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KMHD affects MHCC students, community
The Advocate
KMHD, the non-commercial MHCC radio station, is often used to promote events on campus as well as provide intern opportunities for the students. The effect that a proposed partnership with Oregon Public Broadcasting will have on students has become a focus of recent debate.
MHCC President John Sygielski proposed a partnership during the April 8 board meeting and called it a win-win for the college; the public hearing audience that night had mixed opinions about the partnership. More than 20 people stood up in front of the board to voice their concern or bless this partnership; the audience was split almost evenly.
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A decision about the proposed partnership between KMHD and Oregon Public Broadcasting is expected to be made during the May 13 MHCC District Board meeting.
John Rice founded the radio station in the 1970s and was a broadcasting instructor, general manager of KMHD and also worked as director of college advancement. Rice is currently a part-time speech instructor.
“It was in 1977 that I accepted the assignment from MHCC President R. Stephen Nicholson to join the faculty and build a radio station,” said Rice.
“Larry Friesner, an engineer on the MHCC staff, and I worked on the project along with other responsibilities until we were ready to run program tests from our transmitter site co-located with KOIN-TV in the west hills,” he said.
Rice said broadcasting students worked on the radio station from day one and there were very few volunteers for the first couple of years. It was part of the assignment for the broadcasting students to work for KMHD, said Rice.
Radio and audio production instructor J.D. Kiggins said Wednesday that when he started at MHCC, there was no student involvement with KMHD but it has increased over the years.
In order for a college radio station to be successful, the person in charge of the radio station should be the person in charge of the broadcasting department, according to Rice.
When the link between the radio station and the educational institution is missing, the radio station will begin to crumble and eventually dissolve, said Rice.
“The grounds for conflict are unlimited,” said Rice about separating the broadcasting program and the radio station. It would be “satisfactory to reintegrate KMHD into an instructional program,” said Rice.
Kiggins said, “I don’t want to go backwards.”
KMHD Music Director Greg Gomez said, “We need to reconnect with the academic arm of Integrated Media, to serve not only our students but also our listening audience.”
Rice said, “No educational institution realizes, in my experience, how different a broadcast facility is from an educational institution and how difficult it is to fold broadcast into the educational model seamlessly. Titles, hours, representation, responsibilities — on and off campus — and the behind-the-scenes costs are mostly new and often unwelcome within the educational model.”
Rice said volunteers lock students out of key positions and education needs to be the dominant factor for a college radio station.
According to JoAnn Zahn, director of fiscal operation, budget and auxiliary services who is currently in charge of KMHD, KMHD has four students actively participating as interns for the radio station.
KMHD volunteer and broadcasting major, Tom Ely, said, “I’ve never seen her (Zahn), never met her (Zahn).”
Ely said he loves working at KMHD and it has not only increased his knowledge of jazz, but he has learned about the inner workings of a radio station and developed skills he couldn’t develop in a classroom.
“OPB or not, the students need to be involved,” said Ely.
Most of the students in the broadcasting program work for The Quarry, which is an MHCC online radio station.
Rice said online radio stations have very few regulations, while on-air radio has a lot of regulations through the FCC.
Kiggins said that even though there are almost no rules and regulations for online broadcasting, The Quarry does follow FCC regulations so the students learn and practice with these regulations.
Kiggins said The Quarry is an outlet for students where they can play what they like. The broadcast can go from rock to a sporting event at any moment, which is both good and bad.
The music format is irrelevant to the broadcasting program, according to Kiggins, who pointed out that radio is about the new and the remarkable, and with fewer people listening to radio, it is even more important to be new and remarkable in your presentation and the music played.
Ely also pointed out that there is a power struggle within KMHD, but he said with new management and a new game plan, the station could sustain itself, which might eliminate some of the struggles.
Ely said, “Greg (Gomez) is so good. He knows how to program a jazz station. Volunteers should listen to him a little more.”
When it comes to the station format, the DJs at KMHD seem to have a different sense of what jazz is.
Rice said, “At the same time as the technical aspects of the station were being developed, I, along with Kirk Wille, a student, and Leslie Batton, another student, decided that a format not represented in the Portland metro area would represent the college and the radio broadcasting program very well: jazz.”
Music instructor and Genesis director Dave Barduhn said, “The MHCC music program had a national reputation a full decade before KMHD or the Mt. Hood Festival of Jazz existed.”
“When those entities decided to choose a format, it was an easy selection to build off the strength of the music department. Since then we have developed a very successful symbiotic relationship. There have been a few ups and down with both of those organizations but with Susie Jones’ stewardship of the jazz festival and Mary Burlingame being an amazing liaison to KMHD, our partnerships are very healthy right now.”
KMHD attracts as many or more listeners — 125,000 per week — as any other jazz station across the country, Rice said.
Barduhn said, “Mary Burlingame’s marvelous show ‘Home Grown Live’ has always gone the extra mile to help promote the MHCC Jazz Band and Genesis.
“During this process of recent weeks we have discovered that the volunteer DJs feel underappreciated and perhaps under trained,” Barduhn said. “I often question some of the musical choices, but then I’m more often delighted at a selection that is new to me and eventually influences a piece of music that finds its way into our classroom.”
Rice said, “All formats should evolve as their audience evolves. It (KMHD) hasn’t done much evolving over the past few years.”
“I think East Multnomah County and the MHCC music department will all suffer,” said Rice about the proposed partnership with OPB.
Barduhn said, “To have KMHD leave campus will be a great loss for the school and especially the music department.”
Music instructor and Jazz Band Director Susie Jones said, “The music department will lose if KMHD moves to downtown Portland. If KMHD can prove to be sustainable, we should keep them on campus where they belong.”
Rice said if KMHD were to be removed from Mt. Hood Community College, “The people who are the losers are the students.”
Kiggins said, “If they (OPB) do what they say they’re going to do, it’s going to be good for everyone.”
Rice added there is no reason for a radio station on campus if the radio station is not related to instruction.
“We have three or four people that could provide necessary leadership,” said Rice.
Gomez said, “Somebody with solid core radio values would be key. If we had someone like that, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
Moving the station to OPB would raise the profile of KMHD, according to Rice, who said that OPB would attract listeners from Salem to Longview.
Students and faculty can now promote their events by coming to the radio station or sending an e-mail to the station, said Gomez.
If KMHD were to move off campus, “I think it’ll be a little different,” said Tara Taylor, vice president of marketing and planning for OPB.
Taylor said OPB may follow a different format when it comes to announcing events at Mt. Hood Community College.