LAID-OFF KUAT EMPLOYEE QUESTIONS STATION’S COMMITMENT TO
CLASSICAL MUSIC
A former employee has called out Jack Gibson, the general
manager of Arizona Public Media—the umbrella entity that
houses UA public-media entities KUAT Channel 6 and radio
stations KUAT FM 90.5 and KUAZ FM 89.1/AM
1550—after another round of cutbacks.
Steve Hahn, who worked with KUAT FM 90.5 for much of his
24-year Arizona Public Media tenure—most recently as its music
director—was one of three people released from the radio side in
an early May layoff cycle that affected four full-time and three
part-time employees within the organization.
Hahn says the latest cuts have decimated the classical-music
operation.
“The (radio cutbacks) were very key positions,” Hahn says. “One was
our full-time classical announcer (David Harrington, in the
position for more than a decade), and (another was) my position,
leaving a grand total of two full-timers for the entire radio
operation: the program manager, who’s not even on the air, and one
full-time morning classical announcer (James Reel, who also
serves as the Tucson Weekly‘s art editor). Every single
other person there is a part-timer.”
Hahn was already upset about KUAT’s use of a syndicated satellite
feed from Minnesota, added to the station’s cycle in the evenings and
overnight. He argued that the feed hindered KUAT’s continuity regarding
musical selections and the delivery of DJs. He said the latest cutbacks
could move the station further in a generic, less-locally influenced
direction.
“I see the systematic destruction of this station. This classical
format is an award-winning format. … We have listeners from all over
the world. We were named one of the best classical formats in the
country by American Record Guide magazine. My programming. Our
announcers. This is disregarding the legacy we have as one of the
finest classical music stations in the country. Why? When you see the
systematic degradation of the station and its resources, you wonder if
(Gibson) is trying to prove the station can’t succeed. Will it then
fail so he can justify selling the signal? There are still broadcasters
in this market who will pay millions of dollars for a nice FM signal.
That can fund a lot of television production.”
Hahn says the radio station has been required to refer to itself as
being under the banner of Arizona Public Media, a move he feels has led
to a loss of identity for KUAT, the radio station. Further, Hahn
believes the use of television personalities to read radio news was
meant to benefit the TV side of the operation—at the expense of
the radio side.
“The news department has been decimated. It’s in the worst shape
it’s ever been in. This affects the news side of the operation, but the
classical side as well,” Hahn said. “(Gibson) did this by creating this
category of employee called the ‘content producer.’ Nobody is any
longer a reporter. If you look at the staffing, only two guys read
news. The rest are TV guys who come over on loan occasionally. I think
it’s a specific strategy to eliminate that identity. There’s no
reporting done at all. It’s an embarrassment for a public station.
(They) get the (Arizona Daily) Star in the morning and
rewrite a couple of stories. They don’t even do phone interviews.
“Half the time, our promotional announcements on the radio stations
are promoting television programs. It’s almost like they’re feeder
stations for the television programming.”
Gibson defends the direction of KUAT-FM and Arizona Public Media,
and notes that Arizona Public Media’s membership support continues to
grow, which is not the case at all public-broadcasting organizations
around the country.
“We have no plans to expand use of the satellite classical music
service from Minnesota Public Radio beyond the evening and overnight
hours … where we have broadcast the service for years,” Gibson says
in an e-mail. “The remaining hours, those with the greatest audience,
will still be uniquely programmed by our own staff, and presentation of
the music will continue to be by local announcers. We are also
investing in our radio infrastructure. We have just received a grant,
which we will match with local dollars, to upgrade our aging AM
transmitter to the new (high definition) radio format.”
Gibson also argues that cross-platform promotion is beneficial to
all aspects of Arizona Public Media.
“After the radio community relations director resigned to take
another position at the University of Arizona in early 2004 (before I
arrived in Tucson), it was decided to combine and coordinate the
marketing for all of the stations in the group within a single
department,” Gibson said. “We recently enlarged our public-relations
and marketing staffs and have made great and very effective strides in
cross-promoting television and radio programming on all of our
platforms, including the Web, in order to reach larger audiences who
are likely to be interested in the programming we provide on other
platforms.”
This focus on image has led to some discontent within the
organization. Hahn is the second long-term former employee (former news
reporter Bill Mortimer was critical of Arizona Public Media’s
direction in an interview with the Weekly last July) to publicly
chastise management. It’s rare for former media employees to lash out
at the old boss. Part of that is likely due to hush clauses included in
severance packages, along with the fear of burning bridges, which might
reflect poorly in future job searches.
Privately, criticisms of Gibson’s reign have been plentiful.
“I don’t want some weasel-y PR guy at the station saying, ‘Hahn’s
disgruntled, and we had to get rid of him because of budget problems,'”
Hahn said. “This is an open secret by now. His whole thing is PR and
image, and nothing else matters than spinning that image. The first day
he arrived, he did this cosmetic upgrade to the station area, which is
located in the basement of the Modern Languages Building. We had to get
new tile and pastel accents and neon signs, all this bullshit to
present this image of just how successful we are, while we’ve abandoned
our core mission of serving our audience with substantial
programming.”
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 3, 2009.
All good points, John Schuster.
But don’t you have to kinda wonder at Arizona Public Media’s 24/7 presentation over at their digital 27.2 (kids)?
It’s cartoons at 2 a.m. brought to you by The State of Arizona! Next thing you know, the wee ones will be ripping off your VISA to buy the Yanni DVD! When they should be asleep.
Here’s the KUAT KIDS lineup:
http://tv.azpm.org/schedules/kuatkids/
I used to work for KUAT, until several months after Jack Gibson arrived at the station. I can confirm many of Steve’s claims, and the rest are certainly plausible given my experiences and what I’ve heard since leaving.
Jack Gibson puts appearances and rash decisions above all else, to the detriment of station operations and personnel. It saddens me to see that the station that I and many others loved working at has become a wasteful, soul-sucking enterprise.
The fact is classical public stations are dead. You no longer have a monopoly on great classical music. Internet, Sirius, XM, 3G and 4G wireless have all eliminated the need for this type of station. This isn’t the 1970’s and while Hahn has been sucking at the public teat for 24 years, he should have been keeping up with what’s really going on in traditional media. His lack of industry knowledge and innovation is not a reason to lash out and those “new-fangled” concepts like cross-promotion and cluster branding.
I, too, used to work for KUAT, now AzPM, until after Jack Gibson arrived at the station. I believe the total of our group, who used to work at KUAT, now totals more than 40%. It is appalling to note that the public relations and marketing staffs are increasing, while the direct providers of KUAT’s services are decreasing even more. I’d like to see how the money being raised now is being spent!
It’s rare to find a staff so devoted to their work and their mission. Such a shame to hamper them with Gibson ~ a true liability to the station and the community. He is so widely disliked no wonder the station morale is so low.
You can count me in as one who “used to work for KUAT” as well. I loved working there until Gibson came on board and began his reign of terror. After only a few weeks everyone was either looking for other work or looking over their shoulder. It began with his bringing key personnel into his office to ask them to give him dirt on everyone. I suggest he does not care about any human being but himself and who knows what his agenda is as he thinks nothing about lying to his staff… he certainly lied to me. I often wonder now if his mission isn’t to somehow get rid of Arizona Public Media altogether and absolutely KUAT Radio.
If you want to hear really good classical radio check out what’s going on at Portland’s allclassical.org, a shining example of what can happen when true commitment and passion for the music is an organizational underlying principle. Too bad that concept wasn’t grabbed onto and developed over the years at KUAT. Tucson deserves so much more than it’s ever gotten from that very, very cynical division of the U of A. Truly a shame.
There is no question that Jack Gibson has singlehandedly devastated what was once a true community asset and a shining professional example to other programs nationally. The question is, what can be done about it? He is a master at kissing up, so everyone above him administratively thinks he’s divine, it’s only those “below” him who smell his stench. His possible goal to wreck the Tucson operation and merge with Phoenix? Whatever it is, it is all about him, and about making himself look good to the world and those above him. Jack cares nothing for what people can do, only whether he can tell them what to do. Those people remain, and those with talent and integrity are fired because they obviously threaten him. The pattern is overwhelming.
Ah, life in the media…self absorbed. Having said that I listen to KUAT regularly and get a kick out of the esoteric programming. The station regularly plays things that have never been heard in NYC, let alone the Sonoran Desert.
BUT, how many people in Tucson listen to KUAT, besides the staff what is their audience?
Given that there are so few classical stations left in the US, I count it a miracle that we even have one. I send in a big check every June earmarked for KUAT and I suggest others who want to see the station continue do the same.
Nobody listens to that station anymore. Why? (you ask) Because it’s unlistenable. Signal has been seriously degraded, barely audible in places it once ruled. (Someone needs to explain that.) Announcers are horrible, including the morning guy. And Steve Hahn has over the years made Beethoven play second fiddle to crappy recordings of crappy music that was justified in his mind as being “deserving of a wider audience”. Bull crap, Steve. Good riddance.
No more posts in a month? Unbelievable.
I first started listening to KUAT-FM in the 1990’s when we came to visit. When WCAL-FM in Northfield, MN discontinued online services (we lived in Utah at the time) I switched my office online music to KUAT-FM.
Then, there was in-house programming all during the day, and well into the evening some days. There was an announcing staff of some 8-10 individuals, all of whom seemed quite knowledgeable about classical music – and all of whom could pass WFMT’s announcing test!
Things have obviously changed – and NOT for the better. Now, there is one full-time announcer, and a bunch of non-descript individuals whose ability seems to range from barely satisfactory to somewhere below mediocre. I have repeatedly asked, via e-mail, for the station to publish information on its website regarding its announcers (I prefer to call them program hosts, since they are really professionals) with never a reply, and certainly no results on the web site.
The loss of David Harrington is, to me, tragic. He has the perfect voice for a classical music station; he is extremely knowledgeable about classical music; and he is no longer on the air. What a pity.
I have no way of knowing who is at fault for all this, although there is some insight in the previous posts.
I suggest the management of KUAT-FM check out the website of SaveWCAL; this group has filed against St Olaf College for selling the station to MPR, based on the fact that the accumulated donations to the station constituted a charitable trust, and that using these funds and any proceeds from them for any other purpose other than broadcasting classical music was a violation of the public interest. And I think they will win.
By the way, what is David Harington doing now? I would love to hear his voice on the air again. If it is available online, and anybody knows, please let us know.
And Richard Hetland, you were great when you were on the air a couple of years ago. Wish we could hear you again.
Just wanted to add that Steve shouldn’t really be to blame for the station sounding as bad as it does. He was just an unsupported grunt working for a team of incompetent, vision less, fearful and mean-spirited bullies who should get the credit. Number one is Jack Gibson, of course, but John Kelley and Ed Kesterson certainly deserve honorable mention, as long as we’re at it. They’re the ones who have used the choke hold bestowed upon them by the U of A to gut this community’s classical music radio service. But they can’t really be blamed, either. They’re just mental pygmies incapable of original thought and can only mimic the work of other similarly empowered radio programming “gurus” around the country. The only reason we still have a 24 hour classical station in Tucson is because of the ten years that KUAT lags behind everyone else in the “business”. Don’t worry, it will go away soon. KUAT…where Beethoven meets the mental pygmies of the Sonoran desert…
I have never heard of Arizona Public Media but I have heard of KUAT. I will support KUAT but not some undefinable APM.
Its a shame that local programming and local talent is always being undermined. I’ll remember this next time someone comes asking me for money. I’ll look at who is doing the asking.
Its a tough world out there, but WFMT streams and I can now even get it on my smartphone. Some like Serius, which I admit is the antithesis of a local station, but at least you can get it when you are driving across west Texas. But I think WFMT is the model, if you have an involved enough listener base, they will get what they want. How about a KUAT listener group?
The APM approach dilutes the image of all its components, and is a very difficult concept to manage.
Because of the shared tower arrangement with TV channel 6, the KUAT signal has always been subject to the whims of management. Sometime shortly after the arrival of John Kelley as station manager, changes were made to favor the anticipated growth of NPR news/talk programming on KUAZ’s FM signal at 89.1…these changes, I suspect, came at the expense of the 90.5 classical music service. It should all be in the public file if anyone cares to look, which is doubtful. The idea would be to keep the service alive, if just barely, and still be able to tap the riches of the dying swan of a classical music audience. Why anyone would give under these circumstances is completely beyond me, but those legacy gifts can be handsome. I’d hate to think I was leaving something significant to an organization that would not be using it in the manner in which it was intended. My prediction is that one day, sooner than later, management will announce a format change in which 90.5 will keep a few token hours of classical music (probably pulled from the satellite) and use the remainder of air-time to duplicate it’s news/talk format, which is what a lot of similar, university licensed operations across the country have been doing for some time now. I don’t think anyone will care much, though. What’s on your kids I-pod?
Thanks for your comments, Richard. You were always a very capable and listenable program host. And I wish you were back. But I understand why you are not.
I care a lot. Not enough to donate any of my diminishing funds to the current powers in charge. But I care a lot about classical music, and since moving to Green Valley almost 5 years ago, have anguished over the direction that KUAT-FM has taken. Don’t the people-in-charge get it? The listeners are NOT happy with the departure of David Harrington, and most of the part-timers since then have not been worth – well, I won’t say it.
You know a lot more than I do about the intimate operations of the station. But broadcasting of classical music in southern AZ cannot be allowed to die out. What needs to be done to stop this from happening? I am an accountant by profession, so know little about the technicalities of running a radio staion.
You are a pro: is there anything that can be done?
Hey, Norm! I don’t have a facebook, or myspace, so we can just hook up here every 8 months or so if you want to chat, although we may not actually have that much to talk about, come to think of it. No use beating a dead horse.
Thanks for your kind words, though. Best advice I can give is, if you see something that looks like crap, smells like crap and even sounds like crap….it’s probably crap. Best thing to do is try not to step in it.