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Author Topic: Purge at CKLN
aka Mycroft
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posted 06 May 2008 12:53 PM      Profile for aka Mycroft     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Toronto community radio station CKLN has been in a tumult for several months now since the appoitnment of Tony Barnes as program manger and Mike Phillips as station manager occurred earlier this year. A Special General Meeting was called to reverse the hirings (which were done without the jobs being posted or any transparent hiring process - Barnes was a member of the Board of Directors that hired him). There had also been pressure from the board for the station to become less political. The SGM passed resolutions to reverse the hirings and sack the board but the board has ignored this.

Last month the "old" board, which has delayed the Annual General Meeting until the fall, held elections for station volunteer reps on the board, as required by the stations by-laws. After failing to get their hand-picked candidates elected, Phillips and Barnes, this week, declared the elections invalid because not all volunteers signed a policy agreement which they have been trying to get people to sign. This week the pair have sent notices to numerous programmers, including those who *signed* the agreement, telling them their services are no longer required and terminating their relationship with the station. This is not only an attempt by Barnes and Phillips to keep their jobs by removing anyone who opposes them from the pool of volunteers (and the pool of people voting for the "staff rep" positions on the board of directors), it is also an attempt to neuter the station politically. If these moves are allowed to stand many shows will disappear from CKLN and the station will cease to be an alternative voice.


From: Toronto | Registered: Aug 2004  |  IP: Logged
bigcitygal
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posted 06 May 2008 01:56 PM      Profile for bigcitygal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I know a number of the volunteer DJs at CKLN, some of them having been volunteers for YEARS 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.

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.


From: It's difficult to work in a group when you're omnipotent - Q | Registered: Apr 2005  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 06 May 2008 05:21 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I meant to post this at the time I read it, but forgot. Another point of view:

quote:
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.



From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 06 May 2008 05:24 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Another article on the story:

quote:
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.


And another:

quote:
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.”


[ 06 May 2008: Message edited by: Michelle ]


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
N.R.KISSED
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posted 06 May 2008 07:53 PM      Profile for N.R.KISSED     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
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.

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 ]


From: Republic of Parkdale | Registered: Aug 2001  |  IP: Logged
Makwa
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posted 06 May 2008 07:59 PM      Profile for Makwa   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
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.
From: Here at the glass - all the usual problems, the habitual farce | Registered: Oct 2005  |  IP: Logged
Sam
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posted 06 May 2008 09:15 PM      Profile for Sam   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
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.


From: Belleville | Registered: Nov 2003  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 06 May 2008 11:49 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by N.R.KISSED:
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.

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 ]


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
aka Mycroft
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posted 07 May 2008 10:30 AM      Profile for aka Mycroft     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
A long time programmer at CKLN was removed from the station by security today WHILE SHE WAS ON THE AIR!

The situation has become completely insane.

I urge people to phone the president of the Ryerson Student Union at 416 979 5255 ext 2324 and ask that the RSU intervene to put a stop to this nonsense. The RSU controls 60% of CKLN's budget and if management has gone awry they need to step in and sort things out.


From: Toronto | Registered: Aug 2004  |  IP: Logged
Caissa
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posted 07 May 2008 10:37 AM      Profile for Caissa     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
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.
From: Saint John | Registered: Jun 2006  |  IP: Logged
scooter
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posted 07 May 2008 11:49 AM      Profile for scooter     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
File a CRTC complaint and find out.
From: High River | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged
aka Mycroft
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posted 07 May 2008 09:08 PM      Profile for aka Mycroft     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Phone CKLN to complain Office Phone: 416.979.5251
email the station manager: [email protected]

From: Toronto | Registered: Aug 2004  |  IP: Logged
fpu aaa
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posted 08 May 2008 07:58 AM      Profile for fpu aaa     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
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 and 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.


From: toronto | Registered: Aug 2006  |  IP: Logged
aka Mycroft
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posted 08 May 2008 07:01 PM      Profile for aka Mycroft     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:

VOLUNTEERS LOCKED OUT OF CKLN WITHOUT EXPLANATION

Dismissed Staff Members Disregarding Democratic Process

TORONTO, ON, May 8, 2008 --- At least a dozen CKLN volunteer programmers received letters from Mike Phillips this week, discharging them from the station.

"Please be advised that your volunteer services at CKLN Radio Inc are no longer required [sic] effective immediately," read the form letter. Phillips gave no explanation in the letter.

When longtime CKLN volunteer Verilia Stephens went to the studio Tuesday morning, she was escorted out by Ryerson security. Stephens hosts Limin' in De African Diaspora every Tuesday from 11 AM to 2 PM. Stephens says Tony Barnes responded, "It is complicated," when asked why security was booting her out and how the appeal process works. "The security guards were really uncomfortable because they knew I had every right to ask," says Stephens.

Barnes, the former interim program director, along with former interim station manager Phillips, and former board members Josie Miner, Doug Barrett and Heather Morgan were dismissed by a membership vote on February 23, 2008. Over 140 community, volunteer and student members attended the emergency meeting in February. More than 90 per cent voted to dismiss the interim station manager and interim program director and impeach the non-student members of the board.

More recently, Morgan tendered her resignation. The other members in question, will not, however, recognize the vote. They refuse to step down from their positions. Phillips and Barnes continue to control CKLN radio station and its funds illegally.

Other volunteers who have received letters include: Omme Rahemtullah (Saturday Morning Live), David Barnard (Lowdown to Uptown), Sharron Mcleod (Dat Dere), Chloe Onari (Dat Dere), Dale Whitmore (Word of Mouth), Don Weitz (Anti-Psychiatry Radio), Susy Alvarez (Word of Mouth), Usheak Koroma (Word of Mouth and Sounds of Africa), Heather Douglas (Frameline), Farid Omar (Saturday Morning Live), Barbara Goslawski (Frameline) and Carmelle Wolfson (Radio Cliteracy).

More volunteers are expecting letters in their inbox later this week. Phillips has also told members that if they did not sign the new volunteer contract within the one-week period given them, their access cards to the station would be de-activated. Many of those who received letters have signed this contract.

Phillips called a volunteer meeting last Tuesday to hold annual elections. Volunteer Usheak Koroma took over chairing duties after Phillips would not recognize the flood of comments from the floor. Elections were held. Heather Douglas and Ron Nelson (Reggaemania) were elected the new volunteer representatives and former station manager Conrad Collaco was elected to the former core staff post.

A committee of volunteers organized elections last Saturday, May 3 to vote in new community representatives. Community members voted unanimously to elect Arnold Minors and Geoffery MacDonald to the two posts.

Phillips and Barnes say they will not recognize the newly elected board members.

***


For more information contact Susy Alvarez by calling 416-996-5540 or email [email protected]



From: Toronto | Registered: Aug 2004  |  IP: Logged
aka Mycroft
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posted 09 May 2008 06:55 AM      Profile for aka Mycroft     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
bump - see the press release above
From: Toronto | Registered: Aug 2004  |  IP: Logged
Cueball
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posted 09 May 2008 01:33 PM      Profile for Cueball   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
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.
From: Out from under the bridge and out for a stroll | Registered: Dec 2003  |  IP: Logged
aka Mycroft
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posted 10 May 2008 06:39 AM      Profile for aka Mycroft     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
We went to do Friday Word of Mouth today and found 2 police officers already there. Before long, the station had filled up with at least 10 cops telling us to leave.

The Ryerson Student's Union (RSU) was very supportive and explained to the cops that we had every right to be there. The cops unfortunately did not allow us into the station, but let us stay in the building. Mike Phillips, the coward, was behind the police line the whole time.

The police told us that from now on, there will be an officer on duty at CKLN. Mike will provide them with a list of people "allowed" into the station. They said that CKLN will be paying for the cop. As I understand it, this costs $62.50 per hour.

That's right, Mike is going to pay the police $62.50 per hour out of station money to be his personal bouncers.

The RSU will be looking into whether there is a way that they, as managers of the building, can prevent this. In the meantime, bring ID if you want to get into the station.

Susy, the host of Word of Mouth, went on air by phone on Ventana Al Bario, Maria Elena Escobar's show. Maria Elena has now also been kicked out by Mike.

Dale



From: Toronto | Registered: Aug 2004  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 10 May 2008 07:04 AM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
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?


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Catchfire
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posted 10 May 2008 07:09 AM      Profile for Catchfire   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
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.


From: On the heather | Registered: Apr 2003  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 10 May 2008 08:17 AM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
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.
From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Cueball
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posted 10 May 2008 09:33 AM      Profile for Cueball   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
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.
From: Out from under the bridge and out for a stroll | Registered: Dec 2003  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 10 May 2008 02:36 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
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.

Check it out.

quote:
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.

[ 10 May 2008: Message edited by: Michelle ]


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
aka Mycroft
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posted 11 May 2008 02:53 PM      Profile for aka Mycroft     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Honour the Earth, a First Nations show hosted by Audrey Redman, was yanked off the air in mid-broadcast after Audrey started discussion recent events at the station.

The list of officially banned people is over 25 now. Most of them are women.


From: Toronto | Registered: Aug 2004  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 11 May 2008 08:05 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
What are they filling the airwaves with in the meantime??
From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
aka Mycroft
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posted 11 May 2008 08:33 PM      Profile for aka Mycroft     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Michelle:
What are they filling the airwaves with in the meantime??

There was about 15 minutes of dead air after they pulled Audrey's show followed by a few Depression-era songs.

Earlier this week they were playing Marvin Gaye in the place of one pulled show!


From: Toronto | Registered: Aug 2004  |  IP: Logged
Catchfire
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posted 12 May 2008 02:16 AM      Profile for Catchfire   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I didn't mean that the principal of Ryerson University had anything to do with this, Michelle, I was referring to your comment about this going on in the summer. University Administrations, like CKLN, frequently wait until the summer to pull off major changes like this.
From: On the heather | Registered: Apr 2003  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 12 May 2008 03:48 AM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Ah, I see! Okay, I get it, thanks Catchfire.

Mycroft - that's hilarious. I love Marvin Gaye (his music, not him as a person, abusive so-and-so that he was) but I think it would be odd to tune in to hear some completely unrelated show and wind up with...Marvin Gaye.


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
aka Mycroft
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posted 12 May 2008 06:10 AM      Profile for aka Mycroft     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
CKLN Board of Directors
CKLN 88.1 FM
55 Gould Street
Toronto Ontario
M5B 1E9

Dear CKLN Board of Directors

I am writing this letter to announce my resignation as a student representative from the CKLN Board of Directors, effective immediately.

Although this was a tough decision to make, I feel that it was the right decision for me. My current family, career and school obligations are mounting, and it is becoming very hard for me to balance my duties at CKLN as well as my other commitments. Due to personal morals and ethics, I do not believe in holding a position unless I can give it a 110%. Also, as a student member, my responsibility is to represent the best interests of the Ryerson student body, and given the current climate at the station, I feel that my energy has been going to deal with political issues rather than student concerns.

Furthermore, I feel that there is a huge lack of communication at the station, which has resulted in the current climate. I can not work in a setting where I am asked to make decisions without proper and open information. After much independent reflection without any outside interference, I feel that I had not heard both sides of the story before being asked to make decisions, thereby making me feel as if my role as a student member was used to further certain agendas. I am a firm believer in open, honest and respectful dialogue, and this has not been the case at the station for the time I have sat on the board.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at CKLN for this opportunity. I have learned a lot during my time on the board, and have met some really great people. I wish everyone at the station best of luck, and hope that all these issues can be resolved in a timely and positive manner, so that the spirit of CKLN can once again be restored. I am willing to answer any questions about my decision via e-mail, but I ask that all communication remain professional and polite, as I will not be responding to anything that is slanderous or rude.


Sincerely,

Suniya Kukaswadia



From: Toronto | Registered: Aug 2004  |  IP: Logged
Pogo
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posted 26 June 2008 12:09 PM      Profile for Pogo   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
So was the meeting legal or not? If it was a legal meeting and made legal decisions why hasn't someone gone to the courts to get the decisions enforced?
From: Richmond BC | Registered: Aug 2002  |  IP: Logged
aka Mycroft
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posted 26 June 2008 12:10 PM      Profile for aka Mycroft     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:

Community Pickets CKLN After Volunteers Locked Out

Management, board, voted out in February, refuses to cede control, bans volunteers

TORONTO, ON, June 26, 2008 --- Locked out CKLN 88.1 FM volunteers and community supporters will hold their first picket outside the community radio station on Friday, June 27 beginning at 6 PM and continue through the evening. The pickets will be led by programmers who would normally be on-air at these times. However, several weeks ago, Mike Phillips unilaterally cancelled these programs and many others, and barred dozens of long-time volunteers from entering the building, sometimes hiring police to guard the entrance.

Phillips continues to misrepresent himself as CKLN’s Station Manager, refusing to recognize the Feb 23 vote of impeachment. Along with Phillips, former Interim Program Director Tony Barnes and former board members Josie Miner and Doug Barrett, will not accept the 90 per cent vote of non-confidence at a meeting of 144 community, volunteer and student members. The CKLN membership democratically elected new community representatives on April 29 and new volunteer representatives on May 3 in accordance with CKLN bylaws, but the old board has refused to relinquish control.

The Friday programs taken off-air are Frameline, Word of Mouth (which also hosts OCAP Radio, No One Is Illegal Radio and Anti-Psychiatry Radio) and Reggaemania. Those claiming to be CKLN management have now locked out over 25 volunteers, including those behind CKLN’s only feminist programs, Radio Cliteracy and Frequency Feminisms, and silenced the the voice of Audrey Redman, the only First Nations woman to host a show on the station. Redman was last heard on Honour the Earth May 11, when Phillips cut her off mid-show as she interviewed other locked-out CKLN members.

Locked out volunteers are urging supporters to sign the online petition to CKLN’s lawyer Paula Boutis at http://www.gopetition.com/online/20115.html . The petition calls for Boutis to recognize the democratically elected board, chosen by CKLN members by elections in late April and early May. This board, elected in accordance with the CKLN bylaws, includes Heather Douglas (volunteer rep), Ron Nelson (volunteer rep), Geoff MacDonald (community rep), Arnold Miners (community rep) and Conrad Collaco (former core staff rep) along with the student representatives elected last Fall.

Contacts:

Verlia Stephens (locked out volunteer, Limin’ in De African Diaspora): 416-530-1492 (h), 416-723-1271 (c), [email protected]

Barbara Goslawski (locked out volunteer, Frameline): 416-778-9157, [email protected]

Susy Alvarez (locked out volunteer, Word of Mouth): 416-996-5540, [email protected]

WEBSITE: takebackourradio.blogspot.com

EMAIL: [email protected]


quote:
SUPPORT LOCKED OUT VOLUNTEERS!

What you can do:

* Sign the online petition to CKLN's lawyer Paula Boutis at: http://www.gopetition.com/online/20115.html . The petition asks that Boutis recognize the democratically elected board: Heather Douglas (volunteer rep), Ron Nelson (volunteer rep), Geoff MacDonald (community rep), Arnold Miners (community rep) and Conrad Collaco (former core staff rep) along with the student representatives as the legitimate board.

* Join us at the information pickets outside CKLN starting this Friday, June 27 at 6 PM. Meet outside the front doors of the Ryerson Student Campus Centre at 55 Gould (near Yonge and Dundas). Pickets to carry on Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Check website for updates.

* Visit our blog for more information: http://www.takebackourradio.blogspot.com .

* Join the Take Back Our Radio Organizing Committee. Email [email protected] for more info.



From: Toronto | Registered: Aug 2004  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
Moderator
Babbler # 560

posted 26 June 2008 12:18 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I find this whole issue so confusing - I've been meaning to read into it more and haven't done so. I think I'd like to hear both sides of this story before I decide that the Board of CKLN is completely at fault. Maybe they are...but I don't know enough to make up my mind. (Which is why babble is so great!)

Here is CKLN's side of the story.


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
Moderator
Babbler # 560

posted 26 June 2008 12:24 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Pogo:
So was the meeting legal or not? If it was a legal meeting and made legal decisions why hasn't someone gone to the courts to get the decisions enforced?

I'd like to know that too. The Board of CKLN claim it wasn't and they say they got a legal opinion to back them up. And the staff union has distanced themselves from it too.

On the other hand, I am acquainted with a few of the people who have been locked out, and they're progressive people.

Now you see why I'm confused.

[ 26 June 2008: Message edited by: Michelle ]


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
aka Mycroft
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 6640

posted 26 June 2008 12:48 PM      Profile for aka Mycroft     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Going to court is a last resort, I believe, due to the cost and time involved. A similar case involving CIUT a few years ago spent years in court.

As for the union it's a bit more complicated. The staff can't be involved because this would legally complicate bargaining of their first contract and open them up to charges of bad faith bargaining. Management has already exploited and exaggerated one staff member's nominal involvement in the impeachment process and forced him to resign and the union to issue a statement in order to avoid a bad faith bargaining complaint before the labour board.

Most of the programming that's been axed is feminist, anti-racist or otherwise progressive programming and has been replaced by apolitical or even reactionary pap. Eg a music program that came from a Black lesbian perspective was replaced by a show that played the typical sexist booty music you can hear on Flow.


From: Toronto | Registered: Aug 2004  |  IP: Logged
bigcitygal
Volunteer Moderator
Babbler # 8938

posted 18 August 2008 03:05 PM      Profile for bigcitygal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Denise Benson has been let go after 21 years at CKLN.

quote:

I now join the long list of volunteers fired from CKLN 88.1FM

hello friends,

Many of you are longtime listeners and supporters of my Mental Chatter radio program, which has been heard on CKLN 88.1FM since 1987. I've been a volunteer at the station for the past 21 years, and also worked on the management team, first as Development Director (fundraising) and then as Program and Music Director for a number of years in the early '90s.

In short, I know CKLN's principles, policies and stated mandate intimately, as I am among the hundreds of people who worked to develop CKLN into the socially, culturally, and artistically progressive and adventurous radio station it once was.

This past weekend, while I was on vacation, I received a one sentence dismissal 'letter' via email from Interim Station Manager (I'll return to the 'interim' part) Mike Phillips. It reads:

-----

Aug 15, 2008

Denise Benson
address
Toronto
Ontario

Please be advised that your volunteer services at CKLN Radio Inc are no longer required effective immediately.

Mike Phillips.

Station Manager

-------

Yes, that's the extent of it. No cause, no reason, no notice, absolutely no respect. This is the exact same dismissal 'letter' sent now to more than 25 volunteers at CKLN over the past few months. Some of these now dismissed programmers include:

- Verlia Stephens, Limin' With Verlia
- Chloe Onari, Dat Dere
- David Barnard, Lowdown to Uptown
- Ron Nelson and Lisa Skeete, Reggaemania
- Claudia McKoy, Upsurgence
- Audrey Redman, Honour the Earth
- the entire Friday Word of Mouth news crew
- Sharron McLeod
- Nik Red and DJ San Fran, Aftrotransit (also as of this weekend)
- DJs Dialect and Vision, Bruckbeat Radio (also as of this weekend)
- and many more....

Those of you who have been listening to CKLN over the past six months in particular may have noticed that the radio station not only often sounds terrible technically (Mike Phillips, the Interim Station Manager also happens to be CKLN's technical Engineer), it has been heavily gutted, both in terms of progressive content and with this firing many volunteers.

I don't know exactly how to explain the situation. It would be more clear if I could say 'They're gutting the station to put in more commercially viable programming' (which many people have been speculating may be the case) or if I could, with certainty, say 'They're firing us in order to create lots of room to put in Ryerson student programming' (which may also be the case,, effectively pitting Ryerson students against community members at a campus-community radio station funded by both).

What is 100% clear is that Interim Station Manager Mike Phillips and Interim Program Director Tony Barnes (both appointed by a Board of Directors on which they now sit and have sat on in the past) have specifically targeted and fired volunteer programmers who have spoken out about their being hired (with no hiring process) in the first place and / or the detrimental decisions they have made and are making.

Again, both of these men were APPOINTED on a one-year INTERIM basis and yet they've felt fully justified in turning CKLN's policies, principles and programming upside down. Any time we question them, whether in person, on-air or in volunteer staff meetings, we have been, at best, greeted with no answers to our questions and, at worst, censored and fired from the airwaves. How convenient for them.

Oh yeah, they've even hired off-duty police officers on a number of occasions to keep dismissed programmers physically out of the radio station and studio as well as out of programmer staff meetings so that we can't even have a say or make other CKLN programmers fully aware of all that is happening.

These police officers have been paid more than $60 per hour by CKLN... that's money contributed by you, the listeners, us, the volunteers and, of course, by Ryerson students as part of their student fees (CKLN gets $8.03 from each full-time Ryerson student).

Obviously, after 21 years of putting my heart and soul (and so much time) into CKLN, I am baffled and upset. Mental Chatter has been a very special opportunity for me to share music, information and interviews with hundreds of local and international artists with tens of thousands of listeners over the years. To say I'll miss producing the show and connecting with people through it is a massive understatement.

There are so many elements to this ongoing tale, more than I can share in one note, so, for now, here is one source of further backgrounding and information: http://www.takebackourradio.blogspot.com/

There is also a Facebook group that has been formed if you care to join:
facebook group

If you care to let Interim Station Manager Mike Phillips or Interim Program Director Tony Barnes know how you feel about their actions, they can be reached at:
416.979.5251

Mike Phillips, Interim Station Manager, extension 2383
[email protected]

Tony Barnes, Interim Program Director, extension 2374
[email protected]



From: It's difficult to work in a group when you're omnipotent - Q | Registered: Apr 2005  |  IP: Logged
aka Mycroft
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 6640

posted 19 August 2008 07:10 AM      Profile for aka Mycroft     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Management is intent on destroying the station.

quote:
From: Kristin Schwartz
Date: Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 9:19 AM
Subject: [ckln] CKLN fires its News Director


Dear CKLN community:

On Monday August 11 I was fired from my position as News Director. I will be fighting this termination with the support of the staff union, CUPE 1281.

It has been an honour and a privilege to be able to serve CKLN as News Director over the past years, and I have enjoyed working with many of you. I expect to have that opportunity again in the future. In any case, please do stay in touch.

I am circulating the following request for support. Please forward it to anyone you know who is interested in CKLN's news and spoken word programming.

Kristin


---------- Forwarded message ----------


August 18, 2008

Dear friends, colleagues, comrades:

I am writing to seek your support. On August 11 I was fired from my position as News Director at CKLN 88.1fm, without warning and without cause. After 10 years of service to CKLN, and only six weeks after returning from a year-long parental leave, I was told that the current board of directors and I "do not see eye to eye". For that reason I was terminated, effective immediately.

It is true that I "don't see eye to eye" with the current board as they have taken many steps that I disagree with, including interfering in news programming in ways that are totally unprecedented, and expelling 30 volunteers who have produced excellent, community-based, progressive programming at CKLN, without giving any reasons or opportunity to appeal. This course of action is shameful and demonstrates a complete lack of responsible leadership, in my view.

But "not seeing eye to eye" is not a lawful reason for firing employees. Thankfully, I now have some protection from this board's arbitrary behavior because our workplace is unionized with the largest labour union in the country, the Canadian Union of Public Employees. CUPE Local 1281 is fighting my termination on my behalf.

Please, take a few moments to write a letter in support of my work at CKLN. You may want to highlight these points:

- the importance of CKLN's news department for broadcasting progressive perspectives on the critical issues of our time - war, poverty, violence, ecological devastation - and for providing access to the airwaves to poor and working people, racialized people, women, queer and trans people, youth, disAbled people, and others who are underrepresented or misrepresented in mainstream media
- the opportunities our news department has created for students, youth and community members to learn about broadcasting
- my work as a journalist and producer of programming which has aired across Canada and the United States
- my excellent record of supporting annual special programming for International Women's Day, LGBTQ Pride, and Prisoner Justice Day
- my contributions to the National Campus/Community Radio Association, and
- the outrageous violation of my rights as a unionized worker, in the midst of bargaining for a first contract.

You may send a copy to me at [email protected], our union at [email protected], and to Toby Whitfield, a member of CKLN's board of directors representing the Ryerson Students Union, at [email protected]. The RSU is CKLN's largest funder.

Thanks for your support.

Sincerely,

Kristin Schwartz


p.s. please forward this message to anyone you think will be interested.




From: Toronto | Registered: Aug 2004  |  IP: Logged
aka Mycroft
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 6640

posted 20 August 2008 05:36 PM      Profile for aka Mycroft     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Respected DJ Denise Benson, Many Other Volunteers Fired From CKLN Without Reason
8/20/2008

Denise Benson, one of Canada’s most influential radio hosts (and former Exclaim! scribe), has been abruptly dismissed from her long-running show, Mental Chatter, by the management of Toronto’s CKLN-FM (88.1 FM), Ryerson University’s campus radio station.

In a memo on her Facebook page, Benson reprinted the solitary sentence that ended her 21-year VOLUNTEER tenure at the station, which simply read: “Please be advised that your volunteer services at CKLN Radio Inc. are no longer required effective immediately.”

The termination of Benson, along with Nik Red of Afrotransit, Francis Yee Loy (DJ San Fran) fill-in for Afrotransit and former Full Moon host Mano Narayanan (DJ Dialect) and Cheldon Paterson (DJ Vision) of Bruckbeat Radio, and a number of other volunteers, is the latest chapter in a long struggle between CKLN’s board of directors, management and volunteers. A group called “Take Back Our Radio Station” challenges the legitimacy of the current board and station management.

The management has given little explanation for the dismissal of 30 volunteers since February, including local radio legends Ron Nelson, Chloe Onari and David Barnard. Long-standing news director Kristin Schwartz was also released without reason, stating "After ten years of service to CKLN, and only six weeks after returning from a year-long parental leave, I was told that the current board of directors and I 'do not see eye to eye'. For that reason I was terminated, effective immediately.

Benson has been a tireless supporter of CKLN and campus radio in general, though she had also been sharply critical of management’s actions over the past few months. In her Facebook message, she noted that station management have “specifically targeted and fired volunteer programmers who have spoken out about their being hired (with no hiring process) in the first place and/or the detrimental decisions they have made and are making.”

Benson is one of Toronto’s most popular DJs and club columnists, and was recently appointed to the Polaris Music Prize Grand Jury for 2008.


Exclaim! News

From: Toronto | Registered: Aug 2004  |  IP: Logged
jrose
babble intern
Babbler # 13401

posted 21 August 2008 06:07 AM      Profile for jrose     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Taking Back the Airwaves

quote:
Campus/community radio has long been welcoming to women and their views, especially considering the limited access feminists have historically had to mainstream media. Campus/community radio has been an important platform for feminists to engage in discussions rarely heard on mainstream airwaves, tackle important women’s issues and give underrepresented female musicians a presence. It’s a vital outlet in the face of mass media that is becoming increasingly hostile to feminist ideas and generally perpetuates narrow, stereotypical ideas about gender.

That said, I’d like to draw your attention to the horrible situation over at CKLN, the campus/community based at Ryerson University in Toronto. Over the past few months, many programmers and hosts that have been at the station for years have been shut out by illegitimate station management in an effort to make the station commercial.

Among the lists of cancelled shows is Radio Cliteracy, an important and bold feminist talk show, as well as Frequency Feminisms and Honour The Earth, which have been removed from the Sunday grid. So far, over 30 volunteers have been dismissed from CLKN without warning and without cause, including many LGTB, First Nations, and a psychiatric survivor programmers, women of colour and a trans person.

Luckily, people have been fighting to get back into the station and onto the airwaves with pickets, organizing meetings and a website. They need our support, so please do what you can to spread the word about keeping campus/community radio open for all.


Check out the blog here. (My apologies if it's already been posted above.)


From: Ottawa | Registered: Oct 2006  |  IP: Logged
cornerstone
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 15432

posted 26 August 2008 07:03 PM      Profile for cornerstone     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Is radio still relevant seeing that podcasts are becoming a more favoured medium? Also have any of the people displaced by the management brouhaha gone on to keep their shows alive by using podcasts?
From: in time and space | Registered: Aug 2008  |  IP: Logged
TCD
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 9061

posted 26 August 2008 08:00 PM      Profile for TCD     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Podcasts won't replace community radio.

Not everyone can afford an iPod and uploading.

Podcasts may have advocates but the community that is built around keeping a station going 24-7 is different.

Maybe not better but different.


From: Toronto | Registered: Apr 2005  |  IP: Logged
bigcitygal
Volunteer Moderator
Babbler # 8938

posted 29 October 2008 05:01 AM      Profile for bigcitygal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Update, meeting tonight in Toronto:

quote:

For Immediate Release October 27, 2008

Take Back Our Radio Association

The crisis of governance at CKLN Campus/Community Radio continues to escalate. The illegal Board of Directors has called an
Annual General meeting:

Wednesday, October 29th at 7 pm in Oakham House, Room G.

Agenda: Financial Report
Union negotiations
Election of Community Reps to the Board of Directors

Oakham House is part of Ryerson University campus at Gould/ Church.

Station Manager Mike Phillips has called this meeting. As “dismissed” volunteers and community supporters, we strongly object to this AGM for these reasons:

Mike Phillips, Interim Station Manager, has no legal authority to call a CKLN Annual General Meeting, because he was democratically voted out of office by an overwhelming 90% majority on a non-confidence motion on January 23, 2008 at a Special General Meeting called by the membership in accordance with CKLN by-laws. Nevertheless Phillips and a right wing clique have occupied the radio station from January until now and are violating the mandate of the station to be an inclusive and progressive station and a voice for marginalized communities in Toronto.

Programming has deteriorated as indicated by the failure of this illegal board to raise adequate money at the recent Fund fest and the withholding of the student levy to the station by Ryerson Students Union.

At previous meetings Metro Police have been employed to bar the new board and its supporters from participating. We intend to challenge this exclusion on October 29th.

We therefore ask all “dismissed” CKLN volunteer programmers,hosts and staff (35 so far) and concerned community supporters of CKLN and Ryerson students to attend the Annual General Meeting Wednesday October 29th at 7pm. Our purpose is to publicize and protest against this meeting as illegitimate and biased, a mockery of the democratic process, a complete sham!

Signed:
Catherine Holliday 416 533 6630 [email protected]
Owen Leach
Don Weitz [email protected]
(Dismissed volunteers and community supporters)



From: It's difficult to work in a group when you're omnipotent - Q | Registered: Apr 2005  |  IP: Logged
peskyfly1
recent-rabble-rouser
Babbler # 15503

posted 29 October 2008 08:35 PM      Profile for peskyfly1     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Burn it down.
From: meandering stream | Registered: Sep 2008  |  IP: Logged
aka Mycroft
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 6640

posted 30 October 2008 06:17 AM      Profile for aka Mycroft     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by peskyfly1:
Burn it down.

That's not an appropriate comment.


From: Toronto | Registered: Aug 2004  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
Moderator
Babbler # 560

posted 30 October 2008 06:49 AM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Yeah, not overly productive.

So, did anyone go last night? What happened?


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
aka Mycroft
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 6640

posted 30 October 2008 09:11 AM      Profile for aka Mycroft     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Michelle:
Yeah, not overly productive.

So, did anyone go last night? What happened?


The last AGM was in the spring of 2007. This one was delayed and management decided arbitrarily to disenfranchise anyone who gave money to the station in the fall 2007 Fundfest campaign or anyone who gave money in 2008 before the September 2008 Fundfest campaign. They also arbitrarily raised the minimum donation required to be considered a community member from $10 to $50.

Anyway, yesterday several dozen disenfranchised community members and "fired" volunteers showed up for what was supposed to be a 7pm meeting. Management panicked and changed the location of the meeting and then tried to exclude anyone they didn't want from attending. They were unsuccessful. They then ran away to have an "emergency" board meeting in which they decided to call the cops with the intent of having the police remove individuals who management didn't want there (ie the majority of the attendees). The cops showed up but the manager of the student centre refused to allow CKLN management to use the cops to throw people off of Ryerson Student Union property and so they cancelled the room booking.

CKLN management then returned and adjourned the meeting claiming they were doing so for "safety" concerns (when in fact all that was happening they were doing this because the Ryerson Students Union refused to let them use the cops to throw people out) and said that they'd reschedule the meeting for a later date.


From: Toronto | Registered: Aug 2004  |  IP: Logged
Cueball
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 4790

posted 30 October 2008 10:45 AM      Profile for Cueball   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Good show, sounds like.
From: Out from under the bridge and out for a stroll | Registered: Dec 2003  |  IP: Logged

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