THE TRUE STORY OF HOW AMY GOODMAN BECAME THE OWNER OF “DEMOCRACY NOW!”

We have received numerous comments, most then anonymous, about our coverage of the Pacifica Foundation, WBAI and the future of the noncommercial organization. Many of the comments deal with the endless feuds between various factions. We avoid reporting on these matters because they ultimately don’t matter.

One comment from an anonymous Spark News reader did catch our attention because it touches on a current topic: Manhattan Neighborhood Network’s (MNN) offer to take over WBAI with a Public Service Operating Agreement (PSOA).  Dan Coughlin is the CEO of MNN and has a deep and murky history with Pacifica.

We reported about MNN on February 5^th [link]. Here is the comment we received:

"Here are some other fun facts about Dan Coughlin [the head of MNN]. He was an ally of Amy Goodman’s when he was a reporter for Pacifica’s national news (Pacifica Radio News)."

Dan Coughlin

"Along with the hundreds of thousands of dollars poured into a professional public relations campaign (The Pacifica Campaign) against the then Pacifica board during the lawsuits of 1999-2002, run by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, Coughlin was part of the news department who went on strike to support Goodman in the ginned up attack on the board."

"When the board was finally forced out, Coughlin was appointed [Executive Director] by Goodman. Coughlin signed off on Goodman’s contract-of-a-lifetime which gave her for free all of Pacifica’s intellectual property to Democracy Now!, a show created by WBAI. Although she now claims she created the show she did not and was not its original host. Since 2002, Pacifica has been in the position of renting back the radio show it created and paying its former employee, Goodman, hundreds of thousands of dollars."

KEN SAYS: Because Amy Goodman is reportedly a very litigious individual, so we will be very careful talking about her. Therefore, in the information below, we will label factual information “Fact” and disputed allegations as “Rumor.”  In a quick nutshell, here is the backstory:

(Fact) Democracy Now! began as a local program on WBAI in February 1996. The host was Amy Goodman who started working at WBAI as a volunteer in the 1980s. After early success on WBAI, Democracy Now! went into national syndication. At that time the program was owned and financially supported by the Pacifica Foundation.

Goodman recently on CNN

(Fact) Goodman quickly became a well-known commentator on cable TV shows and frequently appeared as an expert regarding political and social issues.

(Fact) Democracy Now! became the number one fundraiser for Pacifica and it’s stations. By one estimate Democracy Now! generated 25% of Pacifica’s total revenue.

Steve Yasko

(Fact) In 2000, Pacifica hired former NPR marketing manager Steve Yasko to be its National Program Director. See our August 2015 coverage [link] for background. 

Pacifica’s National Board brought in Yasko to upgrade the network’s programming. Yasko technically became Goodman’s boss. Things didn’t go well and Yasko’s job became a journey into the Rings of Hell in Dante’s Inferno.

Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez

(Fact) Goodman resisted Yasko’s oversight and input. Yasko was eventually driven out of Pacifica by a smear campaign allegedly mounted by Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, a Goodman associate who is now a co-host of Democracy Now!

(Fact) In mid-August of 2000, Goodman publically said she could no longer work for Pacifica. She threatened to boycott fundraising for Pacifica. Her threats caused panic within Pacifica and affiliated stations nationwide.

(Fact) In 2001, Goodman publically announced that she would quit Democracy Now! unless Pacifica turned over ownership of the show to Goodman’s private corporation, free of charge.

(Fact) Pacifica naively caved to Goodman’s demands and gave Democracy Now! to her. The deal also gave Goodman ownership of the program’s archives, intellectual property, and confidential donor lists. Pacifica also granted Goodman the right to fundraise for Democracy Now! rather than Pacifica.

(Fact) In the agreement with Goodman, Pacifica agreed to pay Goodman $500,000 per year to continue broadcasting Democracy Now!

(Rumor) Dan Coughlin, Pacifca’s Executive Director in the early 2000s, engineered and facilitated Goodman’s takeover of Democracy Now! Coughlin is currently the CEO of MNN. MNN is now working aggressively to take over WBAI via a PSOA.

(Fact) According to Democracy Now’s IRS 990 for FY 2015, the most recent year available, Pacifica then owed Goodman’s corporation $1,875,000. In FY 2015 Democracy Now! had annual revenue over $8 million and net assets worth almost $20 million.

(Fact) Meanwhile Pacifica is on the verge of  being forced into Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Pacifica’s debts reportedly exceed $8 million including the money owed to Amy Goodman.

KEN’S OPINION: Two words come to mind: Gullible and Hypocrite.

It is hard to believe how gullible and naïve the leadership of Pacifica was then and probably still is today. Because the organization’s Board members are chosen for their political and social bonafides, not their business sense or experience in radio, they are open prey for kooks, game-players and bandits.

It is also hard to believe the hypocrisy displayed by Amy Goodman. On her show, she rails about corporate greed and malfeasance while she uses tactics that are more greedy than those used by Wall Street takeover pros.

WEEKLY LISTENERS TO NPR NEWS/TALK STATIONS IN NIELSEN DIARY MARKETS UP BY DOUBLE-DIGITS OVER 2016

We have finished analysis of almost 80 stations and regional groups and the news is good for NPR News: Estimated weekly listeners to full-time News/Talk stations is up 11% from Fall 2016, the peak of last year’s election season.

Weekly listeners to dual-format stations airing NPR News also grew in the past year by 15% over Fall 2016.

Statistically, the uptick by NPR News/Talk stations was due to more estimated weekly listeners in Fall 2017 in larger Diary markets. In some cases the growth was spectacular. For instance, Vermont Public Radio News, the number broadcaster in Diary markets, was up 40,000, 12%. WAMC was up 15%.

But the biggest growth occurred in two markets where stations in a group were reorganized. During the past year WVTF, based in Roanoke, changed to 24/7 News/Talk and put that programming on stations with superior coverage. By our estimate, WVTF added over 130,000 estimated weekly listeners, a gain of 54% over Fall 2016.

Hawaii Public Radio (HPR) also reorganized their two program streams and put 24/7 News/Talk programming on the best signals.  HPR’s estimated listeners grew by over 20%.

We will save further analysis for tomorrow’s post. Now let’s do the numbers:

TRUMP TRYING AGAIN TO DEFUND CPB • WNCW & WXPN LEAD GAINERS IN FALL 2017 TRIPLE A RATINGS • JAZZ KCCK UP 41% IN IOWA

President Trump's newly proposed budget includes a proposal to end federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The cut is part of a larger package that, if enacted, will reduce spending on domestic programs to pay for new infrastructure, included Trump’s Border Wall.

Republicans in Congress have been trying to defund CPB for over three decades. Public broadcasters saw a windfall of support when the administration announced a similar plan in early 2017. Trump’s proposal many be considered in the summer of 2018, just in time for fall membership drives.

WNCW TOPS FULL-TIME TRIPLE A STATIONS IN DIARY MARKETS

WNCW [link] proves that small can be big. Licensed to tiny Isothermal Community College in Spindale, North Carolina (population 4,300), WNCW is a giant in Triple A music. Broadcasting from Clingman’s Peak (6,634’ above sea level), WNCW covers portions of five states.

In addition playing Triple A hits from today and times past, WNCW serves up a spicy gumbo of folk, blues, jazz, reggae, Celtic, and bluegrass. Artists often make the trip to Spindale to appear live on WNCW.

WNCW also has enviable private support.  According to the stations 2016 audit in FY 2016, WNCW had annual revenue of over $1.6 million. Underwriters provided $634,000 (40%) the station’s revenue.  Members kicked in another $570,000 (36%).

WXPN also has a significant number of estimated weekly listeners in two Diary markets outside of Philadelphia. WXPN had 245,400 weekly listeners in Philadelphia (measured with PPM methodology) in Fall 2017 for an unofficial total of 314,200 weekly listeners.

KJAC – 105.5 The Colorado Sound – also has a large base of listeners in the Denver-Boulder market. According to Nielsen’s PPM data for Fall 2017, KJAC had 59,000 estimated weekly listeners for an unofficial total of 83,100 weekly listeners in the two markets.

It is the same deal with Colorado Public Radio’s (CPR) KVOQ, a repeater in Fort Collins of CPR’s OpenAir Triple A format. In Denver OpenAir had 55,900 estimated weekly listeners, bringing total number in the two markets to 58,000.

IPR’S STUDIO ONE FORMAT TOPS LIST OF DUAL-FORMAT TRIPLE A STATIONS

Studio One is one of Iowa Public Radio’s (IPR) three programming streams in addition to full-time Classical and News/Talk formats.

Studio One benefits from being on two IPR’s most powerful signals, WOI-FM and KUNI.

Programming on Studio One is an amalgamation of NPR newsmagazines, syndicated shows such as World Cafe and UnderCurrents and local hosts. You can see Studio One’s schedule here.

KCRW has lots of listeners in Los Angeles' exurban area. Also, it is nice to see fiercely independent WFIT in Florida increase its estimate weekly listeners in the past year.

KCCK, CEDAR RAPIDS SHOWS THAT PROPERLY CURATED JAZZ MUSIC WINS IN MARKETS OF ALL SIZES

Question: How do they do it at KCCK in Cedar Rapids, Iowa?

Answer: Great Jazz music, fun events and a lot of love (and cash) from members.

KCCK [link] focused on Jazz over a decade ago to compete with multiple Iowa Public Radio signals. This is a niche format, but it does well in this Midwestern area. If you’ve seen the 2011 movie Cedar Rapids starring Ed Helms, John C. Reilly and Anne Heche, you might think of the town is as hip as a trip to Applebee’s. But you are wrong.

There are approximately 250,000 people in the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City metro. It is a diverse population who care about quality and take pride in KCCK’s unique contributions to the community.

According to KCCK’s FY 2015 audit, the station has about $1 million of annual revenue. Listeners that year contributed $259,000, 26% of KCCK’s revenue. Underwriting brought in $57,000 (6%).

One note of caution for the folks at KCCK, in FY 2015 the licensee (Kirkwood Community College) and the State of Iowa provide about half of the station’s revenue.

There is no doubt about it: KGOU's PD Jim Johnson has his mojo rising.

CLASSICAL MUSIC REMAINS STRONG IN DIARY MARKETS • MAINE CLASSICAL IS FASTEST GROWING CLASSICAL MUSIC STATION

Classical Music stations in Nielsen Audio Diary markets are demonstrating the staying power of the format. In the Fall 1017 sweeps, we tracked 25 stations or regional groups that air full-time music and ten dual-format stations that air Classical and NPR Newsmagazine. Then we compared the data to Fall 2016, one year ago during the height of election season.

FULL-TIME CLASSICAL: We had complete data for 23 stations/groups. Of the 23 stations, 12 (52%) increased their estimated weekly listeners over the past year.  Eleven full-time Classical stations (48%) had fewer weekly listeners. 

Total estimated weekly listeners to all full-time Classical stations was 1,030,000 in Fall 2017 compared with 937,100 in Fall 2016, a gain of 9%.

DUAL-FORMAT CLASSICAL & NPR NEWS: We had complete data for 9 stations/groups. Of the 9 stations, 9 (56%) increased their estimated weekly listeners over the past year while four (44%) had fewer weekly listeners.

Total estimated weekly listeners to dual-format stations was 711,100 in Fall 2017 compared with 703,000 in Fall 2016, a gain of 1%.

MAINE PUBLIC CLASSICAL WEEKLY LISTENERS WAS UP 61% IN FALL 2017

About two years ago Maine Public Broadcasting began building a network of full-time Classical music stations to serve the major population areas of the state.  

That investment has paid big dividends. 

According to the Nielsen Audio ratings, Maine Public Classical had 61% more weekly listeners in Fall 2017  than they did compa Fall 2016. Observers credit three factors for the increase: 

• A new station at 96.7 FM (WBQF) was added the format group in 2017
• Targeted promotion that created awareness of the new station
• The music and programming style sound terrific

FULL-TIME CLASSICAL STATIONS/GROUPS

The chart of the left contains the Top Ten stations/groups carrying full-time Classical music in Diary markets. 

KUSC, based in Los Angeles, has numerous weekly listeners in four exurban markets: Oxnard-Ventura, Santa Barbara, Palm Springs and San Luis Obispo.

Iowa Public Radio’s Classical stations grew solidly over the past year, up 16%.

Weekly listeners to Hawaii Public Radio’s Classical stations dropped a bit due to a reorganization of all HPR’s stations.

Vermont Public Radio’s Classical stations rose to what I beliieve is a record high.

In the next group give a shout out for WDPR in Dayton.  WDPR increased their estimated weekly listeners 20% between Fall 2016 and Fall 2017.

KCME in Colorado Springs and KBSU both out-perform their market size and had nice gains in their number of weekly listeners.

The final 5 are “works in progress.” WVTF in Roanoke did a major reorganization of their stations.  WVTF, which used to have a dual-format is now 24/7 News/Talk. 

Classical now has a smaller footprint. WWVT is now the flagship for the Classical stations using the name “WVTF Music.” This sounds like self-imposed confusion to me.

KUNR is Reno signed on KNJC as a full-time Classical station with a dab of Jazz.

DUAL-FORMAT NPR NEWS & CLASSICAL STATIONS/GROUPS

WCVE will no longer be a dual-format station in a few months. As we reported in January [link]. Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corp., the owner of WCVE TV and radio, opened the wallet in late December to purchase two commercial FM frequencies for $1,950,000. 

WCVE’s plan is the have focused formats 24/7 on each of the three stations. WCVE 89.1 FM wil switch to full-time news/talk programming. One of the new stations, 107.3, will begin airing Classical music 24/7. The other new station at 93.1 FM is slated to air full-time Jazz music. Following FCC approval of the deal (which is expected), the changes will happen in Spring 2018.

WBHM, Birmingham and North Country Public Radio based in Canton, New York also increase estimated weekly listeners by substantial amounts.

TODAY IS CHIEF ENGINEER DAY • CHIEF ENGINEER NEEDED AT A GREAT STATION IN THE HEARTLAND

As a former station manager and programmer I consider every day to be “Chief Engineer Day.” Specifically I am salute the engineers who are a “one man band” – the only tech at a station. The Chief Engineer (CE) is a vital part of your management and programming teams. If people can’t hear you, nothing else matters.

Unlike commercial radio, many public radio stations still have an engineer on staff, and I am glad they do. 

The responsibilities of the job continue to expand.   

Not only is the CE in charge of “RF” – the transmission of signals, today the CE is also working on streaming audio, reaching mobile devices and digital techniques for audio and video production.

Mike Starling

Mike Starling, former VP of Engineering at NPR and now CEO of the Public Data Consortium and GM of WHCP radio in Cambridge, Maryland, put it this was in an interview a couple of years ago:

"We have deep respect for scientific accuracy and rigor. We don't put our name on a report to the FCC unless we are convinced it's rock-solid. We believe inculcating a process of critical engineering analysis is both a means and an end, that it helps to spot inflection points in the marketplace.”

But, Starling knows the job still entails mundane tasks such as rebooting the manager’s hard drive and fixing a glitch in a microphone cable.

According to the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE), annual salaries for radio a radio Chief Engineers (with 10 years experience) range from $38,000 to the low $100,000s. The national average is around $59,500.

PUBLIC MEDIA ENGINEERS STICK TOGETHER

Another advantage of being an engineer in public radio is the robust support provided fellow techs from around the country. APRE [link], the Association of Public Radio Engineers provides networking opportunities, access to upgrading technical skills and resource sharing. http://www.apre.us/

APRE is holding the 2018 Public Radio Engineering Conference (PREC) at the Tuscany Suites in Las Vegas on April 5th and 6th, immediately preceding the annual NAB Show. More info about the PREC is available here.

JOIN THE PUBLIC RADIO ENGINEERING FAMILY IN WICHITA

If you, or someone you know is qualified to be a Chief Engineer, consider this gig at KMUW, Wichita, Kansas. We’ve written about KMUW [link] previously. It is an up-and-coming public media shop with solid management, a new facility and a real sense of purpose.

KMUW is currently searching for a new Director of Engineering. The current CE, Jon Cyphers, was recently hired by NPR. The person who is chosen will work closely with KMUW’s GM and Director of Content to plan the future of the station.

Primary duties include overseeing daily broadcasting and IT operations, keeping KMUW in the loop about changing technology and maintenance of the station’s newly built facilities. The salary is “commensurate with experience.”

KMUW broadcasts at 89.1 FM with 100,000-watts and antenna height over 900-feet above average terrain from an antenna farm northwest of Wichita. Given the relatively flat terrain, this signal is truly awesome.

For more information and application specs click here.