February 12, 2004

Antioch announces creation of task force to bolster WYSO

On Monday, the Antioch University Board of Trustees and Chancellor Jim Craiglow announced the formation of a “blue ribbon task force” headed by longtime media professionals Nan Rubin and David Crippens to strengthen WYSO public radio.

Both WYSO management and members of Keep WYSO Local expressed enthusiasm for the task force, which will include an as yet undetermined number of members selected by Rubin and Crippens. According to the press release announcing the creation of the task force, the group will begin its work quickly and submit an interim report in April and a final report to the Board of Trustees in June.

“We’re very pleased with the announcement,” said Bob Grubbs of Keep WYSO Local, noting that the group discussed the news at a meeting Monday night. “In general the group was heartened.”

Much of the local enthusiasm for the move was sparked by the announcement of the involvement of Rubin, an Antioch College graduate and longtime media activist.

“What I’ve done professionally for more than 25 years is to build community radio in the United States,” Rubin said.

Rubin said that her commitment to community radio and political activism grew from her experience at Antioch and WYSO as a student. “I cannot speak highly enough about Antioch as an incubator for activist media in general. Personally, I would love to see some of that vitality and commitment to social justice return to WYSO,” she said.

Antioch University Vice Chancellor Glenn Watts, who oversees the station, also expressed support for the task force.

“I think it’s the right thing at the right time,” he said. “The potential is great. It seems like an excellent opportunity to make sure the station moves forward.”
Watts said that he would like to be a member of the task force, but does not yet know if he will be one.

The news of the task force comes nearly two weeks after Antioch announced that Steve Spencer, the controversial general manager of WYSO, had resigned.
The Board of Trustees approved the task force to its meeting last week, according to the press release. Dan Kaplan, president of the board, said that the board discussed the WYSO situation for almost two hours when the board held a three-day meeting last week in Los Angeles.

“We care about the station,” Kaplan said in an interview this week. “We’re committed to strengthening the station’s relationship with the college and with the local community.”

Kaplan said that Crippens and Rubin are “national caliber people” who “have WYSO’s interests at heart and know the national scene and what other stations are doing.”

According to the press release, the task force is “charged with helping WYSO continue its proud legacy, working together with the WYSO Resource Board and station management to explore new ways of expanding the station’s historic educational mission, reconnecting WYSO and the academic programs of Antioch College and securing the station’s fiscal health for decades to come.”

In an interview Monday, Crippens, an Antioch University trustee, said that the task force will “look at WYSO from A to Z” to try to determine how best to strengthen the station. “All of us are coming into this with a very open mind,” he said. “I have no preconceived notions.”

On Tuesday, Rubin said that her priorities as task force co-chair would be, first, “to stabilize the station, to bring morale and listeners back.” A second priority she said, involves stabilizing the station’s financial picture and reducing the current budget deficit of about $100,000, and a third is “to re-establish the ongoing ties between the radio station and the college and university.”

Rubin emphasized that she had not yet spoken with Crippens and was expressing her personal priorities. She said the two have not yet identified the process they will use to choose task force members, although she would like the group to “represent stakeholders” in WYSO. Rubin, who lives in New York City, stressed the need to talk with the station’s many constituencies, and hopes to be in Yellow Springs in a few weeks to do so.

“We absolutely have to meet with the station staff, with groups of listeners, including Keep WYSO Local and with others not aligned with a movement, to get a sense from them of what is strong and what is not strong,” she said. “After talking to people, we’ll figure out a plan of what we need to do to strengthen the station.”

Rubin said that she does not know if the task force is bound by the statement released by the university two weeks ago announcing the resignation of Spencer and also stating that former WYSO employees who “damaged the station” would not be welcome back.

“There was no task force when the press release was announced,” she said. “I would like to think if the task force included a recommendation about former staff, that would be respected.”

Rubin also said that, in her opinion, “former staff are people we want to talk with.”
In a prepared statement, former WYSO host Vick Mickunas, who left the station in December, said, “The Antioch Board of Trustees should be commended for intervening at this, the 11th hour for WYSO. I think Nan Rubin is an excellent choice to guide WYSO back to being the radio station that it needs to be.”
According to this week’s press release, Crippens, who graduated from Antioch College in 1964, has “nearly three decades of nonprofit management, fundraising and media development experience with a major focus of providing interim leadership and management for nonprofit agencies facing transitional challenges.” He is the principal at DLC and Associates and recently served as vice president of foundations and education at a public television station in Los Angeles.

Rubin, who graduated from Antioch in 1971, runs Community Media Services, which, according to the press release, “provides management and fundraising assistance to public television and radio stations, independent radio and video producers, media service organizations, grassroots arts organizations, nonprofit groups and foundations since 1985.”

—Diane Chiddister