We want to keep the “Community” in Community radio, so let us know just how you feel about the planned changes at KBCS.
Tell us what you think about the “new” KBCS!
25 Comments
« Previous
1
…
5
6
7
8
Next »
Well, things are pretty quiet here so maybe I am the last voice crying in the wilderness, but I didn’t want my last post (see above) to be a bitter, angry one, even though that is how I was feeling during much of the pledge drive. Here is a somewhat more measured one, tucked finally into the pledge envelope I receieve before the drive began:
“I have been a regular donor and evangelist for the station in the past but cannot support the recent changes, made without a plan or outreach to the community of listeners. Too many treasures cast aside, with a feeling left of betrayal and disrespect. There had to have been a better way. It has made me lose faith in the management of the station. I know the changes were well-meaning, and the people on the air are doing the best they can, but I question the competence of this management team and cannot support it.”
We’ll see how things unfold. Life goes on… and karma balances… thanks for listening and providing a forum for those of us who have loved this station….
Peter Graf was on the air this morning pitching with John Gilbreath. I could not listen. Here is a comment I sent to dj@kbcs.fm:
“I shouldn’t do this, but just wanted to say that John is great but there is a special place in hell for Peter Graf and Steve Ramsey. I am turning off the radio now. Thanks.”
Have a nice day 
Below is an email I sent to Underwriting & Outreach Director
Sabrina Roach at KBCS on October 8, day one of the fall pledge drive:
Ms. Roach,
I have been a long time listener and only an occasional supporter of KBCS
as my income has always been modest to put it generously. Fortune has
turned in my favor in the last year as I have opened a successful small
neighborhood grocery store. Underwriting has been on my mind as a good
way to both make up for weak past contributions and to toot the horn for
my new business.
I always played KBCS in my store during business hours (8:00am-9:00pm) and
set my clock to Democracy Now to wake up at 6:00am. Customers would often
ask me what I was listening to so they could dial it in when they left.
For me KBCS was the perfect station because the programming shifted gears
often enough that I didn’t tire of any one musical genre while at the same
time I was completely immersed in the varieties of music played throughout
the week.
Was/is KBCS living up to it’s potential? Potential to do what? I suspect
the potential put forth by Management is the potential to generate
revenue. But that sounds so crass it’s best to let listeners make up
their own minds what is meant by “potential”.
In the long run I expect revenue will be higher. Perhaps the number of
local listener contributors will be lower but in the end I suspect total
revenue is the number that is being pushed. Perhaps by opening the
airwaves to more national news programming the station can count on more
CPB grant money thereby insuring a more predictable revenue stream into
the future. Sacrifices must be made if the station is to survive.
I will be joining the other old farts looking back nostalgically to the
days when KBCS was great. Great at what? Best to let listeners make up
their own minds what is meant by “great”.
Unless someone figures out a way to stuff this Genie back into the bottle I
cannot support KBCS.
Allan Phillips
Georgetown/Seattle
Looks like there are three shows now “online only.” I’m saddened to see they are difficult to find. When management took these volunteer programmers off the air and offered them a consolation prize, I would have expected more information out to the listening community that the shows are there. Instead, you have to really search the web site to locate them.
* John Midgley Jazz Kaleidoscope
* Joanie Nelson 20th Century Jazz
* Megan Sullivan Shape of Modern Jazz
The best way to find them is on the streaming archive page, searching for the host name or the show name. Megan’s show is not even on the dj listings page (as of today)
Interesting that the new syndicated shows from elsewhere are given front page billing, but the local programmers get shorted for their efforts. This feels to me like station management rubbing salt in the wounds of the programmers who are going along with the Internet programs, despite having had their shows yanked from under them.
Pretty sure the Arbitron ratings won’t capture the fact folk are listening on the Internet, but maybe if enough of us when they turn off the unlistenable news tripe and paid programmers on the 91.3 airwaves, click in to Megan, John or Joanie, the votes will be counted. Even if not, please make an effort to listen and communicate back so Megan, John and Joanie get that wonderful listener response.
FYI to the KBCS Listener/Supporter Community:
1. All Station Meeting: (date and location removed – Admin).
The agenda for this meeting includes:
A. An update on the status of the Strategic Plan, which will be ready for your feedback by the end of October.
B. An update on future programming evaluations and/or changes. At this time, we’re planning on holding off on any future changes until we’ve compiled enough data and information on the changes we launched 8/24. No changes are planned for the next 12 months while we collect data and feedback on the current schedule.
Administrator’s Note: This meeting is NOT open to the public. It is only for current KBCS volunteers. SaveKBCS! does NOT advocate any attempts by the public to disrupt this meeting.
I think it’s interesting that I’ve listened to KBCS nearly every day for so many years and yet, had no idea the extent of the sweep KBCS was about to issue. I agree with others that The Takeaway is basically corporate sponsored info-tainment and, if I wanted to listen to NPR, which I prefer not to, this market is pretty well covered. The actual programing minutes on The Takeway are very few – we now have the KBCS host providing station id every 6-8 minutes or so for the full 2 hours. On top of that there’s the 2.5 minutes of repetitive percussion (who’s idea was that?) followed by the high pitched digital beep, followed by the host/s telling us what they’re going to tell us, followed by, well – you get the idea. It’s exhausting – after 30+ years, the college should have realized and protected this wonderful training ground for ideas and music – I believe that for many years it provided just that and I, for one, feel it’s a profound loss for the community.
I will be sending my pledge money directly to local and other media sources, such as Labor-Neighbor Radio, Democracy Now, Truthout and others.
Webmaster, a clairification; This statement on your home page:
“Drive Time Jazz has been eliminated, now replaced by canned talk and news, with no local connection to the Seattle area. ”
There is “Labor-Neighbor Radio” locally produced by AFTRA and John Sandifer – a former AFTRA (american federation of television and radio actors) local office exec. It is a local news show very much connected to this community. It was aired before at around 3:00 in the afternoon and has been expanded.
Just a clairification to keep this site accurate and balanced. I don’t much care for the other changes.
Hal,
I agree with all your critiques and suggestions. Your show, too, will be missed! I do understand your point of view with regard to the ethics of participating as a DJ when you disapprove of management’s behavior (what are you gonna say on air during pledge drive?) In the end, it is a loss to the public to remove yet another unique musical program from the pubic airways.
Hello Steve & Pete,
I will be ending my involvement with KBCS as of 9/16 following “Road Songs” on 9/15..
I came into KBCS as an obsessed music lover with a wide range of musical tastes. KBCS and the knowledgeable DJs that I have been fortunate enough to know over the years have increased my knowledge 10-fold. It has always been a fun, joyful experience to prepare and present music shows on KBCS. And I hope, over the years, that the listeners have enjoyed discovering the music as much as I have. Unfortunately it is no longer a joyful experience for me.
Volunteers and listeners put their efforts and their dollars into raising funds for KBCS last Spring and again in the Summer. I was involved in those pledge drives, as were friends that I ask to participate. At that same time, KBCS management knew that substantial programming changes would be implemented shortly, but they were not forthcoming with that information. I feel that KBCS management was deceptive with the volunteers and listeners.
I consider myself an honest and ethical person. It would be dishonest and unethical of me to continue to ask my friends and listeners to volunteer and pledge to KBCS when I feel that KBCS management has been dishonest and unethical in their actions.
I view KBCS’s recent programming changes as a loss of a culture which is not found elsewhere on the Seattle radio airwaves – an outstanding cultural outpost in the radio wasteland of Seattle. Radio has more than enough news and talk. For the listener, KBCS was a refuge from the constant din/drone of opinions and bloviating.
In my opinion, the loss of hard core jazz (Drive Time), specialty jazz (Bud & Don, Bebop, 20th Century & Vintage), Lunch With Folks has done irreparable damage to the listening public, who no longer have the opportunity to hear this music elsewhere on the public airwaves. (Please note that I do not consider HD radio and podcast to be part of the “public airwaves”.)
I feel the replacement shows are not an improvement over the previous shows.
The way in which KBCS management handled the recent programming changes has been a source of real frustration for me, specifically the lack of communication and the dismissal of volunteer DJ involvement/input. But perhaps most of all, I am frustrated by KBCS’s missed opportunities over the last decade to effectively market and promote the station.
When was the last time we broadcast live from Folklife? When was the last time I saw KBCS at the Fremont Solstice Fair, cultural gatherings at the Seattle Center, or the too-many-to-count neighborhood farmers’ markets? How hard would it be to have a booth at these public gatherings, or at the very least hand out brochures to the crowds? It would be nice if some of these outreaches were part of the “changes” at KBCS.
In the future, I hope that KBCS management will consider finding new ways to communicate with and engage the volunteer DJs. They’re a creative group of people and have good ideas. I would also strongly suggest that a Listener Advisory Committee be established, made up of a diverse cross-section of our listener community. If KBCS still aspires to be “community-based”, then it should, in fact, be based in the community.
Sincerely,
Hal Durden
To Mary, and others who are not sure about giving ..
The upcoming fund drive is a referendum on the program changes. If it doesn’t drop too much, the new format is approved.
KBCS can afford a significant drop in revenue. Stations survive on a tenth of the KBCS budget. Stations thrive on a quarter of the KBCS budget.
The program change is a volunteer purge. It’s no accident that some of the most popular shows were chosen for the purge.
What is happening now at KBCS has happened over and over at many other stations. They take away (hmm…) a little at a time. Eventually, it’s all gone.
I am so torn about giving to KBCS this year. I have given regularly in the past.
I am very unhappy with the changes, but there are still parts of KBCS that speak to me. I’m listening to Our Saturday Tradition right now. I really miss Lunch with Folks – Outskirts isn’t what I want. I really do enjoy Caravan but miss the vintage jazz.
I really miss the wonderful DJ’s who gave so much of their time and their energy and their lives to KBCS.
So what do I do – I don’t want the good parts to go away (i.e. the station fail) but I don’t want to support the change.
I sent this to the savekbcs comments site on 8/18/09.
I felt it was time to send it to savekbcs blog, and see
if it stirs things up. Our 3 checks will not be going
to KBCS, but much more worthy causes. I stopped listening
about 2 months ago!!!!
When I got an email in early July from a long time KBCS volunteer folk DJ, that
no one in the KBCS “community” knew about the KBCS Management changes that would
be coming in August. I knew the changes would come no matter what people said or
did. The decision was made in secret, behind closed doors many years ago by a select and
elitist group. The station had been run into the ground on purpose, and a caste system had
been created by paid staff, management above Steve Ramsey, and a “selected” few who would
buy into it, against the rest of very the dedicated volunteer staff, paying members and listeners.
Please keep the savekbcs site up even after next week’s changes
happen at KBCS. Comments will dwindle, but keeping the site
up can be used for future referencing as to what happens to KBCS with
these changes. As to how KBCS paid staff have manipulated and
nontransparently handled these changes. Changes Steve Ramsey started
when he came to this station. We need to keep the savekbcs alive for
history, and continued referencing to assist in the future challenges.
This could go Steve Ramsey’s way, or it could go down very badly. The
savekbcs history is an effective tool even right now for me to share with others to
think about what is going on. About how this manipulative “tearing down” of the
station by a “selected” group by Steve Ramsey, his “groomed” staff and a small group
of others. It’s very important right now to share “our” side with a much larger audience; more important then the volunteers, long
time listeners and supporters, like myself. This larger audience needs to be made aware of the lack of transparency, and how
“forced” these changes were made. Steve Ramsey does not have the courage, the heart and the
ethical communication skills to have made this an open process of change including anyone and everyone. This has
been true since he arrived. I do not think/believe this KBCS story is over yet!
I have listened since coming up from Oregon in 1987, been giving at least 20 years. The last god knows how many
years, I have cut the membership check, the extra double your money check, and my wife cuts her own membership check.
3 checks a year to KBCS! I have for my entire life been a very eclectic music lover, and will not stop now. I must add that Democracy Now speaks
the “truth” to me, but I get it by email, can get it by twitter, TV, computer for free. For the last 12 years I have listened to KBCS “daily”, 5-7 days a week, 95% of the time, while working out
of my car as a professional dog walker/cat sitter. I took the broadcast class 14 years ago hoping to do a more eclectic show, then
the “buy-out” guy going to do watered down Caravan 5 days a week, but was unable to complete it as I was near the finish of a very
busy 20 year career in non-profit social services. My wife is an OB nurse for over 20 years in a nonprofit health clinic in Seattle.
So, we know the good sides of nonprofit organizations and the bad sides of nonprofit organizations; sorry, sorry…. learning what
we have learned in the last 2 months; something I have experienced directly in the nonprofit social service world….. KBCS management
has created an elitist, manipulative, secret ( staff meetings with only paid staff, no posting of staff minutes, no board, no advisory board, Bellevue College has little
interaction with KBCS, etc.) organization, not radio station. It’s Bad Karma, and the potential in the long run is for it to fall apart.
I am still active on the saveKBCS edges and will continue to be in the future.
You folks did GOOD for a long time, and Steve Ramsey and Bellevue College owe you many Thanks You’s that you have not received.
I say THANK YOU one and all!
Thanks Allen, I had given up looking for Joanie’s show online. Listening now. What a pleasure to hear. Joanie is just great.
In other news, my wife and I just got a snail mail from Uli Johnson:
“You’re a leader in our community… and I don’t just mean the special place we share living here in the Puget Sound. I also mean the community we share as listeners to – and supporters of – community radio.”
As a “leader” I would have expected to be consulted on these ill advised changes… not one query to our e-mail, or to our snail mail. I also would have expected to have had station management be truthful during at least the last 2 pledge drives. Instead Steve Ramsey lied to us during those pledge drives. The leader appears to be the CPB consultant leading station management to Arbitron ratings.
“As you’re aware, KBCS recently changed our weekday programming. While we’re confident that these changes will ultimately result in deepening our service to our entire community, we’ll likely see decreased support from some individuals in the short term.”
No kidding, I can see support will decrease. Management has a different definition of community than the one which had grown to love the programming. Though the number of members had gone down, those members must have been pledging more and more to keep their programming on the air. Reaching deeper in tough financial times. The reprogramming has only served to make us who did dig deeper more resentful of being duped.
“These programs come to you from experienced KBCS hosts here at home and from prducers across the nation and the world. But without exception, the most important part of KBCS programming is you.”
Well, if I’m so important, why wasn’t I consulted along with all of the other important contributing members? Instead KBCS consulted a CPB consultant.
“I hope you’ll help to make this Fall Fund Drive a success by making an additional contribution to our matching fund….”
No, I won’t. In fact, I’ll be reducing my contribution pro-rata based on the number of hours taken away from music programming.
The new programming is pretty much unlistenable: 1) The Takeaway is like an amateur version of NPR’s morning edition, and I won’t listen any more; 2) Michael Eric Dyson has not been present on his show, so I’ll reserve judgment; 3) Hard Knock Radio I couldn’t bear to listen more than about 5 minutes; 4) The Outskirts has really diluted what I listened to Lunch With Folks for … now it is too electric, too much drums, too much overproduced recordings; 5) The Caravan is OK, maybe once a week.
Funny how I thought we found a great antidote to NPR and commercial music programming 4 years ago in KBCS. Now KBCS is being led by a CPB consultant away from its community toward an NPR news type formula, and toward paid music hosts playing pablum of the masses type music.
I have been listening to Joanie’s web program this morning and she keeps saying to email her so she knows that someone is listening but she does not give an email address to contact her with. I thought that I would use the DJ eamil address and went to the KBCS web site to get it and guess what, they no longer list either the email address or the phone number for the DJ’s. I guess they don’t what us to talk to the DJ’s any more.
I have to say that I have now totally quit listening to KBCS during the day. I used to listen from 10 – 12 hours a day and now it is zero. I tried listening to “The Takeaway” but found it too annoying and irritating to listen to. It reminded me too much of USAToday, a lot of fluff and no substance. I also found it annoying that the last hour and a half or so of the show was a repeat of what was played earlier in the day. It must be only an hour and a half program. John Gilbreth had always been my least favorite of the morning DJ’s, but I could listen to him one day a week. I can’t listen to him five days a week. I also found it annoying how in the first week or so he kept saying that he couldn’t really replace the DJ’s that were taken off the air. What a true statement. I listened to “The Outskirts” and found it interesting, but I forget to turn my radio on in the afternoon to listen to it. I have switched to KSER in the morning to get “Democracy Now!” and BBC news in the morning. They also play “The Takeaway” in the morning but they only have it on for an hour and a half and most of that time is taken up with breaks where they have a lot of local news and reports (geared for Everett which is where they are based), so you only get about half an hour of the actual show. The music that they play is generally not my taste so I switch to my IPod for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, it has been 2 weeks since they made the change so now all the archived versions of the programs that were on line are now gone. At least I can still listen to Joanie on the internet since her show is now being updated. I guess that the first week that she recorded the show, she ended up deleting the show instead of saving it and so there was a two week wait for her to come back on the air. It is too bad that the other DJ’s didn’t want to do an internet show. Maybe if they saw an uptick in their on line streaming for the programs that they took off the air, they would realize what a mistake that they have made. I am glad that they posted the link to the Seattle Times article that was in the August 30th newspaper that said that since Arbitron changed the way recorded their participants listening habits that the talk and news radio stations that had always been on top had dropped out of the top 5 stations for the area and had been replaced by music stations. It appears that KBCS based some of their assumptions on faulty data. I also got an email today asking me to volunteer for the October pledge drive, fat chance of that. I do plan to call during the drive to tell them why I am no longer supporting the station.
I read all the comments on “The Takeaway,” and decided to give it a listen. Guess what? I CAN’T STAND IT. The theme music is torture and content is inconsequential at best. I’d rather hear “Morning Edition,” so this morning, I tuned in to 88.5 KPLU. Now I could have heard the same on KUOW, so I’m not suggesting that KBCS play copycat with “Morning Edition”. Please, KBCS, stop throwing away my money, your money, and CPB grant money on the “The Takeaway” !!!!
How long has “Hard Knock Radio” been in the 11pm-1am time slot on Saturday night / Sunday morning? Not exactly an ideal time for a talk show.
I’ve been enjoying more of KALX online but I don’t really care to know if the Bay Bridge is closed, if you know what I mean.
As noted above, the big winner of airtime is Pacifica. Their news and commentary are expected to increase the audience at KBCS. Can anyone explain why? Pacifica has not been successful in Los Angeles, in fact they
have very poor (and declining audience) at KPFK. See the attached link:
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2009/08/kpfk_audience_plunges.php
Pacifica will not help KBCS; they will help their own bottom line.
I am sorry to hear “The Takeaway” on KBCS. It is awful, slick propaganda for the corporate fascists. That is 15 hours a week that people are forced to listen to this fake hip crap. It is one thing to include programming by someone like Davey D who articulates the silenced perspective of Black activists and relevant, roots hip hop, but another when these irritating white smooth talkers shove lies into our ears. It also is on many local stations. Oh, it is terrible. We need local programmers addressing local news from the trenches. Not this!
KBCS had some of the best jazz programming in the Northwest–head and shoulders above KPLU. Now it’s completely gone. I’m very saddened by the loss.
I haven’t studied the new schedule in detail, but based on other comments, it sounds like there are other significant changes. I feel like I’ve lost an old friend.
“Where is the money coming from to pay the D.J.s?
As part of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s (CPB’s) Community Service Grant, we’re spending money on programming designed to increase our service to the community. That includes annual programming fees to Pacifica for Democracy Now!, Public Radio International for National Native News, The Takeaway, The Sound of Young America, and other annual affiliate fees.”
(The above is a quote from (I assume) Steve Ramsey answering softball questions)
So KBCS gets the money from CPB and gives it to Pacifica, Democracy Now!, National Native News, etc. That’s “Community Broadcasting”?
tax money supports the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CPB gives money to KBCS. KBCS gives the money to Pacifica and that helps our community? how, exactly?
If the CPB gave the money to a religious organization and then that religious organization read the news and provided commentary every day for six hours would people regard that as “community broadcasting”? well, maybe it would in some communities. My concern is that the news spin from Pacifica reflects the community of Pacifica and not our community.