KMHD DECISION LOOMS

Did you know we once had an FM radio station on campus? The MHCC District Board is facing a difficult decision; bringing it back, or extending their current partnership with Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), who currently manage the station. Time is running out for the board to take action and begin work on a transition or negotiations.

History

KMHD 89.1 FM is Mt. Hood Community College’s jazz radio station that first aired in 1984. The station was located on campus for its first 25 years of operation, until in 2009 the MHCC District Board of Education decided to have OPB take over management of the station.

The KMHD station is now located off-campus in Southwest Portland, outside of MHCC’s district.

Several parties involved said many factors may have motivated the formal partnership, including financial stress during the 2008-09 economic downturn.

Right now, the station that can be seen and heard on the Mt. Hood campus is KMHD-2, the student-run alternative/indie station, which is live-streamed, but not broadcast. With the flip of a switch, the broadcast station on campus is still set up to operate the original KMHD on FM radio if it were to be brought back to Mt. Hood.

MHCC academic adviser Calvin Walker was the development director at KMHD in 2003-2008, which meant his job was primarily keeping the station financially afloat.

“KMHD made its own funding,” said Walker. “We made the money and wrote grants.”

There was a new college president, John “Ski” Sygielski, the year the decision by Mt. Hood to partner with OPB was made.

“I don’t think he liked all the back-and-forth, so he just made a deal with OPB, and not a very good deal, by the way,” Walker said. “Next thing I knew I was advising (instead),” he said.

When KMHD was on campus, it created a resource of local visiting talent for vocal jazz and jazz band students to learn from.

“Our students had access to those musicians,” said jazz band director Dan Davey.

“They’d stop in to do a radio interview and then they’d come up and do a master class or a performance, or just come play during a rehearsal with our students. Our students got this exposure to these musicians and they’re (KMHD) still bringing in people that are just as big, but they’re way far away from here so we have no access to them.”

Davey said that the past three years that he’s run the annual Jazz Festival on campus, he’s invited KMHD to have a presence in front of the thousands of students and community members on campus that day, but the station hasn’t yet come out.

Unfulfilled Promises

In 2013, financial concerns were raised by Susie Jones, former Jazz Band director and then-District board chair.

In an email to board member Diane Noriega, Mt. Hood President Debbie Derr, and board secretary Wendy Patton, Jones complained that the station was operating at a sizable loss each year – more than $100,000 – according to college records. The projected cumulative loss for MHCC over the following five years was put at $543,850.

Concern also came from Mt. Hood’s integrated media department where JD Kiggins, head of the broadcasting program said that no Saints students have been awarded or offered internships with OPB despite the opportunity being expressed as a key perk of the partnership.

Pressed on the question, Lynne Clendenin, vice president of programming at OPB, said, “Student internships are absolutely welcomed, absolutely, absolutely, no questions. If anyone is interested, they should know they are welcome here.”

She was unable to comment on the specific lack of MHCC internships over the duration of this agreement, however.

Section 6.5 of the original Joint Affirmative Covenant states that “OPB and MHCC will use their mutual best efforts to identify ways to enhance their strategic partnership,” to include linking with MHCC academic programs for OPB internships in integrated media areas, as well as business areas. It also mentions the opportunity to train OPB employees through MHCC.

Presently, the OPB website lists one current KMHD internship opening, a production assistant position. The first qualification point listed states, “3 years of education toward a related degree i.e. communications, radio, mass communication, journalism, etc.”

While other qualifications are to be considered, this poses a direct problem for students at Mt. Hood in a two-year program – which contributes to the current disconnect between MHCC students and KMHD.

Kiggins said there are no MHCC specific internships, nor are preferences given to MHCC students who apply.

Decisions to Make

The question the MHCC District Board must address is, “Should the college renew the license management agreement with OPB?”

No timeline has been set on a board decision. It’s not on the agenda for the Wednesday, Oct. 17 meeting. The next opportunity would be at the Nov. 28 board meeting.

Either MHCC or OPB must provide notice by Feb. 11, 2019 if it does not wish to renew the agreement, set to automatically roll over again for another five years if no change is made.

At their Sept. 5 strategy session, board members prioritized factors to consider regarding the KMHD situation.

Tied for the top priority were net financial impact, and benefit to/impact on students. Following, in order, were external relations/perceptions, internal relations/perceptions, preservation of jazz programming, and preservation of an asset.

In focusing on the question of the partnership renewal, the board used these factors to help formulate three potential options, developed in collaboration between MHCC administrators and the school’s broadcast program.

Option One

The first option is to renew the agreement with OPB with a focus on better communication between KMHD and MHCC to increase the Mt. Hood presence in branding, marketing, and pushing for more opportunities for Saints students.

Under the contract, MHCC’s president holds a position on the OPB board of directors, which would be one way to address any concerns about the relationship.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) doesn’t allow for a radio licensee to make a profit through a management agreement, but MHCC is reimbursed for tower rental costs, broadcast utilities, liability insurance on the transmitter and tower, equipment repairs and replacement costs. The agreement also provides advertising time to the college on KMHD, OPB TV and Radio as another form of reimbursement.

Although over the course of this contract, there has been a net financial loss, this option would have an estimated net financial impact of $0 for the college.

MHCC has a new marketing director, Lauren Griswold, who arrived in July. Still catching up on the history of KMHD, she said she could not comment on the station as a marketing asset at this time. But her District Communications office recently sent a survey to all students to learn their preferred methods of communication, including questions about radio listening habits. The survey will conclude on Nov. 18.

There are internal and external stakeholders who think Mt. Hood is getting a bad deal in the current OPB partnership, so renegotiating could be an option in moving forward.

OPB has no plans on changing the current jazz formatting, and is content with the results of current programming.

“By programming across the generations that have been influencing jazz, including those that are serving jazz today, the musicians, we (believed we) could attract a wider age group,” explained Clendenin, the OPB vice president.

Extending the management agreement allows the college to retain the radio station license.

Option Two

The next option is to “terminate the agreement with OPB and establish an affiliated nonprofit to manage KMHD.”

Significant startup funding would be needed for this option, because the station would become a separate legal entity from the college. Before funding could begin, the nonprofit would need to be established, including creating an executive board, drafting bylaws, and filing articles of incorporation.

This has been regarded as the least realistic option because of the time needed to establish a nonprofit and fund-raise to cover operating costs through the transition.

Bringing KHMD back to campus would put student opportunities under control of the new organization, similar to the current situation with OPB, but with potentially fewer opportunities – because it would be a significantly smaller organization when it begins.

Cost benefits of operating under a new nonprofit organization need to outweigh the benefits of the current OPB partnership, in order for the new framework to be best perceived internally and externally.

There is also concern that fundraising for KMHD could detract from donations to the MHCC Foundation for student scholarships.

The college would enter into another mutual agreement with the new nonprofit, and could require specific programming.

If the transition isn’t smooth or doesn’t work out, the college could be fined by the FCC, or lose the station license.

Option Three

The last option posed is to “terminate the agreement with OPB and return KMHD to college operations.”

This choice has the biggest net financial impact to the college, an up-front cost estimated at $369,000, but it would allow for the potential of fundraising up to $650,000 per year. Any surplus fundraising/income could be reallocated into other needs at the college.

The radio station license would be retained, and the MHCC and KMHD brands would be reunited.

Right now, Mt. Hood continues to have an operational deficit each year, said Jennifer DeMent, the college’s budget director. That could pose an issue with retaining the license if the college cannot afford to keep the station on air.

The main purpose of bringing back the station would be to re-align KMHD-FM with MHCC’s mission of student instruction. The station would rely more on Mt. Hood students, who currently operate KMHD-2 and follow all FCC rules and regulations.

Initially, 89.1 FM programming would likely be similar to the current jazz format, but in the future would focus on audience engagement, an industry-based part of broadcast curriculum and MHCC district communications strategy.

Theoretically, if the college is in charge of the station, there could be nearly endless opportunities for student involvement. The same is already true with KMHD-2.

Said Kiggins, head of the broadcasting program, “If you’ve got a student ID, it’s yours.”

Mt. Hood’s ASG President Bob Hansen said he supports student voices being heard in this decision-making process.

“It really would bring back the experience of having an FM radio channel on campus. I thought that was the whole point of having the radio station,” he said.

That leads to a question that many keep asking: What led to this agreement being formed in the first place? The Advocate will be exploring this question in next week’s issue.

Student Input

Meantime, students’ voices being heard in this big, looming decision is vital to helping the District board make an informed decision.

The Advocate and ASG have teamed up to host an information session about the KMHD options on Tuesday, Oct. 16. The session will run 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Main Mall on the Gresham campus (inside the Student Union, in case of poor weather.) This will be an opportunity to ask questions, learn more, and share students’ thoughts.

There also is the regularly scheduled District board meeting at 6:30 p.m. the following day, Wednesday, Oct. 17. There is always time allotted for general public input, a chance for students and community members to speak up.

In conjunction with the Tuesday info session, the Advocate has created an online survey for anyone to submit thoughts on the issue.

 

CORRECTION:

In an earlier online- and print- version of this story, ASG President Bob Hansen was misquoted stating that he supports bringing KMHD back to Gresham. ASG has not taken a stance on what the Board decision should be, they are focusing on student input.