LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE DEMISE OF KUSP, SANTA CRUZ IN 2016

This post is from the Spark News archives. It first appeared on August 3, 2016.

The end had finally arrived at KUSP in Santa Cruz, California.   

On July 31, 2016 KUSP signed off the air, ending months of angst-filled in-fighting and years of mismanagement.

KUSP's Board President Matt Farrell, summed it up this way in KUSP's final press release:

“This decision reflects the reality of the station's financial situation; we simply cannot afford to broadcast any longer."

The shutdown came despite a last-minute effort to convert KUSP to an AAA “music discovery” format.  There simply was not enough time for the new format to establish itself.

According to a recent report by the Public Media Company (PMC), KUSP’s debts are over $860,000 and continue to grow every day.  KUSP has run out of money [quoting from the PMC report]:

“KUSP is financially broke. As of September 28, 2015, the unrestricted cash was zero. This is despite two substantial donations in the last fiscal year that totaled over $250,000.
”

By spring 2016. KUSP needed to raise $1.1 million.  They needed $350,000 as soon as possible just to stay on the air.

Between 2014 and summer 2016 Spark News had published over 40 articles dealing with KUSP’s impending doom.  When looking over those posts, it was obvious the end was near.

It is timely to look at lessons learned and we hope other stations don’t follow KUSP’S path to oblivion. 

WHAT WENT WRONG AT KUSP?

1. KUSP USED THE “PACIFICA METHOD” OF GOVERNANCE

Lorenzo Milam in 1972

KUSP was started by the Pataphysical Broadcasting Foundation, a 501c3 charity set up to create the station.  KUSP signed on in 1972. Pataphysical Broadcasting Foundation, and KUSP, were creations by Lorenzo Milam and engineer Jeremy Landsman. From the very start, KUSP was to “be run by The People.”

Pataphysical’s bylaws stipulated that in addition to Board members and management key volunteers and employees could nix any changes at the station. Operating the station became a nightmare because even “honorary members” had the right approve or deny changes. Instead of moving forward, KUSP was divided into factions playing out personal agendas. It was death by committee.

It was never clear when a vote required. Under California law, corporate bylaws determine the rules of the road, so KUSP was stuck in the mud. To the best of my knowledge, these bylaws are still in effect today.

2. THE LEADERSHIP OF KUSP DITHERED AWAY CHANCES TO TURN THE STATION AROUND

For most of its life, KUSP aired the major NPR News magazines, Pacifica shows such as Democracy Now!, plus a variety of local music and opinion programs. Then, In 2000, another station, KAZU in Pacific Grove began airing NPR News/Talk programming 24/7. From that point on, KUSP played second fiddle to KAZU.

After the rise of KAZU, KUSP became increasingly unsustainable. The red ink slowly increased and the station existed because of cash flow. Debts began to go unpaid. Management at KUSP got worried and decided to act.

In early 2015, Classical Public Radio Network (CPRN), the owners of KUSC, Los Angeles, and KDFC, San Francisco offered to buy KUSP for $1,000,000. KUSP turned down CPRN’s offer.

Board members came up with a new scheme to save KUSP.  Because of KUSP’s arcane system of governance, they needed the member’s concurrence to move forward.  They didn’t get it.

In summer 2015 KUSP seemed to get a lifeline. The Board announced it had received a gift of $100,000 from an anonymous donor. Soon the $100k was gone and KUSP still didn’t have a plan to deal with the rising red ink.

In September 2015, KUSP’s Board brought in Public Media Company (PMC) to assess the dire situation at the station and make recommendations. for the future. PMC’s advise was was “Get real or go out of business.”

In October 2015 KUSP switched to a fulltime AAA format.  The format might have worked but there wasn’t enough time and resources to make it happen. KUSP ended on July 31, 2016.

3. KUSP WAS MORE CONCERNED ABOUT “POLITICAL AND CULTURAL PURITY” THAN SERVING LISTENERS

Credit or blame KUSP’s co-founder Lorenzo Milam for the death of KUSP. Milam has been called the Johnny Appleseed of Community Radio because he inspired dozens, maybe hundreds, of independent community stations.

In 1972, Milam published Sex and Broadcasting, a primer about how to file an application for a new station with the FCC. At that time there were many unclaimed frequencies. We bought our copy of Sex and Broadcasting at a “headshop.” We saw it on a shelf next to High Times.

Milam was a “true believer, at least in his own mind.  He worked at Pacifica’s KPFA and founded KRAB-FM in Seattle in 1962. He also played a role in the founding of KBOO in Portland, KDNA in St. Louis, WYEP in Pittsburgh and many more.

Sex and Broadcasting became a bible of sorts for community stations.  Even now, some station managers still have a copy. It influenc”e many new community stations to adopt the “Pacifica Method” of governance and programming.

Milam was a visionary who exceled in concepts and theories.  But, he wasn’t good at running anything.  Folks sais he was a genius with poor people skills.

Here is a sample of the programming advice that Milam gave the founders of KUSP:

“KUSP is the sound of this life around us, in and around Santa Cruz, whatever is joyous, creative, dramatic -- that we want to find with our microphone, and by means of RadioMagick, send back to you, amplified and intense.” 

“[On KUSP] we want the sounds of dulcimers, flutes, bagpipes, guitars -- electric and acoustic, horns, violins, tom-toms... the sound of our musicians.”

Milam’s advice was useless. The people who ran KUSP over the years didn’t realize his advice was bullshit until it was too late.

ANDI MCDANIEL IS WBEZ’S NEW CEO • RANDI KIRSHBAUM “TERMINATED” IN PORTLAND

Andi McDaniel

Chicago Public Media  (CPM) has hired one of public media’s most innovative managers and content creators to be their new CEO: Andi McDaniel. 

She is moving to Chicago after spending almost five years as the Senior Director of Content and News at WAMU.

McDaniel is replacing former CEO Goli Sheikholeslami, who earlier this year became CEO of New York Public Radio. McDaniel starts her new gig at CPM in the fall.

She is a multi-platform content developer who is known for her innovation, audience engagement and enthusiasm for public media.

At CPM, McDaniel will oversee NPR News/Talk station WBEZ, Urban Alternative station Vocalo and CPM’s podcast division. She brings a wide skill-set to her new gig.

Prior to her work at WAMU, McDaniel was Director of Content Strategy and Innovation for four years at Twin Cities Public TV. She also has been a public radio news reporter in Alaska, a TV reporter for CBS television in San Francisco and a freelance writer and multimedia producer.

McDaniel received a master’s degree from UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism in 2009.

What impresses us the most about McDaniel is her love of radio and skills in video and audio communication. 

She is a self-starter. In 2010 she wrote and produced a series of 65 audio segments about Minnesota history for AMPERS, a collaboration of noncom stations that are not affiliated with Minnesota Public Radio. The modules aired on over 50 stations.

Steve Edwards, who has been serving as CPM’s interim CEO, said in a press release:

 “I couldn’t be more pleased by Andi’s selection as our next president and CEO. She’s the ideal person to lead our organization as we seek to create meaningful connections among younger, more diverse audiences across audio and digital platforms.”

PORTLAND PROGRAMMER & PROGRAM HOST RANDI KIRSHBAUM “LAID OFF” OVER COVID-19 CONCERNS

Randi Kirshbaum

An ugly incident is playing out this week in Portland, Maine. 

Saga Communications, a publicly traded media company that owns eight commercial radio stations in Portland, pushed Randi Kirshbaum off the deck after 36 years on the job.

Why are we reporting on commercial radio on our noncom news blog?  Because (#1) she is a long-time friend of ours; and (#2), She should be working in public media for the next chapter of her career.

Kirshbaum says she was fired. Saga said she was laid off. No matter what you call it, she is no longer working for Saga Communications.

Here are the facts of the incident, as we know them:

• Randi Kirshbaum was in charge of programming for the eight stations and was a program host on two of the station. She had been working for Saga for over three decades.

• When Covid-19 became a global crisis in March, Saga issued work-at-home orders for all employees including Kirshbaum.

• Last week Saga told its employees that they had to come back to the workplace as of Monday, May 18^th. 

Kirshbaum didn’t feel it was safe for her to return because her doctor had advised her that she had a medical condition that might endher life if she contracted the virus.

So, she didn't show up and that was the end of her job at Saga.

Like most of the country, Kirshbaum had been working from home for the past six weeks. She told Saga that she was willing to work from home, but Saga said “no.”

  

Saga said they have an agreement, signed by Kirshbaum, that says she would to return to work if/when Saga says “do it.”

Apparently Saga made no attempt to work things out with a long-term employee who had performed well in her job.

So, it appears that Kirshbaum was turfed was a cost-saving move to increase the value of Saga’s slumping stock. Now the story of her dismissal has become national news. 

For Kirshbaum, it was a choice between her job or her life.  What would you do?

We hope she looks for work in public media. We have known Randi since the early 1970s when we were both working at stations in Minneapolis. Back then, she was working as a program host at  legendary progressive rock station KQRS. We were working at KRSI, an upstart album rock station. We became friends and we followed each other's careers since then.

BIG CUTS IN FUNDING FOR “IOWA PUBLIC RADIO” MAY LEAD TO SALE OF FCC LICENSES

Earlier this week, Iowa Public Radio (IPR) learned it is losing $875,000 in annual revenue from the state’s university system. The money is around 10% of IPR’s budget.

The cuts were a surprise but they were not unexpected.

The change was made after the presidents of Iowa State University, the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa recommended to the state’s Board of Regents that they end direct funding for the three major stations that comprise IPR.

In April the Iowa legislature cut $187 million in funding for the three universities. The three schools passed the pain along to IPR. The changes were made, in part, because of revenue shortfalls due to closures made in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

IPR covers all of Iowa but they don’t have stations

in Sioux City or Council Bluffs/Omaha

At the Regents meeting, there was discussion of selling the three FCC licenses.,  or find a way to transfer ownership to IPR.

The Board wants the sale or transfer to happen to get the expense of operating the stations off their books.

This discussion has been going on for over 15 years. 

In 2004 two of the three stations had operating deficits. At that time, the three stations had different formats and there were not common goals.

Though the idea of “Iowa Public Radio” had been tossed around for years, it was advice from consultant Ron Bornstein that made IPR a reality.

We know this is all true because our parent company, ken Mills Agency, LLC, also was pursuing the Iowa consulting gig. 

Bornstein was chosen because his firm had close relations with CPB and they had proven success in consolidating stations

We have a copy of Bornstein’s final report in front of us right now. It is comprehensive, detailed and actionable plan. In the next year the Regents and school presidents  made the changes that Bornstein recommended. That is when Iowa Pyblic Radio was born.

Here are clipsfrom the report. Bornstein described the positives and negatives of stations in 2004:        

At the conclusion of the report, Bornstein recommended that the universities end their funding of the stations one step at a time.

WVMO & KXRN: TWO LPFM STATIONS THAT PROVIDE EXCELLENT PUBLIC SERVICE

In late March, Wisconsin governor Tony Evers announced that all nonessential businesses would close to help stop the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Like most places in America, thousands of residents in Madison found themselves working from home if they were lucky enough to still have a job.

For the volunteers at WVMO 98.7 FM in Manona, a suburb of Madison, this meant creating their shows from home. It turns out that many of the volunteers are learning new skills.

WVMO [link] provides the volunteers with remote broadcasting basics such as high quality USB microphones, tutorials on the audio editing software Audacity and how to use using Google Drive to share files. Some of the volunteers were already familiar with these devices and systems, but many were not.

Scott Collins

Scott Collins, the host of “Savage Radio,” needed help at the start. Will Nimmow, Director of Community Media for the City of Manona, WVMO’s licensee, described the process:

“Scott took a mic home that was provided by WVMO’s Friends group. He pushed himself to learn the Audacity software. He found that he can not only create new shows, he can now clean up old shows. So, this is one of those great learning, positive experiences from it all.”

Collins has volunteered at WVMO since November, 2015. He told local reporters about what he has learned:

“Since everything was new to me, I was very intimidated. But being at home did give me the time and space to practice with it, to become more comfortable with it. I began by re-editing old shows for rebroadcasting, and once I was able to get a microphone from the station, I was then able to make all new shows. I am still learning but it is fun.”

Meanwhile, WVMO might have something to celebrate in the near future. The Wisconsin Broadcasters Association (WBA) chose the station to be a finalist for WBA’s Large Market Music Radio Station of the Year. This means WVMO is competing against big commercial and public radio stations from Milwaukee and Madison.

The WBA awards will be presented in a “virtual ceremony” this coming Thursday (5/21) at 10:00am. For more information about WVMO check out our story - WVMO is Perfecting Literally Local -  from September 2017 [link].

KXRN SERVES LAGUNA BEACH WITH COVID-19 NEWS & FUN DISTRACTIONS

KXRN-LP, a/k/a KX FM,  is real gift for the people in and around Laguna Beach, California. 

The station in southern Orange County competes with Los Angeles commercial and public radio stations. 

KX FM [link[ does what those station can't or won't do by immersing itself into the information, arts, culture, events, and music of the community.

  

If you haven’t done so, check out KX FM’s website and social media pages. You will see that they have a real sense of purpose that is broader and deeper than most commercial and public radio stations anywhere.

KX FM strives to bring people together through real-time, live programming, local news, weather, traffic, and emergency preparedness. They are one of a handful of LPFM stations that CPB chose the station to receive a Community Service Grant.

KX FM creates on-air updates and podcasts with daily Covid-19 news including interviews with Laguna Beach mayor Bob Whalen, frequent local updates from the Laguna Beach police department and information from the Laguna Food Pantry. 

Message on KX FM’s landing page

KX FM is hosting #livefromhome ,fundraising shows for out-of-work musicians. 

Music is at the core of KX FM’s mission. The station believes that talented, under-recognized musicians deserve exposure.

The station is also dedicated to developing the talents of its on-air hosts, student interns, and special needs volunteers.

KX FM believes that their audience is witty, intelligent, and sophisticated in their musical taste. So, they aim to entertain at a level that exceeds that of commercial radio.

They make folks like us proud to be working in public media!

WGBH & PRX PRESENT YO-YO MA LIVE BROADCAST • NFCB ANNOUNCES FREE COVID-19 TRAINING SESSIONS FOR COMMUNITY STATIONS

YO-YO MA

Image Courtesy of WGBH

WGBH and PRX are collaborating to present a live public radio broadcast on Memorial Day weekend featuring acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma. PRX is making the special, one-time only, broadcast available to all affiliated stations for free.

The live event will happen this coming Sunday, May 24^th from 3:00pm to 5:30pm Eastern Time. Contact PRX for carriage details.

According to John Barth, Chief Content Officer at PRX, Yo-Yo Ma proposed this special performance both in memory of those we have lost during the pandemic and as a tribute to those who are on the front lines. 

The 2.5-hour program program will be performed live in the WGBH studios. The host for the concert broadcast is Brian McCreath from WGBH’s sister station WCRB. McCreath is host of the Boston Symphony Orchestra broadcasts and producer/host of The Bach Hour.

Yo-Yo Ma will treat audiences to the six Bach Suites for unaccompanied cello. The selections are part of Yo-Yo Ma’s ongoing Exploring How Culture Connects Us tour that will take him to 36 locations on six continents. The tour is scheduled to resume in September in Paris, followed by shows in Okinawa, Rio de Janeiro and Istanbul.

NFCB OFFERS FREE TRAINING SESSIONS FOR COMMUNITY MEDIA JOURNALISTS

The National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB) presents “Learning Skills, Surviving the Crisis,” a series of five training sessions beginning June 3, 2020. There will be a new session each week through July 1^st.

You can see more information and the complete list of the training sessions here.

The sessions are being conducted via Zoom. Each one features industry pros from the Center for Community Media, part of the NewmarkGraduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York  (CUNY).

The Center for Community Media has specifically designed the training to provide leadership tools and techniques to keep employees and volunteers organized. The sessions may be of particular interest for community media journalists, managers, content creators and programmers.

“Learning Skills, Surviving the Crisis” sessions are free for NFCB members and folks from other public media outlets. “Virtual seating space” is limited, so act now if you want to participate.

Emma Carew Grovum

The first session features skills training by Emma Carew Grovum. 

She will discuss leadership culture, project development and problem solving.  

Carew Grovum has done training for organizations such as The Daily Beast, The New York Times and Foreign Policy magazine.