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 lpfm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lpfm. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
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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