WOUB cited time/money issues in dissolving citizen panel

About a year ago, a local media activism group was pressuring Ohio University's WOUB public radio to start carrying "œDemocracy Now!", a progressive news show hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez.

At the time, the Athens Free Press group tried to find support for its campaign among the station's citizen advisory board, but despite some interest among board members, WOUB management ended up nixing the idea of running "œDN!."

Now the station's citizen advisory board has been disbanded. And while one former member said he thinks the "DN!" controversy may have helped trigger the move, the director of the WOUB Center for Public Media said Friday that budget and time constraints were the main issues.

"When I came here 12 years ago, there was no advisory board," noted Carolyn Bailey Lewis, who made the decision that the board's meeting last spring would be its last.

Lewis pointed out that while community- or state-licensed public radio stations must by law have citizen advisory boards, this is not a requirement for a university-licensed station such as WOUB. However, she said, she decided to create one anyway.

"We had one because we knew it was the right thing to do," she said.

With WOUB "“ like the rest of OU "“ facing budget constraints, however, Lewis said, the burdens of keeping the board up and running just began to outweigh the benefits.

"(The meetings) have been kind of labor-intensive, and we've had budget cuts," she explained.

She noted that the board included members from around WOUB's broadcast area, including Ironton, Marietta and Chillicothe, and that the station would reimburse travel expenses for members who had to drive long distances, as well as provide lunches and staff time for organizational tasks.

"It had become unwieldy," she said. "It just got to be too time-consuming."

Lewis said she is putting together a director's advisory board that will include citizens, but "it'll be much smaller" than the WOUB advisory council was. (The most recent board membership list The Athens NEWS could locate included 23 names.)

A few board members commented via e-mail on the decision to disband the body.

Jeff Wilson of Athens, who was serving on the advisory council when it was dissolved, said he believes the board "really didn't accomplish much that I could see, outside of some great fundraising," and thinks that's probably what WOUB was mainly hoping to get from the board when it created it.

Wilson said he does believe the "Democracy Now!" controversy may have helped hasten the advisory council's demise, as the Athens Free Press lobbyists "made life difficult for WOUB management when 'Democracy Now!' was not supported."

He said council members were first told by council officers that is wasn't their job to make programming decisions "“ an advisory that Wilson said he balked at.

"I was one of a few who simply asked, 'What is the role of a community advisory council if not to advise the management on all issues, including programming?'" he recalled. "The CAC is not there to make decisions, I argued, but we are here to advise."

Eventually, Wilson added, he believes the "all-consuming nature" of the results of the 'DN!' controversy "made WOUB management decide to disband the CAC."

Board member Bill Dingus, who hales from the Huntington/Ashland/Ironton area of WOUB's signal, said the board served a useful purpose, but that he can understand Lewis's time/money rationale for getting rid of it.

"Each meeting was well planned and likely took numerous hours of the staff's time, and I always questioned the real value of this procedure in comparison to the staff time that it was taking," Dingus wrote. "I always felt that I got multiple times in value from the meetings to what I was able to give, and fully understand, as budgets were trimmed, this was one thing that could be eliminated so that the time could go to programming, operations and education."

Bob Sheak of Athens was a member of the Athens Free Press group that was pushing last year for WOUB to run "DN!"

Sheak praised the community advisory council for giving the group a hearing "“ initially, at least "“ and suggested that with its elimination, citizens will find it even harder to get input into what runs on WOUB.

He said Free Press members attended at least three community advisory council meetings to pitch their case, and that with each successive meeting, were given less of a hearing, culminating in a meeting that was adjourned, over the objections of some members, before Free Press representatives were given a chance to speak.

"At the beginning they were (receptive)," he recalled. "But when they saw us as a critic, they began to tighten the rules, or change the rules... We had one good meeting, where they listened, and they were willing to listen as long as we had something to say."

Whatever its faults, however, Sheak said, without the community advisory council it will be even harder for citizens to make their voices heard to WOUB.

"Oh, yeah," he said. "Without the council, and the opportunity for representatives of the public to speak at the council meetings, it will make it much harder. Where do you go?"

Lewis, however, noted that apart from the "DN!" flap, advisory council meetings "“ which took place three times a year, with one meeting at a regional campus "“ weren't exactly packed with members of the public.

Typically, she said, "there might have been one or two members of the public at the meetings."

Lewis praised the council as "a very good group of people" who provided "very good ideas," and said that if it's feasible in the future, she would consider re-starting the group.

"I would love for it to be revived," she said.

Editor's note: The Athens NEWS has begun running Amy Goodman's weekly column, "Breaking the Sound Barrier" on Mondays.