Organizer: Larry Halpern
Email:  kaluna66@earthlink.net
Voice:  (937) 328-5282
Website: www.keepwysolocal.org

ACTIVITIES

Notes on the meeting with Nan Rubin
Sunday, April 18, 2004

Approximately 8 folks met with Nan Rubin on Sunday at 1:30 in the YS Senior Center. We introduced ourselves, told what we did "in life" and shared some concerns about WYSO. Then Nan took over. For those of you who have never listened to Nan, I must say she is one of the most articulate, no-nonsense speakers I've ever heard. She cut to the chase and gave a very thorough report on the state of the task force to date. Here are some notes I took:

*8 people have been appointed to the Task Force so far. A couple more might be added, but Nan doesn't want it to get too big. Nan is co-chairing with David Cripins, whom I believe she said is on the Antioch Bd. of Trustees. "Our man" on the TF is Dr. Robert Grubbs. An excellent choice, thank you, Bob. Nan told us who these people were and every one has impressive credentials.

*Nan verified that the Resource Board was not functioning and needs to be restructured. She says it will go into hiatus while the TF does their work, as the TF will examine the RB and see how it needs to change.

*The Task Force will create a "briefing book." This will include:
-a program schedule
-audience stats from the last 4 Arbitrons
-underwriting stats
-membership stats over the last two years
-budget details
-Board of Trustees reports from Spencer fo the last year or two
-map of signal area
-a paper prepared by Nan on "Trends in Public Radio" to see what Spencer
may have been trying to emulate
-local economics/demographics in the region
-major issues (political and cultural) in the Miami Valley
-the resolution from the Bd. of Trustees that created the RB originally
-a check list on what should be in the public inspection file for the
station (she reminded us their license is up for renewal in Oct. '04 and
that file needs to be in order)
-a history of WYSO being prepared by an Antioch student
-an "alphabet soup" of acronyms associated with radio (NPR, PRI, OPB,
etc.). Nan will prepare.

This "briefing book" will be a core document in guiding the task force.

*Nan will go over programming contracts to see what WYSO is actually subscribing to...some shows have been bundled, some purchased individually, etc. She wants to sort all that out.

*She wants detailed budget info from the station. As with all this information, she wants and expects an open, honest line of communication with Joe Colvin, Tattan, et. al. It's a direct charge from the Board of Trustees that this information be honestly shared. She does not want an adversarial relationship with the current staff of WYSO; it's in everyone's best interest to be honest and cooperate. If some staff feel they can't go along with this, then....maybe it's time to leave. Glenn Watts appears to be out of all loops on this.

*By May, the TF would like to have at least one meeting [these folks are coming from a wide geographical area], a town hall in the Miami Valley to solicit listener input, and have the briefing book done.

Nan had to leave at 4:00 to head for the airport.

Again, I was most impressed by her sincerity, cut-to-the-chase attitude, and leadership facilitation skills. This Task Force appears the best chance yet at setting the stage to turn around WYSO. Clearly it's a NBC (No-Bullshit Committee!)

Notes prepared by Pam Conine

 

Battle of Yellow Springs
Spencer boosted audience, ignited firestorm, is gone

Originally published in Current, Feb. 9, 2004
By Mike Janssen

Steve Spencer resigned last month as g.m. of WYSO-FM, ending a five-year tenure marked by substantial audience growth as well as strained relations with employees and listeners.

Antioch University, licensee of the Yellow Springs, Ohio, station, said in a Jan. 30 [2004] news release that Spencer left to pursue other interests. But Spencer acknowledged he left partly because of a pressure campaign waged against him and the station by listener-activists. The conflict garnered extensive media coverage and at times echoed the struggle that sundered the Pacifica radio network for years.

Spencer’s cancellation of volunteer-hosted music shows in 2002 spawned Keep WYSO Local, a local protest campaign that continues to this day. His predecessor, Norm Beeker, left under similar circumstances after trying to cancel Pacifica Network News.

WYSO, which serves the Dayton area, also suffered internal conflict. A string of recent staff departures left it with just five full-time employees, down from a peak of 10. Some former WYSO staffers told local media and Current that they left the station due in part to Spencer’s management style.

After Spencer’s departure, Antioch appointed Joe Colvin, a longtime volunteer and WYSO board member, as interim g.m.

Antioch Chancellor Jim Craiglow said in the release he will appoint a small group to help WYSO’s oversight board plan the station’s future. His other priorities included “stabilizing the management of the station and providing a collaborative and productive work environment for employees and volunteers.”

Audience up two-thirds, but ...

Spencer expressed pride in his work at WYSO. During his tenure, the station’s cume rose from around 34,000 to a peak of 57,000 last summer, he said. Other audience figures climbed steadily and fundraisers set records, he added. He also helped launch WYSO Weekend, a two-hour weekend program that mixed local, national and international programming.

He credits the audience growth in part to his decision two years ago to end some long-running shows hosted by volunteers. Locally produced programs featuring jazz, Adult Album Alternative and other kinds of music gave way to World Cafe and nationally distributed triple-A shows. Spencer said streamlining the station’s format boosted audience and loyalty.

But some listeners charged Spencer with compromising the locally produced radio that they said served a diverse audience and upheld Antioch’s progressive traditions. They mounted marches, an online campaign and an “alternative” fund drive under the banner Keep WYSO Local. The group garnered frequent media attention and claimed to have diverted $34,000 in pledges from the station.

Former WYSO employees lamented the change in programming. Julia Sizemore, a development staffer from 1999 to 2001, said friends and neighbors have told her, “It
doesn’t sound like my station any more.”

Spencer says simply being local is not enough, especially if the host mainly spins CDs. Stations need to distinguish themselves from other services available from satellite radio, the Internet and other sources, he said.
Ryan Warner, who hosted WYSO’s Morning Edition until leaving in January, defended Spencer as “forward-looking.” “I think sometimes that he thinks so far ahead and has such a vision that people mired in the present day, and in the past and what they see as the glory days of public broadcasting, react viscerally,” Warner said.

The local press also bought into the revolt against Spencer, says Cleve Callison, g.m. of WMUB in Oxford, Ohio. He wrote to colleagues that the local Dayton Daily News “virtually abandoned any pretext of journalistic objectivity” in reporting on the changes. A reporter for another local paper, the Yellow Springs News, wrote an editorial advocating Spencer’s dismissal, even as she covered the controversy.

Superheated conflict

Earlier schedule changes at WYSO also had a wrenching effect on Yellow Springs. The small town is home to a liberal, politically active population that takes the “public” in “public radio” very seriously — much like the activists who waged a successful battle of attrition against Pacifica’s previous administration.

“Honest to God, I think that literally half the town, if not more, listens to the station,” said Anne Williams, a former employee now at WNRN-FM in Charlottesville, Va.

Beeker removed Pacifica Network News several years ago on the advice of consultants. Audience backlash prompted Antioch to reinstate Pacifica, and Beeker resigned. (Spencer later removed the Pacifica newscast with no repercussions.)
Williams values local programming but regrets the university politics that she says have hamstrung WYSO. Antioch officials have previously expressed support for Spencer and his decisions. Chancellor Jim Craiglow and Vice Chancellor Glenn Watts, Spencer’s supervisor, were out of town last week. An Antioch employee said they were unable to comment for this story.

In recent months the hubbub over programming was joined by former employees who accused Spencer of setting a combative tone at the station, a charge he denies. Six staffers who left WYSO say his management hastened their decisions.
In November, the station lost Vick Mickunas, one of its most popular hosts and a successful pledge drive fundraiser. Mickunas claimed an argument with Spencer led to his departure, which came after the university suspended him for insubordination, he said, and set conditions for his return that he refused.

Vice Chancellor Watts, however, contested Mickunas’ story. “Although Vick and Steve have had disagreements in the past, the suspension was largely due to other events,” Watts wrote in an e-mail to WYSO staff. Joe Rother, a former chief engineer at WYSO, provided the e-mail to Current.

Mickunas, who worked at WYSO for 10 years, says “threat and intimidation” typified Spencer’s management. He joined colleagues in submitting a letter to WYSO’s oversight board in 2002, accusing Spencer of acting “in a fashion which we believe to be unprofessional and personally offensive” and hurting the station’s morale. Board member Char Miller later took the letter public.
Former News Director Aileen LeBlanc, a co-signer of the letter, told Current that Spencer granted her autonomy at her work, allowing her to produce the best work of her career before she left in 2002. But she said Spencer also subjected his staff to “ranting and screaming fits.”

Warner, the former Morning Edition host, said Spencer raised his voice at times, but no more than anyone else might. “To portray him as some sort of bellicose figure is just completely inaccurate,” he said.

Spencer defended his management and said he gave staffers the freedom essential for good work.

“I think that these are just situations that occur in our industry where there are individuals who maybe don’t want to accept a certain change or feel the need to demonize,”
he said.