PUT STUDENTS FIRST: BRING BACK KMHD

After researching, reporting on, and receiving public input from our event with ASG (Associated Student Government) and from our online survey regarding the license management agreement between the college and Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), we at The Advocate believe KMHD should return to campus and be reintegrated to once again be an academic tool for students, as it was always intended to be.

The MHCC District Board of Education will soon vote on whether or not to renew the college’s agreement with OPB or terminate it. For the past nine years with OPB, students have not benefited from an asset that was created for them despite promises and assurance that they would.

THE ORIGINAL DECISION

The initial proposal to partner with OPB came from former MHCC President John “Ski” Sygielski, in 2008. Reasons behind this effort to move KMHD off-campus came in various forms, such as personnel conflicts, financial fears, and closed-door meetings.

KMHD was without a true general manager after Doug Sweet left in June 2008. Issues between volunteers and staff grew problematic. Some of the station’s volunteers wanted KMHD to be run a certain way and, slowly but surely, started pushing students out while ignoring the academic purpose of the station.

The most common reason cited for the change is financial concerns. The agreement was adopted amid the severe 2008-09 economic downturn. The station had been spending down its cash reserves over the years leading up to the station’s move as a direct result of poor management decisions to hire more employees, who ended up not raising any additional funds for KMHD. Although the additional employees were later let go to correct the error, the projected budget was looking grim for the next school year.

Sygielski was worried that the college would need to start financially supporting the station. KMHD employees such as Gregory Gomez and other faculty like music instructor Susie Jones complained the station wasn’t given enough time to prove it could continue to be self-supporting even in difficult economic times, meantime. On multiple occasions, Sygielski said publicly that physically moving KMHD to OPB would reduce Mt. Hood’s costs – yet, the college wasn’t paying anything for it to be here.

Many who favored the agreement felt that partnering with OPB would give KMHD a safe home, and that the station could eventually be brought back to campus once finances improved again. There was also hope this agreement could create a pipeline of trained Integrated Media students who would be ready for employment at OPB.

ONE-SIDED RELATIONSHIP

The draw of valuable internship opportunities was one of the biggest selling points of this proposal, but not once in the past nine years has an MHCC student been approved for an internship with OPB. Meanwhile, in April 2009 there were four students interning at KMHD while it was still on campus.

Mt. Hood students have always had the option of applying for OPB’s internships, but KMHD being there has not produced any additional benefits or preferential treatment. Most MHCC students don’t even qualify to intern at the college’s own station – on the OPB website, “three years of education in a related field” is listed as a qualification factor for the current, KMHD-specific internship for production assistant.

Meantime, the management agreement declares that OPB and MHCC will use their “mutual best efforts” to support MHCC’s academic mission. But during the first couple years of the agreement, many second-year Integrated Media students would apply for OPB’s internship program, to no success. In turn, opportunities with other companies who do have a history of accepting our students as interns were, and have been, prioritized instead.

In our view, “mutual best efforts” just can’t be that one-sided.

The money flow hasn’t been great, either. Following Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requirements, MHCC has paid $130,000 per year for a full-time engineer at KMHD. That annual cost has recently been reduced to $50,000 as that person retired and a part-time replacement was hired.

OPB does reimburse all other costs. The college does receive 15 percent of gross (fundraising) underwriting every year ($22,365 for the 2016-17 fiscal cycle) as well as complementary advertising time on KMHD and OPB-TV and Radio stations. But that’s nothing compared to what’s been paid out for an engineer, especially when our students haven’t benefited from this partnership.

What’s more, KMHD hasn’t taken opportunities to come out to the campus and engage with MHCC students and the surrounding community at the yearly Northwest Jazz Band Festival held on campus, despite repeated invitations from Dan Davey, current jazz band director at Mt. Hood, the past three years.

There’s a complete disconnect between KMHD and MHCC right now. Most current students don’t even know that we have an FM radio station. It doesn’t help that OPB is located out-of-district in Southwest Portland which, for students who rely on public transportation, adds an extra element of difficulty if they somehow were to gain interships or employment there.

GET BACK TO OUR ROOTS

KMHD was founded with the help of students as an academic tool for our radio broadcasting program. It served as a connection with the Mt. Hood community, including the music scene, and it gave voice to on-campus activities and efforts.

The station should be returned and once again reflect the needs of MHCC students. It’s a privilege to have an FM license, and we are taking it for granted right now. We need to bring the station back and get its focus realigned with being for the students. It should be used to help students learn and get them prepared for the workforce. Having an FM station on campus would provide unique learning experiences not only for Integrated Media students, but also music students, business students, and other student groups around campus.

MAKE A PLAN

MHCC has a lot of creative and talented people on staff. The District board should be working with them to figure out a realistic plan for bringing the station back, so that students can use it.

A strong manager who has experience in academics and public radio should be hired, and there should be a system in place to protect the station from past mistakes, such as volunteers interfering with student involvement. Everyone involved with the station should support its educational purpose, and believe in engaging students in the program.

Things are different now than they were 10 years ago. Technology does a lot of the work for us, which reduces staffing needs and costs. We have the chance for a fresh start and better decision making.

The only way to create positive revenue through KMHD that would benefit MHCC students is by having the station on campus. That in itself is an incredible opportunity if done properly, as there are legitimate financial concerns.

Voting to bring the station back to college operations would have the biggest upfront impact to the college financially, but history shows the station has been able to support itself, and we believe the same thing would happen if it were to return.

Instead of thinking of all the ways that bringing the station back would not be possible, the board needs to look at the ways that it could be possible and work with the Integrated Media department to figure out what that might look like, structurally.

KMHD should be given another chance on campus.

ON THE OTHER HAND

Bringing the station back to campus poses the biggest risk of the options the board has to choose from. There are plenty of hypothetical situations that could come true if plans fail and funds can’t be raised. The move could end up costing the college a lot of money, but it’s also the only option that could get KMHD back in the green for the college.

The current agreement with OPB, as now written, guarantees that the college would continue to lose money every year because trade advertising is really only worth what you’d spend on it anyway. And the engineer salary exceeds the yearly underwriting return to Mt. Hood.

Letting the agreement with OPB auto-renew should not be an option. The language is vague, and OPB is getting a better deal out of operating our radio station than are students and MHCC. There would need to be hefty revisions, should the contract be renewed – including a provision to bring the station back should baseline standards not be met.

There should be guaranteed internship opportunities for MHCC students. The qualifications for KMHD internships should be inclusive of MHCC students. KMHD should be more involved and conscious of campus goings-on, and accept invitations to be part of events and stay connected with East Multnomah County.

An improved contract would be essential: OPB hasn’t supported our programs in the past nine years, so how are we supposed to trust that anything would truly change moving forward? Talking is one thing, but they haven’t shown any interest in supporting our students academically.

FOR THE STUDENTS

In sum, we at the Advocate believe bringing KMHD back to campus is the best way to maximize benefits to students, reconnect with the Gresham community, and give the station a chance again, since it’s such a big part of the school’s history. The station has become disconnected from students and the MHCC community as a whole throughout its time at OPB, and it’s time to refocus on KMHD’s educational mission and purpose.

We should not repeat history. In the May 8, 2009 issue of The Advocate, our student editorial board explained why KMHD should stay on campus, and nine-and-a-half years later, we’re saying it again: KMHD should be at MHCC for the students, by the students.

Let’s not make the same mistake twice.