to prevent Coate and Campbell from moving on to full human sacrifice</p><p><br></p><p>--</p></body></html>