The decline of KJAJ 98.1

Act One – The Beginning

If you are unaware of Coos Community Radio which operates at 98.1 FM, you aren’t alone. Sadly, thanks to its current management you also aren’t missing anything.

In 2013 the FCC opened a window for the single largest expansion of community radio stations in the history of the agency.  Non-profit or publicly owned organizations were invited to apply without fee for a low-power FM (LPFM) radio license. After some encouragement from a fellow activist operating a full power station in Florence, I applied for three licenses in Coos County. Happily, all three applications were approved and received what is called a “construction permit”. Each had a maximum of three years to build and begin operating a station. Winter Lakes High School in Coquille, Bandon Community Radio and Coos Community Radio in Coos Bay/North Bend all went live and received their full-fledged broadcast licenses.

Now a little LPFM station may not seem like a big deal but keep in mind that KBOO which now has multiple translators operating at a combined 28000W covering the entire northern half of Oregon offering diverse national and local programming beyond began life as a 30W LPFM. KJAJ, on the other hand is still looping 24 hours of programming first aired three years ago via Windows Media Player, let its domain expire on June 3, 2019, is apparently delinquent filing required with the state and federal reports and is refusing to repay me more than $4K forcing me sue the station.

KJAJ began broadcasting in February 2017, mere days before the construction permit was set to expire. The path to licensing was a circuitous one and like all new organizations not without hiccups but could not have been accomplished without the help of my fellow founder Patricia Gouveia. The start of the construction period coincided with another project Pattie and are were involved in, the effort to establish a right to a sustainable energy future ordinance in Coos County. Pattie, in fact, did all the heavy lifting in the beginning for KJAJ while I focused on the campaign.  She setup the bylaws, code of ethics, conflict of interest policy and paid the bills and much more. She also wrote and obtained two grants totaling $11,700 to fund capital equipment purchases. Without Pattie, KJAJ would not exist.

Using her contacts from the time she worked at ORCCA, Pattie further secured a location for a station.  Alternative Youth Activities, Inc offered an unused house on their property. This would facilitate one of our goals to work with youth which was a feature of one of the grants we submitted. Our only requirement was to cover the monthly electrical and water and allow AYA to use one room in the building. We were excited because this would allow us physical space to grow as the station became more involved with the community. We paid the utilities for about 20 months before we actually began broadcasting. In addition to the grants, Pattie and I also provided in excess of $4K to cover operational expenses to keep the station afloat until it was generating revenue.

Initially we planned to use a remote tower location but as time was running short and suitable towers were few and far between AYA’s new executive director, Scott Cooper, agreed to allow us to erect a 36’ tower on site. We considered this a temporary solution until a better tower location providing us with better coverage was found but happily KJAJ was borne and Coos Community Radio received its full-fledged broadcasting license.

As with many small organizations we struggled organizationally and please note that when I use the term “we” I mean the KJAJ board.  Board members and volunteers who have been there almost from the beginning include Knute Nemeth and Geno Landrum, (there were others in the early days who had to drop out for various personal reasons or because they moved, time constraints, etc).. Small start-up organizations require a working board meaning people willing to do the hard work of raising funds, filing state and federal documents and doing the day-to-day upkeep and maintenance, public outreach, etc…

At one point I invited Travis Hayer to be on the board because he had actual experience operating a station having worked for Bi-Coastal Media and we eventually invited Scott Cooper to the board as I thought it would be reasonable to have a representative of our landlord and largest in-kind contributor, AYA. Scott Cooper also indicated he would help with grant writing taking some of the burden off of Pattie. These two choices would ultimately prove fatal to the organization.

In addition to the time constraints set by the FCC we were also under other time pressures. Our foundation grant of $9,000 was meant to be spent within one year and to be used for capital expenditures, not for operating costs.  Because we had so much difficulty solving the tower problem it took us nearly two years to spend it. We had planned to reapply for more funds but until we spent the first grant this would not have been appropriate and so we opted to make some purchases that we hoped would be useful to the station in an effort to meet the original deadline or risk having to return the money. This was freely discussed at a board meeting unfortunately, the only people who showed up were Pattie and me and Geno Landrum who at the time was a volunteer and not yet on the board. We bought some Barix boxes, a small FM transmitter, a microphone and some odds and ends knowing we could always sell these assets if necessary. Even then we still hadn’t spent enough money to justify reapplying and we were even more concerned because of the lack of input from the rest of the board. After Pattie and I held a yard sale, (mostly organized by Pattie), with no help from the rest of the board, Pattie decided she was done and understandably decided to resign.

This was a critical time for KJAJ because it still did not have its broadcast license and time was running out. At my request Pattie stayed on as the “paper” president temporarily while I took over the chores of president and treasurer and was added as a signor on the account. Included in the treasurer duties was tracing back over the previous three years to determine how the money was spent. The board was provided with the breakdown below. In summary, we raised $11,700 in grant funds and by the time we went on the air had spent in excess of $15,500 in verified capital purchases and operating expenses. As mentioned previously, the difference between what we received in grants and what the station spent, almost $5,000 by the time I too gave up on KJAJ, came from Pattie and me.

Shortfall = $3,821

Since I did not have a debit card for our bank, I used my own bank and credit cards to make the purchases or pay the utilities, etc. This was made clear up front to the attending board and I further made it clear that I would reimburse myself for these purchases and expenses.

In addition to paying the bills and making the equipment purchases I prepared and filed the required state and federal reports and hosted the station website, KJAJ.org on my own server. All of this was because I firmly believed the station could be a valuable community asset to help counter the conservative commercial radio that permeates the area.

Pattie and I are deeply disappointed after all our hard work to see the state of the station now. What a waste of our time and effort. Stay tuned for Act Two to learn how Scott Cooper took power from the station without asking, (I was paying for it), how he decided to change the lease terms we had previously agreed upon and helped stack the board with AYA sycophants including Darlene Elliott, and how he tried to publicly shame me in front of his friends and girlfriend for having had the audacity to privately disagree with him via email. Then read how they are essentially trying to steal my money

Act 2 – Things get weird

As I mentioned earlier it is my opinion board members Scott Cooper and Travis Hayer ultimately destroyed the organization, but I should first acknowledge that during the crunch time it was Scott who got permission for us to erect the tower.  Then Travis took the reins and worked with the volunteers to erect the tower, connect all the equipment and get the station on the air. He didn’t exactly keep to his original budget, such as it was, but we prevailed.

Instead of rejoicing, however, Travis decided to revisit and question every decision made up to this point and suddenly decided that I was the enemy of the station rather than a fellow board member and benefactor. I will elaborate on Travis’ relentless harassment later on but should mention here that Scott hired Travis to work for AYA prior to the station going live.

Let’s begin with Scott and why I believe he triggered the downfall of KJAJ. Anyone who has met Scott knows he presents as very amiable, helpful, enthusiastic and very self-assured. Scott joined the KJAJ board in 2017 and as I mentioned, had indicated that he would write grants to support our proposed youth-oriented work.

By the time Scott joined the board we had been paying utilities for the station for almost two years, maintained our annual state and federal reporting and fees to keep the organization current, paid insurance and mailbox fees and had purchased and installed all the equipment and the costs of erecting the tower. We had exhausted all the grant funds plus spent an additional $5,000. The extra funds came from Pattie and me.

To be clear, what follows is in no way meant to be a criticism of AYA. To the best of my knowledge the organization fulfills its mission for the students it serves. It is with certain individuals within the organization that I have taken issue.

Almost immediately Scott and I found cause to disagree. As I have previously mentioned our understanding with AYA was the use of a house on the AYA property which included a kitchen, bathroom, living room and two of the three bedrooms in exchange for working with and developing programs with AYA students. Pattie and I were of the understanding that a lease had been executed so when Scott decided to reverse the arrangement and limit KJAJ to only one room and therefore our opportunity to expand I asked to see the lease to which he replied there was no lease. He explained that he had delivered the lease, but no one signed it. Curious, but easily solved by getting all parties to sign. When I pressed him as to who hadn’t signed, AYA or KJAJ, he deflected saying that AYA had been on the verge of bankruptcy when it offered KJAJ the space, (news to us), but now it wasn’t. Make of that what you will be it was clear if KJAJ was to expand into a viable community resource we would have to look for a new location.

The next item of contention came when I learned after complaining that the electrical bills had doubled that Scott had setup an aquaculture program in a garage which ran large pumps off of our meter. Why he didn’t bother to ask or advise the KJAJ board of this I don’t know but since I was paying these bills out of my own pocket, I was obviously annoyed.

Throughout the course of KJAJ’s existence Pattie and I pressured the board to assist with fundraising and I personally sent multiple emails to the board suggesting fundraising plans.

At one of the first board meetings Scott attended as a board member I began my typical entreaty that we needed money. Scott felt that we first needed to establish how the previous money had been spent. While I don’t see why one should preclude the other, I agreed to complete my reconstruction of the three plus years finances prior to my taking over the treasurer duties. Scott meanwhile agreed to cover the station’s expenses during the interim. We estimated $300 per month to which Scott said, “no problem.”

Despite the fact that the organization had changed bank accounts three times during its existence I was able to provide the breakdown seen, (available on Act 1), by the next meeting. Despite his promise Scott did not help pay the bills nor did he write any grants and Travis was still sending me text images of shut off notices for our water and electric bills expecting me to pay them.

To put it mildly, Scott turned out to be all hat and no cattle…

Now to Travis. Travis and I got along fine in the beginning, but I detected a marked change in his demeanor after he began working with Scott at AYA. One day at a board meeting Travis was particularly cold and instead of pulling me aside and saying he had some concerns he decided to ambush me. He announced to the board that I had made capital purchases he did not approve of and that I shouldn’t be treasurer. He was accusing me of malfeasance. Curiously, the only person who came to my defense was Geno Landrum, but it should also be noted that I was not the treasurer when these items were acquired but they were purchased with board approval. Rather than bore everyone with the details suffice it to say that Travis offered up no apology and I still retain the audio of his persistent bullying harassment and accusations at every board meeting.

Even though I had provided the board with copies of the expenses paid and capital purchases were all in the studio or on the roof, Travis was convinced I had misappropriated funds. Anyone capable of simple math calculations could see this is impossible but he was relentless. His behavior was so awful that he triggered my PTSD. Even though intellectually I know that bullies like Travis don’t have the guts to take action, I was so disturbed that I invested in security cameras around my home, just in case.

Even worse than Travis’ treatment of me was how he blocked the station from progressing. At some point, I don’t know when this happened, he was appointed or self-appointed station manager and refused to let anyone help him or to automate the station so we could improve our programming.

So why would the board allow one person to so control or limit the station? The answer to that lies with Scott Cooper and his maneuvering to load the board with AYA staff and board members who apparently trust Travis’ judgment and goals of mediocrity. Over my strong objections and in my opinion in violation of our conflict of interest policy Scott pushed to add Darlene Elliott, AYA secretary and Octavia Shafer, AYA board member “because we need money”. In so doing and including both Scott and Travis 66% of the board would be associated with the landlord, AYA and two of them direct employees of Scott. Scott claimed that the adoption of the conflict of interest policy had not been documented in the previous minutes and therefore didn’t apply.

Adding these individuals to the board did not provide any funding save for the small $25 annual fee that Travis refused to pay. Again, Scott talks a good game but doesn’t deliver.

Coming up in Act 3 – Scott reveals his true character and the plan to install Travis as president.

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