WRFR's station manager Cathy McGuinness does it again.
This morning McG discovered that one of the station's pc computers' memory was only a few hundred megabytes from being full. Did she notify the station staff via her one-way-list serve (having shut down the two way one last month) and request they remove their info from the computer by some deadline, or at least download the offending data onto a CD, for program hosts to access later? While basic professionalism would augur for such simple courtesy, t'was not to be so. McG simply cleared it off and notified the staff and programmers after the fact.
"I don't think I deleted anything crucial to anyone's existance" she wrote, " but I do apologize if I deleted something that was important to you!"
Thanks a LOT, Cathy....
Sigh....
Showing posts with label WRFR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WRFR. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Sunday, September 9, 2007
WRFR - station manager orders staff listserve shut down
WRFR's feisty 'google group' list serve, which let more than three dozen programmers and staff pass information between themselves and freely discuss station policies, has been ordered shut down by the new station mgr, who declared that programmers were using it to "vent their hostilities"
But, VENTING is a GOOD thing, not a bad thing. Rather than bottle up issues with station policies , with other programmers, staff or anything else , the google group's private internet forum let's the programmers exchange their differences of opinion in the semi-privacy that characterizes present day e-speech.
Besides, intermingled with these occasoinal purgative interpersonal staff encounters are more general concerns about station policies and their implementation, its finances, website, publications, equipment maintenance and all the other critical information flows and infrastructure. It can include goring of the station's sacred cows) and criticism of the station manager's style of executing her position
Regrettably Manager McGuiness seems to take fright at such evidence of genuine discourse among equals and has had the group shut down. While she may not even be aware of it, her latest action is one more in a series of essentially anti-democracy initiatives since her taking on the job. Reminiscent of the US foreign policy of dividing occupiedIraq into separate camps, the station's debating sides are to be protected from each others ideas and opinions.
But quashing collective discussion of or disagreement with her management schema, ending weekly decisionmaking staff meetings, replacing them with a host of committees whose every decision is subject to her veto; continuing a pocket veto of efforts by programmers to review station's finances; a seeming disinclination to notify certain "loose cannon" (her phrase) programmers when meeting times and agendas change; and the assumption of final authority to grant or deny new programmers slots on the "community radio" station's schedule--which is nearly bare of local community-related programming--none of these are appropriate for a community radio station.
McGuiness once explained her fundamental governance philosophy to me. WRFR's programmers are, inthe main, "sheep", I was informed, incapable of competent collective action, and must needs be herded about by the "strong" personalities among the station crew. There's something positively Ayn Rand-ish, Jack London-ish about that point of view, something I find to be ...incongruent with my notion of Community.
What I am encountering of course, is simply a radically different weltbild , or world view, in action. A hierarchic one, vertically integrating the station, its staff and programmers into a Quite a valid way of being, it is nevertheless nearly the opposite of my own more horizontally integrated metaphysic of give and take and innovation.
Coupled with her perception of the station's former use of weekly staff meetings to consider issues and make decisions, as a "quagmire", Ms McGuiness appears to have a bit of a fa_c_st tendency, perhaps appropriate in this "Lost Age" that the residents of planet earth are stumbling through at present
Vertical and horizontal organization are both perfectly legitimate ways of being in the world, but the former is, alas, turning out at WRFR to be very unforgiving of dissent or disputation with the established order, no matter how recently that order has been established. While this might be useful, necessary even, in the armed services, our community radio station is not a platoon; our community is not a war zone.
In fact, the sole host whose shows focus on local community issues (Penobscot Bay and Maine State Prison) may himself be at risk of being booted out for publicly criticizing the pace and priorities the manager has chosen, and for promoting shows apparently not consistent with her wishes. Uh oh...that 'sole host' is me! Here! Now!
Sigh. Watch this space.
But, VENTING is a GOOD thing, not a bad thing. Rather than bottle up issues with station policies , with other programmers, staff or anything else , the google group's private internet forum let's the programmers exchange their differences of opinion in the semi-privacy that characterizes present day e-speech.
Besides, intermingled with these occasoinal purgative interpersonal staff encounters are more general concerns about station policies and their implementation, its finances, website, publications, equipment maintenance and all the other critical information flows and infrastructure. It can include goring of the station's sacred cows) and criticism of the station manager's style of executing her position
Regrettably Manager McGuiness seems to take fright at such evidence of genuine discourse among equals and has had the group shut down. While she may not even be aware of it, her latest action is one more in a series of essentially anti-democracy initiatives since her taking on the job. Reminiscent of the US foreign policy of dividing occupiedIraq into separate camps, the station's debating sides are to be protected from each others ideas and opinions.
But quashing collective discussion of or disagreement with her management schema, ending weekly decisionmaking staff meetings, replacing them with a host of committees whose every decision is subject to her veto; continuing a pocket veto of efforts by programmers to review station's finances; a seeming disinclination to notify certain "loose cannon" (her phrase) programmers when meeting times and agendas change; and the assumption of final authority to grant or deny new programmers slots on the "community radio" station's schedule--which is nearly bare of local community-related programming--none of these are appropriate for a community radio station.
McGuiness once explained her fundamental governance philosophy to me. WRFR's programmers are, inthe main, "sheep", I was informed, incapable of competent collective action, and must needs be herded about by the "strong" personalities among the station crew. There's something positively Ayn Rand-ish, Jack London-ish about that point of view, something I find to be ...incongruent with my notion of Community.
What I am encountering of course, is simply a radically different weltbild , or world view, in action. A hierarchic one, vertically integrating the station, its staff and programmers into a Quite a valid way of being, it is nevertheless nearly the opposite of my own more horizontally integrated metaphysic of give and take and innovation.
Coupled with her perception of the station's former use of weekly staff meetings to consider issues and make decisions, as a "quagmire", Ms McGuiness appears to have a bit of a fa_c_st tendency, perhaps appropriate in this "Lost Age" that the residents of planet earth are stumbling through at present
Vertical and horizontal organization are both perfectly legitimate ways of being in the world, but the former is, alas, turning out at WRFR to be very unforgiving of dissent or disputation with the established order, no matter how recently that order has been established. While this might be useful, necessary even, in the armed services, our community radio station is not a platoon; our community is not a war zone.
In fact, the sole host whose shows focus on local community issues (Penobscot Bay and Maine State Prison) may himself be at risk of being booted out for publicly criticizing the pace and priorities the manager has chosen, and for promoting shows apparently not consistent with her wishes. Uh oh...that 'sole host' is me! Here! Now!
Sigh. Watch this space.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Humble Farmer on WRFR Community radio? Not if some have their way.
Robert Skoglund, better known by his comedy persona "humble farmer" left Maine Public Radio after the network began censoring his shows and finally required him to sign a promise not to venture any opinions about our nation's political leaders in his commentaries. He left MPR, of course, and has been podcasting since.
Now, there is an effort to get his show on WRFR-FM, a low power community radio airing in Knox County, humble's home. But if the new station manager has her way, he won't appear there, either.
Why? Let's examine the case against humble. One will, I fear, find it a very thin case indeed.
*Issue 1. Humble has a commercial on his pre-recorded show. WRFR is non-commercial. Can't air him!
Response. In fact, after the conclusion of the show's podcast there is a pause and then the plug for his B&B follows. To nip that off the end is the matter of a few seconds.
*Issue 2. He is just going to have a show on air; he won't be participating as a volunteer. Can't air him!
Response: If participation as a volunteer is requisite, than about 80% of the shows on WRFR have got to go, as, by all estimates, that is the % of programmers that don't do any volunteer work. Moreover, who says he won't volunteer? He's written he'll help the station whatever way he can best do so.
* Issue 3. WRFR has been around for 5 years. Why hasn't Humble been involved with the station to date? Can't air him!
Response. His contract with Maine public radio contract forbade it. Now he's no longer working for them. He wants to air on WRFR. What's the problem?
* Issue 4. Humble doesn't do local content. Can't air him!
Response: Every one of humble's shows features anecdotes about local people, from local fishermen to local artists. His latest show features Rockland fisherman Billy Anderson:
"Billy Anderson said that he made three fishing trips out to the Grand Banks with an Icelander...."
Last week's show: "We were talking about all the artists in St. George, Maine and how, if you live here, you know a lot of the people who pose for artists......"
About as "local" content as one can get for a station that airs in Rockland and Saint George, Maine. Certainly there's more local content in humble's shows than nearly anyone else's on WRFR.
Issue 5. Humble is syndicated. If WRFR let's him in, other syndicated shows will surely demand entrance. Can't air him!
Response: Humble's radio show runs on a single other radio station, WDNA Community Radio in Florida, where he lives in the winter.
So there are no sensible objections to humble farmer being on WRFR; we will try to winkle out what it is exactly that gives the manager and programming committee of WRFR such heebee jeebies about the humble farmer, one of the most well known people of our community.
Stay tuned.
Now, there is an effort to get his show on WRFR-FM, a low power community radio airing in Knox County, humble's home. But if the new station manager has her way, he won't appear there, either.
Why? Let's examine the case against humble. One will, I fear, find it a very thin case indeed.
*Issue 1. Humble has a commercial on his pre-recorded show. WRFR is non-commercial. Can't air him!
Response. In fact, after the conclusion of the show's podcast there is a pause and then the plug for his B&B follows. To nip that off the end is the matter of a few seconds.
*Issue 2. He is just going to have a show on air; he won't be participating as a volunteer. Can't air him!
Response: If participation as a volunteer is requisite, than about 80% of the shows on WRFR have got to go, as, by all estimates, that is the % of programmers that don't do any volunteer work. Moreover, who says he won't volunteer? He's written he'll help the station whatever way he can best do so.
* Issue 3. WRFR has been around for 5 years. Why hasn't Humble been involved with the station to date? Can't air him!
Response. His contract with Maine public radio contract forbade it. Now he's no longer working for them. He wants to air on WRFR. What's the problem?
* Issue 4. Humble doesn't do local content. Can't air him!
Response: Every one of humble's shows features anecdotes about local people, from local fishermen to local artists. His latest show features Rockland fisherman Billy Anderson:
"Billy Anderson said that he made three fishing trips out to the Grand Banks with an Icelander...."
Last week's show: "We were talking about all the artists in St. George, Maine and how, if you live here, you know a lot of the people who pose for artists......"
About as "local" content as one can get for a station that airs in Rockland and Saint George, Maine. Certainly there's more local content in humble's shows than nearly anyone else's on WRFR.
Issue 5. Humble is syndicated. If WRFR let's him in, other syndicated shows will surely demand entrance. Can't air him!
Response: Humble's radio show runs on a single other radio station, WDNA Community Radio in Florida, where he lives in the winter.
So there are no sensible objections to humble farmer being on WRFR; we will try to winkle out what it is exactly that gives the manager and programming committee of WRFR such heebee jeebies about the humble farmer, one of the most well known people of our community.
Stay tuned.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Maine's WRFR LP FM: still growing pains, five years in....
As WRFR LPFM heads into its sixth year of operations, the station management, moribund for a quarter decade, has now moved into the hands of Cathy McGuinness. (CM) CM has a bit of experience at a west coast station; she hosted a show at WRFR for 6 months before being tapped for the station manager job, (to the dismay of some who felt there were more qualified. candidates) But so it goes...
Over the past month, CM has been busy reorganizing the station's operations and administration.
Major Change 1. Meetings. Formerly a democracy of volunteers debating and voting on policy and decisions, with the station manager executing those decisions, WRFR now has a more imperial management style. One whereby the station manager makes decisions unilaterally, with the volunteers relegated to committees , whose heads are to confirm or not CM's decisions.
Further, CM has dropped the historic use of standard meeting protocol (old business, new business, motions & votes) , adopting instead a 'briefing' style of governance, in which she presents her newest plans and decisions to the assembled, whose responses must wait until she's done. While questions may be replied to, there is no binding vote the volunteers can make on the new policies. The clumsiness of this approach is borne out by...
Major Change 2. The haphazard way that new DJs or spoken work programmers get approved to go on air.
Historically, a DJ wannabe showed up at the regular Saturday volunteers meeting, did a dog and pony show, filled out a membership form, asked to read the list of Do's and Don'ts. The new programmer would be asked to sit in on someone else's show once or twice to learn the basic procedures first hand. After which, the new DJ selects his or her first one hour slot and begins doing a show, typically with a veteran programmer at hand in case of confusion. That's it.
Now?
A programming committee has been set up. At its first meeting (which I didn't attend after CM assured me was only to discuss committee organizational matters) at least one new show was approved and another, a fait accompli grab of four hours by country DJ Larry Beckwith was recognized. More about him later.
But the response when proposals are submitted for two prominent local entertainers (comic Humble Farmer, and Blues guitarist/producer Blind Albert, is a waspish statement that the programming committee "is still trying to get it's self together and figure out which end is up."
Mindful of Gulliver's Big Endians and the Little Endians: the struggle between Lilliputians who preferred cracking open their soft-boiled eggs from the little end, and Blefuscans who preferred the big end; I'm not too sanguine that any end will be up any time soon.
But not to worry. A cheery note from the ProgComm: "Just hang tight, ok?"
Hanging on in Rockland.
Ron
Oh yes, Larry...... This gentleman is now up to twenty two hours on air; the average DJ on WRFR has 2 hours. The fact of this grotesque disparity is simply unmentionable to polite people, so I'll explain to all ye unwashed:
Mr. B, it is said, is a special case. How special? He simply takes any hours he wants. He threatens to drop all his shows if any of his hours including the newly acquired ones are trimmed back. He has physically assaulted several programmers, and thoroughly bullied the last two station managers; he has a criminal record of handgun violence; staff are warned not to upset him, lest....?!?
Ah, but this is counterbalanced in the minds of three successive station managers by the fact that he is over 70 years old and "has nothing else to do". Pretty flimsy rationale, but in the modern world, backing up threats with violence usually gets you your way. Snowy bearded and avuncular-as-Santa-Claus though he may be, Beckwith's use of fear and loathing as a programming tool, is probably without parallel in the known radio universe.
Over the past month, CM has been busy reorganizing the station's operations and administration.
Major Change 1. Meetings. Formerly a democracy of volunteers debating and voting on policy and decisions, with the station manager executing those decisions, WRFR now has a more imperial management style. One whereby the station manager makes decisions unilaterally, with the volunteers relegated to committees , whose heads are to confirm or not CM's decisions.
Further, CM has dropped the historic use of standard meeting protocol (old business, new business, motions & votes) , adopting instead a 'briefing' style of governance, in which she presents her newest plans and decisions to the assembled, whose responses must wait until she's done. While questions may be replied to, there is no binding vote the volunteers can make on the new policies. The clumsiness of this approach is borne out by...
Major Change 2. The haphazard way that new DJs or spoken work programmers get approved to go on air.
Historically, a DJ wannabe showed up at the regular Saturday volunteers meeting, did a dog and pony show, filled out a membership form, asked to read the list of Do's and Don'ts. The new programmer would be asked to sit in on someone else's show once or twice to learn the basic procedures first hand. After which, the new DJ selects his or her first one hour slot and begins doing a show, typically with a veteran programmer at hand in case of confusion. That's it.
Now?
A programming committee has been set up. At its first meeting (which I didn't attend after CM assured me was only to discuss committee organizational matters) at least one new show was approved and another, a fait accompli grab of four hours by country DJ Larry Beckwith was recognized. More about him later.
But the response when proposals are submitted for two prominent local entertainers (comic Humble Farmer, and Blues guitarist/producer Blind Albert, is a waspish statement that the programming committee "is still trying to get it's self together and figure out which end is up."
Mindful of Gulliver's Big Endians and the Little Endians: the struggle between Lilliputians who preferred cracking open their soft-boiled eggs from the little end, and Blefuscans who preferred the big end; I'm not too sanguine that any end will be up any time soon.
But not to worry. A cheery note from the ProgComm: "Just hang tight, ok?"
Hanging on in Rockland.
Ron
Oh yes, Larry...... This gentleman is now up to twenty two hours on air; the average DJ on WRFR has 2 hours. The fact of this grotesque disparity is simply unmentionable to polite people, so I'll explain to all ye unwashed:
Mr. B, it is said, is a special case. How special? He simply takes any hours he wants. He threatens to drop all his shows if any of his hours including the newly acquired ones are trimmed back. He has physically assaulted several programmers, and thoroughly bullied the last two station managers; he has a criminal record of handgun violence; staff are warned not to upset him, lest....?!?
Ah, but this is counterbalanced in the minds of three successive station managers by the fact that he is over 70 years old and "has nothing else to do". Pretty flimsy rationale, but in the modern world, backing up threats with violence usually gets you your way. Snowy bearded and avuncular-as-Santa-Claus though he may be, Beckwith's use of fear and loathing as a programming tool, is probably without parallel in the known radio universe.
Monday, July 23, 2007
WRFR Community Radio under new management. New owner next?
Five years into broadcasting live local radio to coastal Knox County,Maine, low power FM community radio WRFR lpfm 93.3 Rockland/99.3 Camden takes on its third station manager on August 1, 2007.
Cathy McGuinness takes the helm August 1st. Her tasks are twofold - coordinate fundraising and simultaneously guide WRFR's low power FM license to a new non-profit home. The transition comes as the station's dynamic and charismatic founder Joe Steinberger (on left in photo) moves on to pursue other interests, and his interim replacement Emily Sapienza moves to a reporter's job at VillageSoup Times .
A group of programmers are looking to form a nonprofit organization to host the radio station.
WRFR LPFM broadcasts from studios in Rockland, with repeater station W257BI in Rockport. The station's volunteer programmers produce a diverse mix of country, classical, folk, rock, jazz, Christian, pop and other music.
WRFR also boasts a spectrum-spanning spoken-word show mix, ranging from news and comment to improving life skills, oversight of Maine state prison, military history, bible discussions, poetry and science fiction readings, book reviews, commercial fisheries news, Penobscot Bay area environmental news, and more. See station schedule.
WRFR's 100 watt transmitter in Rockland is licensed to the Penobscot School, the 150 watt repeater antenna in Rockport is licensed to the Community School in Camden.
WRFR began broadcasting on Valentine’s Day in 2002. Rockland attorney Joseph L. Steinberger founded the station in frustration at the limits on public access to the airwaves in the Knox County area. Steinberger describes these beginnings in a recent column.
A respected public defender representing indigent defendants before the District and Superior Courts in Rockland, Steinberger successfully applied to the FCC during the first round of licensing, making Rockland on of the first cities in America with a low power fm community radio license.
"I wanted it to be something that could be embraced by the whole community, and not have it be a very left- or right-oriented thing," said Steinberger in a Bangor Daily News article. "Not an elite thing. It is to be a medium for local discussion and talent. It’s not about being an alternative. It’s about being local."
About low power FM Radio:
* FCC's LPFM webpage
* Wikipedia on LPFM
* Prometheus Radio Project
To Contact WRFR:
WRFR 93.3 LPFM
20 Gay Street,
Rockland, Maine 04841
www.wrfr.org
(207) 594-0721
wrfr@wrfr.org
Cathy McGuinness takes the helm August 1st. Her tasks are twofold - coordinate fundraising and simultaneously guide WRFR's low power FM license to a new non-profit home. The transition comes as the station's dynamic and charismatic founder Joe Steinberger (on left in photo) moves on to pursue other interests, and his interim replacement Emily Sapienza moves to a reporter's job at VillageSoup Times .
A group of programmers are looking to form a nonprofit organization to host the radio station.
WRFR LPFM broadcasts from studios in Rockland, with repeater station W257BI in Rockport. The station's volunteer programmers produce a diverse mix of country, classical, folk, rock, jazz, Christian, pop and other music.
WRFR also boasts a spectrum-spanning spoken-word show mix, ranging from news and comment to improving life skills, oversight of Maine state prison, military history, bible discussions, poetry and science fiction readings, book reviews, commercial fisheries news, Penobscot Bay area environmental news, and more. See station schedule.
WRFR's 100 watt transmitter in Rockland is licensed to the Penobscot School, the 150 watt repeater antenna in Rockport is licensed to the Community School in Camden.
WRFR began broadcasting on Valentine’s Day in 2002. Rockland attorney Joseph L. Steinberger founded the station in frustration at the limits on public access to the airwaves in the Knox County area. Steinberger describes these beginnings in a recent column.
A respected public defender representing indigent defendants before the District and Superior Courts in Rockland, Steinberger successfully applied to the FCC during the first round of licensing, making Rockland on of the first cities in America with a low power fm community radio license.
"I wanted it to be something that could be embraced by the whole community, and not have it be a very left- or right-oriented thing," said Steinberger in a Bangor Daily News article. "Not an elite thing. It is to be a medium for local discussion and talent. It’s not about being an alternative. It’s about being local."
About low power FM Radio:
* FCC's LPFM webpage
* Wikipedia on LPFM
* Prometheus Radio Project
To Contact WRFR:
WRFR 93.3 LPFM
20 Gay Street,
Rockland, Maine 04841
www.wrfr.org
(207) 594-0721
wrfr@wrfr.org
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