January 15, 2003

Pitstick cites career in departing ’YSO, as former host criticizes manager

Another employee is leaving WYSO Public Radio and a seventh former WYSO employee said this week that she left the station due to difficulties with WYSO General Manager Steve Spencer.

WYSO Business Manager Judy Pitstick offered her resignation on Jan. 5. Her last day at the station is Friday, Jan. 16, although she said that she is willing to work longer if she is needed.

A 10-year veteran at WYSO, Pitstick said in a telephone interview that her departure is not linked to the controversy at the station since last month’s departure of the former music director, Vick Mickunas, nor is it linked to problems with Spencer.

Rather, said Pitstick, she is leaving to take another job.

“I’m leaving with regrets, but I have a great opportunity to move in a different direction,” she said.

Pitstick’s job involves an assortment of duties, including handling a variety of accounts and receiving checks, said Glenn Watts, the Antioch University vice chancellor who oversees WYSO.

Pitstick said that this week she is training a temporary replacement.

This week Anne Williams, who served as the interim general manager at WYSO before Spencer joined the station in 1998, said in an interview that her discomfort with Spencer contributed to her decision to leave the station five years ago, two months after Spencer took over as general manager.

Williams, who currently works at WNRN in Charlottesville, Va., said that her discomfort with Spencer began at her first meeting with him, due to his use of profanity.

“My first meeting with him, Spencer used a tremendous amount of foul language. I asked him to stop but he continued,” said Williams, who also served as a former radio host and volunteer coordinator at WYSO.

She said that Spencer’s style set a tone at the station that she found difficult to adapt to. “It was very different than the kind of environment we had been used to. We had been polite to each other,” she said.

Williams also said that Spencer told her several times that he thought she would be happier somewhere else, leading her to believe that he did not want to work with her. She said that a combination of the tense working environment and her feeling no longer wanted at the station led to her decision to leave.

Spencer, who returned to work this week from vacation, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Difficulties with Spencer were also cited by Mickunas, whom Antioch University placed on administrative leave on Nov. 20. While Antioch officials have said that the disciplinary action arose from problems between Mickunas and the university, Mickunas has said that it originated with a conflict he had with Spencer.

On Dec. 12, Antioch announced that Mickunas was no longer employed by WYSO, claiming that he resigned his position when he refused to accept conditions the university wanted to place on his continued employment. Mickunas has said he did not resign, but was fired.

Following Mickunas’s departure, the station’s engineer, Joe Rother, resigned, citing his distress over the Mickunas situation and difficulties with station management. In recent weeks, several former WYSO employees, including Development Director Melodie Bennett, Operations Manager Steve Lucht and Accounts Manager Julia Sizemore, have said that difficulties with Spencer contributed to their decisions to leave the station. Aileen LeBlanc, the former news director, has also said that difficulties with Spencer contributed to her decision to leave.

WYSO radio host Ryan Warner left the station last week, although he said that he resigned to advance his career and not because of problems with station management. In a press release announcing his resignation, Warner said that he supported Spencer.

Warner is now hosting a call-in program at a National Public Radio station in Florida.

This week, Watts said that the station is currently recruiting for Warner’s replacement, and in several weeks would begin the screening process. In the meantime, Watts said, Spencer is hosting “Morning Edition,” which Warner hosted.

Watts also said that the station is still seeking a replacement for Rother. WYSO is not searching for someone to replace Mickunas, Watts said. The station is “working on other arrangements at the moment,” he said.

—Diane Chiddister