Join the KZYX board meeting today at 5 p.m. on Zoom, by phone or by sending an email
Lots going on with the Trump cuts to NPR and PBS coming. We have been talking about it on the MCN Announce and Discussion lists
KZYX is a critical part of our community, born and raised in the Anderson Valley and moving to Ukiah. What should its future be? Tune in to the board meeting today at 5 and give your thoughts
The wisest newsie in our county, Annie Esposito (allegedly retired, but obviously not so!!), sent comments after I made some. Hers were the best, so I’m putting them first.
Hello X&Z Board,
In this creaky voice from the past, I would like to urge you to prioritize local news as part of KZYX’s offering to the community. There is a lot of noise about local news being superfluous, not professional, not interesting, and too expensive.
The local news is an important way to fulfill the station’s mission to cover the County. Local news was part of the early vision for the station. And local news is now more important than ever, with the threats to the media in general.
When I was the News Director here from about 1997 to 2007, the station did a survey of the listeners. One thing they wanted to find out was the importance of the local news. I have only kept a scrap of the results as personal memorabilia, but I include it here. The KZYX&Z News was rated Good to Outstanding on a par with Democracy Now! And the KZYX&Z News was one of the most frequently listened to shows, on a par with NPR’s Morning Edition.
I hope you will support Elise in what she is trying to do in bringing meaningful, up-to-date information to our listeners over a wide variety of important local topics. This is a huge County and there is a lot going on. And KZYX&Z, with its ability to connect immediately with listeners, is the best way to keep us informed. I hope you will arrange the support Elise needs to produce a 10-minute (or more) daily news feature!
Thank you for your attention.
Annie Esposito
Here is what I, Frank Hartzell, wrote.
KZYX is an important community resource. There is a board meeting by Zoom Tuesday at 5. I encourage all to attend and report back. I once wrote about these for the Advocate-News, but I don’t know anything about the current emphasis of the board. I think local news should be at the forefront. Is that the case now? I don’t know, even though I have done some, but that is not the station’s fault. I am just too busy and focused on too many other things.
But this is important to all of our futures. Heck, our property values if you need real money motivation!.
Click this link to participate via zoom on your devices.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84721257585
The agenda shows public participation is right at the start. Not sure if they are set up for public comment on the other matters, which are all reports by the GM, finance committee and a lot about the Ukiah move. I would suggest that anybody who has questions ask that whatever the issue is, ask for it to be put on the agenda of a future meeting and that someone can contact you afterwards for that. It’s not fair to expect immediate answers.
Chris wrote the following
“As a person who has been a community organizer in a variety of areas, being a programmer and being able to platform many people and causes over the years, has been a meaningful and empowering experience for me, but the current iteration of the station is not something that i can not morally or ethically tolerate, I will continue to work for the reform of KZYX but no longer work to produce content for it, And while I certainly think the station will survive my absence, I certainly hope my absence will, help bring notice for the need for change! Thank you,”
Chris, I read your entreaty above, and thank you for your decades of volunteer work. What would you suggest Chris? What would be your questions? What needs to change to better prepare KZYX for the future?
How could the current iteration of the board be changed? What would we say? Unlike you, I don’t know Rich and would be uncomfortable speaking about a personnel issue when I only have second and third-hand info. I’m not sure this is an issue the board could respond to, but if so they should say that at some point. They may have already. I have not been following.
What could the average listener suggest to make the station stronger? It seems like the pledge drive went well.
I wish I knew more about this station I listen to. I find KZYX a critical part of our community. I also listen to KOZT, which is often overlooked for its tremendous importance to the community, KNYO, and Giants games on KFMB.
KNYO has improved their signal, and I can now get in my car!! It’s great but doesn’t always come in. Only KOZT comes in pretty much everywhere in the county.
I love many of the shows on KZYX. I think local news is critical. We need to keep both. I am saddened to see great shows departing, such as Humble Pie. KXYZ faces several challenging issues I know. One is that for news or programming, Ukiah has little interest in Fort Bragg and vice versa. When I had a newspaper in Yubaland, the community of rural counties, Colusa, Glenn, Butte and Yuba Sutter were all interested enough in each other to form a readership community.
But here, the mountains and the culture mean issues in South County, the rest of the Coast, Covelo and Ukiah/Willits are all pretty much not that interesting to the others on that list.
Another divide is over NPR versus local programming. KZYX seeks to be both KMUD and KQED. It’s not wrong that they do, fundraising and listenership is divided among people more diverse in interests and culture than most rural public radio. I hope to listen to how they are doing. I have heard from people who have also made suggestions and not heard back. I hope Chris and others can make suggestions for the future…Who would have thought in RedWood Summer or 2019 or last year how quickly history could change on us? We really need local news and to keep our local programmers? Is the station going to be basically a Ukiah station once the HQ is over there? Will people continue to listen to the radio?
Sincerely,
Frank
If you would prefer to participate in the Zoom by phone only, here’s a list of phone numbers you can call for the meeting.
- 1 669 900 6833 US
- 1 669 444 9171 US
- 1 719 359 4580 US
- 1 253 205 0468 US
After you call, you will be asked to enter the meeting id number and then push the pound # key. The meeting id number is 84721257585.
Contact the Board via email: bod@kzyx.org
