UPHEAVAL AT THE JOLT LEADS TO SPECULATION ABOUT THE FUTURE
In its dozen-year existence, KJLL AM 1330 has always struggled—and just as it appeared that the radio station might be achieving a modicum of success with a brokered-show-driven financial model, the manager who was turning things around was let go, and a new manager entered the equation.
Since that new manager’s introduction to staff on Feb. 14, much of the station’s crew has departed—and some of them do not have nice things to say.
Dawn Avalon, who has been described as a friend of station owner Dr. Stanley Sprei (Sprei’s wife, Aldona, ran the station before she died in 2009), now handles the day-to-day operations of the AM signal as vice president of Jolt parent company Hudson Communications.
Avalon replaced former general manager John C. Scott, who remains on the station in a brokered-show capacity, meaning that he pays the station for the opportunity to broadcast the John C. Scott Show, a lynchpin of current-events and local talk in this market.
“I’m going to keep doing the two-hour talk show, and I think there’s a place for it in the market,” said Scott, who agreed to a six-month extension of the program earlier this month. “Do you try to keep it as long as you can to provide income? Yes. Are there people who will still buy (advertising on) it? Yes. Do people listen to it? Yes. Can you be proud of some of the shows? Yes. I can keep it independent. We keep our accounts; nobody’s telling us what to do.”
While Scott has managed to maintain a presence at The Jolt, other long-time employees were not as fortunate.
Joel Caton, with the station since almost its inception; Nicole Cox, employed for a decade as news director and most recently the station’s business manager; and Chuck Aubrey, an employee of more than seven years who handled news responsibilities and hosted the weekend conspiracy-theory show Gnosis or Psychosis, were all casualties of the change at the top.
Just last week, KJLL management received word that Cox has filed a lawsuit against the organization, seeking monies for back payments and damage to her personal and professional reputation. Aubrey also says he has not received his final check from KJLL.
Publicly, Avalon is something of a mystery, and has refused numerous efforts on the Weekly’s behalf to get comment, including a face-to-face meeting in her office at the station about two weeks ago. At that time, she told me that because of Dave Hatfield‘s story on KJLL in the May 27 Inside Tucson Business (which is a sister publication of the Tucson Weekly), she was considering providing an exclusive interview, in part because she liked what the Tucson Weekly did. She declined to speak then and there, and said she would be able to speak the following week. Once informed that there were plans to run this story on June 9—meaning that she needed to speak to me right away—she said if that happened, she would not be available for a follow-up and would instead have to give her exclusive to the Arizona Daily Star.
I decided to accommodate her wishes for an extra week, and this column was pushed back. However, Avalon did not return multiple messages, left through multiple channels and approaches.
The forum remains open. Enjoy that exclusive, Arizona Daily Star.
Aubrey says Avalon has no qualifications to run a radio station—other than the fact that she has some sort of relationship with the owner.
“What radio stations has she worked for? Decisions made have been so bad that you had to know it was going to make the situation worse, which brings up the question: Why are you doing it?” said Aubrey, who claims one of Avalon’s first executive decisions was to cut employee pay by 20 percent. (There are also indications that checks may be bouncing, a frustrating occurrence common during The Jolt’s pre-John C. Scott-management era—something that employees say Scott quickly rectified.) “Do you just want to kill it off and sell off the pieces with the doctor holding the bag? I don’t know. It certainly can’t be to preserve it. When your clientele and staff are leaving in droves, you’re not going to be staying on the air.”
For the record, a number of brokered shows do remain on KJLL, although it lost a plum when former Arizona Illustrated anchor Bill Buckmaster took his hour-long daily program to KVOI AM 1030.
“She obviously knows two things about the radio business, jack and shit, and jack left town,” said Aubrey. “She obviously has nothing to suggest real management skills. You can’t believe anything that comes out of this lady’s mouth. She is not anything trustworthy. It’s very sad she’s managed to run what was a good independent radio station into the ground. There’s no place for it to go.”
Since Avalon has yet to publicly detail her vision for the Jolt, speculation has naturally taken hold. Among the elephants in the room: the land on which the Jolt’s towers sit, which is part of a cluster of pristine property that Sprei owns in the foothills—a parcel which may carry a value far more significant than any of the radio station’s assets.
“I was there for about 7 1/2 years, and there was so much week-to-week and month-to-month chaos, and we finally start gaining traction,” Aubrey said. “Of all the possible demises for the radio station, I never would have seen it coming from that direction. You took a place that was finally able to sustain itself—just barely, but it was in the black, finally—and shot it in the foot while running a marathon. I don’t know how much longer that station is going to be on the air, literally. It’s sad. It was a great station. I loved working there.”
This article appears in Jun 16-22, 2011.
“Lynchpin?” Really? Ha ha.
That was awesome, Lamp5435tea.
Randy Howard or Bill Randall as he is known posted that poem. He is a bitter old man who just wants to hurt the owner and Avalon. Sick, very sick.
If they are only stiffs, how can they be penalized financially? They must have an interest in the company or had something going on off to the side to make a fast buck. It doesn’t add up. No ratings means Scott sucked as a manager. Thats why he got canned. Maybe Scott, Cox, Caton and all have been sucking for years and thats why the station is broke and has no ratings. There is zero promotion. Seriously, who the hell cares about these people. They aren’t that great and can’t get a job anywhere else. The station is still a loser, run by losers. Abalon is just another loser to add on the list.
Punker – If you think the station was a loser, run by losers why do you show so much interest? Somehow I don’t think even you would be happy to take a serious cut in pay, if you’re employed. And perhaps you don’t understand the concept of embezzlement affecting a business and its employees. Maybe you should reread the article which clearly states the station was improving once Scott became the manager. And for the record, there are many who care about these people. They are fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, sons & daughters to those who love them and friends to many more. I hope someone in your life would have more compassion for you than what you have for those who received none from Avalon & Sprei.
I’ve got news for all of you…those who loved the station and those who despised it. The fact is that it NEVER had a chance of succeeding for a number of really critical reasons including:
1) awful signal
2) bad ownership
3) antique equipment
4) lack of capital to improve ANYTHING
Whoever it was that mentioned that the land the towers occupy if far more valuable than a broken down radio station with bottom-of-the-heap ratings. If you’re the owner, it makes a lot more sense to shut it down, sell the signal to some dimwitted sucker and then sell the land the transmitter and towers occupy.
The station has had a number of talented and caring managers in the more distant past whose efforts were frustrated at every turn by Aldona who preferred advice from her ouija board over that coming from experienced broadcasters. It was never a question of whether the station would ultimately fail.; The question was when. Even cats only have nine lives
Actually, punker, most stations suffer from the “no ratings syndrome” and thrive anyway because they still have a good sales staff. That wasn’t the case at the Jolt, (believe they had one salesperson), but that’s because most of the commercials were brought in by the brokered hosts to support the shows, cutting the station out of any profit or ability to fill the time with their own spots. In other words, it’s tough to sell time on a station where it’s already been sold to the hosts. You can denigrate, speculate and fling all the “loser” labels you like, but that doesn’t negate these people’s basic humanity or justify the way they were treated by their employer.
And to Randy Howard, a.k.a. Bill Randal: I wasn’t there, but a close friend of mine was and filled me in on the situation quite extensively. Can’t say I agree with your assessment about music past 1982, but you’re absolutely correct that that station, with it’s poor coverage due to tower location, would never pull in a 4.0 And who better to know than the engineer himself? Bitter poet laureate or not. Take care and best of luck in whatever comes next, to you and your fellow ex-employees!
Wasn’t RJ Fletcher the Guy who ran the station Opposite Wierd Al in UHF?
Kudos to figuring out the reference, Mr. Taylor! Whatever you do, don’t open the closet marked “supplies”…;)
The way I see it in this economy, if they walked out, they ARE losers. Like a bunch of spoiled children they complain & cry with remorse then make up a story and cause trouble. Grow the hell up.
I’m not Dawn. Yes, I read the story and know one of the hosts who airs at the jolt. I work in the industry, in Tucson, and I think it is terrible what you and everyone else is doing to her. It is uncalled for. What the hell did she do to you for such anger? If you are friends with the old jolt people, fine. We all have our comments, views and opinions but you are taking it way too far. Let them take it to court. Enough is enough. If you have nothing good or constructive to say, lay off it.
What a story. Add a comment? Sure. You can’t expect the former jolters to say anything good about Dawn Avalon so this is a one sided story to pump up John Schusters friends. Nice job John. BTW, there is no way anything or anyone can compare to what Kimberly Lopez did to that station. She ran it to hell and it has stayed there ever since.
1 year and six months later and time has proven this story and the posts following it to be filled with lies. The sole intent being to damage the owner and their business. Radio IS a business and it’s disappointing to see The Weekly allow a business to be damaged through the use of their forum. They should have researched the facts. Truth is, we don’t know what really happened with these people. I see Dawn Avalon is still there and the transformation of AM 1330 into a professional sounding station has taken place. Regardless of what happened behind the scenes, AM 1330 sounds great!
Three years later and 1330 is still on the air. Really makes you wonder WTF is going on here. Edgar Faulkner is an obvious troll. There’s a definite reason why Avalon sent those people packing. Where are they today? Where did all those jolt professionals go???? John C. Scott was asked to leave KVOI. He can’t even pay to be on the air in Tucson. Seems time provides a real explanation of what the truth is. Tucson Weekly should wake up and print truth instead of vengeful comments from people rightly fired from a job they didn’t deserve.
Clement, that is unsubstantiated and is a disgusting way to speak about a man who has mourned the loss of his wife way too soon.
He has been very lucky to find love again with Dawn. That kind of love, respect and compatibility is so rare.
Shame on you.
I’m sorry Clement. That was directed to “Checked and Balanced”.
FYI, Calling Dawn Avalon a criminal is really over the top. The Weekly shouldn’t allow that comment to remain. Just goes to show how low this rag has become and why it was sold to 10/13 Communications last month. Time unravels truth about people. In Tucson, with so many liars and evil people, you learn truth by comparing lies. John C. Scott stretches truth so much on his show, you can’t believe anything he says. He’s been through many stations over the years and that says a lot about the man. He’s now at the lowest rated station and pays to be there. Chuck Aubrey has been arrested for a firearms violation and assault on a peace officer and Randal Howard was charged with tax evasion. In 2013 he was arrested for indecent exposure when he was caught flashing customers at the Frys supermarket on 22nd. Is he nuts?