Communication breakdown

KHSU is still having trouble with its general manager

The weekly KHSU staff meeting was abruptly cancelled at the last minute this morning by general manager Peter Fretwell. This cancellation comes after changes were made in the KHSU Facebook admin settings and the removal of long time staff and volunteer, Geraldine Goldberg from the website. Office manager, Lorna Bryant, and content director, Jessie Eden, were also removed from their admin position to a lower status as editors. Part of the email sent to Goldberg read:

“Hi Geraldine, You’re getting this email to confirm that you’re no

longer an admin on KHSU. You were removed on January 29, 2019 at 12:05pm.”

“Geraldine has been the backbone of this station for decades,” Eden said. “I have no idea why she was removed from the website. Its very strange.”

Eden said they were not informed of any changes being made to the Facebook page’s admin status. Goldberg has posted content to the website and helped edit other people’s content involving public affairs programs.

“There’s not rational for her removal,” Eden said. “She has done nothing. I don’t think she’s seen posted anything for many months and this is a surprise to me.”

Eden said she wasn’t sure who removed Goldberg but the only people that have that power are paid staff and general manager Peter Fretwell. The status changing of Bryant and Eden was made by KHSU development assistant, Monica Topping. Those with admin status on Facebook are now Monica Topping, David Reed, MarComm, and Peter Fretwell’s wife, Becky Fretwell. Monica Topping has also took the place of moderator for KHSU, which used to be Lorna Bryant’s position. Eden said the moderator is essentially an editor of messages that approves whether or not those messages get sent out to everyone else.

“Lorna used to be the moderator but was removed and now is getting moderated herself,” Eden said. “She set up the whole moderator system. Because she’s being edited she cant just send out messages to the volunteers at the station, even though she’s responsible for their parking permits, and keys and all manner of day to day function of the station. She needs to be able to communicate”

Because Topping doesn’t work five days a week, Eden said messages involving technical issues would sit and not reach everyone when needed, which was an increasing problem. The last KHSU staff meeting the question was raised why KHSU’s broadcast engineer needed to be moderated. Eden said that has now changed and the broadcast engineer is able to send out messages with out having them approved by Topping but message for Bryant to the CAB still need approval. A recent Facebook post involving tonight’s CAB meeting was immediately removed right after Bryant posted it. Eden said she had never heard that the KHSU Facebook page could not post about CAB meetings.

“The CAB is the community liaison between KHSU and the community,” Eden said. “The CAB is essential for any public radio stations which is why the corporation of public broadcasting, which gives us money, wants public radio stations to have a board. They recognize we need that liaison for connection with community and to know what their needs are.”

Tonight at 6:30pm the CAB will being having a meeting in the Karshner Lounge.