Peterson’s successful reign to conclude as GM at KXCI
In its more than 30 years of operation, community radio station KXCI 91.3 FM endured its shared of almost legendary internal spats. The concept of having a community funded, community driven radio station had the unexpected impact of leading to numerous community voices with very different agendas, and that discontent threatened to rattle the foundations of the concept on a number of occasions during the course of the organizations first two or so decades.
At times, KXCI was a mess, and almost as much an uncertain hodge podge behind the scenes as the eclectic nature of the often seemingly random music and programming choices that adorned its airwaves.
Randy Peterson witnessed that turmoil first-hand. Given that he was at the station for more than 15 years – half of its current life – he saw and experienced those issues from a unique, internal perspective. That recognition of KXCI’s dysfunction probably played a role in Peterson’s managing approach once he was finally vaulted to the position of GM a little over seven years ago.
Peterson concludes his stint as General Manager and Development Director in February. The search for a replacement is underway. His successor will inherit a position with significantly greater stability, and, if that’s the role of a GM, to leave the place in better shape than one found it, it could favorably be argued Peterson delivered one of the better stints as General Manager of an electronic media outlet in Tucson in recent memory.
Granted, the role of KXCI is unique. The station operates on a fundraising and donation model as opposed to needing advertising to support it, which is the more familiar approach among privately owned radio outlets. The private model is often also beholden to the whims of larger corporate interests based in home offices thousands of miles away.
Furthermore, KXCI has greater community input in the everyday operation than Arizona Public Media, the public broadcasting entity affiliated with NPR that functions under the UA umbrella.
This is about as close to by the people and for the people as radio can get—it’s also only functional in a handful of cities–and Peterson managed to play a significant role in bringing important facets together to dramatically enhance the overall product.
Start with fundraising. In celebration of its 30th anniversary, the station launched its Amplify Tucson! campaign in 2013. It had lofty goals: raise money for a new transmitter that could improve signal strength and allow residents along the northern most portion of the city and county to listen; improve studio functionality within the refurbished downtown house that has been home pretty much since its launch; and pay off the mortgage on the property, which is now even equipped with solar panels.
The community responded, to the tune of is over a half million dollars.
“Particular projects that I’m thrilled to have completed in my years at KXCI include the new transmitter that went live in August of this year, the installation of solar panels on the station’s roof, donated by Technicians for Sustainability, (and) the build-out on our second floor studios and Studio 2A performance space,” said Peterson via email. He hopes the recent success of the major fundraiser leads to a decrease in pledge drives in the years ahead. “I think my proudest accomplishments at KXCI include growing our audience with quality programming, which has allowed us to grow both our membership ranks and our overall revenue so that the station can focus on long-term success and not day-to-day survival. With that larger audience comes much fewer membership drives – we were at four drives a year when I started in 1999; now we do two main drives with a few special days thrown in. The continuing push to switch our members to sustaining memberships will also strengthen the station for the future and should continue to shorten our membership drives even further.”
Peterson believes that during his tenure, the station also enhanced its role as a major contributor to the well-being of Tucson’s arts and economic landscape.
“Along with growing our audience, we’ve been able to grow our impact in the community and our support for Tucson’s local music scene, and I’m proud of our success in both areas. We’re doing more to support our fellow non-profit, and our local musicians than ever before,” said Peterson, “and our lead role in creating 2nd Saturdays Downtown, which we continue to sponsor.”
During his tenure, KXCI has been awarded with its share of Tucson Weekly Best of Tucson radio station accolades, a 2012 LUMIE from the Tucson Pima Arts Council, and recognition for Peterson as a 40 Under 40 community leadership honor in 2011.
“That wouldn’t have been possible without the success of the station to support it,” Peterson said.
Peterson says he gave the prospect of departure serious thought in September, which marked his 15th anniversary with the station. While he doesn’t have another position lined up at the moment, he says he may have some leads. If all goes well, he’d like to stay in Tucson, and remain in the non-profit world.
This article appears in Dec 18-24, 2014.
Wow! I can hardly believe this. Yes Randy is intimately knowledgeable about the turmoil – from about the minute his good buddy Tony Ford showed up on the scene (and who is back as a board member and has entangled the station with HIS enterprise the Maker House).
Randy doesn’t get all the credit for bringing the station forward, there were a lot of community members that fought long and hard to wrest OUR station from the absolute siege mentality of a bunch of arrogant, unethical, resume-padding, contemptible jerks that were on the Board and in management at the time.
I hope the current Board will remember (or learn about) the issues from that time and keep working on Transparency, especially as they move to bring in a new GM. KXCI is supposed to be a COMMUNITY radio station, not a private little playground for a few entrenched individuals.
KXCI will never succeed in pleasing all sectors of the community it serves but it has done a damn good job of presenting a community station that is eclectic, relevant and listenable and is an asset to our community. During my own time on the Board, I saw that the station functioned best when Randy was at the helm, whether as interim or full-time GM. I don’t know the circumstances that led to his resignation and I hope it is a change that represents progress for both Randy and the station. Randy’s shoes will be tough to fill. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity as a Board member to work with Randy and I wish both him and KXCI continuing success. Thank you, Randy, for your 15 years of service and dedication to KXCI. Best regards from Hardy Smith & Melanie Walters.
Ah yes I remember your first election well, Hank. That was the special election following the BoD’s magnanimous change of structure in the nick of time prior to the Democracy Initiative’s membership election. I recall that Randy formed a special group just for that election, Keep KXCI Strong! – they only seemed to last for one or two select mailings during that election, using insider knowledge and targeting certain members while trying to avoid others. There never was a disclosure about who that “group of members, DJs, staff and board members” were other than Randy as the contact person.
Just one of Randy’s little extra-special examples of service and dedication.
To be clear, I do not believe Hank Childers had any prior knowledge to that stunt, and in fact he was a pretty decent Board Member eventually, but it is a part of the history that some would prefer to forget and which Mr. Schuster has kind of glossed over in this puff piece. I have to wonder what Chris Limberis would have thought (and written!) about all of this?
Anybody that wants to dig deeper into old history can still find it on these two sites:
http://savekxci.tripod.com/index.html
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/KXCIBu… (not sure if anybody without a Yahoo account can access this anymore, but there is a ton of history there)