"Why I Resigned," by Frances Koncilja.

I love public radio! Of all of the boards and committees on which I was asked to serve, the Board of Colorado Public Radio excited me the most. In fact, I was so excited, I made a commitment to contribute $75,000 to CPR ($62,500 of the pledge is paid.) But after four years of service, it was clear to me that current management cannot deliver local news or local culture, even though the Board committed $500,000 a year to the "KCFR News Initiative."

That resolution was adopted on June 22,2005. So, where is KCFR over two years later? Is there much new content besides promotions about new content? Is there new content during the morning and evening drive times? No. Just recycled pieces of Colorado Matters, the weather, and some "rip-and-read" from the Associated Press wire service. I do not think such a paltry bit of content is worth the expenditure. And, I do not think that current management is using donors' dollars responsibly.

Rather than deal with these problems, and a couple of others, board and management (President and Ex-Offico member of the Board Max Wysick, Board Chair Barry Curtriss-Lusher, Vice Chairs Virginia Berkeley of Colorado Business Bank, and Ron Cooper) decided to embark on a board governance process. I am a lawyer, and I love process as much as anyone, but only if it has a purpose. Even though we spent thousands of dollars on a consultant (Bill Charney of Charney Associates), they would not tell me how much; and even though the Board spent hours upon hours on the process, the result was such a debacle that it was withdrawn in June 2007 (I will give you more details on that later).

As my friend Judge Monroe McKay, former Chief Judge of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals used to say, "Just because they put honey and butter on a horse biscuit, does not mean you have to eat it." I got tired of being forced to eat the horse biscuits, so I decided to go public to let you know what is going on, and to give support to the current Board Members who have reservations about all of this.