KMOJ in crisis: By: Shannon Gibney Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder Originally posted 3/20/2003
As station faces restructuring and relocation, some challenge the current board’s oversight First in a two-part story At a meeting Saturday, March 15, to address the state of KMOJ radio, some community members asserted that the station could go off the air in December because of the board of directors’ failure to apply for construction permits with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and failure to file an annual report with the State of Minnesota Attorney General’s Office in 2001. Meeting participants also alleged that KMOJ board members are not following the organization’s bylaws; characterized the station’s new public affairs programming as unfairly selected; and stated that many board members have been on the board too long and have conflicting interests. Community activists Duane Reed, Travis Lee, and Booker Hodges said that nothing short of the full resignation of the KMOJ board of directors was necessary to begin the tenuous process of rebuilding the public trust that they claim has been violated. “KMOJ was created as a public, community radio station on June 22, 1976,” Lee told the group of about 30 present at Café Tatta Bunna. “The purpose of the station was to inform the community on various events, and put their own perspective, their cultural perspective, on an otherwise whitewashed media. “I’ve watched the station deteriorate and fail to grow in the last 25 or so odd years,” Lee continued. “If you look at the station right now, you can’t tell if it’s ‘76 or 2003, and I think that’s a case of gross neglect in our community. I hope that what this meeting does is serve as something that’s not often done in Minnesota — is to police our own community, instead of waiting for other folks to come in and take over because of our own neglect. http://www.spokesman-recorder.com Shawn Lewis, Field Neighborhood -- _______________________________________________ Sign-up for your own FREE Personalized E-mail at Mail.com http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
