On Monday, January 5, 2009, SaveWCAL President Ruth Sylte was interviewed regarding the status of the current Rice County District Court proceedings for the KFAI-FM Evening News.
KFAI has generously supplied SaveWCAL with a downloadable MP3 file of the five minute interview:
Take a listen!
As with all media that cover our efforts, we appreciate KFAI's continuing interest in the WCAL story. Please let them know if you do, too.
The full broadcast of the Evening News is available on the KFAI web site archives. Â KFAI Evening News broadcasts are also available as podcasts.
KFAI, one of Minnesota's Independent Radio Stations (and therefore a sister station to WCAL), is located in the Twin Cities and can be found at 90.3 FM in Minneapolis and 106.7 FM in Saint Paul.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Great interview. The responses were clear, concise and really covered the bases in a very short period of time. Way to go!
Nice job.
Thanks for the updates…I wish the court could hear the case sooner…I also hope independent public stations will have new and and a better overall life under the new Obama administration and those he appoints to the FCC and public broadcasting TV/Radio boards, etc…I think the SaveWCAL group and supporters needed deeper pockets of supporters like Joan Croc who willed tens of millions of $s to National Public Radio…I see the Pohlad family owns a radio station. I believe the Whitney's of Cargill companies owned, at one time, AM1400 Music of Your Life station.
The current Board of Regetns is concerned and motivated by money and those who have it – both the parents of prospective students and the captains of industry and other who have large trusts and those with disposable incomes to freely give to colleges like St. Olaf.
It is not the distinguished and unquestioned integrity institution it once was under leaders and employees like Sid Rand, David E. Johnson, Harlan Foss, H.P. Skoglund, Oscar Husby, Stan Ness and so many others.
I hope that trust and honesty can be restored.
I again call on the SaveWCAL group to seek someway to get a new venture, either FM or AM, public or commercial perhaps to begin a new station.
SaveWCAL responds:
At this time, there is no need for further hearings on the matter at hand. The court is currently considering our Petition (and St. Olaf's and MPR's Motions) and all information that the parties have submitted to him. The judge has ninety days from the date of the last hearing, December 18, to consider the matter and issue a ruling. We anticipate the judge's decision on or about March 18.
Our primary goal has not changed since our organization began. We seek to restore WCAL — and that is why we have spent the last four years fighting to protect the trust and its assets to support the FM public radio station that it was intended to support.
It is important to understand that no comparable non-commercial licenses/frequencies currently exist in this region — and none ever will. The spectrum is "full" and the FCC will not issue any more licenses.
This is one of the reasons that voiding the sale is essential. First and foremost, the sale was transacted without notice to the Attorney General and without the approval of a court of law. Therefore, the sale is illegal. Illegal sales are void.
Secondly, it would be impossible for the WCAL trust to exist without its most essential assets: the 100 watt non-comm license and the radio tower in Rosemount that its greedy trustee sold simply to get cold hard cash for its coffers.
We believe that if Minnesota law is followed, we will prevail.
Once a decision has been reached in this matter, then questions of how to go about restoring the station can begin to be considered. Until then, it would be inappropriate for SaveWCAL to speculate or make any announcements regarding the future of WCAL.
Stay with it, SaveWCAL folk. Your cause is just, even if you think you're crying in the wilderness. The work you continue to do is impressive.
"Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries." – -James A. Michener
Anonymous #4, I'll bet the folks at SaveWCAL don't think they are a voice crying in the wilderness. It's just that most other people think they are.
It might be helpful for St. Olaf to remember what usually happened to those who ignored the prophetic voices…