Purge at CKLN

I know a number of the volunteer DJs at CKLN, some of them having been volunteers for [b]YEARS[/b] offering excellent programming, with very loyal fans, and who are disgusted by what's happened, including this latest nonsense.

CKLN is virtually the last progressive campus radio station in Toronto, not including CHRY, but sadly York is so far away (I went there for 8 years getting my undergrad part-time. Yikes.) and we need something downtown since CIUT went all to hell about a decade ago.

I think we should have figured something was up, institutionally, when Ryerson started buying up prime real estate in the Yonge/Dundas area. Ted Rogers School of Business Management, anyone? It sounds like the rot is at all levels.

[img]mad.gif" border="0[/img]

If I hear of any calls for community action I'll post them here, and if anyone else who hears anything can do so that would be much appreciated.

[url=http://www.theeyeopener.com/article/3848]I meant to post this at the time I read it, but forgot.[/url] Another point of view:

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Shitshow is a term flung around far too often these days, but CKLN is truly a shitshow not worth your money, even if it is is only $9. After covering the radio station for a year — including a large feature about its 30th birthday — the Eyeopener has determined that CKLN should be dismantled.

This paper takes student money every year to provide a service to campus, and we're accountable for it. In contrast, CKLN takes student money, provides a service to non-student alternative radio listeners, and as for accountability, its senior volunteers (who are not students) moved to impeach its own board of directors (which actually has students).

To add to its irrelevance, 60 per cent of CKLN's budget comes from students, but this week an Eyeopener student survey found that only two per cent of respondents said they listen to the station.

Yes, CKLN does have a large listenership outside campus. Really, they do. It's considered one of the top radio stations in Toronto.

But should students really take comfort in the fact that they're paying for 30-something beatniks to listen to radio? The station should tailor to students or not exist at all.

It doesn't even give prominance to student programming. The Eyeopener's radio show gets the Wednesday 6:30 a.m. time slot — prime radio time for the most-read newspaper on campus.

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[url=http://www.theeyeopener.com/article/3741]Another article on the story:[/url]

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Samih Abdelgadir, the current RSU representative on CKLN’s board of directors, said he missed the meeting where Barnes was appointed, and was shocked when he heard the news.

“I didn’t even know the position was open,” he said. “[Barnes] was hired for a management position without a resume and without any second or third interview, never mind the first.”

Semple said that while at board meetings, he would see Barnes yell at other members. “In some situations, he would bully people at board meetings,” he said.

“[CKLN] became a much more tense environment, more of a poison environment,” Semple said. “[Barnes] was a large part of that.”

Chris Drew, RSU VP finance and services and a former member of CKLN’s board of directors, said that he has been receiving e-mails from volunteers that said the hiring “wasn’t done in a transparent and clear manner.”

One e-mail, sent by an anonymous source in the CKLN community, said that there was no opportunity for other candidates to apply. The board never consulted with the station’s employees, volunteers or Ryerson community.

The e-mail also claimed Barnes was on the board when the program director’s position suddenly and questionably became vacant and when his appointment took place.

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[url=http://www.ryersonline.ca/articles/2311/1/CKLN-out-of-tune-Volunteers-ca... another:[/url]

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CKLN’s board of directors has seen several staffing changes since its members were elected at the general meeting in April 2006. Three of its 11 elected members – Emmy Pantin, Selwyn Peters, and Verlia Stephens – left the board before their terms were complete.

“(The board) bullied people who were also elected into the board until they couldn’t take it any more and left. And instead of holding byelections to fill those positions, they just appointed new people,”

CKLN volunteer Dale Whitmore said. “They’ve taken over the board by appointing their friends to the positions.”

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[ 06 May 2008: Message edited by: Michelle ]

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But should students really take comfort in the fact that they're paying for 30-something beatniks to listen to radio? The station should tailor to students or not exist at all.

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The attitude of the first article from eyeopener(never heard of it before) really pissed me off, its just a reiteration of the smug self absorbed self interest of the middle class. The same attitude that is relentlessly crying for "tax relief" because certain programs don't directly benefit them. It is what I really can't stand about what this country has become, the death and the dearth of community. The assumption is that Ryerson(or any university) is not nor should it be part of the community. This is of course the end goal of corporatization to destroy connection,to isolate, to define and separate on the basis of economic function. The other goal of the corporate take over of community media resources to silence alternet voices and visions to replicate and repeat endlessly the monotonous dominant ideology.

Why should the students provide something for the community, why should the community support institutions that are accessed increasingly only by the privileged few. The shift of Ryerson from Polytech to university has certainly come with increased corporatization, the community neither has access to Ryerson or can it expect Ryerson to be a part of the community. I'm sure the author of that article will be able to find work in a corporate media that hires people not on the basis of talent or creativity but on the ability to disseminate ideology.

I'm going on a ten day tour of Community development projects in Venezuela and I am excited at the prospect of witnessing people engaged and energized and committed to building community when all I see in this country is a committment to dismantle, destroy and negate.

Not to mention the communities being reached by programming are diverse and inclusive and could hardly be characterized as "30 something beatniks"

[ 06 May 2008: Message edited by: N.R.KISSED ]

I'm sorry to hear about CKLN. I was a fan 'back in the day' when they broadcast only on Rogers Cable radio, years before public air broadcasting. They have always been diverse, interesting and accessable. Im saddened to hear of this 'student first' movement.

This reminds me of what is unfolding right now at the UofT regarding the tuition sit-in and the rash of arrests of activists with seemingly little opposition from most students.

Sad.

There has to be a fight back.

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Originally posted by N.R.KISSED:
[b]The attitude of the first article from eyeopener(never heard of it before) really pissed me off, its just a reiteration of the smug self absorbed self interest of the middle class. The same attitude that is relentlessly crying for "tax relief" because certain programs don't directly benefit them. [/b]

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The Eyeopener is (if I'm not mistaken) the most widely-read student newspaper on campus. So it's clearly aimed at a Ryerson audience.

I agree that the whole "Don't tax me because I don't use it" thing is right-wing. On the other hand, if the claims that CKLN doesn't give much space for student programming (I don't know because I don't listen to it, really) is true, then I think it's legitimate to bring that up as an issue.

[ 06 May 2008: Message edited by: Michelle ]

Does the CRTC have any jurisdiction in these sorts of issues especially if a station begins to not living up to the terms of its license. One of my favourite interviews when I was CFS-O Chair in the early 90s was on CIUT. Sorry to her its undergone radical change in the last decade.

File a CRTC complaint and find out.

If I remember licencing terms correctly, they do not cover governance. However, if you can lay out your case that the governance of the licence holder has affected programming so that it no longer meets the requirements set out by the Commission, then you may have more success getting the CRTC to review the licence earlier, or even to [gulp] deny it when it comes up for review.

I don't know much about CKLN. I do know, though, that this issue affects campus/community radio stations in markets that are larger than the school they are based in, i.e. large urban markets. I served a term at CHRY on its Board and it is a huge responsibility. A Director should keep in mind that the licence requirements demand service for the students [i]and[/i] the communities off-campus. Furthermore, the station as a whole has a ethical duty to the student body which provides funds in the form of a levy to represent their interests. Does that simply mean turning over the airwaves in a proportionate amount of time to students? No, but it does mean that programming should be aimed at providing students with an alternative to commercial undertakings, both in music and news/current affairs/arts content.

The worst part of all this is that the current Board puts the station's licence at risk through its practice. If the station's governance is compromised enough so that other regulatory bodies intervene, the Commissioners may consider that at the next licence review.

Ultimately, I think Directors at campus/community radio stations make their work too complicated with all this politicking. It's fairly simple, once you get down to it: follow the mandate, adhere to the licence requirements, do not break laws or regulations, act honestly and in good faith, and stick to Robert's Rules of Order. Read the Constitution of the corporation, follow the rules, and do your job. If you start cutting corners to try and accomplish big items on your personal agenda, that's when you get in trouble.

Hard to know what they should do. They should probably take them to court to get an injunction and reinstatement of dismissed volunteers until such a time as a proper arbitration of legal process can be held.

Incredible!

Interesting that this is all blowing up now, once the students have left and there is no scrutiny by the campus newspapers. I wonder whether they'd get away with this if it was the middle of the school year?

It is a typical strategy of University administrations to put through measures they know will be unpopular with students during the summer. There are countless such examples.

I only hope that CKLN can hold the fort during this malicious takeover.

I don't think this has anything to do with Ryerson's administration. CKLN is a student radio station. As far as I know, this is ultimately a student union matter, not a university administration matter.

I really don't understand why they have not hired a lawyer, or found one who would be willing to do this pro-bono, and get some kind of injunction. Perhaps they have... dunno. And to me this does not sound like a University admin job, it sounds really amateur.

Of course it's not a University admin job. The station is not run by the university admin at all.

It is run by its own Board of Directors which have nothing to do with the university administration, as far as I can tell. It's even located in the student union building.

[url=http://www.ckln.fm/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=18&... it out.[/url]

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Overall guidance is provided by the CKLN Board of Directors, composed of four elected representatives of the student body, one appointed representative of the Ryerson Student Union, two elected representatives of CKLN's volunteers and community listeners, respectively, a former staff member, the program director and the station manager.

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[ 10 May 2008: Message edited by: Michelle ]

What are they filling the airwaves with in the meantime??