KEXP Boycott-Fire thieving CEO!!
Public Radio station management out of control!
Again.
But paying themselves well in the meantime.
Financial Crisis!
KEXP projects a shortfall of $72,000 for 2005.
Must cut budget and staff.
Paul Allen pulls out his billions and EMP support.
John in the Morning DJ makes $120,000?
And just happens to own a record label with KEXP Advisory Board President Peter (yes, those) Nordstrom.
That’s publicly-owned, non-commercial, community radio for you.
Did you see the article in The Weakly?
Cover story-sorry Stranger, but I hope you guys get on this story.
Nina Shapiro does a good job of getting the dissatified staff members to talk on the record.
How long are their jobs for this world?
Past history at the station would be telling them to pack up their Cd's.
www.seattleweekly.com/featur....over.php
And the Stranger did publish the best article on KEXP/KCMU's sordid history in Apr 12, 2001 issue. www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content
There are so many convoluted and underhanded dealings going on at the publicly-owned station (yeah, you own it, licensed by the UW), in fact it used to be a student and volunteer run station at the UW for 20 years called KCMU.
It went on the air in 1972.
It put local bands on the map.
First a little history: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KEXP-FM
In the late 80's a little cabal at the public/volunteer/low-rent station decided that it was time to get paid, get paid well, and for a long time.
Tom Mara (present CEO-salary $89,000, with controversial new self-imposed raise of another $20k), Don(Slack)Yates (present Music Director and former Station Mgr.) and former Station Manager Chris Knab (now instructor at Arts Institute) along with the already well-compensated Wayne Roth (head bureaucrat at UW-owned NPR Affiliate KUOW) all started working on a plan.
Problem number one: How to increase revenue so everybody could start getting paid.
Looking at commercial radio for clues, and these guys were always looking for some way to feed their music station runnin’ jones, they embarked on turning KCMU into a station that a lot more people would listen to, and support with their increased pledge dollars.
It seemed that turning the public-owned, volunteer-run, listener-supported station into something along more commercial lines would do the trick.
So they went and radically reinvented the music station that put Seattle’s music scene into the world's ears.
Gone was the highly rated Pacifica and local news (one hour a day total).
Most of the DJ’s and newscasters who complained were zealously barred from the station building.
DJ’s who questioned the moves on the air, including many well-loved 10-year veterans-were fired.
On came the schmaltzy, pre-recorded, easy-listening Worldcafe show.
Along came paid, everyday, drive-time professionals.
Music content was watered down, to not offend the greatest amount of listeners during pledge drives.
Salaried ad-sales, and development directors were now on the payroll.
And all the cabal boys started receiving a competitive radio salary for the first time.
The ensuing lawsuits, strikes, popular DJ firings led to many casualties, including Knab’s mental breakdown which lead to the end of his participation in the remodeling of the community station.
The station that rocked, became easy-listening worldbeat.
And that was just the start of it.
Many other controversies would ensue. CEO Mara has just been publicly exposed by his employees for giving himself $20,000 pay raises and losing hundreds of thousands of the listeners dollars on a meglamaniacal station deal. One that was not disclosed to the station’s asleep-at-the-switch Governing Board.
Listeners, staff and DJ’s are calling for the firings of Mara and Yates.
Please call, e-mail the station so more DJ's and staff don't get fired in retribution for this article.
Pledge not to pledge any more of your hard-earned dollars until these guys stop ripping you off.
www.kexp.org
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Below are more links to KEXP/KCMU history.
Google:
KCMU curse
www.google.com/search
to get the whole history from several sources.
DJ's Start getting paid 1996
"On Sep. 9th, KUOW/KCMU management announced at a staff meeting that KCMU would be firing its nonpaid weekday air staff and replacing them with paid DJs. In addition, the intent is to have all of KCMU's volunteers gone by the end of the fiscal year, and to hire a full-time ad sales person for KCMU (remember, this is non-commercial radio!)." eatthestate.org/01-03/EatT...irwaves.htm
www.washingtonfreepress.org/20/S....html
News goes
www.washingtonfreepress.org/22/KCMU.html
www.tabletnewspaper.com/old%.....cmu.htm
Paul Allen Seizes KCMU- Presto KEXP!
eatthestate.org/05-16/Paul...nSeizes.htm
Public Radio station management out of control!
Again.
But paying themselves well in the meantime.
Financial Crisis!
KEXP projects a shortfall of $72,000 for 2005.
Must cut budget and staff.
Paul Allen pulls out his billions and EMP support.
John in the Morning DJ makes $120,000?
And just happens to own a record label with KEXP Advisory Board President Peter (yes, those) Nordstrom.
That’s publicly-owned, non-commercial, community radio for you.
Did you see the article in The Weakly?
Cover story-sorry Stranger, but I hope you guys get on this story.
Nina Shapiro does a good job of getting the dissatified staff members to talk on the record.
How long are their jobs for this world?
Past history at the station would be telling them to pack up their Cd's.
www.seattleweekly.com/featur....over.php
And the Stranger did publish the best article on KEXP/KCMU's sordid history in Apr 12, 2001 issue. www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content
There are so many convoluted and underhanded dealings going on at the publicly-owned station (yeah, you own it, licensed by the UW), in fact it used to be a student and volunteer run station at the UW for 20 years called KCMU.
It went on the air in 1972.
It put local bands on the map.
First a little history: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KEXP-FM
In the late 80's a little cabal at the public/volunteer/low-rent station decided that it was time to get paid, get paid well, and for a long time.
Tom Mara (present CEO-salary $89,000, with controversial new self-imposed raise of another $20k), Don(Slack)Yates (present Music Director and former Station Mgr.) and former Station Manager Chris Knab (now instructor at Arts Institute) along with the already well-compensated Wayne Roth (head bureaucrat at UW-owned NPR Affiliate KUOW) all started working on a plan.
Problem number one: How to increase revenue so everybody could start getting paid.
Looking at commercial radio for clues, and these guys were always looking for some way to feed their music station runnin’ jones, they embarked on turning KCMU into a station that a lot more people would listen to, and support with their increased pledge dollars.
It seemed that turning the public-owned, volunteer-run, listener-supported station into something along more commercial lines would do the trick.
So they went and radically reinvented the music station that put Seattle’s music scene into the world's ears.
Gone was the highly rated Pacifica and local news (one hour a day total).
Most of the DJ’s and newscasters who complained were zealously barred from the station building.
DJ’s who questioned the moves on the air, including many well-loved 10-year veterans-were fired.
On came the schmaltzy, pre-recorded, easy-listening Worldcafe show.
Along came paid, everyday, drive-time professionals.
Music content was watered down, to not offend the greatest amount of listeners during pledge drives.
Salaried ad-sales, and development directors were now on the payroll.
And all the cabal boys started receiving a competitive radio salary for the first time.
The ensuing lawsuits, strikes, popular DJ firings led to many casualties, including Knab’s mental breakdown which lead to the end of his participation in the remodeling of the community station.
The station that rocked, became easy-listening worldbeat.
And that was just the start of it.
Many other controversies would ensue. CEO Mara has just been publicly exposed by his employees for giving himself $20,000 pay raises and losing hundreds of thousands of the listeners dollars on a meglamaniacal station deal. One that was not disclosed to the station’s asleep-at-the-switch Governing Board.
Listeners, staff and DJ’s are calling for the firings of Mara and Yates.
Please call, e-mail the station so more DJ's and staff don't get fired in retribution for this article.
Pledge not to pledge any more of your hard-earned dollars until these guys stop ripping you off.
www.kexp.org
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Below are more links to KEXP/KCMU history.
Google:
KCMU curse
www.google.com/search
to get the whole history from several sources.
DJ's Start getting paid 1996
"On Sep. 9th, KUOW/KCMU management announced at a staff meeting that KCMU would be firing its nonpaid weekday air staff and replacing them with paid DJs. In addition, the intent is to have all of KCMU's volunteers gone by the end of the fiscal year, and to hire a full-time ad sales person for KCMU (remember, this is non-commercial radio!)." eatthestate.org/01-03/EatT...irwaves.htm
www.washingtonfreepress.org/20/S....html
News goes
www.washingtonfreepress.org/22/KCMU.html
www.tabletnewspaper.com/old%.....cmu.htm
Paul Allen Seizes KCMU- Presto KEXP!
eatthestate.org/05-16/Paul...nSeizes.htm
-
Re: KEXP Boycott-Fire thieving CEO!!
Mon, December 12, 2005 - 3:45 PMI haven't read the weekly story yet, but I have a funny anecdote to share:
Friday night I went to see "Walk the Line" (which I quite enjoyed, btw) and saw the cover of The Weekly when I was heading into the bathroom. I even stopped to read the sub-title to the story, but was late getting to the theatre, so I didn't pick up a copy.
After the movie I ran into -- you're not going to believe this -- Tom Mara!
He seemed more sheepish than normal talking to me. (See, I volunteered at KCMU back in the day and watch he, Chris and especially Don) nearly run the station into the ground. They certainly disenfranchised all the volunteers, so he has some reason to be sheepish. But there was an extra degree of discomfort Friday night. I ~almost~ mentioned the story, but he pretty well bolted before I could. Dang, it would have been fun to watch him squirm -- even if it was honest curiousity that had prompted my question.
jg
