Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Boulder Community Broadcast Association, Inc.
March 9, 2004
Call to order at 6:13pm
Board members in attendance: Arleigh, Anne Bermingham, Janaki LeFils, Paul Mischo, Greg O’Brien, Steven Sherman-Boemker, Michael Shuster, Gabrielle Silva, Nile Southern, Liz Valles and Marty Durlin (ex-oficio).
Public and volunteers in attendance: Kris Abrams, Davide Andrea, Ron Bailer, George Baskos, Jim Ciarlo, Rick Fitzgerald and Neil Parker.
The agenda was approved with Digital Conversion being moved to the second agenda item. The minutes of the previous board meeting held January 13, 2004 was approved with corrections. The updated board of directors contact list was also approved.
Anne Bermingham and Tracy Miller were recognized for their years of service and committment to the board and KGNU. Both Anne and Tracy made valuable contributions to the board, and their presence will be missed.
Public Participation:
George Baskos, reported that KGUD 90.7FM (formerly KCDC, the Longmont vo-tech radio station) recently completed the transition into a Class D community radio station operating at 100 watts in Longmont.
Rick Fitzgerald, a long-time resident of Longmont and activist, attended the meeting as a prospective board member.
Station Manager’s Report (see attached)
Committee Reports
ar Denver Outreach & Capital Campaign:
Kris Abrams reports there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that we are back in negotiations with the owners of an AM frequency in Denver. The bad news is that they’ve come back with a higher price in their most recent offer. Discussion ensued on the price and value of the signal, KGNU’s needs, and what possible steps we could take to keep the negotiations open. A motion was made that the board empower Marty & Kris to make a counteroffer and also that the Denver Signal Expansion committee be empowered to authorize a higher dollar amount for further negotiations. The voting members of the committee are Arleigh, Chip Grandits, Paul Mischo, Greg O’Brien, Steven Sherman-Boemker, Gabrielle Silva, and Nile Southern. The motion was seconded and amended to empower the Denver Signal committee to continue to meet and make decisions. The amended motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
Signal Committee :
Digital Conversion (HD) continues to be a major issue. The station’s existing transmitting equipment is nearly 30 years old. Marty urged the board to approve digital conversion for our FM signal. Ron Bailer supports and believes that the issues with HD are being resolved. Davide noted that we can replace our current equipment with a solid state transmitter for less than the cost of conversion. He again expressed his doubts that digital conversion is going to be successful. A straw poll was suggested and the motion was made to vote to approve FM digital conversion. Another motion was made for the board to approve AM digital conversion, and both motions were seconded. A vote was taken in 2 parts. There were 5 votes in favor of FM digital conversion, with 3 against it and 3 abstaining; there were 8 votes in favor of AM digital conversion, with 3 abstaining votes. The issue will be considered again at the next board meeting.
Budget Committee:
Jim Ciarlo presented a mortgage paydown plan that would offer the station considerable savings by reducing our interest rate and monthly/annual P+I payments, and total interest costs over the life of the loan. Davide suggested that rather than putting money into paying down the mortgage, that we consider paying off the entire mortgage and secure a line-of-credit. The motion was made to make a lump-sum payment towards the building mortgage and to renegotiate our loan with a 15 year term. The motion was seconded and was approved by unanimous vote.
Bylaws Committee:
Arleigh and Neil presented Articles I and II. Article I was tentatively approved with the following change to KGNU’s Mission Statement:
“KGNU is an independent, non-commercial community radio station based in Boulder, CO.”
Article II was also tentatively approved. Articles III-IV will be presented at the next board meeting.
Nominating Committee
Nile reminded the board that Arleigh’s second term will end in November, 2004, and the search is on for a new board chair. The question of age limits for board members was raised, in regard to the possibility of youths serving on the board. Nile will speak with Greg Friedman, the station’s counsel. Also discussed were what skills and abilities the board is looking for in prospective board members. All agreed balance and competancy are important, and diversity continues to be an issue at all levels at the station. Marty mentioned an upcoming anti-racism training being offered by Free Speech TV and Alternative Radio.
Programming Committee:
There was a brief discussion of the balance of news & public affairs with music. Most seem to feel there is a good balance, but that we should continue to discuss and consider this issue.
PBOG Committee
An events list was made available for the meeting, of particular note are upcoming appearances by Michael Parenti and Amy Goodman on KGNU’s behalf. Plans are being made for "August Under the Tent,” a series of events which would be held at KGNU under our new events tent. Stay tuned.
IT/Internet Committee (see attached)
Building Committee
Selena is designing new mosaics for the bathroom mirrors.
Other business:
Board members were reminded that the board meets at 6pm. The information on KGNU’s website will be changed to reflect this. Next board meeting will be May 11, 2004.
Ron asks Denver commuters to listen to a FM signal which uses a series of signal boosters, and which may be for sale.
George Baskus informed the meeting of a new Christian station operating out of Longmont and broadcasting into the metro Denver area, and offering “edgy” Christian music in it’s programming.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:48pm.