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KUSP on the Auction Block/Stop the Sale
KUSP's Foundation is voting Monday at 6pm on whether to sell its license. We need to stop it from happening. Come protest this atrocity. Community Foundation, 7807 Soquel Drive, Aptos.
Dear Friends,
For 40 years, KUSP has been a fixture in our community. I am writing to you because I was part of this great community radio station and I think our voices are critical in saving it.
On Monday, at their annual meeting (6pm, Community Foundation of SC County, Aptos) KUSP's foundation is voting on whether to sell its license. After spending lots of money trying to compete with KAZU by airing expensive NPR programs (many of them duplicated on KAZU) they are facing bankruptcy. This information has not been shared widely with listeners or donors.
Now, in a bind, the board is recommending the foundation sell the broadcast license to a southern California syndication company, Classical Public Radio Network, a group known for its predatory practices and bland Top-40 Classical music programming. Other options are to sell to KCRW or KAZU. No more "keeping it local". They have five proposals in front of them Monday, and only one doesn't involve selling. For more details, see attached pdf.
If you are in local arts, politics, nonprofits, or any other group who has had access to this station and the audience, please realize that is what's at stake. If you have not listened recently, it is still worth saving.
There is a sixth option the board at KUSP has not yet considered: Downsize. localize, and thrive. This means possibly losing staff, finding a cheaper studio to rent, and losing some beloved NPR programming (it can still be heard on KAZU or online). But it could also mean the return of locally-produced shows, live from the Kuumbwa, live from the Jazz Festival, and the revival of news and public affairs.
Other communities have vibrant, solvent, scrappy and relevant public and community radio stations. Check out WWOZ in New Orleans or KGNU in Boulder. When you tune in, you know exactly where you live and how special a place it is. In Cape Cod they have little "audio portraits" of local folks airing all the time. It means people connect to and feel pride in their community. KUSP has been, and can be that important.
Surely Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito Counties deserve the same? So many things nowadays seem to be out of our control. Not this.
Please join me in writing a letter, asap, to the board of directors of KUSP http://www.kusp.org/boards.shtml and urge them NOT to sell the license.
Or: even better, come to the meeting Monday at 6pm in Aptos and express yourself. Better to have said we tried to stop this and succeeded, than that we did nothing and felt sad about its outcome. I hope to see you there.
Yours truly,
Rachel Anne Goodman
Coastridge Productions
For 40 years, KUSP has been a fixture in our community. I am writing to you because I was part of this great community radio station and I think our voices are critical in saving it.
On Monday, at their annual meeting (6pm, Community Foundation of SC County, Aptos) KUSP's foundation is voting on whether to sell its license. After spending lots of money trying to compete with KAZU by airing expensive NPR programs (many of them duplicated on KAZU) they are facing bankruptcy. This information has not been shared widely with listeners or donors.
Now, in a bind, the board is recommending the foundation sell the broadcast license to a southern California syndication company, Classical Public Radio Network, a group known for its predatory practices and bland Top-40 Classical music programming. Other options are to sell to KCRW or KAZU. No more "keeping it local". They have five proposals in front of them Monday, and only one doesn't involve selling. For more details, see attached pdf.
If you are in local arts, politics, nonprofits, or any other group who has had access to this station and the audience, please realize that is what's at stake. If you have not listened recently, it is still worth saving.
There is a sixth option the board at KUSP has not yet considered: Downsize. localize, and thrive. This means possibly losing staff, finding a cheaper studio to rent, and losing some beloved NPR programming (it can still be heard on KAZU or online). But it could also mean the return of locally-produced shows, live from the Kuumbwa, live from the Jazz Festival, and the revival of news and public affairs.
Other communities have vibrant, solvent, scrappy and relevant public and community radio stations. Check out WWOZ in New Orleans or KGNU in Boulder. When you tune in, you know exactly where you live and how special a place it is. In Cape Cod they have little "audio portraits" of local folks airing all the time. It means people connect to and feel pride in their community. KUSP has been, and can be that important.
Surely Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito Counties deserve the same? So many things nowadays seem to be out of our control. Not this.
Please join me in writing a letter, asap, to the board of directors of KUSP http://www.kusp.org/boards.shtml and urge them NOT to sell the license.
Or: even better, come to the meeting Monday at 6pm in Aptos and express yourself. Better to have said we tried to stop this and succeeded, than that we did nothing and felt sad about its outcome. I hope to see you there.
Yours truly,
Rachel Anne Goodman
Coastridge Productions
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I worked for KUSP in the late 70s and early 80s as a remote broadcast assistant.
Later, much like KPIG was sold to outside interests and the staff 'downsized', KUSP became mainly an NPR outlet due to cuts in funding by the National Endowment for the Arts driving them to reduce staff and find material to air. NPR costs money to air but apparently the Pataphysical Broadcasting Foundation thought it more cost-effective.
The link below is the complete Bob Marley and the Wailers at the Santa Cruz Civic December 1979 I was assistant engineering from the remote broadcast van. Split stagebox feed to 24 track Yamaha mixer to air and 2 track Scully @ 7.5ips. If the audio sounds a little 'flat' it's due to pre-broadcast compression to avoid what the image above shows could happen at the 'user end'. It can be lively-ed up by lifting the midrange (2k - 8k) just a, as we used to say, "a CH..."
Later, much like KPIG was sold to outside interests and the staff 'downsized', KUSP became mainly an NPR outlet due to cuts in funding by the National Endowment for the Arts driving them to reduce staff and find material to air. NPR costs money to air but apparently the Pataphysical Broadcasting Foundation thought it more cost-effective.
The link below is the complete Bob Marley and the Wailers at the Santa Cruz Civic December 1979 I was assistant engineering from the remote broadcast van. Split stagebox feed to 24 track Yamaha mixer to air and 2 track Scully @ 7.5ips. If the audio sounds a little 'flat' it's due to pre-broadcast compression to avoid what the image above shows could happen at the 'user end'. It can be lively-ed up by lifting the midrange (2k - 8k) just a, as we used to say, "a CH..."
For more information:
https://mega.co.nz/#F!Oc1i0biZ!dMehu5rc5gs...
It is shameful to lose the station, there is no real solution at hand to continue with the amount of money owed.
Even if the station could downsize to a 1980 type KUSP, there is still 750,000 owed. How will that be repaid considering the interest?
Dave would have to re-lease the air studio and ONE office at a sustainable rate. Would he do that? Can a staff of 2-3 do all that's needed?
Will Don come back and bring sense into engineering again? He might have had enough already and rightly so.
Unless a donor or two or ten can come up with the debt, there's no way out of this one. As Lance said already, there just are not enough listeners and donors.
The only thing left is the 'net and that is what will probably happen: all internet broadcasting using the same or new domain. Maybe this will bring more music back.
JPW
Even if the station could downsize to a 1980 type KUSP, there is still 750,000 owed. How will that be repaid considering the interest?
Dave would have to re-lease the air studio and ONE office at a sustainable rate. Would he do that? Can a staff of 2-3 do all that's needed?
Will Don come back and bring sense into engineering again? He might have had enough already and rightly so.
Unless a donor or two or ten can come up with the debt, there's no way out of this one. As Lance said already, there just are not enough listeners and donors.
The only thing left is the 'net and that is what will probably happen: all internet broadcasting using the same or new domain. Maybe this will bring more music back.
JPW
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