It's Official (Good News For A Change)

I just finished signing documents, and attending the first official staff meeting, and now that the website is (partially) updated (scroll down), I feel like I can finally make this announcement: I have recently been hired back on staff at KPSU, working as the Assistant Development Director. For those of you who have been following my radio career, I was working at KPSU from 2004 - 2007 as the Programming Director, and left for a variety of reasons. Fortunately, nearly all those reasons have quit, been fired, or otherwise no longer have any significant influence on KPSU anymore, and after a successful interview with the new Station Manager, Doug Friend, I am back to getting paid to do radio.

This is a huge, personal success, especially after the way I left the station at the end of 2007. I will try to avoid re-hashing old bullshit, but the short version is that I became ensconced in an internal political battle which was not productive for the Station, the DJs, the Staff, or anyone. My particular perspective is that we should do the jobs we were being paid for. There were a number of people who did not see things that way, and in the long run, pushed me out of the Station for rocking the boat. It was a really painful experience to go through, especially since I really did care about the station, and really do care about radio. 2008 was a very painful year.

Anyway, to cut to the chase, I started volunteering again in 2009 when many of that group of staff and volunteers were gone, but there were a few still running in the woodwork that had more power than they should have, that prevented me from getting back on staff. However, that all changed now that Doug is calling the shots, and his attitude, drive, and perspective on radio and what KPSU is (and can be) is refreshing. But at the end of the day, I am just happy to be vindicated, and working in a job that was, previously, my favorite employment I've ever had.

It's not the same job that I used to have, but that really doesn't matter. The job of Development is to help Develop KPSU in all of its relationships, internal, financial, and in the community. Given the recent issues the KBPS cutting our AM broadcast signal, everyone on staff is going to be pulling double duty to help tie up all the fallout from that. However, we are all fairly optimistic about the future, and considering that AM radio is actually going the way of a vestigial limb anyway, it's about time we starting thinking about the digital future most everyone else has already been living in.

I will continue to teach classes for UNST, and all the usual things that I have been doing recently. But I am also back where I belonged in the first place, and it is very hard for me not to rub it in the noses of some of the people that caused me to have to leave in the first place. For Earl's sake, being the bigger man is REALLY fuckin' hard.