VOICES HEARD: MHCC BOARD RESCINDS DECISION TO BRING KMHD BACK TO MHCC

After much outcry from KMHD listeners, donors, and even city and state government officials, the MHCC District Board of Education voted on March 20 to keep the college’s FM station in operation at Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) for the next five years – reversing a proposed return to the Mt. Hood campus.

Originally the board voted on Jan. 16 to terminate the college’s current agreement with OPB, which was up for an automatic five-year renewal following its initial 10-year term, which ends Aug. 10. Within its January motion, the board instructed MHCC President Lisa Skari to negotiate a new, two-year contract with OPB with the intent to bring the station back to Gresham at the contract’s end.

An on-campus KMHD strategic planning committee created a roadmap for what it would look like if KMHD was abruptly moved back to the college this year if OPB didn’t agree to the two-year contract. This plan outlined items such as equipment repairs, costs, and staffing structure.

Meantime, Steve Bass, OPB President and CEO, sent a letter to Skari explaining that OPB is currently under renovation, including creating new studio space for KMHD as its current studio space is being repurposed. Bass wrote that by April 1, either the current five-year extension or a new agreement would need to be in place, or the college would need to take back KMHD by Aug. 10.

MAKING WAVES

Bass also sent a letter to KMHD members to inform them of the Mt. Hood board’s January decision and encouraged listeners to share their thoughts with the board. This resulted in hundreds of incoming emails, which the Advocate accessed through a recent public records request to the college.

Folks wrote in from all across the U.S. The large majority live in Portland, but some dedicated online listeners from New York, Virginia, Massachusetts, Texas, and other states also responded. So did previous and current KMHD volunteers and staff, as well as MHCC alumni. Most who wrote urged the college to keep the station with OPB, threatening to revoke their funding (donations) if anything were to change. Others didn’t necessarily care where the station landed, so long as the programming remained professional, diverse – and jazz-oriented.

Most notably, Oregon state House of Representatives members Jeff Reardon, D-Happy Valley (who is married to MHCC board member Annette Mattson, who voted against KMHD’s return to Mt. Hood), and Diego Hernandez, D-East Portland, emailed the MHCC board.

Reardon wrote, “To be very clear, I believe that making a financially risky decision on a station that serves very few students looks completely irresponsible. You are making it very easy for the K12 supporters to ignore the needs of the community colleges. Your actions make it even more difficult to advocate for your funding and to support local control.”

Hernandez wrote that he supports listening to student voices, but based on how he’s seen the process publicly unfold, he worried that, “Making this decision hastily could dramatically undermine the station. Nobody would benefit in that scenario.” He also offered to sit down with OPB and the MHCC board to work together on a path that would support everyone’s needs.

“… Your actions make it even more difficult to advocate for your funding and to support local control.”

Rep. Jeff Reardon, D-Happy Valley

In addition, Jamie Dunphy, senior policy director for Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish, wrote to say that Fish is a regular KMHD listener and wanted to look further into why the board went against Skari’s recommendation to renew the OPB contract. Fish also offered to assist if he could do anything to “help right the ship and ensure KMHD continues serving the Portland area.”

On top of the individual comments to the board, a petition was created by Barra Brown, musician and community member, whose music has been played on KMHD. The petition demanded MHCC to renew the OPB contract to preserve KMHD as it exists now. The online petition gained 1,137 signatures. Brown said the local jazz music scene has greatly benefited from KMHD’s current iteration, and hopes that MHCC and OPB can work out a solid plan that supports musicians and listeners, as well as Mt. Hood students.

During both the February and March board meetings at MHCC, 13 to 14 people spoke passionately during public input sessions on KMHD, most of whom urged the board keep the station at OPB.

MOVING FORWARD

Facing that community pressure and a lack of solid funding, Diane McKeel, chair of the MHCC Board, began the KMHD portion of the March 20 meeting by acknowledging the feedback from the past couple months, and the additional information the board learned about KMHD’s potential return to campus.

McKeel said, “Hearing the public input, receiving additional clarification, and better understanding the financial implications to the college, is there a motion to reconsider our prior action?”

Board Vice Chair Jim Zordich motioned to rescind the January decision to grant OPB a two-year contract extension accommodating its use of the college’s radio station license. The motion was approved 4-2, with Tamie Arnold and Kenney Polson as the two “nays.”

The board then motioned to instruct Skari to negotiate a new five-year agreement with OPB. That motion was approved 5-1, with Polson as the one nay. That decision met OPB’s April 1 negotiation deadline, since KMHD will stay put another five years OPB can proceed with renovations.

As for the terms of a new agreement, the college’s KMHD planning committee created a bullet-point list of guidelines and ideas for Skari to use in the negotiation process. Included are things such as stronger co-branding; marketing of MHCC performing arts events; and more opportunities for music and broadcasting students at Mt. Hood. How these things come into fruition in the new agreement remain to be seen as discussions and negotiations take place.

Following the March 20 decision, JD Kiggins, MHCC broadcasting instructor, voiced optimism over a new agreement. He said, “I’m sure that OPB is on board with working with us and I really do want to explore more opportunities for East County, arts, culture… learning opportunities and perhaps some directions we can go that we haven’t thought of yet.”

Bass said he was particularly moved by hearing how important KMHD is to its listeners. “Listening to the people talk about how meaningful the service is to them and knowing that there are thousands more out there that were going to, together, kind of keep this resource going forward and making a big difference in people’s lives, I think is spectacular,” he said.

IN THE STUDIOS

Current KMHD employees are excited about moving into newly renovated space just across the hall from their current studio in OPB’s building, which lies on Southwest Macadam Avenue near the Sellwood Bridge. The Advocate was given a tour on March 29, by Bass, Matt Fleeger, KMHD program director, and Lynne Clendenin, vice president of programming.

Actually, the KMHD studios don’t take up much space. There’s a huge collection of CDs, as well as vinyl records. The vinyl collection is specifically rare or out-of-print records of albums that haven’t been digitized, something that makes KMHD unique because it’s often the only place jazz fans can hear those albums.

Fleeger also showed off a shared office space that is typically full of volunteers and hosts preparing and researching for their shows. Two autographed Mt. Hood Jazz Festival posters hang on its walls. Fleeger explained that, along with the physical renovations, OPB is, ahead of its 100-year anniversary in 2022, updating its digital infrastructure to a new media asset management system which will allow people to research its archives more easily.

The three core staff members of KMHD are Fleeger, and hosts and producers Isabel Zacharias and Derek Smith. In many of their emails to the MHCC board, listeners and community members gave high praise and respect to the three for their work at KMHD.

In terms of student opportunities, currently, there’s a general internship for KMHD posted online. Fleeger has interns shadow someone in each element of the station, and then after they’re done shadowing, a project is created for them, based on their interests. As for the three-year education minimum listed on the website for this internship position (a qualification few students in Mt. Hood’s two-year broadcast program can meet), Fleeger said it’s not a “complete” requirement so much as a preference when narrowing down internship applicants.

Bass said that while for some internships the three-year minimum is more important, for others the rule doesn’t have to be as strict. He added that there are opportunities at OPB for students in multimedia programs, photo, video, graphic design, and web design.

Looking ahead, even with a more solid path forward with KMHD remaining at OPB for at least the next five years, the college still needs to make some hard decisions. Mt. Hood must address the reality that KMHD’s 20 year old transmitter needs to be replaced, and the lease where the transmitter is located expires on Feb. 28, 2020. There’s also no current backup transmitter for KMHD.

Jennifer DeMent, budget director, said that while the transmitter isn’t specifically included in the proposed budget for 2019-20, the college is currently working on a funding strategy for these expenses.

Skari said the KMHD committee is working on finalizing a list of requests for discussion, and she asked Associated Student Government leaders Bob Hansen and Melanie Roberts for input, as well. Based on feedback from those two sources, she will see what’s already in the agreement and what items are new to determine a negotiation timeline, moving forward.

Megan Phelps contributed reporting for this story.