Cacophony Public Radio

Radio is an intimate medium, say the fundraising tools at Colorado Public Radio around pledge time. They say a lot of stupid, syrypy shit like that about the sound of radio when they want your money. It's a fantastically subjective statement; one with which you may rightly agree or disagree. Of course if you agree with it and fall prey to its persuasive effect, then you'll probably feel guilted into donating to CPR. If you are like me, you just shake it off, turn the dial, and donate -- if you want, when you want -- to whatever public radio station that actually sounds intimate, if that's what you like. Me? I like substance. You? You may have many good reasons to subscribe to Colorado Public Radio, but I'd bet that intimacy surely isn't one of them -- at least not the type of intimacy you get during Morning Edition.

Case in point. If you ever listened to KCFR News during Morning Edition, you have probably heard the cacophony of voices at around :19 minutes past the hour. This is a time, an opportunity for local stations, to break away from NPR news in order to provide local radio content. Or in KCFR's case, to inject message after message, from disparate voice after disparate voice. Listen to this 3 minutes and 10 seconds of audio from 7:19 a.m. to 7:22 a.m. from Colorado Public Radio's Morning Edition for Monday, July 28th. This is what you will hear; 9 intimate voices; with two repeats. Enjoy!

1. Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson (NPR News Foreign Correspondent, Afghanistan) finishes her report.
   
2. Renee Montagne (NPR Morning Edition News Host, NPR West) segues out of Nelson's story.
3. Bob Lafley (KCFR News Host) reads a news promo for an upcoming KCFR story.
   
4. Mike Lamp (KCFR News Host) reads an underwriting spot.
   
5. Charley Samson (Host and Executive Producer of Colorado Spotlight on KVOD) reads an underwriting spot.
6. Anna Panoka (KCFR News Host) introduces and re-brands a documentary for KCFR Showcase that Colorado Public Radio never produced (see 7 and 8 below).
   
7. David Dunaway mentions Pete Seeger and Public Radio International in his promotion about the documentary produced by David Dunaway and distributed by PRI, not KCFR (see 6 above and 8 below).
   
8. Anna Panoka (KCFR News Host) re-promotes the documentary and mentions that KCFR is now on "crystal clear signal on 90.1-FM" (see 6 and 7 above).
   
9. Bob Lafley (KCFR News Host) reads a KCFR weather spot, returning CPR back to NPR.
   
10. Deborah Amos (NPR Foreign Correspondent filling in as Morning Edition News Host) introduces a report for David Schaper.
    
11. David Schaper (NPR Reporter, Chicago Bureau) reports from Chicago.

Where to begin! First of all, this SOUND BRILLIANCE is brought to you through the miracle of automation and preproduction. NPR prerecords its stories overnight. Then, NPR Hosts inject their bit of magic in between the stories; you know, banter, clever intros and outros, and of course, insipid transitions between stories to tie the really big show together. Then, NPR feeds the show to member stations over satellite and/or the internet.

Days and weeks before the day's Morning Edition broadcast, every one of CPR's on-air hosts record underwriting and promotion spots to sprinkle throughout the KCFR and KVOD broadcasts. Unlike National Public Radio however, CPR cannot seem to learn that a single voice (Frank Tavares, if you didn't know) prerecording almost all of the NPR underwriting spots sounds a lot smoother than 5-7 different people doing it.

If that isn't enough of a chorus, KCFR adds more disparate voices by re-working promotions for other public radio shows to make it sound like KCFR produces more content than it actually does (KCFR Showcase). CPR calls this "re-purposing," which actually means recycling others' work and making it your own. Sounds like stealing to me. Like watching the credits roll in a movie with 10 different producers, directors, distributors and movie studios, it makes your head spin trying to figure out who actually did what to bring you the news. Why don't they just keep it simple; "A Colorado Public Radio Joint," a la Spike Lee?

If that isn't enough, Colorado Public Radio has to make a blatantly false statement about "crystal clear 90.1-FM." Last time I checked, analog radio isn't crystal anything! Sure, KCFR News on 90.1-FM may be a lot clearer than it was on 1340-AM, but please! The digital stream from KCFR is a lot clearer than FM radio, setting aside all the noticeable clicks and pops I hear when streaming their highly compressed, lo-fidelity 32 kbps sound. Maybe this is CPR's oblique reference to HD radio, if so then just say it for chrissakes. By the way, have you noticed that KCFR News on 90.1-FM isn't even broadcast in stereo? Also notice that KCFR stopped saying 1490-AM and the KCFC call letters for Boulder entirely. Guess they don't want you to know that 1490-AM isn't that clear -- crystal, that is. Sounds like an FCC violation to me, but what do I know?

Finally, after nearly 2 minutes of solid soap-selling, KCFR News gives you some actual news content -- a weather forecast that is hours old. Notice how Colorado Public Radio NEVER reads the current weather conditions? They won't do it because they can't do it. Automation is running the show, and it never sounds more obvious than at around :19 minutes past the hour during mornings on Monday through Friday. If radio is really an intimate medium, then the boffins at Colorado Public Radio are geniuses at making it sound completely distant -- like a crowded cacophony of crap. Or, how about just plain PHONY!

Author Craig Childs on KAFM

CORRECTION: Craig Childs will appear at KAFM, not KVNF as previously reported. Please find a link to the event here. Many thanks to Ryan for correcting our error. Colorado Public Radio Blog regrets the error.



Craig Childs will be at the Western Slope's KAFM Radio Room on Wednesday, July 30th, at 7:00 p.m. to speak about his river trip to Tibet and the January article he published about it in Men's Journal. A $5 donation is suggested for these events and seats are on a first come, first served basis. To reserve your seats by phone to any of these events, call: 970-241-8801 ext. 3.

Here is a list of Childs' interviews with commentaries for NPR. And, here is a list of Craig's books from Amazon.Com.

Craig Childs has also appeared severally on Colorado Matters, KCFR News' daily interview show heard on Colorado Public Radio.

Train Story Train WRECK!

You gotta love the irony! Or is it coincidence? I get those two words mixed up, since Alanis Morisette confused everyone with her song Ironic in 1996. Let's just call it a situational irony, or perhaps (my personal favorite) a viciously-funny coincidence.

Anyway . . . on Tuesday, July 22nd, during NPR's All Things Considered, Colorado Public Radio's KCFR News gave its statewide listeners a real Two for Tuesday. However in this case, the "two for" was a back-to-back, double-shot of an interview with KCFR's Mike Lamp and Cal Marsella; the General Manager of Denver's Regional Transportation District, referred to as RTD-Denver. You can hear the on-air train wreck here (until next Tuesday, July 29th), from the 2-hour stream that Colorado Public Radio rips from its on-air broadcast.

At around 45 minutes past the hour (hard to tell because the stream's timing is screwed up), KCFR News Host Anna Panoka introduces the RTD story, just after NPR finishes its regular segment. Then Mike Lamp interviews Cal Marsella for around 7 minutes and 30 seconds, at which point KCFR runs a series of: (a) call-letter promos mixed with weather, (b) an underwriting spot, followed by (c) more promos, and (d) a testimonial from a paying underwriting client. Then after all of that jerking off, KCFR runs the entire interview -- AGAIN!

Since the story ran so long -- the second time -- KCFR News cut into its regular programming at the end of the story: (a) a promo for Talk of the Nation, and finally (b) a cut into NPR's top of the hour news. In the meantime, Colorado Public Radio missed their FCC-mandated station identification, just BEFORE the top of the hour, because they were so busy crashing into NPR news headlines, which had already started just past 5:00 p.m. You see, NPR news headlines are broadcast LIVE -- unlike all of KCFR's programming, which is entirely AUTOMATED.

Of course, we all like automation, for what WOULD we do without all of our machines? But when it comes to radio -- an intimate medium, as described by CPR during its heavily-produced fundraising segments during drive time-- most people don't actually see the wizard behind the curtain. Technical difficulties, like CPR's yesterday, raise the curtain -- and the issue -- in great relief, and in obvious ways that repetitious (and dated) Denver-area weather spots heard in Grand Junction, Colorado and Pueblo, Colorado do not.

A wise man once told me that the best tool to gauge the current weather was "with an open window." As an extension of that, I might suggest that the best tool to gauge on-air radio content is "with an open set of ears." But when an automated station is on the air, it is essentially on autopilot. Ears? Hello? What did you say? Please stand by . . .

Speaking of pop singers (with bad ears), there is a fantastic Pete Townshend song which is particularly à propos to describe Colorado Public Radio's functional (and structural) dilemma. The song is entitled "Crashing by Design."

Nothing must pass this line
Unless it is well defined
You just have to be resigned
You're crashing by design

I couldn't have said it better myself. Thanks to DenverDXer of DenverRadio.Net for bringing this story to CPRB. You can find the original post here, in the Comments & Rumors section.

CPRB Bonus Audio File: Listen to the 1 minute and 12 second technical difficulty here. It doesn't sound bad, but remember -- this technical glitch happened after 7+ minutes of a just-repeated news story, which plowed through a station identification, on live radio, during drive time -- at 5:00 p.m! Does anyone at the station listen to the actual content? If not, then why do they expect us to listen -- and subscribe? By the way, what time do CPR employees leave the station anyway? Maybe someone should drive down to Centennial, Colorado -- with an open set of eyes -- to check. Let us know what you find out.

Colorado Public Redundancy

Here is another complaint from The Daily Camera regarding Colorado Public Radio's move of KVOD to 88.1-FM in Denver. Roger Cichorz, a KVOD listener, asks some important questions regarding the downgrade of KVOD. CPR celebrated -- and to some degree, warned about -- the move "back to FM." But if 1490-AM is still on the air (it is), carrying NPR news in northern Colorado including Boulder, and if 90.1-FM covers both Denver and Boulder, then there seems to be an overage of KCFR news coverage while there are enormous gaps KVOD classical music coverage. As a matter of fact, you can now get NPR news from Centennial-based, Colorado Public Radio on three different and over-lapping stations in the north metro area: 1340-AM, 1490-AM and on 90.1-FM. Sounds like Colorado Public Redundancy to me.

In the immortal words of CPR President Max Wycisk, more public radio IS better for everyone -- especially when part of CPR's mission is to blast KUNC listeners with KCFR's competing content from National Public Radio throughout northern Colorado. It sounds to me like CPR knows exactly what it is doing -- LITERALLY!

NPR Board Election Results

National Public Radio released the results of its Board of Directors Election on July 9th, and Colorado Public Radio Blog received the results on Friday, July 18th. As CPRB Readers know, Max Wycisk, President of Colorado Public Radio threw his hat in the ring during this round, but his own peers (or as NPR refers to them, authorized representatives), who make up voting constituents from public radio rejected him (1 station, 1 vote). As you can see from the results below, Member Station diversity is spread geographically. This year; however, was not Max Wycisk's year to represent the Rocky Mountain Region. Perhaps because he COMPLETELY LACKS DIVERSE EXPERIENCE.

The current NPR Board of Directors consists of 16 members: 10 of whom are General Managers, Presidents, CEOs, etc., of NPR Member Stations; The Chair of the NPR Foundation; and 5 prominent members of the public. Staggered elections for new Board Members are held every year, and Board Members serve 3-year terms. This board-member distribution and ratio goes back several years, to a time when Member Stations bailed out NPR during a financial crisis in 1983, and subsequently demanded a stronger say in the strategic guidance of the network. In short, NPR Board Membership is about power -- about the leadership and management of the network in general, and about the network's relationship to Member Stations, specifically.

From some of our previous posts, it is the opinion of Colorado Public Radio Blog authors that Max Wycisk lacks the ability to represent Member Stations nationally on the NPR Board, BECAUSE his past history shows that he lacks the fundamental skills necessary to deal openly and ethically -- to deal publicly -- with NPR and non-NPR radio stations within the State of Colorado. For their own reasons, it appears that Member Station Authorized Representatives -- the Member Stations -- agree.

While CPR membership on the NPR Board potentially gives Colorado a higher profile at National Public Radio and in public radio affairs, it's better for our state to have creative, open-minded representatives in place to guide public radio during flattening times -- irrespective of region, state, or station affiliation. Public radio in America needs true creative visionaries to guide this medium into the future if it is to survive -- if it is to thrive. We think people like Max Wycisk represent public radio's past -- a past to which public radio should rightly look back, but also to a past which public radio can ill afford to move back.

JJJ

*****

NPR Board Election Results
July 9, 2008

To: AREPs
From: Joyce Slocum, NPR Secretary
Michelle Shanahan, NPR Assistant Secretary
Re: NPR Board Election Results

We are pleased to report the results of the balloting for the election of four Member Directors to the NPR Board of Directors, as well as the confirmation of three Public Directors, and the ratification of one Non-Board Distribution/Interconnection Committee Member.

The following candidates were elected as Member Directors of NPR, with terms beginning in November 2008:

1. Steve Bass, KOPB-FM, Portland, OR
   
2. Jon McTaggart, KSJN-FM, Minneapolis, MN
   
3. Marita Rivero, WGBH-FM, Boston, MA
   
4. Roger Sarrow, WAFE-FM, Charlotte, NC

In addition, voters confirmed the Board’s election of the following Public Directors:

1. John Herrmann
2. Lyle Logan
3. Howard Stevenson

On a separate ballot, PRSS representatives ratified the Board’s election of Loris Ann Taylor as a Non-Board D/I Committee Member.

Thank you to all of the candidates who sought to serve in the Member Director positions. NPR is honored to have had such a strong slate of candidates willing to serve as Member Directors. Thank you also to all of the Authorized Representatives who exercised their membership rights by voting in this election.

Damn Right It's Flat Out There!

Many of you have heard about the erosion of the middle class in this country; the rich get richer and the ranks of the poor and working poor continue to grow. It's that way in the public radio universe, too.Yes, Jimmy James Jr., The Public Radio World Is Flat!

CPR – Colorado Potemkin Radio

Take news content as an example; where today public stations have to play smart with the limited number of people they have on staff who produce relevant news and information. The exception to this numbers game in Colorado is found at Colorado Public Radio (CPR), which has more than a dozen people working for its news department. Smaller stations throughout the state would do very well covering their worlds with just a handful of such people. How CPR management allocates its talent is another story.

NPR – The CNN of Radio

The public radio news system as a whole is wanting -- wanting new blood, new ideas, new paradigms for a whole new generation of un-served and under-served listeners.Like the nation's distribution of wealth, there is a top-heavy layer of bureaucracy at National Public Radio, (NPR) filled with sometimes self-important Senior News Producers, Editors, and Hosts, who are VERY comfortable. After them, the talent gap drops off the table or it isn't widely seen or heard. Aside from basic egomania and established people clamoring at the top, there are several reasons why public radio news has become so anemic. One of the reasons lies squarely at the doorstep of a public radio icon.

If you draw a line from the 1970's to today, you will see a steady decline in the number of mid-level producers at public radio stations. Over the years, they have been the people who worked tirelessly to produce local and regional news, interviews, and feature material -- some of which may make its way onto an NPR news program (although not nearly as often as 20 or 30 years ago). The decline in the number of people churning out such material started in 1983, when (then) NPR News Director Robert Siegel dramatically shifted the emphasis, with NPR's limited budget, toward the BBC for international news, while building up a roster of NPR staff who served as regional reporters, based in various U.S. cities across the land.

The NPR Acquisitions Unit – Cultivating Local Flavor and Regional Creativity

While this may have seemed to be a solid strategy, left in the dust was something known as the NPR Acquisitions Unit, which contained hard-working editors who worked tirelessly with mid-level producers from hundreds of public stations across the country. The results were mixed, but the less polished (and less expensive) reports gave shows like All Things Considered a unique flavor, capturing life from region to region. Compared to now, more reporters participated then -- some of them with a regional sound to their voices. They filed reports on topics from the serious to the sublime. NPR news programs contained a smörgåsbord of Americana, along with hard news events and issues. When the NPR Acquisitions Unit was watered down, in favor of building a more professional sound, something very basic and essential was gone; and fewer and fewer people embraced work as mid-level producers.

The other big shift which brought about the flattening of the public radio universe came in 1981, when the Reagan Administration's Budget Director David Stockman vowed to zero-out funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). This enormous shockwave felt throughout the system still resonates today. Every time you listen to something on public radio that rings of predictability and playing-it-safe, you can trace that tendency back to the shockwave. When David Stockman spoke his poison, too many public radio managers panicked. And they leaned heavily on self-appointed radio research gurus who preached playing it safe with focus group research as more than just a guiding tool. Risk-taking is forbidden in their culture. It is a mindset that, if Garrison Keillor were to attempt to start A Prairie Home Companion today, wouldn't get to first base.

Avant-garde Radio Theater

On a note other than news, 1981 also signaled the end of something else: good radio theater and widely distributed satire for radio. It was the year that the last two significant radio theater productions aired: the radio versions of Star Wars, and the unparalleled Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (which dwarfs the TV and movie versions of same). Both shows were in the pipeline before David Stockman spoke, and nothing has come from that side of good public radio since.

It's time for a rekindling. But even that may not be enough to win back the college-aged generation walking amongst us; already glued to their I-pods and who consider public ALL radio irrelevant – not just public radio. The public radio system as a whole has only itself to blame for so much complacency; and whether or not we can un-flatten this mess is anyone's guess.

An Essay by First Responder

The Public Radio World is Flat

Thomas Friedman, The New York Times’ resident imbecile (sorry, Pulitzer Price Award Winning imbecile) wrote an idiotic tome some years back entitled The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, which (to my dismay) met with critical acclaim. As he made the rounds on all the popular public broadcasting outlets, I listened in horror as this charlatan spoke about fuzzy concepts he called "flatiners." Matt Tiabbi, of Rolling Stone Magazine (among others), and author of Spanking the Donkey: Dispatches from the Dumb Season, soundly panned Friedman's book in this review at New York Press, and vindicated my point of view that TF (aka THAT Fu*ker) has fallen as far over the edge as the cover of his collection of recent, worldly musings would suggest.

In today's online version of Current, the public broadcasting trade magazine, Dana Davis Rehm, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Partnerships for National Public Radio gives her pep talk about how NPR and Member Stations will stem the tide of its own media and membership flattening (a Friedman-esque mixed metaphor). Audience numbers have leveled -- have been flattening for some time. Subscriber contributions are down -- have been leveling for some time. Read her prescriptions, and decide for yourself what you think about her solutions and your own local public radio stations. Can you guess what will happen next?

The fact is that NPR and many public radio stations have been privy to this information -- declining audience -- for some time. They saw the trends more than 5 years ago, but most member stations did very little about it -- except buy and observe the data. But, short of another major nation-wide or world-wide disaster, NPR's audience will continue to shrink, as it (quite literally) dies off. Recent cuts and draw-downs at large, financially sound public radio stations and networks are real. Minnesota Public Radio predicts staff cuts, and WBEZ in Chicago recently dropped 2 local shows it produces. And yesterday, NPR announced that it was dropping the Bryant Park Project, a $2-million show (experiment) aimed specifically at a younger audience demographic.

And what is the strategic plan for NPR and its member stations? Rely upon you -- the subscriber. Once again, NPR and Member Stations will continue to balance the books on the backs of individuals, at a time when individuals have fewer dollars to spend. They know that you will feel guilty enough to do the right thing. So, just do it!

Simultaneously, strong member stations and networks will start to "partner" with weaker ones. That means Member Station consolidation; mergers and acquisitions. Non-profit language is so chicken shit. This isn't a "partnership." It is survival of the fittest. The "more public radio is better for everyone" maxim was as horse shit when I first heard it years ago as it is today. More is always better for everyone, so long as the pie is getting bigger. The pie is shrinking. The world is flat. Oh yeah, and guys like Tom Friedman are freakin' geniuses!

Here's a thought, why doesn't someone go on just one public broadcasting outlet -- radio, television, NPR, member station -- I don't care, and tell people, EXPERTS like Tom Friedman, Mara Liasson, Juan Williams, and Cokie Roberts, that they are completely full of shit? Sorry, full of talking points? Full of conventional wisdom? That would be some interesting public radio CONTENT! I bet that would get some listener-subscribers ringing the pledge lines!

NPR Board of Directors Meeting

The NPR Board of Directors met in both open and closed sessions on July 10th and 11th, according to the NPR website. Find a link to their agenda here. As you know from earlier posts on Colorado Public Radio Blog and Denver Westword, Max Wycisk of Colorado Public Radio, threw in his hat into the race. No word, as yet, if he made it to the show. My guess is that he made it, since he spent much of last year working on CPR's Board of Directors and Governance process, and that is probably just what NPR is looking for in a corporate tool. If so, he will be part of a group presiding over an important evolution in public radio. However, my prediction is that his inclusion will result in two major developments: the devolution (power shift) and de-evolution (degeneration) of public radio.

Of course, anyone who leads public radio member stations during this time -- National Public Radio member stations, that is -- will blame any of their problems on media fragmentation, the economy -- BOTH. So, talking the lead at this time is really not a bad gig. If the new NPR Board succeeds (whatever that means), they'll credit their skills. If they fail, they will blame the media market, economic landscape, et al. Very nice. It's good to be The King! or Bureaucrat, if you prefer.

This just in . . .

According to the New York Times, the NPR Board dumped the Bryant Park Project. The Gray Lady, nicely hangs this one around recently-departed NPR executives Jay Kernis and Ken Stern:

In addition to the on-air changes, two top NPR executives who helped develop the program have left the organization. Jay Kernis, the senior vice president of programming, went to CNN, and Ken Stern, NPR’s chief executive, departed in March after the board decided not to renew his contract."

Westword's Michael Roberts with The Latest 'Word

Thanks to Michael Roberts of The Westword for picking up this story from Colorado Public Radio Blog. Read his blog entry on The Latest 'Word here.

I Create Nothing . . . I Own

A wise friend told me once, "There are people of substance, and there are people of process. People of substance create. People of process control." Max Wycisk is a person of process, who controls objects--including people--by moving the pieces around on a big board. Clearly, he is not a significant person of substance.

As you can see from his brief resume below (a resume, I might add, that seems slightly longer than the entire history of Colorado Public Radio to which he has been a seminal and significant part), Wycisk has spent his entire public radio career (so far as one can tell) at one radio station; one radio network.

Of course, Max Wycisk presided over his organization (for 25 years) during its transition from university-licensed KCFR-FM at the University of Denver, to Colorado Public Radio (CPR) and back into KCFR-FM (on July 9, 2008), and he has done a lot during that time. Over the course of his tenure, Colorado Public Radio's state-wide network has become the biggest repeater of National Public Radio news in the entire state; reaching (according to CPR statement from Arbitron) 330,000 listeners per week. The substance of Max Wycisk--his particular genius--is creating radio stations. But, during the last 25 of his particular genius, what else has he created?

With large federal subsidies, he created the Classical Public Radio Network (see the post below). Next week, the Classical Public Radio Network experiment folds (for the most part). More recently, Max Wycisk created Colorado Matters; a 30-minute, 5-times per week (not including repeats) local news program produced by between 8 and 13 people. *Just a few years ago, Colorado Matters produced 1 hour of content, 5-times per week (not including repeats) with only 4 staffers. Most recently, Max Wycisk presided over Colorado Public Radio's conversion to HD Radio; conversions heavily subsidized (once again) by federal tax dollars channeled to CPR through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Finally, next week, CPR moves its news channel, KCFR, from 1340-AM back to its former home on 90.1-FM through an $8.2 million bond-financing deal arranged by Public Radio Capital, an organization which shares office space in Centennial, Colorado with--you guessed it--Colorado Public Radio.

Assuming that Colorado Public Radio can sell the (a) 1340-AM frequency, (b) the land it acquired at Ruby Hill in Denver, Colorado (the former home of KVOD), and (c) the AM antenna and equipment, it stands to reason that Colorado Public Radio will be able to retire some debt from the original purchase of 1340-AM (in 2001) or even offset the current, multi-million dollar deal. With all of this extra radio air space, it also stands to reason that Colorado Public radio could broadcast more diverse radio content on the side channels of its HD Radio-equipped Denver FM stations; KCFR on 90.1-FM and KVOD on 88.1-FM. However, CPR probably will not broadcast more diverse and interesting radio content, precisely because it cannot acquire or create more diverse and interesting radio content.

Why can't Colorado Public Radio seem to acquire or create programming? Follow the money. CPR pays a lot of subscriber dollars (in the form of NPR and other dues) to acquire National Public Radio (NPR), American Public Media (APM) and Public Radio International (PRI) content; which is why CPR broadcasts endless repeat hours of Morning Edition, All Things Considered, the BBC World Service, etc. The price of these programs to CPR is based upon the population of the Denver-Boulder metro market.

Since CPR has not appreciably grown the Denver-Boulder public radio market (Denver and Colorado listenship and subscribership have simply increased as a function of people moving to Denver and Colorado from outside the state since the late 1980s), Colorado Public Radio has no more public radio programming to push from Denver to its series of stations and translators (its repeaters) throughout Colorado. Because CPR chose to acquire frequencies and build stations instead of creating distinctive, distributable content, it has no additional financial resources now to create local radio shows for the airwaves it so tightly programs--except, perhaps for KCFR (Sometimes) Presents with Dan Drayer (former Host and Executive Producer of Colorado Matters), and KCFR Showcase, a re-purposing of content from other public radio sources which Colorado Public Radio claims as its own by re-branding it KCFR. In short, it's about programming a radio format from a national distributor, not about programming local radio shows for a discrete audience--the same complaint listeners regularly make about commercial radio content from entities like Clear Channel! It's generic and automated.

So, what does Max Wycisk do when there is everything to do? He decides to run for the NPR Board of Directors, of course! As you can see from the bullet points from the questionnaire posted to the site if Western States Public Radio, an organization to which (it seems) Colorado Public Radio is a nominal member, Max Wycisk has big ideas:

*****
If elected to the NPR Board, on what Board Committee – or in connection with what issue – do you believe you have the most to offer NPR?

The primary issues I see for the NPR Board will need to be dealt with by the Board as a whole. These issues center on the need for clearer and more productive working relationships with NPR member stations. Examples:

• Improving the NPR governance and management process, with the goal of creating greater internal accountability at NPR and greater external accountability to NPR member stations.
• Marshaling the public radio system's capacity to support common activities such as news-gathering.
• Working to develop more effective ways of using new media to maximize the strengths of public radio's local/national structure.

*****
As is evident from his answers above, Max Wycisk is the perfect bureaucrat--a consummate man of process. I suspect that he will not be merely satisfied with NPR Board Membership, but rather, that he is actually running for NPR Board President. Since Colorado Public Radio spent a great of amount of time and effort dealing with its own Nonprofit Board Governance and Station Management last year (which came to light during embarrassing public airing of its own internal processes), Wycisk suggests that more efficient, complete and accountable processes are the perfect remedies for healing a rift among NPR Management, the NPR Board and NPR Member stations.

Let's be clear about what is happening with media in America--all types of media, not just non-commercial radio. Media is fragmenting. Fewer viewers are tuning in to broadcast television; most especially broadcast news. Fewer listeners are tuning in to broadcast radio; AM, FM, commercial, and non-commercial radio. At best, HD Radio is idling at the starting line despite its boosters' constant jawboning of it while simultaneously challenging the XM-Sirius satellite radio merger. Non-commercial television and radio have always had significantly smaller audiences than commercial broadcasters--which is one major reason why non-commercial broadcasters still receive federal and state subsidies. Of course there are notable exceptions. National Public Radio's Morning Edition and All Things Considered are #2 and #3, behind the Rush Limbaugh Show. And in some media markets, local public radios stations even compete in the Top 5 or Top 10 (Seattle, Washington and Boston, Massachusetts come to mind).

Today, consumers have a wider variety of news and entertainment sources from which to choose--and many of them are available on demand-including a significant amount of NPR content. This new media landscape has created many dilemmas for the traditional National Public Radio/Member Station relationship. However, process-related solutions will not lead to the next evolutionary step in public radio network-affiliate relations. Creativity will. Onerous processes will simply consume more scarce resources during tough economic times. Process-believing bureaucrats like Max Wycisk love to talk about accountability, internal and external, but when the it comes to evaluating performance (otherwise known as laying blame), process-bureaucrats will just simply reshuffle or entirely remake the organizational chart to shift accountability elsewhere. Or better yet, they just move on to some other project, leaving former responsibilities forgotten or past duties undone.

As for marshaling the public radio system's capacity to support common activities such as news-gathering, one wonders what Max Wycisk is doing now with his existing "statewide network" capacity. As mentioned above, Colorado Public Radio has no shortage of airspace. See their coverage map here. What discrete content does CPR broadcast to the local markets its satellite stations occupy throughout Colorado? None! All content is pushed to outlying areas of the state from the Colorado Public Radio mother ship located in Centennial, Colorado.

Colorado Public Radio cannot even manage to broadcast localized weather to the four corners of its coverage area. Does Colorado Public Radio do sports reporting? No. Does Colorado Public Radio do traffic reporting? No. Does Colorado Public Radio do local news? Yes--so long as local is defined as Colorado, and so far as reading stories from the Associated Press newswire counts as local news. A search of the word "beetle" on the Colorado Matters website nets 23 hits. A search for "carbon" nets 21 hits. But to be fair, there is some overlap. Who'd have guessed that Colorado Matters could combine carbon footprint with pine beetle! Now there's local news you can use! But, I digress. Does Colorado Public Radio gather news? Yes. As mentioned above, their ratio of news staff to actual content is astounding--astoundingly embarrassing. How is Max Wycisk qualified to marshal all of this capacity as an NPR Board Member when he cannot seem to manage it meaningfully and measurably at the local and statewide level? Accountability indeed!

When it comes to working to develop more effective ways of using new media to maximize the strengths of public radio's local/national structure, Max Wycisk has an ace in the hole, however. His name is Jim Paluzzi; Colorado Public Radio's Vice President of New Media and Technology. He is very well known among the NPR and Member Station elite as a unique and valuable talent. So, Wycisk hopes to use Paluzzi--superimposing true creativity--upon the structures and processes of the National Public Radio and Member Station hierarchy. For Colorado Public Radio, this means that they may finally have to start playing nicely and fairly with other public radio entities. Since CPR is cash-strapped during recessive economic times, in a media market with no affordable non-commercial radio frequencies left to acquire (including existing public radio stations that it can bribe behind closed doors), it cannot continue to build stations--to own people and pieces and to manipulate them on the public radio terrain. Of course historically, Max Wycisk hates cooperating with other people--including people at other public radio organizations--unless he is left with no other choice. Has a new day dawned? Has Wycisk seen the light? Hardly.

Question: How many Vice Presidents does it take Colorado Public Radio to run a statewide public radio network?
Answer: Seven.

That said, want to wager that one of Wycisk's first goals as a Member of the NPR Board will be to pressure NPR Management (its Member Station Liaisons) to rework the due's structure to favor major-market stations and statewide networks like Denver-based Colorado Public Radio? Bet on it! After all, Wycisk can't afford to compete with stations like 91.5-FM KUNC in Denver so long as they continue to poach public radio listeners in Denver, Boulder, Greeley and Fort Collins while paying the small market rate for NPR, APM and PRI programming.

Membership within the Western States Public Radio consortium presumably lends Wycisk credibility (with voting members) just like control of a statewide public radio network gives him leverage and power with NPR. Can you say NPR News Rocky Mountain? In order to affect NPR policy on behalf of Colorado Public Radio, et al., Max Wycisk needs national prominence--the podium and the bullhorn. And yes, the other members stations he presumes to represent as a member of the NPR Board can expect the benefit of his policy- and procedure-heavy largesses, so long as they are willing to cooperate with a non-profit President who sees collective decision-making as antithetical to the good governance of public radio. In public radio, non-profit language, it's called "partnering." How sweet--as saccharin! For Wycisk; however, this is really about mergers, acquisitions, and hostile take-overs, Buddy Boy. Blue Horseshoe loves Anacott Steel.

In order to maximize the strengths of public radio's local/national structure, Wycisk will return to an idea he dabbled with and then discarded several years ago--the novel idea of sharing. How quaint for Wycisk! You can read about the resuscitated plan on Current.Org here. Isn't it fitting that when NPR started bypassing member stations by distributing digitally (directly via its own website) that Wycisk finally decided to cooperate with public broadcasting individuals and entities he'd have sooner acquired than speak? How magnanimous! Why should other member stations in Colorado trust him? Member stations of Western States Public Radio? They shouldn't! This battle is about power; pure and simple. And right now Max Wycisk needs to change the balance of power of Member Stations vis-à-vis NPR and other larger, national content providers for the sake of Colorado Public Radio. And yes, hangers-on are certainly welcome.

Knowing Max Wycisk's history and habits and after reading the answers to the NPR Board questionnaire, it seems to me that he is vying for a position equivalent to that of The Commissioner of Major League Baseball; a perfect position for a passive-aggressive, authoritarian personality type like him--head of a nice, tight, white, elitist oligopoly. But, I think Max needs a more descriptive or regal title before his appointment/coronation. How about Commissar of NPR Affiliates, or maybe Member Station Viceroy? That is what $200K in pay and benefits and loads of conventional wisdom gets you--the 20th century brillance of Max Wycisk. He is the Bill Gates of Public Radio. So, how fitting that Gates retired from Microsoft today? Maybe Wycisk should follow his lead. But alas, Colorado Public Radio has no fat endowment to manage. A subject, perhaps, for another day.

Max Wycisk for the NPR Board of Directors

I guess Max Wycisk is doing such a bang-up job at Colorado Public Radio, that he has decided that he has a bit of free time on his hands. Now, he's running for the National Public Radio Board of Directors, which he served on 18 years ago. Read his questions and answer for the NPR position below. They are posted to the Western States Public Radio website.

I wonder why Colorado Public Radio didn't run a press release related to this campaign. Do the CPR employees even know? I doubt it. You'd think news like this would bring honor and prestige to (as the constant CPR promos say) "your community-supported source for in-depth news and classical music." Or perhaps this is just part of Wycisk's suspiciously secretive nature and painfully introverted character. Seems contrary to public radio to me. Good luck, McWycisk!

*****

Candidate: Max Wycisk – KCFR-AM (Denver, CO)

Please detail your qualifications for the NPR Board.

• 35 years of public radio experience: as a volunteer announcer; as a Program Director; and as a General Manager.
• Extensive non-profit governance experience: I have served on several non-profit boards, including the NPR Board (1984-1990), and have worked under a non-profit board for the past 25 years.
• Prior to working in a community licensee structure, I worked in a university licensee structure for 10 years and understand the strengths and weaknesses of both structures.

If elected to the NPR Board, on what Board Committee – or in connection with what issue – do you believe you have the most to offer NPR?

The primary issues I see for the NPR Board will need to be dealt with by the Board as a whole. These issues center on the need for clearer and more productive working relationships with NPR member stations. Examples:

• Improving the NPR governance and management process, with the goal of creating greater internal accountability at NPR and greater external accountability to NPR member stations.
• Marshaling the public radio system's capacity to support common activities such as news-gathering.
• Working to develop more effective ways of using new media to maximize the strengths of public radio's local/national structure.

What is your overall assessment of the NPR board? Is it responsive to stations? Is it sufficiently high profile?

Over the past several years the agendas of NPR and stations have slowly drifted apart. I see real potential at the present time to bring station and NPR agendas into alignment, and feel that the NPR Board is poised to take on this task in an active, meaningful, and productive way. The NPR Board has an opportunity to empower station managers by planning the Annual Meeting on behalf of the membership. The Annual Meeting should be a business meeting with real outcomes, a meeting at which directions are determined and decisions are made. At the Annual Meeting NPR management should report to member stations about its implementation of decisions affirmed at the previous year's meeting, and field questions from the membership.

NPR does not currently have a conflict of interest policy and procedure for Board members. What sort of policy should be established in order to handle conflict of interest situations when a board member has a primary duty as an employee or officer of a competing station, network or distributor?

I have not seen conflict of interest surface as a problem over the years. Working as we do in a co-op model, station managers' individual organizational interests often dovetail directly with the interests of NPR. The NPR Board's job will be to make sure that the interests of NPR are aligned with the needs and interests of member stations. (Note: Article 5.4 of the NPR by-laws does address conflict of interest in a general way.)

Since the institution of the A-Reps meeting format, NPR has not achieved a quorum for its Annual Meeting. Do you view this as a problem? Do you have any recommendations for engaging more stations in the citizenship of the annual meeting?

The Annual Meeting problem has to do with the fact that it has devolved into a one-way presentation rather than being a forum for discussion and debate. The Annual Meeting conversation should be a genuine two-way process, initiated as much by stations as by NPR management. Here are two specific thoughts to help remedy this situation:

• Planning for the Annual Meeting should be led by the Board, in partnership with management.
• Lowering the quorum from one-half of the membership to one-third of the membership would make it easier for the membership to endorse specific actions at the Annual Meeting. In the present situation the lack of a quorum results in paralysis and frustration.

If we can institute both of these approaches, I have every confidence that member stations will want to attend the Annual Meeting, knowing that each of us will have the opportunity to play a meaningful role in determining our collective future.

What suggestions might you have to add diverse experience and opinions to the board and management deliberative process? Would the reimplementation of working advisory committees with station staff members and others for specific topics and issues serve as a way to expand knowledge and increase awareness of station’s needs, feelings and reactions?

As I see it, the NPR Board does not lack for diverse experience, expertise, and opinion; nor does it lack knowledge of station needs. What we have not been able to do effectively these past few years—particularly as the media environment changes around us—is develop mechanisms (beyond the production of exemplary news programming) through which NPR can effectively support station needs.

As an NPR Board member, how would you distinguish between the types of business you believe the Board should conduct in Executive Session versus the business that should be conducted in Open Session?

Our guidelines for open sessions and executive sessions are clear. Executive session should be reserved for items of a proprietary nature, and for personnel issues. All other items should be addressed in open session. Having said this, it is difficult to understand why the NPR Board would ever want to treat its member stations as anything other than members of the inner circle—a circle that should always be privy to information that might not be appropriate for external release.

Cokie Roberts Coming to Colorado.

Cokie Roberts, of National Public Radio, will be in Denver, Colorado as the keynote speaker for The Women's Foundation of Colorado on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at the Colorado Convention Center

Maybe one of the Denver public radio stations: KUNC-FM, KGNU-AM, KUVO-FM, or KCFR-AM can arrange to get this speaking engagement on the air, or get her into a studio to speak about The Democratic National Convention, the 2008 campaigns, working at NPR--you know, politics?

"Colorado Remembrances," by Bente Birkeland.

If you're not familiar with Bente Birkeland, she is the only broadcast journalist posted full time at the Colorado State Capitol Building. She covers the Colorado Legislature full time when it's in session.

KRCC-FM pays half of her salary, and the other half is funded collectively by Rocky Mountain Community Radio member stations, a project originally started by KGNU as the Capitol Coverage Project.

She provides daily updates during the legislative session; 2-5 times per week. Bente has been on the job a little over 18 months now. KRCC-FM and Rocky Mountain Community Radio should be very proud of her and her work.

Listen here to one of her recent stories which aired on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Saturday. Thanks to a Colorado Public Radio Blog reader for this post.

Whad'ya Know? Bill Husted Mentions KCFR.

Too bad Bill Husted forgot to mention that Colorado Public Radio is a statewide network which also covers Boulder and Pueblo on the front range, some areas of the mountains, and the western slope. Maybe someone at CPR should give him a call to wake him up a bit. And, perhaps they can remind him that The Denver Post is read throughout the State of Colorado too?

Read his entire entertainment roundup in The Denver Post here. Bill reports that National Public Radio's "Wait, Wait . . . Don't Tell Me" will be taped Thursday night at Chautauqua, with scorekeeper Carl Kasell and panelists, but [that] this week's crew has not yet been announced."

Anyway, this show airs on KUNC-FM, Saturday, August 11th at 11:00 a.m. Or, you can Wait, Wait, Wait to hear it on KCFR-AM, Saturday, August 11th at 1:00 p.m. Tom Bodett, Kyrie O'Connor, and Paula Poundstone, are the panelist along with Carl Kasell and host Peter Sagal.

Eric Whitney of KRCC-FM on NPR.

Eric Whitney's report on Fort Carson soldiers from KRCC-FM ran on National Public Radio program Day to Day on August 3rd, 2007.

Lourdes Garcia-Navarro at KAJX-FM, Aspen.

The Aspen Times reports here that National Public Radio's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro "is in town in support of Aspen Public Radio's Summer Fund Drive. She is replacing NPR's Liane Hansen and Neal Conan, who postponed their appearances."

Garcia-Navarro, just back from Jerusalem and Baghdad, will speak on politics and the military, social life and international relations of these two centers of turmoil. Born in London, Garcia-Navarro has lived and reported from the United States, Colombia, Afghanistan, Israel, Iraq and the United States. Her home now is Mexico City.

Tickets are $10 and are on sale at the Wheeler Opera House box office. They also will be available at the door the night of the talk.

--Press release provided by the The Aspen Times.

Wi-Fi Radio by Acoustic Energy.

Do you want to listen to your favorite public radio stations without using your standard home stereo or portable radio? Do you already have a broadband connection with wireless capability? How would you like to choose from among the thousands of stations you like most--ones that already stream content over the Internet--stations located in Colorado, in the United States, or throughout the world? Well, Wi-Fi Radio may be just want you need. Check out this link from National Public Radio (NPR). Be prepared though, these devices are not cheap!

KUNC Upgrades Its Transmitter Site.

If you had trouble reaching KUNC in Denver, Colorado before, you will likely have better reception today. Here is the information from KUNC in Greeley, Colorado.

"Last night at 7 pm, KUNC flipped the switch on our new transmitter site at Buckhorn Mountain, which will significantly improve our signal over the majority of Northern Colorado, the I-25 and Highway 36 corridors, and much of the metro Denver area. However, some areas may experience a weaker signal." --KUNC

Here is the old KUNC coverage map, and here is the new KUNC coverage map. Maps (and thanks) provided by Radio-Locator. As you can see, the new location of their antenna changes the coverage area in Denver and in the surrounding areas of northern and northeastern Colorado.

This will surely mean more competition for National Public Radio (NPR) listeners in the Denver Metropolitan area, because KUNC, like KCFR and KUVO, broadcasts some NPR content. I guess Denver public radio just got more interesting, to say the least!

Just so everything is clear, so to speak: KUNC broadcasts on 91.5-FM in Denver, KUVO broadcasts on 89.3-FM in Denver, and KCFR broadcasts on 1340-AM (and 90.1 FM-2) in Denver and 1490-AM in Boulder.

This just in: I was reminded from a source (via email) that Colorado Public Radio tried to buy KUNC a few years back (2001). Here is an article from Current.Org in which Max Wycisk, President of CPR, tells readers that:

"Public radio and television have historically been under-funded, so a lot of that local premise is never realized," He said. "Putting our resources together gives us the ability to generate more and deeper local and regional programming."

Now it seems as though KUNC is surviving without Colorado Public Radio's "deeper local and regional programming." What is that programming again? Deeper, local, and regional?

Westword: Correct, Once Again!

Michael Roberts of Denver Westword is correct yet again.

Here is some additional reading (abstract only) regarding HD Radio coverage from National Public Radio (NPR), and here is a link to the entire HD Radio coverage study, provided by Engineer John Kean of NPR Labs.

What exactly is the coverage area for HD Radio in your area? Maybe you should contact your local public radio station to find out.