Articles about KOOP appear in the press faster than we can archive them onto this site. Below are most, but not all, of the articles that appeared in the Austin Chronicle, as well as some coverage from the Austin American-Statesman. (From the Chronicle unless otherwise noted.) For more recent articles, visit the Austin Chronicle's website and search for "KOOP".

You can also read letters to the editor printed in the Austin Chronicle supporting our efforts.

We mostly stopped collecting articles in July 1999, but on occasion we've come back to add a post-7/99 article here and there.

"Three station members have been removed over accusations of check fraud and withholding funds entitled to the station. They, along with a group of Latino station members, claim the charges are part of an effort to purge Latino leadership at the station." Gee where have we heard that one before? (more...)

Like a persistent rash, KOOP just keeps flaring up. The would-be Trotskyists continue to be purged by the wannabe Chiapatistas -- or maybe it's the other way round -- as the "cooperative" station moves ever closer to ideological purity and public irrelevance. (more...)

New fissures have formed at KOOP-FM, Autin's precariously managed "community-owned" radio station and recipient of city cultural contracts funding (i.e., tax dollars). This week's flashpoints include the cancellation of the Wednesday evening environmental show co-hosted by longtime programmer Robert Singleton, the resignation of one of the station's board of directors, and the removal of two longtime news programmers from the membership rolls. (more...)

At KOOP, "the way they treat people" can cover a lot of ground. Bitter charges and countercharges of ballot theft and election fraud have dogged recent board elections (actually two boards: an at-large community board, and a smaller board of trustees elected by the community board). The station's minimal by-laws are ostensibly drafted to spread power throughout various community organizations. But if they are to result in a station in which no one community faction has control, the by-laws require unceasing and broadbased community outreach. Otherwise they readily enable small, fractional, and even overlapping activist organizations to dominate station governance -- precisely the current situation. Although board members angrily insist otherwise, several long-time station volunteers describe widespread disaffection, low morale, and a sense of powerlessness over station governance. Many volunteers have left the station, out of what might be described as political exhaustion -- saying they "just don't have time for the arguments anymore." Board members and their close supporters, on the other hand, charge opponents with racism, sexism, and homophobia -- and more recently have added charges of criminal harassment, intimidation, and violence or threats of violence. (more...)

The Great Purge continues at KOOP radio, and this time they ousted one of the original leaders of the revolution. On Friday, Jim Ellinger, the founder of KOOP radio, was kicked off the air of that station. ...

Comparisons between the writings of George Orwell and KOOP have been made in this column before, and they are certainly justified now. Make no mistake about it -- despite what members of the current bunch of goons now running the station (often derisively referred to as "The Cadre") might tell you, Jim Ellinger is the founder of KOOP radio. He came up with the idea, brought together community activists, fought a brutal lawsuit against the University of Texas for the rights to the 91.7FM frequency, and spent a ton of his own money (in addition to the aforementioned $100,000) to make the station happen. And then, after obtaining the rights to the frequency, turned it over to the board of directors of KOOP. No, he did not accomplish all of this alone -- as the station's name (pronounced "co-op") implies, it took the efforts of many to actually make the station happen. However, it is safe to say that without Jim Ellinger, KOOP would not exist.

This, however, is apparently no reason to accord Ellinger any degree of respect. Instead, Ellinger -- who has been very much at odds with KOOP's management over the last two years, which "Media Clips" has covered extensively -- was thrown off the air for allegedly violating a minor Federal Communications Commission rule that likely would never result in any action anyway (and the violation of which Ellinger disputes), for "implying" something (which Ellinger again disputes), and for not being quite up to date on the station's debt (apparently the station has reduced the debt to about $30,000; Ellinger contends that he did seek the station's financial records, and the board refused to turn them over).The fact that Ellinger himself accrued the debt is irrelevant to anything -- those fees were necessary to get KOOP on the air; the lawsuit from Zakes and Chamkis, on the other hand, could have been avoided through simple acts of respect from station management to the station's volunteers instead of abusive conduct. ...

The biggest irony of all this is its coincidental timing with an explosion of controversy at Pacifica Radio, the left-wing radio network based in California. Staff at Pacifica are protesting a lockout by Pacifica management, and some radio personalities have been removed for openly discussing the conflict on the air. The KOOP board recently issued a statement of support for the Pacifica staff, despite using similar tactics against its own staff. [more...]

The day KOOP radio takes Jim Ellinger, the founder of the station, off the air because he was too controversial is the day the Animal Farm comparisons begin to seem mild. In other words, last Friday, KOOP pulled a coup on itself and we, the listeners, are the poorer for it. [more...]

Monday morning began quietly for KOOP 91.7 listeners, starting with Pan-Celtic music at 9 a.m. and then "Chillin'," a free-form hour of relaxing tunes.

However, the mood was tense several blocks west of the radio station's East Fifth Street offices, where the battle for control of the Austin co-op radio station -- the only one of its kind in the country -- was being fought in a Travis County courtroom.

In front of a rapt, occasionally vocal audience of KOOP -- pronounced co-op -- supporters, a visiting judge pressed both sides to reach a temporary accord. After a few cellular-phone conversations and a hallway conference, both parties agreed to put questions of money mismanagement and programming changes on hold until the election of a 20-member community board.

Retired Judge Fred Moore of Lockhart said the election of the board members, who appoint the station's trustees, must be held within 45 days and monitored by a neutral third party.

[In fact, the neutral third party will CONDUCT the election, not to MONITOR it. This is of major importance to the Friends of KOOP.]

"We've got a very good judge here," said Tommy Eden, a programmer for The Bicycle Lane, a Monday-night hour of news and commentary on two-wheeled transportation. "Everyone's been fighting with each other for months now. Maybe now we can find some agreement."

[The Bicycle Lane is actually a 15-minute program.]

The controversy dates to 1997, when members elected a new board of trustees. Since then, accusations ranging from racism to ballot-stealing have flown between trustees and the newly formed Friends of KOOP, a coalition that opposes the current trustees.

[The membership of the station did NOT elect the current board of trustees; largely, the trustees elected themselves. This, in fact, is one of our major criticisms of the current board. This issue is explained in detail on the Save KOOP site.]

KOOP's chief engineer, Jerry Chamkis, and station supporter Michael Zakes sued the station last month, alleging that the board of trustees broke its own bylaws by tampering with elections and mismanaging money. Trustees said Friends of KOOP stole ballots during last fall's election and claimed the group is threatened by the trustees' attempts to diversify KOOP's programming, which they said reflects Austin's white, middle-class population.

Chamkis and Zakes wanted Judge Moore to appoint an oversight committee to "rehabilitate" the station and protect its assets. But Moore balked. "You've got no assets. What do you want me to protect?" he asked.

KOOP splits its on-air time with the student-run University of Texas station KVRX. Chamkis owns the microwave radio link that makes broadcasting possible, and the station's offices and disc-jockey booth are in a former cotton warehouse that's still being renovated. The station's most valuable asset, KOOP members said, is its audio equipment.

[As stated in the lawsuit, the most valuable asset is the FCC license, not the audio equipment.]

Moore said he didn't see the point in assigning a receiver to oversee the station since elections are already scheduled for February. KOOP's membership, made up of about 2,500 volunteers, financial contributors and community groups, every year elects a community board, which then appoints six trustees.

[In fact, only two of the six trustee positions are elected every year. This is stated in KOOP's bylaws, listed on KOOP's website.] [Update: The bylaws have now mysteriously disappeared from KOOP's website! Expect them to return in "edited" format.]

Moore outlined his plan and asked attorneys to hammer out the details.

In an hour, both sides had agreed: The station will appoint two candidates chosen by the Friends of KOOP to vacant trustees' seats, hold a community board election within 45 days, choose a third party by Friday to oversee the balloting and make no major decisions until the election is over.

[In fact, major decisions can be made, but require a unanimous vote of the newly-expanded board.]

The decision pleased Teresa Taylor, chairwoman of the board of trustees, who said it is similar to plans trustees had before the matter went to court.

[If this is true, it wasn't apparent from the length of time it took Taylor to agree to the settlement.]

"It doesn't violate our bylaws," she said. "The problem with the steering committee (of the Friends of KOOP) is they were not elected according to our bylaws."

Chamkis was also satisfied with the agreement.

"It's a workable decision; the judge more or less forced it," he said. "But it's a powerful step: the requirement that the election be completed in 45 days, quickly and succinctly and with no nonsense."

The Steering Committee of the Friends of KOOP is totally separate from the Oversight Committee elected by the membership of KOOP Radio to assume control of the station in the event of a crisis. The Friends of KOOP Steering Committee need not be elected according to KOOP's bylaws because it is an organization separate from KOOP. The Oversight Committee, on the other hand, was duly elected at a duly called Special Meeting of the KOOP's membership; the resolution calling for the election of the Oversight Committee specified that the Oversight Committee would only be seated if instated by a court. Friends of KOOP recognizes the validity of KOOP's bylaws, and therefore understands that only a judicial order could supersede the bylaws. Finally, if Taylor places so much faith in the bylaws, then why have she and the other trustees violated the bylaws (for example, by voting without quorum), and changed the bylaws themselves without seeking the input of KOOP's membership?

Not everyone was optimistic, however.

"Nothing's resolved," Friends of KOOP member Andy Carroll said. "Ask me in six months how it's going."

Courting KOOP

The gloves have come off. Opponents of KOOP radio's board of trustees have decided they've had it with playing against a stacked deck and have filed suit to take control of the cooperatively run community station.

On Dec. 9, KOOP members Michael Zakes and Jerry Chamkis filed suit in Travis County District Court against KOOP, the board, and individual trustees Teresa Taylor, Aida Franco, Carol Hayman, Mac McKaskle, and KOOP community board member (and Taylor's husband) Eduardo Vera.

The suit charges that the defendants broke state law regarding nonprofit corporations by removing records from KOOP offices and hiding them, and that they have mismanaged the station's finances and put the station in danger of going broke, breached a contract with Chamkis regarding transmitter equipment that he leased to the station (which, if removed, would take KOOP off the air and possibly cost the station its license for the 91.7FM frequency),stolen elections, and engaged in "civil conspiracy" to take control of the station by those acts.

The suit requests that the station be placed under the receivership of the eight-member oversight committee which was selected by station membership at an August meeting, that damages of $5,940 in missed lease payments plus attorneys' fees be paid to Chamkis, and that another $9,900 from the individual defendants be paid to KOOP to compensate for allegedly misappropriated funds. The pair of plaintiffs are represented by Austin lawyer Russ Ham, who also represented former station manager Jenny Wong in her dealings with the station.

Zakes, the owner of Waterloo Cycles and a major underwriter of the station, told the Chronicle, "We've had enough," and said that after the trustees recently invalidated a community board election which many members believe would have eventually resulted in the trustees' removal, "the board is obviously trying to stay as long as they can."

Zakes also said that KOOP's latest lease check to Chamkis was returned to Chamkis for insufficient funds, and that the board "said that they would do a good job of bookkeeping, but Jenny Wong never bounced a check." Wong's contract was not renewed by the board in July; the board claimed she failed to implement proper bookkeeping procedures.

The board is represented by the law firm of Hilgers & Watkins PC. Attorney Ken Owensof that firm said, "The board says that it disagrees with all of the charges. We're investigating those claims now. We're not sure what a judge will do, but we think that when all the facts come out, they will show that the claims are not true." Another Hilgers & Watkins attorney, Albert Carrion Jr., said, "This is an attempt by this group [the plaintiffs] to try to get what they couldn't get by a vote of the membership.* The board offered to have community board elections overseen by a third party, but they refused, and instead filed this petition." A hearing is set for Monday, Dec. 21, at the Travis County Courthouse.

[*Mr. Carrion is of course ignoring the overwhelming vote of the membership to replace the Board of Trustees with the Oversight Committee.]

Ballot Box Battle: KOOP Chaos Continues with New Battle Over Election
After a year of antagonism, campaigning, organizing, and enormous amounts of expended energy and time, the controversy at KOOP radio boiled down to one election. If the members of the cooperatively and democratically run community station -- who had organized into a faction known as Friends of KOOP -- could send its candidates to victory in the race for KOOP's Community Board, then their attempt to unseat KOOP's current (and much vilified) Board of Trustees would be halfway home. On the other hand, if supporters of the trustees could stave off the Friends group, the trustees' claim that Friends was simply a vocal minority would be upheld. Everyone involved with the station waited for the results with baited breath.

Well, they'll have to hold their breath a little longer. On Monday night, the Board of Trustees invalidated the election results before the ballots could even be counted. The trustees leveled charges of ballot-tampering. Some of the board's critics, however, think this is just one more Orwellian chapter in what they see as an already suspicious power-grab by an overly P.C. clique. [read the rest of this long article on the Chronicle's site]

One of the many great scenes in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane has Joseph Cotton's character confronting Welles' Kane after he's lost the election for governor. Cotton points out that Kane is always talking about giving the people what they want. Kane's problem, Cotton asserts, is the people are beginning to talk for themselves and it may turn out that he doesn't like what they have to say. The real crises, for the right and the left, is what happens when the people start speaking for themselves and really take the power into their own hands. Rather than an ideological paradise, they are usually more interested in McDonald's, cable TV, and Hollywood movies.

The current board of trustees of KOOP radio is outraged at the denial of access by mainstream media of minority voices. To ensure access, they will suppress and ignore anyone who disagrees with them. The comments in opposition are racist and homophobic -- just ask certain board members. Disagreeing with them is neither philosophically nor ideologically motivated. They are so noble and pure that their answers are right and disagreement can only come from hatred, from racists and homophobes.

The most outrageous step so far is the board's decision to invalidate the recent election (for the full story see Lee Nichols' piece in this issue). I'm sure there is a more reasonable explanation but I just can't help feeling like I'm reading Animal Farm. It is not that some animals are more equal than others, it is that some animals are better at speaking for all the animals than others. This is especially true for the disenfranchised animals who are more empowered if their democratic input is diluted. Okay, read those sentences and try to explain them to me. I don't get the logic.

But I also don't get why so often the pattern of people's revolution is the same. In the name of the people the leaders stop trusting the people because they are sure only they know what is best for the people. [In their eyes,] Any group that speaks out against them is a minority and does not represent the greater community. [In their eyes,] Their motives are completely suspect. The current board is going to take KOOP away from its community to make it more representative of the community.

I get that King Solomon feeling here that looking at the baby, the KOOP board has opted for the upper half. This may not be fair, but several members of the KOOP board wouldn't return Lee Nichols' phone calls. They sometimes don't. They think we are out to get them because we are homophobic and racist. They think we are scared that they are opening the media to more varied voices and that we are threatened by this diversity. They are empowering the audience and [they think] we want to wipe them out. Our disagreement with their leadership comes not from philosophy but hatred, according to some.

KOOP radio is great the same way ACTV is great, in that they allow non-commercial access to a mass audience for a wide variety of voices. Inherently, the station's hyper-amateur status makes them great. To commercially survive demands a certain level of professionalism which is, also inherently, diluting. On top of this is the surprising quality of these ventures. If they weren't as good as they are they would still be treasures. The fact that some of the best radio in Austin is on KOOP is a bonus.

I enjoy KOOP as a listener. I love the diversity. The completely unexpected discussion, the alternative news, the sometimes loony left-wing views that you can't hear anywhere else. I love the passion and intelligence of the station. This current controversy is very sad and the clearest mandate is for the Board to host another impartially administered election as soon as possible. Meanwhile, listening to the station is great, the music, the commentary, and the incredible array of people talking and sharing.

As the election for positions on KOOP radio's community board nears, the controversy at the cooperatively run community station has taken another Orwellian twist.

Michael Bluejay, the webmaster of the station's Web site, is also the webmaster for the Friends of KOOP group which is seeking to sweep the community board's elections. (Winning a majority of that board's seats would then give the group the power to unseat the current -- and very unpopular -- KOOP board of trustees.) Since the current turmoil at the station began, Bluejay has maintained a link between both Web sites. This apparently did not please the board of trustees, which on Oct. 26 ordered Bluejay to either remove the link from the KOOP site or face having his station membership revoked. Bluejay also was ordered to remove the KOOP logo from the Friends' site. Bluejay complied with removing the link, but denied that the KOOP logo had ever appeared on the Friends' site.

Board of trustees president Teresa Taylor did not return calls from the Chronicle, but in an e-mail exchange with Bluejay, she said, "The problem with the link and the use of the name and logo is that it appears that the 'Friend's' web site has the official sanction of the station. There are people who believe they are being lied about and slandered on the 'Friend's' web site, and we need to avoid the impression that this is an official station web page."

In response, Bluejay charged that forcing the removal of the link was an attempt to stifle debate on the KOOP controversy, and said, "As for people mistakenly believing that the board approves of a Web site which calls for their removal, I have a hard time believing our members are that clueless." To the slander charges, Bluejay replied that all of the Friends' claims on the Web site are thoroughly documented.

The official KOOP Web site is at http://www.koop.org. The Friends of KOOP site is at http://pobox.com/bluejay/savekoop. The deadline for station members to turn in ballots in the community board election is Friday, Nov. 6.

In other KOOP news, trustee Donna Hoffman resigned from the board this week. She said she resigned to pursue other projects at KOOP, and the action was unrelated to the current controversies.

Perhaps the most basic lesson any journalist must learn is that if you are going to smear someone's good name in public, you should at least call them and offer them the opportunity to defend themselves. This opportunity certainly would have been appreciated before I personally was smeared as a homophobe in the pages of The Texas Triangle.

The Triangle, the state's leading source of news on gay issues, printed a story on Sept. 10 reporting that Paul Odekirk, a central figure in the recent KOOP radio controversies, was resigning from his show because of alleged anti-gay harassment he had received. Odekirk was quoted as saying, "Too many lies have been spread about me already with the help of Lee Nichols and the Chronicle."

That Odekirk would say this doesn't bother me. As has been thoroughly documented in this column and elsewhere, Odekirk and his allies are either delusional or unrepentant liars who use accusations of homophobia as a divisive tactic to vilify their enemies and divert attention from KOOP's real issues. I would expect nothing less from him.

But I do expect better from the Triangle. Had somebody from that paper (the story has no byline) bothered to call me, I could have given them a different take on Odekirk -- I could have pointed out how many of his opponents are themselves gay or how Odekirk has repeatedly made these accusations against me without providing one shred of evidence of homophobia on my part.

I also could have defended myself as an ardent supporter of gay rights. Forgive me if this sounds like a cliché, but some of my best friends are gay -- and rarely a day goes by that I don't worry that one of them will have their children taken away, be denied housing or a job, or worst of all, become the next Matthew Shepard.

(When I called Triangle publisher Todd Cunningham to ask why I wasn't offered the opportunity to respond, he said that he couldn't remember the article in question, nor could he remember who authored it "off the top of my head." I requested that he ask the author to give me a call. At press time, I had not received one.)

[Board member Mac McKaskle's makes the bizarre claims that the Austin Chronicle is responsible for the IRS levying fines against KOOP, and that the Chronicle is anti-gay.]

While we're on the topic, here's the latest rant against the Chronicle from trustee Mac McKaskle on his Queer Waves show (which, by the way, he announced he is leaving), in response to criticism of him by this column and editor Louis Black:

It seems Louis [Black, Chronicle editor] and the boys wanted Jose [Orta] to authorize the use of AIDS funding to protect his friends. Not only is this as low as you can get, to think of stealing AIDS funding, but the folks over at the Chronicle did not say what they really wanted the money spent for -- that is, to pay for the large fines that Louis' friends have got KOOP from the IRS. Mr. Black, of course, has editorialized that he wants to take over KOOP radio to keep it out of the hands of the disenfranchised, as he calls those people like gays and lesbians who are not allowed space on other radios [sic] in Austin.

To read what was actually written in the Chronicle, see "Page Two" from July 17 and "Media Clips" from that issue, Aug. 21, and Sept. 18... [All of these articles are provided below.] Good riddance, McKaskle. Your "-ism"-baiting and paranoia won't be missed on Austin radio.

...Here's the weekly fiasco from the (supposedly) cooperatively run community station: The board of trustees recently decided that the cash-strapped station was unworthy of a $5,000 gift from the Elton John foundation and gave the money away to Informe-SIDA, a Latino-oriented AIDS charity. The move was requested by the station volunteer who had helped secure the gift, Jose Orta, who also decided to leave the station on Sept. 1, two days after the membership of the station overwhelmingly voted to recall the board. Orta, the now former host of RadioActive: Your HIV Radio News Source said in a press release, "The situation at KOOP has gotten out of hand. Ill-informed and ignorant individuals have subverted the current leadership, mission statement and goals of KOOP. They have utilized lies, deceit, misinformation, and misrepresentation to take damage [sic] beyond repair. I believe that the factions, infighting and mudslinging has created an atmosphere that has poisoned any chance of bringing this station back from the brink of financial collapse."

Well, he's right about the "out of hand" part. But isn't giving way $5,000 (a huge amount of money in KOOP's bare-bones budget) just going to accelerate this financial collapse? Frankly, the board's decision smacks of a scorched-earth policy.

Orta claims to be the recipient of homophobic remarks at the station. We might take his complaints seriously if "Media Clips" hadn't already been accused of homophobia by board supporters, and if so many good people hadn't already been unjustly accused of racism and sexism. Instead, it just sounds like crying wolf. Apparently, disagreeing with the board and its followers is enough to make you guilty of an "-ism."

The writing would seem to be on the wall for KOOP's board of trustees, but don't think the fight is over by any means.

By a vote of 442-151, with 29 abstentions, the membership of the cooperatively-run community station supported a resolution declaring no confidence in the trustees, and declared that "a state of emergency exists" which endangers the station's survival....

After this, the board can't possibly continue claiming that they represent the silent majority of the membership, unless they are just completely delusional or incapable of honesty. Perhaps this overwhelming vote will finally clue the trustees in to the fact that yes, they really are unpopular and should step down. But the signs -- such as programmers meetings wherein huge majorities have angrily denounced the board -- have been obvious for a long time, and the board has failed to open its eyes and see them, so there's no reason to think they will do anything other than continue to stubbornly fight.

KOOP could be destroyed by this, and 11 years of hard work to get the station on the air could go down the drain in a matter of months. It doesn't have to be that way. Step down, trustees; don't file a lawsuit, and let the station begin to heal.

Okay, that's it. We've had it. "Media Clips," which has thus far been restrained in its opinion toward the KOOP board of trustees and its allies, has decided to officially side with the move to recall the board.

It has become clear that the board and its allies - or "the cadre," as they have become known - are at best delusional and at worst power-hungry, and if allowed to continue their reign, will bring the station to ruin.

The straw that finally broke our camel's back was a recent rant by trustee Mac McKaskle on his Queer Waves program. McKaskle hysterically repeated charges that the recall move was "based on racism, based on sexism," and asserted that certain people wanted him removed from the board because he is homosexual.

McKaskle also made the ludicrous claim that Chronicle editor Louis Black editorialized against the cadre ["Page Two," July 17] because "he's feeling the pressure that he's going to have to open up his publication to more voices and more people." He also said that Statesman radio columnist Rob Patterson took an anti-cadre position because "we [KOOP] have pressured this huge, huge multinational corporation who is feeling upset at what we're doing here."

Mac, get a grip. Although the Chronicle, like many newspapers, could benefit from greater racial diversity, the paper's editorial staff is about half female, and has quite a few gays and lesbians, including many people who are in positions of authority. And if you think that anyone at Cox Enterprises (the Statesman's parent company) really gives a rat's ass about this tiny, 3,000-watt station, you have delusions of grandeur.

In fact, you [meaning the cadre as a whole] are creating fictional divisions. Why are so many of your most vocal opponents gay? Why are so many Hispanic? Why did an ardent feminist who used to work for KOOP complain to me that, "It got so P.C. down there [at KOOP] that I couldn't move"?

No, Mac, maybe the problem isn't that you're gay. Maybe the problem is just you.

Hanging tough is really going around, as "Friends of KOOP" -- which includes more than 30 active KOOP programmers -- launches a petition drive of KOOP members in an effort to unseat the station's trustees and community board. The legal structure of KOOP's incorporation may make their goal logistically difficult, but something drastic must be done. I've received multiple accounts and witnessed myself such lamentable actions as hostility, hypocrisy, and truculence -- none of which equate with "cooperative" in my book -- on the part of key members of both boards against a large segment of the people whose sweat, devotion, and community spirit have made KOOP an amazing experiment in community radio, at least on the air. But behind the scenes, the fractious atmosphere makes me believe what Friends of KOOP contend: that the station "is in danger and may not survive."

Meanwhile, KOOPers and others will bid fond farewell to outgoing general manager Jenny Wong on Friday during the station's "Austin Airwaves" show at 6 p.m.

In my teen years, my horizons were expanded by WBAI in New York City, one of the great radio stations in the world. WBAI, a Pacifica station, not only offered cutting-edge music but news and information for the whole progressive community, though it featured a diversity of political voices.

Over the years, the Pacifica radio stations have been involved in a number of controversies, attacked by both the left and the right. At one point, KOOP radio used to run Pacifica news reports. Each time the reports played, they included a taped warning about Pacifica's labor troubles. This became really stupid and childish after you heard it a number of times and seemed more self-righteous than instructive. Eventually, Pacifica tired of the stunt and yanked their broadcasts. For details on this, see Lee Nichols' story on p.24.

Pacifica has been fighting the fight for local control of radio for many decades under far more difficult circumstances than exist today. Yet some holier-than-thou newcomers didn't mind playing masturbatory politics to drive them away.

Now, this same crowd is reinventing KOOP radio. In the name of the people, they are trying to take away their control. This is a time-honored stunt by restrictive governing bodies, to act as the enforcement arm for a disenfranchised and frequently disembodied populace. Remember when Spiro Agnew spoke up for the silent majority?

KOOP radio is ours, it belongs to the community. If a small group tries to take it away, it is the responsibility of the community to take it back.

On Monday night, the first era of KOOP radio ended: The board of trustees of KOOP voted not to renew the contract of Jenny Wong, who has been general manager of the station almost since the day it went on the air in late 1994. Citing poor bookkeeping, lack of clerical skills, and a tendency to "personalize rather than perform" - all charges that Wong refutes - the board decided that July 31, the day her current contract expires, will be her last day at KOOP. The decision was not a popular one among KOOP's programmers. It was, however, illustrative - KOOP has been wracked with turmoil ever since the current board took office about a year ago, and the saga of Wong's dismissal has merely brought tensions between the programmers and the board to a head. Around the nation's only cooperatively owned and run radio station, people are feeling less than cooperative - station meetings have devolved into name-calling, hissing and booing, accusations of both racism and race-baiting, and what some might perceive as downright ugly smear tactics, including allegations of mental instability made by certain people on each side against individuals on the other. The board of trustees claims only to be acting in the station's best interests. A large number of programmers contend that the board only wants to advance a narrow agenda and is intolerant of anyone who disagrees with it.

And why should any of this matter to you? Because it's your radio station.

[See the rest of this very long article.]

KOOP Chaos

Trustees on KOOP radio's governing board say general manager Jenny Wong is an ineffective administrator whose inattention to record-keeping and fundraising is sinking the station. But KOOP employees and Wong supporters in attendance at Monday's board meeting say Wong is being unfairly targeted by the radical contingent on the KOOP board working to co-opt the community radio station as their leftist podium.

The meeting drew a roomful of KOOP volunteers and members, as well as reps from KAZI and Austin Free-Net, who came to testify on behalf of Wong, whose contract expires in July. "She's been adept at handling a zillion different viewpoints, and I think has a genuine wish to keep KOOP going," assistant manager Ellen Stader said of Wong. A KOOP radio founder, Jim Ellinger, says that although he is no longer involved in station policy, he believes Wong enjoys "widespread support in the community." "Jenny Wong built KOOP radio," says Ellinger. "She has been responsible for the day-to-day operations, and I hold her in the highest regard."

Wong's lawyer, Russ Hamm, tried to convince the board to give Wong a three-month contract extension to allow her time to review her yearly evaluation and respond to board recommendations. By timing Wong's evaluation to occur in the same period in which her contract is being discussed, the board seemed to have a preconceived agenda, Hamm said. "Folks have suspicions that by marrying the evaluation to the end date on the contract, a process has been set up to predetermine the outcome," Hamm said. But trustees insisted there was no "premeditated" strategy to reprimand Wong and summarily dismiss her. Board chair Teresa Taylor said trustees should not authorize a temporary extension of Wong's contract until the board had consulted a lawyer, which could happen by Friday. Taylor would not comment on the rift between the station's governing body and its members.

One Wong detractor, KOOP community board rep and former trustee Paul Odekirk, downplayed Wong's supporters as well-meaning but uninformed about what he said were the GM's weaknesses. "Friends who support each other are nice," Odekirk said, "but that doesn't balance the books, doesn't raise funds, and doesn't keep the station on the air." - K.F.