Compromise offered by foes of license renewal

By JOHN NORTH

The board of directors of Asheville-based public radio station WCQS-FM (88.1) on Jan. 18 heard from the leader of a group that has filed a petition — with the Federal Communications Commission — asking that the 1,600-watt operation be denied a renewal of its broadcast license.

Fred Flaxman

The bimonthly directors’ meeting began with public comments, turning the spotlight directly on listener Fred Flaxman, who was recognized at once by Bryan Smith, chairman of the station’s board of directors. Flaxman, a Weaverville resident and retired long-time pubcaster, is the coordinator and organizer of the local Ad-Hoc Committee for Responsive Public Radio.

Recently, the critic of WCQS has clashed with station officials and other listeners — in the local press — over his group’s issues with WCQS, which is located downtown at 73 Broadway St. However, the directors meeting was held at the offices of Habitat for Humanity at 30 Meadow Rd.

 Flaxman began by asking Smith, station Executive Director Jody Evans and 18 directors present if they had read the letter his ad-hoc group had mailed to them over the preceding weekend. (In the letter, Flaxman’s group offers 14 “suggestions” for change. If the changes are made — the group said in the letter — it would gladly withdraw the petition to deny WCQS’ broadcast license renewal).

In noting that there was no mail service on Jan. 16 because of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Smith said the letter was received by the station on Jan. 17 and that he and other board members got a copy of it “about 3 or 4 p.m.” that day — too late to be dealt with at the next day’s meeting.

Flaxman then asked if Smith would mind if he read the letter aloud, so that everyone in attendance — including seven member

s of the public and one news reporter — would be knowledgeable about its contents.

Bryan Smith

“If you feel you need to read it out loud, I wouldn’t prevent it,” Smith said evenly. “I wouldn’t stop you.” However, he asked Flaxman to consider not doing that, so that the board could proceed with its meeting and not get sidetracked. “If you’d give us a chance to look at it” at length, “we’d get back with you” by the next directors meeting, the chairman noted in soothing tones.

After a pause, Flaxman relented and agreed not to press ahead to read aloud his committee’s letter in consideration for Smith’s apparent openness to looking at it in depth. Nonetheless, Flaxman reiterated briefly his concerns about the station’s policies, procedures and programming.

After two female listeners in attendance expressed clashing views about the station’s performance, Steven R. Hageman, executive director of the Asheville Symphony Orchestra, came out strongly in support of the radio station’s staff and management.

“I’d just say I’m confused by what’s going on,” Hageman said. “For the majority of people I speak to who enjoy classical music” and the station’s other programming, “they’re very happy.”

Immediately expressing a similar sentiment, Terry Van Duyn, a member of the board of directors from Asheville, praised Evans’ efforts since she took over daily management of the station last June. “We’ve seen” nearly every measurement “go up” for WCQS in that period.

Apparently speaking on behalf of the board, Van Duyn added, “We’re very, very supportive of the work Jody is doing.” (As a director, Van Duyn is the chair of the board’s development committee.) Other board members nodded in agreement and none of the directors expressed disagreement to Van Duyn’s praise of Evans.

The board spent the rest of the 45-minute open meeting mostly reviewing routine reports that, in general, indicated many positives on the performance of the station. Following an executive session that was called to discuss pending litigation, the board adjourned.

Regarding criticisms that WCQS officials have fired at Flaxman and his committee, Flaxman  wrote to the Daily Planet on Jan. 31 that “WCQS more than implies that the opposition to their license renewal is a matter of ‘sour grapes’ on my part. You (the Planet reporter) asked me about that and I told you that this was not at all about me; it is about them. And when people don’t have good arguments on their side, they resort to ad hominem attacks on the motives of the person making the arguments on the other side.”

WCQS-FM/88.1 is located at 73 Broadway St. in downtown Asheville.

Further, Flaxman asserted, “So they are attacking me, but I am only one of the 30 people who signed the FCC Petition to Deny their license renewal. I have never met most of the other signers, and their reasons for signing are many, but none of them have anything whatsoever to do with my classical radio series. They agree with the wording of the petition, or they would not have signed it.”