Radio station’s two opposing boards of directors hold rival fundraisers
As Ryerson’s deeply divided radio station prepares to launch its yearly fundraiser Friday, Sept. 26, dissenters are holding their own fundraiser. CKLN’s student levy has been withheld and its members have tried to impeach the board. Come Friday, the radio station will have its own reputation to fight.
Tensions between the CKLN board of directors and its staff and volunteers started to boil over in December 2007, when CKLN program director of eight years, Tim May, suddenly resigned from his post. The job wasn’t advertised and board member Tony Barnes was appointed by CKLN’s board to replace him.
Interim station manager Mike Phillips argues that the appointment was consistent with CKLN bylaws. The bylaws allow for a vacancy to be temporarily filled by a board member, to be permanently replaced no later than April 30. A permanent replacement has to be made by a hiring committee, and require the position to be advertised.
At an emergency meeting in February the radio station’s staff, students, volunteers, and donors voted by an overwhelming 90 per cent to impeach the board for its actions. A brand new board was voted in, but the impeached board refused to acknowledge either move. Both boards still exist, the new one holding open meetings with members, which include all Ryerson students, while the other does not publicly disclose meeting times.
Soon after the February meeting, 30 volunteers were dismissed with a letter that read, “Please be advised that your volunteer services at CKLN Radio Inc are no longer required effective immediately.”
“They never criticized me and never warned me or anyone that I was going to be cut,” said Don Weitz, who hosted the monthly anti-psychiatry segment ‘Shrinkrap’ for over 14 years. “There was no explanation or reason given to anybody.”
Carmelle Wolfon was also puzzled when her show, Radio Cliteracy, was taken off the air. “As far as I know the show was well-liked and we were doing a pretty good job,” she said. “I’m fairly certain that is was politically motivated. Many of the programmers who have been dismissed are vocal in their opposition to the board and Mike [Phillips] and Tony [Barnes].”
Phillips brushed off challenges to his board’s authority. He says the dismissed volunteers were “going on air and flagging off the station, misrepresenting the station, making comments about the directors which were untrue.”
Volunteers Oriel Varga and Joeita Gupta say their show, Frequency Feminisms, was taken off-air while dismissed CKLN programmer, Lisa West was on it, talking about what was going on at CKLN. Gupta says they were given certain rules when they signed up as hosts, things like “don’t swear on air,” but keeping CKLN business under wraps was not one of them. “That, in my book, qualifies as direct censorship.”
Volunteers worry Phillips is sweeping away radical voices to make way for a more commercialized station, particularly after his comments to NOW Magazine that he’d be interested in a sponsorship from well-reputed Canadian businesses like Canadian Tire. Phillips denies allegations of corporatization: “We are certainly not attempting [to become] ‘more commercial.’ We are in fact adding more student programming.”
CKLN has a history of money troubles. The Ryerson Students Union had to bail the station out of $100,000 in unpaid taxes in 2003.
In addition to the volunteers, two paid employees have also been controversially fired: news director Kristin Schwartz and assistant music director Tien Providence. According to Schwartz, she was told she was being fired for not seeing “eye-to-eye” with the board. Schwartz also finds the timing of her dismissal revealing. “There had been a strike vote of the staff scheduled two days after that,” she said. Schwartz also noted that, out of five bargaining employees, two were fired.
David Hauch, who represents Schwatz and Providence with CUPE, said the firings were illegal because they took place during bargaining. Both cases are being filed for arbitration, to be addressed in the next few months.
Rebecca Rose, Ryerson journalism grad and vice-president education of the Ryerson Students’ Union, said: “I just think that people are sick and tired of hearing about the mud-flinging that’s happening at CKLN.” Despite the low student involvement, Rose sees the changes at CKLN as a loss for the community. “CKLN has always been a really progressive voice on campus, […] and over the past year because CKLN has been in shambles, we’re missing that progressive community radio.” RSU is currently withholding CKLN’s student levies, which make up 60 per cent of its funds until the boards reconcile.
The controversy at CKLN bears a striking resemblance to changes at U of T’s radio station CIUT in 1999. CIUT was then an estimated $150,000 in the red, which led SAC (now known as UTSU) to take control. Volunteers, including students, were dismissed or had their slots changed or shortened. Two paid employees were fired with similar allegations. Late-night airtime was sold to internet broadcast network, Virtually Canadian, a move that attracted similar complaints of corporatization.
CKLN members will hold a public forum to discuss these issues at 7 p.m. on Sept. 25, at Ryerson’s Oakham House. The opposition fundraiser is currently ongoing at takebackourradio.blogspot.com.
