March
26th 2023, marks the end of the six-hour format of "On The Edge" [aka
OTE] on C89.5 [aka KNHC] in the Seattle metro area. Due to the personal
reasons and lack of commitment of DJ Drew, and
playing too many reruns, the OTE show has suffered in both ratings and
the donations required to sustain it. Not to mention the overall
dwindling popularity of terrestrial radio, due to digital media. It
didn't help I (SAiNt) was forces to move to the peninsula at the end of
the pandemic, and could no longer get to the studio.
Additionally,
C89.5 now has a new PD, aka program [music] director. The new PD and GM
have insisted OTE be cut be to 2-3 hours long with an 11PM start time.
It may even be moved to a different day, like Wednesday in the future.
The new PD is also forcing all specialty shows to be prerecorded 2 weeks
in advance. The whole point of a specialty show is to be live and play
the newest tracks breaking. Never mind the GM promised me the show would never have a later start time.
Since
stepping in for Paul, both Drew and I (SAiNt) repeatedly pointed out to
C89.5 that over 90% of the OTE donations came in before 11PM. It is one
of only 2 shows that has sponsorship thanks to Cryoflesh.
During
the shows original hours of 6PM-midnight (when OTE was the biggest
money maker for C89.5), many of you would listen both during and after
dinner. Another chunk of the audience would listen as a get-ready and/or
pre-funk before heading out to a night club.
IMO
(SAiNt), the new PD’s & GM's justification to cut the OTE show time
in half and make the start time even later (essentially DURING prime
club hours) is based off of Arbitron ratings, ratings that are a
completely inaccurate representation of radio show popularity in the
21st century. No radio station takes ratings after 11PM that seriously.
This change in start time has essentially killed the show.
Listeners
understand this. Drew and I (SAiNt) have navigated your numerous and
understandable complaints about the change of the show start time when
the start time was moved from 6PM to 8PM. We have also been navigating
C89's administration trying to kill off the show for years.
The new C89.5 PD to be what many would define as a bully boss.
The
PD is forcing the volunteer DJs/creators to relinquish rights to their
shows, show names, show logos, and all that the volunteers have created
for THEIR shows. He’s telling the C89.5 show creators they do not have
the right to publish recordings of their shows online--on platforms such
as Mixcloud that pay the music artist--claiming it goes against KNHC’s
licensing agreement.
This is a lie.
The
FCC has no regulatory authority for online content; technically, they
don’t even have say on cable TV, only over the air signals
(terrestrial). Even over the air these are "rules" not law.
The
new PD’s intimidation tactics are appalling since the real purpose of
his claims is to use past recordings of OtE shows to create a
subscription-based 24 hour streaming channel of OtE recordings, similar
to the "Save The Wave" streaming subscription C89.5 offers.
Because
C89.5 has only ever kept a 2-week archive of past shows, I (SAiNt)
started using Mixcloud approximately 8 years ago so all the shows I have
DJed would be available to the listeners, for free. This was never a
problem until the new PD arrived.
The
new PD’s bully-boss approach that takes all show credit and rights from
the hardworking and creative volunteers, which goes against my ethical
integrity.
There is an additional reason I (SAiNt) will no longer be affiliated with the OTE show.
A
power-hungry 3rd party individual who has been a vanilla-fringe member
of our community for quite some time has unfortunately manipulated and
coerced his way into the PD’s ear about OTE.
After becoming bosom buddies with the new PD, this 3rd party individual publicly posted slanderous personal information about me (SAiNt) online.
When confronted, the new PD made it clear he and the station had no problem with the actions of this 3rd party individual. Additionally, the new PD is progressively handing power and control about the future of OTE over to this 3rd party
individual; “an individual who never was a central part of our
community, but a judgmental outlier who always thought he knew best”
[those are the words of my spouse].
He
has also pursued the station about purchasing underwriting on KNHC
(commercial ad time for public broadcast is called underwriting). For me
this ethically falls under what some would call "pay to play". It is
illegal for promoters and record labels to play to have songs played, so
in my mind it should apply to advertisers as well. No financial source
should have any say what is played on the station little along OTE.
This is why I (SAiNt) will no longer be affiliated with OTE, C89.5, or the new PD.
I
(SAiNt) also am not giving C89.5 any recordings of my show files in an
effort to ensure you, the listeners, will continue to have access to
them for free through my Mixcloud account. After November or 2022 all OTE posts on Mixcloud were on Drew's account.
I (SAiNt) will do my best to keep my recordings of my DJ sets available to for as long as possible.
If you enjoyed my DJing during my time as part of OTE, I eventually hope to move onto streaming via Mixcloud, Twitch and Youtube.
You can follow me (SAiNt) on Facebook and Twitter
to receive notifications about when I steam live. It may be a month or
so to get consistent and have a show schedule, and some page names may
change to my new show’s name "M3M0RYL34K” aka "Memory Leak".
And again, F*#% the new PD, Disloyal GM, power hungry 3rd party
interloper, and all those who played a part in how and why this
happened to OTE, a unique dance music show with [IMO] immense artistic
value that has been in existence since 1987! This radio station is so
inept that pledge drive was delayed a week from their website crashing.
They show OTE starting at 11 and going for one hour not 2, and still
show me as the host when I have only contributed a 2 hour segment since
handing over the show to Drew 6 months ago. You would think that the
station would fix the things that have been broken for nearly a decade
just to function normally before they "fix" the format. You would think
they would change the automated format, that is now on at least 3 other
stations, before messing with the live specialty shows that people tune in for -
not just used to pass the time as background noise.
Sincerely,
DJ SAiNt!
