Broken record of CKLN infighting hits a new low with dismissals.
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Out of tune at CKLN
Cops are becoming a sad fixture at Ryerson radio station as labour dispute drags on
“Please be advised that your volunteer services at CKLN Radio Inc are no longer required effective immediately” is the entirety of an e-mail making the rounds among volunteers at the Ryerson University campus radio station at 88.1 FM that’s seen more than its share of infighting over the years.
DJ Denise Benson, who’s hosted Mental Chatter for more than two decades at CKLN, was one of the most recent recipients of unceremonious termination. She says it’s part of an effort by newly appointed – and anti-union – management to muzzle outspoken opponents. Underneath that static, though, lies the old concern that the station’s eclectic, street-wise and offbeat lefty political mix is being excised to prepare the way for selling air time to corporate advertisers.
Does that mean CKLN could become CanTire FM, kind of like Virgin 999 is the new flag being flown by the defunct Mix 99.9? It’s hard to say. The firings have been taking place smack dab in the middle of a union drive. Police have been brought in by management to deal with programmer dismissals and to quell protests outside the offices. But there’s no denying, at least in the view of management, that something drastic needs to be done if the station is to get out from under its six-figure debt.
Says Benson, “People are being fired as a form of censorship rather than for programming errors.”
Wading through the charges and countercharges being levied by both sides suggests the purge of staff, some 22 of the 30 in all, began after a February special meeting of the membership in which some volunteer programmers called for the ouster of interim station manager Mike Phillips and interim program director Tony Barnes.
“[The meeting] was not legitimately called and did not follow the processes laid down by CKLN,” says Phillips, who along with Barnes remains at his posts.
Volunteer programmers at the station have been getting the boot ever since.
Benson says three new members of the board, which oversees station operations, were elected at a subsequent meeting in April, but those members, who are sympathetic to programmers’ concerns, remain unrecognized. Since then, CKLN has been a two-headed beast seemingly intent on mauling itself to death. Management, according to Benson, actually hired off-duty police officers to keep fired programmers out.
“It seems to be this megalomania thing of ‘us versus them,’” she suggests. “They kept deleting me [bleeping parts of her show] remotely,” says Benson, highlighting the troublesome fact that a community station known for its outspoken views and committed to giving a voice to marginalized parts of our society is being silenced.
Benson fears the firings mark a pending shift in ideology at CKLN, from grassroots social and political activism to mainstream commercialism.
“When you look at who’s being dismissed...,” she says.
Phillips maintains that those fired were breaking CRTC rules, although he’s not specific about which rules those were. “If you have people decrying the station that is allowing them to go on the air, and breaking CRTC rules in the process, that can’t be allowed to go on for very long,” says Phillips.
David James, who DJs on CKLN, has worked at the station for a decade dealing with funding and student programming. He says talk of a philosophical shift is crap.
“I’ve heard the rhetoric about ‘Corporate this’ and ‘We’re selling out that,’ but we’re still going to be alternative,” says James.
He says dismissed programmers are just hiding behind “sanctimonious” wordplay.
“They appointed their own board. They’re sending letters on fake letterhead and have tried to seize assets and close down bank accounts. You can’t fucking do that,” says James, adding that he has no sympathy for the locked-out radio folk.
His take is that DJs got comfy with radio shows, acting like it was their right to be there, keeping students out and using programs as advertising tools for their DJ nights around town.
Phillips admits that paid advertising is an issue the station will be addressing in the future. The CRTC allows CKLN to air four minutes of commercials per hour, and that would help defray the $320,000 yearly operating costs.
“We should be raising $160,000 a year with that. We don’t raise a third of that now,” Phillips says. He points out that Wal-Mart and Nike aren’t the desired advertisers, but a business like Canadian Tire would be. “Canadian company, students buy products from Canadian Tire, and I’ll say, ‘Thank you very much, sir. I’ll take your money.’”
He also acknowledges that more attention will be paid to attracting student interest. At rare times over the last few years, he says, CKLN has had no student programmers at all.
“With the amount of money students are giving the station, we’re certainly concerned with the governance there,” says Ryerson Student Union vice-president of finance and services Toby Whitfield, a CKLN board member who is watching the slow burn carefully.
Whitfield is also worried about CKLN management bringing in police to deal with personnel issues. Ideally, he says, CKLN would offer a mentorship program allowing students to benefit from the station’s pool of experienced radio hosts and managers.
“There are students who have no idea how to function in a radio station, and we have an amazing opportunity with volunteers who have been around for a long time to work together in a co-op set-up,” suggests Whitfield.
That ideal keeps receding with the departure of long-time programmers. Another big blow was delivered when paid staffer news director Kristin Schwartz returned from parental leave to discover she’d been canned without warning.
“I was shocked. I had no inkling that they would try to do something like that, given that it’s a unionized position,” says Schwartz, who suggests the timing was more than convenient, considering there would be a strike vote two days after her firing.
Phillips says he has no problem with unions, and claims says there’s more to it than that.
“We discovered that all sorts of underhanded things were going on,” he says – namely, attempts to wind people up and stack board meetings with OCAP and CUPE people.
Listeners, meanwhile, have been left with an on-air void. Benson says she tuned in to her program slot and was met with music, but nobody was talking or picking up phones. She says the station isn’t adhering to CRTC regs and urges people to contact the government body.
Phillips and James both say slots are being filled with programming. The question is how good could it be?
“It’s going to be a rough year,” admits James. “We’re going to take a beating and have to slog it out.”
Interview Clips
Dismissed CKLN DJ Denise Benson suggests firings are a form of censorship: 
CKLN station manager on dismissal of programmers:
CKLN station manager Mike Phillips on filling advertising holes:
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Instead of focusing on well-known members of the CKLN community like Denise Benson, NOW should be getting a wider perspective on all the members shut out. Give us more than a fluff piece about feuding sides and get to the bottom of it.
got evidence? or just smearing?
These people are not "management." They are nothing more than thieves.
Dale Whitmore Tech, Friday Word of Mouth (locked out)
Mano Narayanan (DJ Dialect) host of Brukbeat Radio 5-6pm (Locked Out),
The unionization was done by CKLN's small paid staff to freeze job action BEFORE the embattled Board even formed. Then the Board that everyone is complaining about found out the staff had been engaging the station in tax fraud, amongst other things, and that certain programmers had nice little payola scams going on.
Then one paid staff member HID 17,000 dollars in donation checks in an attempt to sabotage the operations of the station.....during collective bargaining!! Paid staff also helped to organize a coup attempt to overthrow the very people they were in collective bargaining with....with the help of Denise Hammond from CUPE, who, what a surprise, is also paid staff at RSU.
So are these poor ousted volunteers saying this should all be allowed and the management should just roll over and let it happen?
Or should the programmers themselves have done their homework before jumping on a coup band wagon?
Also, Dale Whitmore says the management was 'removed'. There is nothing in CKLN's by-laws OR in contract law that allows a bunch of volunteers to fire their boss! PULEEZE get over yourselves! If this was any other company (even one with mostly volunteers), with the shit this group pulled, they'd all be fired so fast it would make your head spin.
As for 'mentoring' possibilities for students (as Toby Whitfield suspiciously mentions), those programmers who had been there for years would only 'mentor' a student if there was something in it for them. One long time programmer (who is also paid staff) said he'd be willing to mentor 'for a fee'! The only other way students could get mentored at CKLN is if the student had the 'correct' political beliefs...i.e. the programmer's beliefs. Students have been kept out of CKLN for years, unless a student comes in and bows down before the CKLN ideologues and joins in the right clique, otherwise forget about being able to participate in a station THE STUDENTS help PAY for.
RSU itself is so bloody corrupt All Ryerson students should be looking VERY closely at that organization and demand a thorough audit and investigation of all records for the past 4 years. Trust me, they'll find plenty.....if the records haven't been fudged or destroyed.
This is all not to say the CKLN management and board aren't fuck-ups, looks like they are, but the actions of these programmers, staff and volunteers is equally fucked if not more so.
I hope the station can be rebuilt, this time as a station that actually INCLUDES the RU students who PAY for it.
The unionization was done by CKLN's small paid staff to freeze job action BEFORE the embattled Board even formed. Then the Board that everyone is complaining about found out the staff had been engaging the station in tax fraud, amongst other things, and that certain programmers had nice little payola scams going on.
Then one paid staff member HID 17,000 dollars in donation checks in an attempt to sabotage the operations of the station.....during collective bargaining!! Paid staff also helped to organize a coup attempt to overthrow the very people they were in collective bargaining with....with the help of Denise Hammond from CUPE, who, what a surprise, is also paid staff at RSU.
So are these poor ousted volunteers saying this should all be allowed and the management should just roll over and let it happen?
Or should the programmers themselves have done their homework before jumping on a coup band wagon?
Also, Dale Whitmore says the management was 'removed'. There is nothing in CKLN's by-laws OR in contract law that allows a bunch of volunteers to fire their boss! PULEEZE get over yourselves! If this was any other company (even one with mostly volunteers), with the shit this group pulled, they'd all be fired so fast it would make your head spin.
As for 'mentoring' possibilities for students (as Toby Whitfield suspiciously mentions), those programmers who had been there for years would only 'mentor' a student if there was something in it for them. One long time programmer (who is also paid staff) said he'd be willing to mentor 'for a fee'! The only other way students could get mentored at CKLN is if the student had the 'correct' political beliefs...i.e. the programmer's beliefs. Students have been kept out of CKLN for years, unless a student comes in and bows down before the CKLN ideologues and joins in the right clique, otherwise forget about being able to participate in a station THE STUDENTS help PAY for.
RSU itself is so bloody corrupt All Ryerson students should be looking VERY closely at that organization and demand a thorough audit and investigation of all records for the past 4 years. Trust me, they'll find plenty.....if the records haven't been fudged or destroyed.
This is all not to say the CKLN management and board aren't fuck-ups, looks like they are, but the actions of these programmers, staff and volunteers is equally fucked if not more so.
I hope the station can be rebuilt, this time as a station that actually INCLUDES the RU students who PAY for it.
The HR report was delivered to the previous board. Not the board everyone is complaining about.
For the REAL story go to: takebackourradio.blogspot.com
i walked in there when i just started 2nd year (almost 2 years ago)and no one even said two words to me. i asked how could i do something on a show and a woman told me they'd need to make sure i was a right fit. they don't just let anyone come in and 'do stuff on a show' she repeated back to me sarcastically. so i left and didn't go back. i'm not sorry at all to see the place changed up if it means more student involvement.
Is that you Mr. James ranting and barking mad lies and conspiracies while leaving out your own role in this whole situation and how you have benefited from the station in the past and present.. uhhmmm, inquiring minds want to know.
I am watching from afar...but feel connected to the situation as community radio is one of my passions.
I discovered something interesting and confusing at the same time.
If you go to Denise Benson's personal website, www.denisebenson.com and take a look around, you will see her blog announcement about all of this...and under, Radio, look for the link to "Mental Chatter playlists", it shows a playlist for Monday September 1 2008....
http://www.ckln.fm/COPYRIGHT.php?id=6&date=2008-09-01&show_type=1&name=Mental%20Chatter&action=table
Hmmm......confusing....
In all this, I hope the situation can be resolved to the satisfaction of those treated unfairly. Whether it be via the CRTC, Human Rights Commission, Labour Board or common sense...there needs to be a concrete conclusion that is not confusing to the listeners and fans alike.
P.S. Anyone want to add anything here? It seems to need updating :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CKLN-FM
August 26, 2008
NCRA/ANREC Supports Resolution for a Strong CKLN In light of on-going developments concerning the staff and volunteers at CKLN 88.1 FM Ryerson University, the NCRA/ANREC would like to reiterate its position. As an organization committed to the strength and growth of Campus and Community Radio across the country, we support a resolution to any conflicts regarding members of our sector.
The NCRA/ANREC is committed to respect, tolerance, accessibility, and inclusion, ideals that embody the basic spirit of community radio. We support only resolution proceedings that function with these ideals in practice.
The NRCA/ANREC is concerned about the future and welfare of CKLN. We would like to encourage all sides of the dispute to engage in productive and progressive discussion. To that end we are offering our support and will gladly assist in locating neutral, professional mediators. CKLN is a valuable community resource and the NCRA/ANREC desires a healthy resolution to any and all disputes currently at hand.
For more information, please contact NCRA Executive Director Kevin Matthews at 1 866 859 8086 or kevin@ncra.ca.
I just had a short telephone conversation with Mercedes of West Indies Flames. She was one of the board members that had aledgedly taken over the station when the lock out began (in late February 2009). It appears now that 'Ryerson', or unknown people above RSU, Executive Director of Operations & Services, Micheal Verticchio. 'No longer have an interest and operating a radio station at Ryerson'. They, 'Ryerson' have changed the locks and when the 2 week rebroadcast ends, so will CKLN, with 24 hours of dead air. This was from the horses mouth.
Shannon Reiner aka Freedom DJ/Fire Root/...
I just had a short telephone conversation with Mercedes of West Indies Flames. She was one of the board members that had aledgedly taken over the station when the lock out began (in late February 2009). It appears now that 'Ryerson', or unknown people above RSU, Executive Director of Operations & Services, Micheal Verticchio. 'No longer have an interest and operating a radio station at Ryerson'. They, 'Ryerson' have changed the locks and when the 2 week rebroadcast ends, so will CKLN, with 24 hours of dead air. This was from the horses mouth.
Shannon Reiner aka Freedom DJ/Fire Root/...
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