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Board votes unanimously to transfer station to OPB
The Advocate
The MHCC District board Wednesday voted unanimously to transfer the operation, programming and fundraising of jazz radio station KMHD to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said board Chair Duke Shepard. Board member Ralph Yates said, “It’s a logical move to upgrade.”
Date for transfer of responsibilities for the station, which has used volunteer and student DJs to broadcast from the MHCC campus since 1977, has yet to be determined. Broadcast operations will move to the OPB studios on Macadam Avenue in Southwest Portland.
A pre-agreement drafted to negotiate a contract between MHCC and OPB said, “During the term of the proposed agreement, the President of MHCC will serve as an ex-officio member of the OPB Board of Directors.”
Board member Dave Shields called this a “weasel clause,” because it was discussed that a member on the OPB Board of Directors would be a voting member.
OPB CEO Steve Bass said the MHCC-appointed member on the OPB board would be a voting member and that the term ex-officio was meant to explain that the member would not have an office at OPB.
The pre-agreement also states, “There will be no major change of format during the first three years of the agreement. In the event that a jazz format proves hereafter to be unsustainable, OPB would inform MHCC of any proposed major change of format at least 90 days in advance and MHCC would not block such a change unless there were overriding public interest reasons to do so.”
Shepard said that locking in the format in a contract was something that came out of the public input during the April board meeting.
Shepard said the format is not now locked in and “on a day’s notice the president could have turned it into FOX news.”
Bass said there is a demand for jazz in the community and that OPB plans to “make it work in very much the same way it does now.”
KMHD volunteer Stephen Murray said there was an “appalling lack of leadership” at KMHD and that partnering with OPB was “unequivocally the right decision.”
Before the transfer decision was made, Calvin Walker, KMHD development director, said although he hopes KMHD can come back to campus, moving KMHD off campus is the best option for now.
Bass said, “I think it’s a very good move for the college, the station and the listeners.”
KMHD Music Director Greg Gomez said Thursday he doesn’t know whether the board made the right decision, but that he wished KMHD had been given more time to work out problems internally.
Gomez and KMHD Development Associate Mary Burlingame signed up to speak at the board meeting, but were denied the opportunity. The board announced prior to the meeting that persons who had voiced their opinions during last month’s meeting would not be permitted to speak again.
The pre-agreement states that “MHCC would be responsible for providing employees for the Station as required by FCC rules and policies in order to exercise oversight and would bear ultimate responsibility for the Station’s compliance with all applicable provisions of the rules and policies of the FCC and all other applicable laws.”
Bass explained that FCC regulations require the license holder to employ the staff, but that the college is not required to have someone at OPB 24 hours a day, just someone that is ultimately responsible.
Board member Brian Freeman said he has some concerns with the pre-agreement and that he would not authorize this contract, but he would authorize the making of a contract.
Bass said, “I think most of the key issues are covered here. We should use this as a floor rather than a ceiling.”
A key issue covered in the pre-agreement was the financial aspect of the partnership. The pre-agreement states the college will receive “payments of $18,000 per year throughout the initial term of the proposed agreement or 15% of the gross annual underwriting revenues of the Station, whichever is greater.”
Shields pointed out that “the devil is in the details” and he said he hopes the final contract will come back to the board to know what it the college is approving.
Freeman said that for the listeners, the students and the college, “We cannot put enough detail in the contract.”
Bass said OPB and Mt. Hood Community College will move ahead expeditiously toward finalizing a contract, getting the facilities ready and training people to work at OPB.