‘RUSHED’ AND HUSHED: A LOOK INTO KMHD TRANSITION

This is the second part in an ongoing series on the college’s contract between KMHD and OPB.

Since its founding in 1984, KMHD 89.1 FM was located on Mt. Hood Community College’s Gresham campus for 25 years. That changed in 2008, when the college entered into a management agreement with Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) that moved it to a space out of district in Southwest Portland in 2009.

The question that many keep asking, regarding KMHD’s current and future status, is: Why did KMHD leave in the first place?

SELF-SUPPORTING

KMHD operated on campus for 25 years, and history shows that it supported itself financially in its time here.

In a Gresham Outlook newspaper article from March 25, 2009, then-MHCC President John “Ski” Sygielski said, “Transferring KMHD’s operations to OPB is one of the areas where we can reduce costs without compromising a music institution that is important to the college and the community.”

It’s unclear how moving the station could reduce costs when Mt. Hood was not financially supporting KMHD, aside from providing space as it would for any other college program.

There were, however, concerns about management decisions made that had poor results financially as the economy entered the severe 2008 downturn.

For many years, there were consistently six full-time employees at KMHD. That changed in 2004-05 as managers decided to bring on more employees (reaching a total of eight at its highest) in hopes of continued growth. This ended up being a financial hit because the new hires weren’t helping to increase the bottom line. In turn, the station started using its reserve funding to keep operating.

In 2008-09 the station cut back to six employees again in an effort to correct its fiscal path, but soon after, the OPB proposal was announced.

Former Mt. Hood music instructor and recent MHCC District Board Chair Susie Jones said the partnership was not necessary.

“I think there was genuine concern that the station was going to start costing the college money because it was spending down its reserves, but clearly a management decision (had been made) to trim personnel, and correct the problem,” Jones said.

“It was not necessary to unload the radio station. It was necessary to correct a management decision,” she said.

In the 12 years leading up to KMHD leaving campus, the station had a steady, annual average of $417,824 in revenues, consisting of donations, underwriting, and memberships, according to fiscal records provided by Jones. It reported an average $403,769 in annual expenses.

The KMHD reserve funds averaged $304,925 over those 12 years. However, the reserves quickly dwindled as salaries for new employees needed to be paid, and in 2007-08 the fund dropped to $70,897, leading to the decision to cut back on full-time employees.

Jones said the college reacted too hastily.

“If KMHD would’ve been allowed to do their last spring fundraising drive, they would’ve turned the corner and started heading back up again. The reserves would’ve started building again because the revenue was solid,” she said.

RUSHED AND HUSHED DECISIONS

Jones said other factors played a role in Mt. Hood handing off the radio station.

“There was some friction at the station between the employees and the volunteers. It was a little bit hostile,” she said.

Jones explained that the administration often had to step in to help with conflicts because KMHD manager Doug Sweet was not being held accountable for his financial decisions and in resolving personnel issues.

The OPB partnership deal was a rushed decision that didn’t take into consideration the needs of the community that would be affected, Jones said.

“The meetings that took place were behind closed doors. The public was not made aware of this decision until it was pretty much a done deal,” she said. “There was no opportunity for any stakeholders to weigh in on this decision.”

Aside from the pitch about reducing financial costs, Sygielski also said in the same 2009 Outlook newspaper article, “We don’t have a robust internship program currently.”

JD Kiggins, current head of the MHCC broadcasting program, said that wasn’t true.

“For a lot of people (Mt. Hood) is the place they go to find employees,” said Kiggins of local media-related employers. “We have so many alumni who own companies and do hiring and they come to us and they come to us for interns too.”

He said the broadcasting program (within the Integrated Media) continues to have strong connections with Alpha Media, Clear Channel, Entercom, Fox 12 (KPTV), Pacific Coast Crewing, and more.

“Ironically the only place we’ve never really had an intern was at OPB proper,” said Kiggins.

MISUNDERSTOOD

With the initial decision being rushed, and the community not being involved, there were a lot of people who thought the station completely went away when it relocated to OPB. There were even misunderstandings about the term of the agreement.

Following the 10-year term of the contract, there’s an automatic five-year renewal if neither party wishes to change anything. Many observers thought that the five-year renewal was in the middle of the 10 years, when in reality, it’s attached onto the end.

That’s why the MHCC Board is working on making a decision about how to move forward. KMHD did operate on campus for 25 years before being managed by OPB for the past decade. MHCC has always and will continue to hold the license for KMHD, unless there’s a drastic change and/or the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) takes the license away.

The nonexistent student involvement, community confusion about what happened to the station, and lack of KMHD’s presence on campus today has created a disconnect that leaves a lot of present students surprised to learn that an FM station was ever here. There is certainly less exposure and connection with MHCC, given the station’s distant home base in Southwest Portland.

THEN VS. NOW

Prior to the 2008 decision, the broadcasting industry was in the process of switching from analog to (completely) digital, and technology has only continued to advance.

“The world in the last 10 years is radically different,” said Kiggins.

There’s no physical aspect needed like there was 10 years ago. Everything can just be a digital file, and everything can be automated.

“We’ve spent 10 years making upgrades” at the Mt. Hood campus, said Kiggins. “We want to make it easy for people to do shows. That’s our role, is to allow people to have that.”

In both the management of the station and in the license-management decision making process, history can help the MHCC board members make an informed decision – no matter what final decision is made.

With that, community input is crucial in this process. The Advocate has an anonymous online survey to allow readers to share your thoughts on what the board should do. The survey will close Wednesday, Oct. 24, at noon.

Next week’s KMHD story will share various responses from the community regarding the current radio station contract process.