January 1, 2004

“As a result of the university’s most recent action, I can not in good conscience remain, and support the conduct of the university that I have grown to have no respect for.”

Rother could not be reached for comment.

Ryan Warner, WYSO’s early morning news host and the station’s news magazine “WYSO Weekend,” also recently announced that he is leaving the station, effective the beginning of January, to take a position at a National Public Radio member station in Florida. In a press release, Warner described his decision as a career advancement and expressed his support for Spencer. “I leave with more respect for General Manager Steve Spencer than ever,” Warner said in the statement.

Warner, who was hired by Spencer, had previously worked for Spencer at KOPN in Columbia, Mo., where Spencer was asked by the station’s board of directors to resign due to financial problems and difficulties between Spencer and other staff and volunteers.

Difficulties between Spencer and WYSO staff is the subject of “An Open Letter to the Yellow Springs Community,” released Dec. 23 by former WYSO Resource Board member Char Miller. Miller resigned from the board last spring, citing her perception that the Resource Board was a passive body that does not fulfill its function of general oversight of the station.

According to Miller’s letter, in March 2002 she was approached by a WYSO employee with a letter signed by five of the then eight station employees. Miller was given the letter, she wrote, because “a majority of WYSO staff members did not trust Watts and they did not trust the Antioch University Human Resources department.” According to Miller, the letter writers asked her to communicate to Watts their concerns but not to name them out of fear that they could lose their jobs.

“Our General Manager, Steve Spencer, has acted in a fashion which we believe to be unprofessional and personally offensive,” WYSO employees wrote in their letter. “He has lectured, talked down to, and disregarded our opinions and positions. He has yelled and screamed at certain individuals in a frightening way. We feel that this behavior has had a very negative effect on the internal morale of the station. We wish this situation to be addressed and resolved.”

Four of the five employees have since left the station, according to Miller, who said that, after Watts learned of the letter, he seemed less concerned with the employees’ difficulties than with not knowing who signed the document.

Spencer is out of the country and unavailable for comment.

Asked about the letter this week, Watts said that Miller did read it to him but not knowing which employees signed the letter prevented him from addressing its contents.

“If you don’t know who or what the problems are, you end up with an anonymous charge,” he said. “It’s hard to deal with a situation like that. I need to have specifics. Otherwise, it’s only rumor or hearsay.”

Even though he did not know specifics, Watts said action was taken, although he stated he could not say specifically what the action was.

Watts also said that Miller never told him how many employees signed the letter, a statement Miller said was “absolutely untrue.”

“I want everyone in the village to understand that Watts has been protecting Steve and his bad behavior,” Miller said in an interview this week. “The university and the college should be ashamed of hiding employee abuse.”

In response to Miller’s comment, Watts said that, “I don’t want to get into that. It’s not true.” He also said, “The amount of hate spewed forth and the meanspiritedness in this community lately has been disturbing. It’s an interesting town. There’s talk of community and compassion but there has been a severe lack of that.”

Julia Sizemore, a former account manager at WYSO, said that an atmosphere of tension and conflict at the station led her to leave her job two years ago. Others who have left WYSO in the last two years, citing difficulties with Spencer, include former News Director Aileen LeBlanc, Development Director Melodie Bennett and Operations Manager Steve Lucht.

“It appeared to me that Steve thrived on conflict,” said Sizemore this week. At WYSO, she said, “I felt that there was conflict everywhere I went. Relationships were strained. It was an uncomfortable place to work. It was affecting my health.”

While Spencer has publicly stated that he supports Mickunas and wants him back, Sizemore claimed Spencer told her two years ago that “he was planning on getting rid of Vick.” To that end, Spencer requested that Sizemore report to him any difficulties she had with Mickunas, she said.

Before she left her job, Sizemore said that she apologized to Mickunas for her part in what she perceived as Spencer’s plan to remove him from his job. She also said that she felt saddened, but not surprised, when she heard Mickunas was no longer with the station.

“Vick is an extremely conscientious professional,” she said. “I think the relationship he built with the audience and with the authors he interviewed—those are irreplacable talents. I can’t imagine WYSO functioning without them.”

Interviewed this week, Mickunas said that he has no clear plans for his future. “I’ve been getting lots of offers,” he said, “but I’m still trying to figure out how Antioch can claim I resigned when I didn’t.”

Antioch University has said that Mickunas resigned because he would not accept conditions placed on his return.

According to Mickunas, those conditions included his no longer having access to the college mailroom, where he picked up books and CDs for his show; no longer having his previous office but rather a much smaller office closer to the offices of station management; and not being allowed to discuss WYSO with anyone.

Mickunas said that the conditions made it impossible for him to do his job, and he told the university he would return to WYSO under his previous job conditions. Mickunas also said that the university never heard his side of the incident that sparked the administrative leave and that, when he showed up with a lawyer to a meeting to discuss the incident, he was not allowed to participate with his attorney present, so he chose to leave.

Responding to Mickunas’s statement about the conditions, Watts said, “It’s unusual for someone in Vick’s position to be picking up the station’s mail and it didn’t seem wise to continue. Having him come in on his days off to pick up the mail doesn’t make sense and raises some questions.”

However, Watts didn’t clarify the questions raised.

Watts also said that Mickunas’s previous office was “remote” from the rest of the station and that “the reason for the change was to bring him closer to the other people in the station.”

Regarding Mickunas’s assertion that he would not be allowed to discuss WYSO, Watts said that Mickunas was being asked “not to demean the station, its employees and management.”

Mickunas was not allowed to have a lawyer present for the meeting because “it’s an informal process,” Watts said. “We didn’t have lawyers present for anyone else.”

Watts said that the university attempted to meet with Mickunas subsequently but that he did not respond to invitations. Mickunas said that the university was not willing to meet with him with his lawyer present.

—Diane Chiddister