- In Defense Of Alicia Bales
- Alicia Bales & KZYX
- Way To Go, Marty; Hang In There
- Behind KZYX Closed Doors?
- Go Niners
- Farther & Farther…
- The Nuclear Question
- Right You Are, Anne
- More Can Kicking
- Keep It In The Lake
- Where Are The Churches?
- First Graders
- PG&E's Latest Gift
- Extreme AOC
- Failed Capitalism At KZYZ
IN DEFENSE OF ALICIA BALES
Ms. Polkinghorne and the KZYX Board --
Thank you for your response regarding Ms. Bales.
I realize that confidential personnel matters can't be publicly discussed, but I write to express my concerns regarding the recent events at KZYX.
I believe that the termination of Alicia Bales represents a wrong turn for the station, and will only lead to significant deterioration if not out-right failure of the station.
To be clear, Alicia and I have worked alongside each other for nearly three years during the coronavirus pandemic, and have a rapport that is apparent to anyone that listened to our show, so I may be perceived as biased. However, our collaboration has always been in furtherance of the program, and I have consistently found her to be well prepared, professional, and highly competent. I am confident that she is the single critical individual who has kept KZYX functioning over the last several years. Her dedication to the station and its mission is absolute. Ms. Bales' termination represents a failure of the board to supervise the management of KZYX, and will almost certainly result in significant harm to the station.
I fear she has been terminated because she is opinionated, vocal, and competent. This is intolerable in this day and age, and I am certain that if she were a male, this would never have happened.
I don't hold these opinions in isolation. In multiple conversations with individuals throughout the county, the consistent response has been one of shock and disappointment, typically accompanied by an exclamation that Ms. Bales represents a true commitment to the station and its programming.
I urge you and the board to correct this mistake. I am, of course, happy to talk to the Board in a public session regarding this error.
Drew Colfax, MD JD
Boonville
ALICIA BALES & KZYX
Dear Ms. Durlin:
We've never met, and I'm sure you've heard some unpleasant -- and untrue -- things about me, but that past history is irrelevant.
I'm writing to you today about my experience with Alicia Bales while I was both a Board member at the Mendocino Environmental Center ("The MEC") and a popular programmer at KMEC.
My program was supported, in part, by matching donations from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. My cohost was first Sid Cooperrider, then Mary Massey.
Our show was about national security. No one cared we were a low power station. No one cared about our small broadcast area. Our online audience was huge. One of our shows with CIA whistleblower Ray McGovern has over 76,000 views on Youtube. Our show had A-list guests, like Tom Drake, Bill Binney, Edward Snowden, and Glenn Greenwald, from the 2014 Academy Award-winning documentary, Citizenfour.
KMEC was the little station that could!
What followed is sad, very sad.
I will say the following loudly and unequivocally: Alicia Bales destroyed KMEC and she almost destroyed The MEC.
How?
Ms. Bales used both The MEC and KMEC for her own personal gain. She was coldly calculating and rapaciously ambitious about using The MEC and KMEC as platforms to launch her job search. Her behavior bordered on the sociopathic.
Ms. Bales's first move was to manipulate her way on to the Board as Board President at a time when The MEC was leaderless.
Lara Anderson had quit as President. There was no money in our checking account. And suddenly, and mysteriously, Alicia Bales was not just a Board member, but she was President of the Board.
Ms. Bales's first action was to purge the Board of anyone she perceived as a possible threat -- anyone who might question her, disagree with her, or even voice a dissenting opinion. Ms. Bales wanted a rubberstamp board. When she didn't immediately get it, she made up false allegations. She cried. She screamed. She pouted. She was, by turns, either passive aggressive or emotionally violent. She did whatever she thought it would take to get her rubberstamp board.
And she got it.
Highly respected Board member, Edwin Nieves, was the first to quit.
Board members, Joel Thompson (a disabled person), Emmanuel Mallo (a Black West African person), and Josefina Duenas (a Latina and Ukiah City Councilmember) were all forced from The MEC's Board.
Board member Mary Massey quit. Ms. Massey had been a professional public radio staffer at Nashville Public Radio, WPLN, and a professional fundraiser at the Ronald McDonald House.
Then I quit.
Ms. Bales made our Board positions untenable.
Ms. Bales's first job search focused on being the first program manager at Mendocino County's newly created Climate Action Committee. She attempted to get that job by circumventing the county's civil service system. The job was classified as a "private contractor."
Ms. Bales manipulated then Second District Supervisor John McCowen into supporting her, even to the extent of profiling her at one or two Mendocino County Board of Supervisors meetings.
How did Bales and McCowen know each other? McCowen was our landlord at The MEC. Also, McCowen seemed like a suitor. Bales and McCowen fawned over one another, and even hugged each other, during breaks at Board meetings.
The total compensation for that county job was over $110,000.
It was an outrageous display of cronyism.
When public outcry caused the Mendocino Board of Supervisors to pull the job, Ms. Bales then focused on the newly vacant program director's job at KZYX. She got the job, of course. The MEC and KMEC were a good jumping off point for Bales. The plug was soon pulled from KMEC. Nothing but dead air now. And The MEC is a shadow of its former self.
Years later, while waiting in line at the Ukiah Food Co-op, Mr. Nieves himself told me and Ms. Massey that it had always been Ms. Bales's intention to close down The MEC and KMEC. Her one fundraising effort consisted of merely attending an event at the old Yokayo Bowling.
My only question at this point?
How did the Machiavellian Alicia Bales last this long at KZYX?
Sincerely,
John Sakowicz
Ukiah
* * *
ED REPLY: It is highly unlikely that McCowen will ever reveal the true story of the MEC's origin, and excuse me or not for saying that the MEC, imo, was mostly irrelevant to environmental activity, let alone sustained environment work. For that, people like Helen Libeu, Ron Guenther, the Drells, etc. plugged away at stopping destructive THPs while the MEC did a lotta big talking for the Press Democrat. The dope-soaked joint didn't even get rolling until noon or so, and when it did it struck me as a kind of outpatient center with marginal, pseudonymous characters unproductively milling in and out. Call me paranoid but I've long assumed the MEC was established as a federal listening post as Redwood Summer began to manifest itself as a media project of Judi Bari who had, by then, usurped Dave Foreman as Earth First!s primary leader, Bari having gender-bludgeoned Foreman out the door — “Sexist, racist blah blah blah.”
Since Earth First!, and Bari and Cherney particularly, publicly advocated industrial sabotage, a federal crime, and because the major timber corporations G-P and L-P dominated the county and screamed, falsely, that the hippies were getting in the way of their cash-in profits, the FBI naturally had to keep an eye on the Mendo haps, which they could most conveniently do with an office across the street from the County Courthouse with at least one of their informants — Mike Sweeney, imo — ensconced with his own desk, key to the door and telephone. The feds would have arranged this fake enviro center through Ukiah old boy, McCowen, who owned the suitably ramshackle premises. A lot of murky stuff went down in the 1990 period, prior to Alicia ‘Little Tree’ Bales' arrival as a barefoot, nose-ringed wild child out of Sacramento. As you suggest, Sako, Ms. Bales is unscrupulous and can be extremely unpleasant, but still and all, I doubt she did anything warranting her ejection from the viper's nest at KZYX, where she seemed a perfect fit.
WAY TO GO, MARTY; HANG IN THERE
Marty,
By now you’ve had all kinds of people in your face re: Alicia Bales.
You will recall I wrote to you after Alicia was hired. I will say that people, over time, will reveal who they are.
I am not privy to why you fired Alicia but I can imagine that her controlling nature and need to have people follow her agenda no matter what, most likely played a part.
Prior to her hiring by you as Program Director, Alicia willfully ended both the Mendocino Environmental Center AND was directly responsible for KMEC radio going silent. I learned much later after I resigned as a board member that it was her goal to end both the MEC and KMEC through Ed Nieves. Ed held both entities together and quit after Alicia began to disassemble them. No one could blame him. Alicia told Ed she took on the role of Board Chairman to close down the MEC and KMEC. She had help with ending KMEC from Sid Cooperrider who knew the ins and outs of the station equipment. Sid controlled the station’s operations from his parents’ home.
I read her published bio on the KZYX/Z website and actually found it disturbing. Alicia did not fund raise nor train volunteers at KMEC. In truth, she alienated those who were trying to keep both entities going. One by one she made it difficult to function as a member of the board, or as a volunteer. The men who were involved as volunteers were the first to go. She used her female friends whom she put on the board to systematically upset any real hope of keeping the station and Center going. Re: fundraising: she would pass the hat, literally to pay the electric billing our board meetings. The owner of the building who housed the Center/Station was giving the space for next to pennies.
I ran afoul with Alicia by critiquing a year end direct mail letter suggesting edits. (I was a paid development person at WPLN , Nashville and had an active role in each and every on-air drive, plus direct mail campaigns.) Alicia wilted in anger under my input and that was the beginning of the end of my role as both board member and programmer. She wanted no one to inform her in making the station better. Period.
I wish you well and KZYX/Z as you go forward.
Marty, well done you!
Mary Massey, Co-Host
Heroes and Patriots
KMUD Community Radio
BEHIND KZYX CLOSED DOORS?
Genese wrote (Coast chatline):
I hope everyone realizes we don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. Do any of you actually know the facts or is this an unfair case of vilifying the general manager because she happens to be a paid employee?
* * *
Marco McClean:
The general manager, Marty Durlin, is the CEO of Mendocino County Public Broadcasting Corporation, not an employee. And its a hallmark of cults like KZYX that faithful volunteers work for free to bring the money the boss and the boss' lieutenants keep for themselves. And all of the intrigue and drama and cutting off of metaphorical heads is done, you're absolutely right, Genese, behind closed doors. I can tell you from personal experience, from the very beginning of KZYX, before one was allowed airtime one had to sign a page of promises to the first of KZYX's rotten rat bastard managers, Sean Donovan, who set the tone for the operation, including a promise never to speak on-air or off-air about private, behind-the-scenes station business or you'd lose your airtime, you'd be excommunicated from the church. I'm paraphrasing, but that was one of the promises I drew a line through. Sean gave me another sheet and said, "What's the problem. I need you to sign this. Everyone else has already signed it. Sign it." I drew lines through items again and signed it. I wrote a few articles for the Mendocino Commentary on the subject. He phoned me before my show one night and told me not to bother coming in. That's the short version.
You will never hear the true story of Alicia's firing unless she tells you all about it. And, considering the entire shady history of the place and its people, it's unlikely that she will. She'll be nervous to, afraid to. They'll make up some bullshit about how she decided to move on, to be able to spend more time with her family, and how sad they are to see her go after the great job she did there and how much everyone loved her, and she'll say, Yeah, that's right, that's what it was. Family.
GO NINERS
Editor,
Anderson Valley is full of long-time and new 49ers fans. For them an opportunity of a lifetime will occur at the AV Senior Crab Feed Silent Auction on January 21.
Available to the highest bidder will be a nicely framed and matted color photograph of Number 16, Joe Montana, in a huddle. It is a terrific photograph, approximately 24 inches by 17 inches, framed it is 35 inches by 29 inches.
Get your tickets for the Crab Feed and be prepared to make a touchdown. Do NOT miss this dream chance.
Happy Bidding.
Two old Niners-Raiders fans
Philo
FARTHER & FARTHER…
Editor:
Israel has lurched dangerously to the right and is under the control of nationalistic and religious hard-liners. Business owners (and soon, perhaps, doctors) may refuse to serve LGBTQ+, non-Jews and anyone who upsets their religious sensibilities. After a change in their constitution, Itamar Ben-Gvir, convicted of “inciting racism,” is minister of national security. A settler leader who heads an ultraright religious party now oversees the West Bank.
What will happen to the over 3 million Palestinians there? With more illegal settlements planned on privately owned Palestinian land, can we all finally admit the two-state solution is dead? Anyone who says otherwise is an idiot or lying, and that includes our president. History has shown that nothing good comes when nationalism and religious fundamentalism go hand in hand. It’s Manifest Destiny Israeli-style, and what happened to Native Americans may well happen to Palestinians.
Yes, China, Iran and Russia are bad too, but we’re not sending them $10 million of our tax dollars a day. Jewish Voice for Peace writes that they’re “guided by … justice, equality and freedom for all people. We unequivocally oppose Zionism because it is counter to those ideals.” The new Israeli government makes that abundantly clear.
Laura Gonzalez
Santa Rosa
THE NUCLEAR QUESTION
Editor,
A couple of weeks ago President Zelinsky came to Washington and had a meeting with Biden. Zelinsky thanked us for the help so far and said that whatever else we can do would be greatly appreciated.
Biden used the photo op to up his ratings and afterward there would be questions and answers with the press. There was one question I was really waiting for: the nuclear question. Putin was ratting about tactical nukes about six weeks ago.
The question is, What will you do, Biden, if Putin uses nukes?
This question was no addressed. A whole room full of reporters and no real questions, just pablum.
Were the journalists coached not to ask any questions about nuclear war? Maybe if we don’t mention it, it will just go away. Putin will see this strategy as weakness like everything else about this administration.
Pork barrel politics at every level
Tom Madden
Comptche
PS. When Putin saw what we elected, he became insane with fantasy power. The Ukraine war has brought him back to his cage.
RIGHT YOU ARE, ANNE
Editor:
Find a favorite place to walk and walk it regularly. Part of the secret to a good life, a healthy, happy life, is to stay mobile. You’ve seen the difference in people you know. Those who stay physically active stay healthy and are generally happy, positive people. Do it for yourself.
Sure, your doctor has advised the same thing to you, but really the benefit is provided to you by yourself. If you can, find a walking companion, as you’re more likely to keep up your activity if you have someone else to share it with. We choose different hills to walk, but even walking flatlands and small rises can give you a lift in life.
Give yourself this gift.
Anne Seeley
Santa Rosa
MORE CAN KICKING
To the Editor:
I couldn't believe my ears.
At the Tuesday, 10 January 2023, Board of Supervisors meeting, during the Board's discussion of Agenda Item 4i (New Jail Building Funding) at 2hrs, 3 mins, 50 secs into the meeting, and for the next minute or two, Supervisor Ted Williams said the unthinkable.
I thought I heard Ted Williams announce that Mendocino County was broke, even perhaps, running up a budget deficit.
He then proceeded to blame past Boards for “kicking the can” down the road on big ticket items like deferred maintenance at the county jail, the unfunded pension liability, and the county's crumbling and outdated telecommunications.
Keep in mind, Ted Williams was on those “past Boards.” And so was John Haschack. Dan Gjerde, too. Dan Gjerde is the longest serving Supervisor on the current Board.
Where were Williams, Haschak, and Gjerde, when County CEO Carmel “Boss” Angelo ran the show? Why did past Boards allow themselves to be dominated by her? Why were they so subservient? So afraid?
Angelo controlled — and hoarded — all financial information. She controlled the budget book.
And the Board didn't say a thing.
Angelo controlled the Board's agenda and the Clerk of the Board.
Why?
The job chart of Angelo's County Executive Office ballooned into how many new assistant CEO positions and new analyst positions, as it consolidated power from other county departments and privatized county services, like mental health?
The Board didn't care.
Past Boards didn't simply kick the can down the road, as Ted Williams claims. They surrendered their authority to Carmel Angelo. They failed to govern. They held mere titular positions, and were happy to do so, as long as their paychecks cleared.
Ted Williams got a $135,139 total compensation package last year (source CalSalaries). Of this total $80,215 was received as a salary, $46,079 was received as benefits and $8,845 came from other types of compensation.
He was paid that sum to kick the can down the road.
John Sakowicz
Ukiah
* * *
JOHN REDDING: Well said. To make matters worse, the BOS at the urging of Supervisor Williams used $16.1 million in covid relief funds to balance last year's budget. That money was intended to aid small businesses and individuals who were harmed financially because of covid. This a case of one-time funding being used to pay for ongoing expenses (salaries), which is against the Board's own stated policy.
KEEP IT IN THE LAKE
Editor,
If Lake Mendocino’s overflow spillways are in proper working order (not like Oroville Dam) and safe to use, I suggest holding back as much water as the dam will safely hold to prevent unnecessary flooding. I’ve lived through several floods in Guerneville, which eventually caused my family to lose our home.
When Lake Mendocino was almost all but empty a few years back, our bureaucracy could have moved a lot of the silt buildup improving its capacity to hold water. Throw me under the bus for this radical idea, it’s been done before.
Ken Solbakken
Santa Rosa
WHERE ARE THE CHURCHES?
Editor:
What’s wrong with this picture? Billions for an already bloated defense budget, a lot less for social services, and neither program can be scrutinized by outsiders — the public, for instance. Defense spending is touted as being necessary for our security, and no one bats an eye. Social services are treated like an afterthought, with no regard to people’s real suffering.
Homelessness and hunger are rampant in the richest country in the world, and politicians dare prate about “welfare cheats,” and they are clearly the most egregious abusers of the system. Pols are elected and given absurd powers, and there are no criteria established to follow. The very people who cry the loudest are the very people who contribute absolutely nothing to the betterment of our country, and certainly nothing to benefit anyone actually in need. It’s obscene.
Lastly, where are the churches? For a nation supposedly built on Christian values, I have yet to see anything resembling the teachings of Christ. In bitterness,
Rev. Terry L. Wolfe
Cotati
FIRST GRADERS
Editor:
I firmly believe that there is a segment of the public that can’t read on a first grade level. Living near Green Valley Road, I had the opportunity to walk down to see Atascadero Creek after the rains. Road closed sign were posted in two places, with caution ribbons across the road. Well, they were across the road but had been ripped down. The road was flooded just west of the bridge.
Several vehicles drove down but had enough sense to turn around on the narrow country road, causing an interesting tangle. But, one pickup tried to go through, only to stall. Two men on quads were driving through the water. No helmets, of course. We pedestrians got a few chuckles watching.
What is it about “road closed” that people don’t understand? Perhaps I’m correct: they can’t read on a first grade level.
Flora Haluzak
Sebastopol
PG&E'S LATEST GIFT
Editor:
California utility regulators recently approved lowering the price utilities pay for excess solar power, citing equity reasons. They lowered the price so much that it nullifies it as an incentive. A homeowner purchasing rooftop solar can recoup the investment in five-six years. The new incentive extends it to 12-plus years. Similar actions in other states, like Nevada and Arizona, killed the sale of rooftop solar and the industry. California utility regulators did it anyway.
California’s stated goals is more dependence on green energy. The mystery then is why did regulators, the governor, etc., effectively eliminate the incentive to buy rooftop solar? The fact they think the current price for power is too high is irrelevant. It’s there as an incentive to meet stated goals, and it has clearly worked. Why is there no replacement, like state tax breaks?
Additionally, solar customers have lower electric bills because the payment for extra power comes off the bill. It does not create an inequity. You do not have to gut the incentive to buy rooftop solar and destroy the industry and its jobs to fix the appearance of one. What the heck is going on?
Michael Canar
Santa Rosa
EXTREME AOC
Editor,
Why is Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez considered to be extreme?
She answered:
I believe in Medicare for All, aka guaranteed healthcare in the United States.
I authored the Green New Deal, and believe tackling the climate crisis will take a much more massive and serious mobilization than what we're doing now.
Although I am a Democrat, I operate independently from either party's establishment. So I am willing to challenge my own party's leadership and, when necessary, break from the party line.
I do not believe in late stage capitalism or that prioritizing the extreme pursuit of profit at any and all human/environmental costs will save us. I believe in cooperative economics and cooperative democracy, aka democratic socialism.
My campaign is funded by grassroots, small-dollar donations and I accept $0 in corporate money (the average donation to keep me in office is around $16).
I believe that ICE, an agency that was just formed in 2003 during the Patriot Act era, is a rogue agency that should not exist.
I am the youngest woman in U.S. history to be elected to Congress. I was a waitress. I am Latina. I come from a low income background and am one of just a few working class people who got elected to Congress. That makes a lot of classist, ageist, misogynist, and racist people mad.
Tom Wodetzki
Albion
FAILED CAPITALISM AT KZYZ
Chris Skyhawk wrote:
Please join host Chris Skyhawk for Universal Perspectives on KZYX on Thursday Jan.12 at 7pm, he will be continuing the series: Late Stage Capitalism: What’s next?” His guest will be Juan Red Hawk Dominguez; Juan has a podcast called: “Burn the wagon” which highlights numerous Indigenous voices, in an attempt too burn the wagon of patriarchy, colonialism and capitalism. KZYX signal is 90.7/91.5fm and on the web at KZYX.org.
* * *
Marco here. Okay, I'll do that. But, Chris, I'm reminded by your mention of the image of burning the wagon of capitalism: you should demand to be paid for your essential work and your valuable show. More than half a million dollars a year flush through KZYX. Much of it is skimmed off by management for their personal selves. They're like the guys at a worksite sitting on folding chairs with a clipboard on their lap while guys like you shovel and carry and weld and pour cement, except that the shovelers and welders and carriers and pourers are actually being paid. You're doing the work the radio station is there for in the first place. The manager and business flack and fundraising czar, and bells-and-whistles coordinators are not. If anyone should be paid it should be you. They get paid. So should you.
And KZYX has plenty of cash to pay you because of tax-derived grant money, and tax-write-off donations from corporations and rich families who got rich because of the capitalism that your fellow bird-theme-named colleague decries. And KZYX is able to constantly beg for yet more money from the entire county on real radio waves because of the free license to use high power on a broadcast band frequency, granted to Mendocino County Public Broadcasting Corp. by the federal government. We're all paying for KZYX, mainly paying the managers of it, whether we want to or not. And those write-offs would have paid for needed services, and the radio station would still be on the air with your shows.
You mention colonization. National Public Radio is as unaccountable to the public as a giant corporation can be. Try to get a peek into its inner workings and see how far you get-- how much this or that costs, who's paid exactly what, who made this or that programming decision and who benefited from it. You can't even find out out how to get through to someone important on the phone there. KZYX is just one of over a thousand NPR-colonized stations. NPR, like the other media empires, is a huge and oppressive parasitic creature, and in many ways it's the most opaque of them.
All the airpeople who make the canned crap thousands of miles away that fills so much of KZYX's airtime are paid very well to do their shows. Years ago it was leaked that Ira Glass, for example, and the producers of his show are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for that, for a one-hour-per-week show. You might have read about the problems Mr. Glass had selling his multi-million-dollar Chelsea apartment. He's /wealthy/ from so-called nonprofit radio. This is America, fine, some people are lucky, but meanwhile all the local airpeople at KZYX preparing for and doing all your shows all year long all put together, for the same reasons and with the same dedication and in some cases, sometimes, the same quality, are paid /nothing/.
The only reason the manager of KZYX is not paying you is, she doesn't have to if she doesn't want to, and she doesn't want to, so she's not. If just you and the other ironclad unfireable ones there were to speak up, things might change. On commercial radio it's /against the law/ to not pay airpeople. KMFB's budget was less than half KZYX's, it got no annual $160,000 CPB grants, was cut none of the slack so-called noncommercial radio gets. It had greater expenses, bigger obligatory fees to pay. And everyone at KMFB was paid. The manager made sure we were paid before he paid himself; that's the manager's first and main job in any business, especially a creative business: pay the ones doing the work. Famous painters who have others paint their paintings and then sign their famous name on them- they pay the workers. People who sell weed pay the kids to produce and trim the product. School administrators pay teachers whether or not they love teaching so much that they'd come to work anyway. This is like that.
I would like to have /my/ show on KZYX and I'd require to be paid for it. I applied in February of 2012, contacted and contacted again, drove out there, met with one manager after another, one program director after another, as they turned over like rotisserie chickens in those years; I wrote email after email, ran for the board of directors, showed up at meeting after meeting, and I'm still waiting, and doing radio on other stations while I wait. It wouldn't be difficult to arrange it, just a phone call from the manager and two minutes' work for the IT person to set the automation to grab my stream, or anyone's, just like it does with Ralph Nader, and Amy Goodman, and the Snap Judgment guy, and All Things Considered, yadda yadda, and all the shows from Mendocino County studios too. Once it's set, the switching is automatic; it's not much more complicated than the alarm clock app in your phone. I have been doing my current style of show as regularly as clockwork all Friday night every Friday night on various stations since early 1997, from various studios and remote studios, after publishing years of countywide newspapers, after putting on weekly invitational variety teevee shows for years on public access teevee, after building whole small radio stations from parts pulled from discarded household electronics, and writing and producing radio drama with all ages, both recorded and live, and recording music and events, and all the while doing regular theater projects, doing every job in every medium, and that's not all. If anyone you know around here is more reliable than I am, and has accomplished as much in radio, teevee, publishing, broadcasting in general, tell me who that is; I'd like to interview them. On the radio.
In short, Chris, I wish you'd require to be paid and set the precedent at KZYX, so they'll have to scramble to come up with another reason than that for cowardly excluding me and people like me. At least California minimum wage, for your airtime and reasonable prep time. It's wrong when charity organizations pay workers poorly while the bosses are paid well. That's a national scandal across many industries. It's way worse than even that when management is paid well and workers are paid nothing. I know you like to do your show, but will that change when you're paid? Won't you still like to do it? And then if you don't need or want the money, give it back to the radio station or give it to someone else who needs it. Buy a homeless person a bag of doughnuts. A kaleidoscope of possibilities.
Marco McClean
PS. KXYX MATH
JR Rossum (Coast Chatline) wrote: Have you ever noticed how that every time you send them a little money, their signal gets weaker and they decide to expand?
Marco McClean:
JR, have you ever noticed that they pay just the manager and program director all the membership money you give the station? Around 2000 members at $25 or $50 a year, and a few who give a little extra, amounts to $100,000. The manager pays herself $60,000 out of that, plus full medical and dental and vision. If the program director gets $40,000, then that's all the money, to two people in the office.
But because of donations from corporations and rich ranch families and winery types, not to mention the $160,000 annual CPB grant, they have enough to pay the surprisingly small expenses of keeping on the air and keeping a roof overhead and the lights on, and enough left over so that lately they've bought and are spiffing up a new office palace in Ukiah, besides. You might recall my mentioning they don't pay the local airpeople, and that the airpeople's representative on the board has never brought it up, except once at a board meeting when I pointed it out, and the aptly named Jerry Karp, the airpeople's representative at the time, turned to the boardmember next to him, repeated what I'd said, and they both chuckled at the very idea of it.
Any suggestions of improvement or change in any area are simply stonewalled and ignored until objectors get tired and go away. That's the way it's always been at KZYX, all the way back to 1989. Ask Joel Waldman... Oh, wait, you can't. He died of old age waiting twenty-five years for his issues to be addressed.
Rudy Redwood wrote, "Geez. It seems like Alicia Bales has been there from the start but I thought that she was in the news arena. Too bad that these egomaniacs can just randomly fire the volunteers - she was a volunteer - not paid - right?"
No, Alicia Bales is the Program Director, the second-highest-paid person there, after the manager. Or was until yesterday. Next week there'll be another one. Meanwhile I think the second-highest-paid person might be the Business Underwriting Coordinator, or the Vice President in Charge of Fundraising Strategy. It might be the Logo Designer, or the Bells And Whistles Shaker and Blower. I dunno. It won't be any of the local airpeople who actually use the transmitter to do radio on KZYX, because all of them preparing for and doing their shows all year long, all put together, year after year after year, continue to be paid nothing.
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