Howling Moon on shelves soon

Howling Moon, a new moonshine distilled in Woodfin, will be making its way on shelves at the Woodfin ABC store by the end of the month.

Ad-hoc committee addresses chairman

An ad-hoc committee, headed up Weaverville resident Fred Flaxman, is asking the Federal Communications Commission to deny the license renewal of WCQS in Asheville, charging that the station violated requirements to form a community advisory board and conduct listener surveys. The station filed a response with the FCC saying that it is now in compliance. The station’s broadcast license, held by Western North Carolina Public Radio (WNCPR), would have been automatically renewed on Dec. 1, but the group's petition to deny triggered an FCC review.

Flaxman drafted a letter on behalf of his group, made up of roughly 30 area residents, that addresses the list of complaints to Bryan Smith, chairman of the board of directors for Western North Carolina Public Radio.

It reads:

Dear Chairman Smith:

I write with the hope and expectation that the Board of Directors of Western North Carolina Public Radio and the members of the Ad-Hoc Committee for Responsive Radio share a common goal: helping Western North Carolina  to have the best, most responsive, public radio station it can have given the financial resources available. Assuming that is the case, we think it would be far better that we work together to reach this goal rather than to engage in a battle with each other as we have been doing.

The Ad-Hoc Committee members are all pleased to have public radio service in our area. We definitely do not want to do without it. We want to improve it. We want it to be more responsive than we have found it to be in the past, as documented in our FCC petition.

So I write to you today with several suggestions that we think would greatly help to bring about this improved  responsiveness and service to the community. We sincerely hope you'll agree with all of them. We don't think they are controversial. There are other public radio stations and nonprofits in the United States that operate in a similar fashion to what we are proposing. And these suggestions, if carried out, would deprive us of any reason to challenge your license renewal and lead us to ask the FCC to withdraw our Petition to Deny. Our proposals are as follows: 

1. The Board of Directors of a public radio station, in our view, should be elected by the members of the station, rather than being self-elected and self-perpetuating. We therefore suggest that the changes to the articles of incorporation and bylaws necessary to bring this about be made as soon as possible and elections held at the next annual meeting.

2. We suggest that the station's Community Advisory Board meet quarterly, rather than twice a year, and be open to any resident of the station's coverage area who wants to join the CAB and who attends at least three meetings each year.

3. We suggest that the CAB's bylaws be changed to no longer require Board of Directors approval of CAB members, to better assure the independence of the CAB.

4. We suggest that the CAB's advice be sought prior to any program changes, and that the Board of Directors make this a station policy. In suggesting this we emphasize that management does not have to follow the advice of the CAB, only to seek it, consider it, and follow it where practical and desirable to do so.

5. We suggest that all station employees be individuals who believe strongly in the mission of the station and of public broadcasting, and who are sensitive to and responsive to the needs of the communities served by the station. We suggest that they work hard to involve the public in public broadcasting, and never forget that they are paid by the public they are hired to serve. We are sorry to report that this hasn't always been the case in the past.

6. We suggest that final programming decisions be made by people who are qualified by training or background to make those decisions. We also suggest that a one-paragraph biography of each station employee be posted on the staff page of the station's website, so that listeners and members can see at a glance the qualifications of those holding decision-making positions at the station.

7. We feel that the broadcast of locally-produced news, public affairs, and talk programs by local public radio stations is more important than ever. We think it is essential to their very survival, as modern technology makes it possible through satellite and internet radio to listen to stations all over the world as well as network programming from NPR without tuning in to local stations like WCQS. Therefore we strongly suggest that WCQS make local news, public affairs, and talk programming an essential part of their mission statement, and hire the right people to carry it out.

8. Nevertheless, we also suggest that the broadcast of classical music, folk music, and jazz remains an important part of the public radio mission in communities like ours where it is the only free, over-the-air source of such programming. We think that the station should continue and improve such programming by identifying and broadcasting the best such programming available. We don't feel that this has been evident in the past. Many years went by, for example, before WCQS offered "From the Top" to their listeners. "Performance Today" from American Public Media and the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts are still not available to listeners here.

9. We also feel that part of the mission of WCQS should be to encourage the production of high-quality programming for broadcast on the station by local, independent producers. Some of the best programs on public television in the U.S. come from independent producers. The same is true for public radio. We suggest that the mission statement be revised to encourage such production and acquisition, particularly from your coverage area.

10. We suggest that WCQS conduct annual surveys of its members to determine their reaction to the programs being broadcast and their suggestions for improvements. We further suggest that the results of these surveys be discussed at an annual WCQS Listeners Meeting, which would be broadcast live and permit live input from the public by telephone and electronic means.

11. We suggest that WCQS produce and broadcast a regular, half-hour, daily local public affairs program, perhaps immediately following NPR's "All Things Considered" at 6:30 PM, Monday through Friday, and using the same radio magazine format. Grants from local foundations, companies, and individuals could be sought to make this concept financially possible.

12. We suggest that, in order to be more responsive to the communities it serves, WCQS should voluntarily conduct community ascertainment of the communities' needs by interviewing community leaders each year. Also, we suggest that the station respond to and tabulate all programming comments and requests, whether they come by telephone, e-mail, via the station's website, or by letter, as is common at other public broadcasting stations. The logs of comments should be distributed weekly by e-mail to management, the Board of Directors, and the Community Advisory Board.

13. Because radio is a sound medium with no pictures, we believe that a station's sound is very important. We suggest that WCQS commit to hiring the best on-air personnel that they can find, so that the station always sounds like a professional, world-class operation, and not like a college training station. We think that the station has some excellent announcers on its staff, but we have heard many complaints from our members and others about some announcers who fall short of professional standards.

14. If low pay and benefits is the reason for the lack of a totally professional announcing staff at present, we suggest that the station establish a pay scale with benefits that is generous enough to attract first-class, professional, experienced talent.

The Ad-Hoc Committee for Responsive Public Radio feels that, if our suggestions are taken and implemented, these improvements will pay for themselves in increased listeners and increased donations of financial support. They will certainly make the station a more responsive and essential community resource.

We would like to meet with you to discuss these suggestions and to see if we might reach a written agreement and affidavit required by the FCC for us to withdraw our Petition to Deny WCQS's license renewal. We would appreciate your bringing this proposal up at your meeting on Wednesday (Jan. 18), and I look forward to your reply shortly after that.

Flaxman is a longtime public broadcaster who previously held executive positions at WTTW in Chicago, WETA-FM and TV in Arlington, Va., and KUAT-TV in Tucson, Ariz.

Local business news

* Newbridge Cafe in Woodfin has not changed names. Roof damage brought down sign that had been placed on top of the old Ilene's Cafe sign that was there on Weaverville Road from 1989-2000. Owner Lorin Knouse said new Newbridge sign should be up in a week or two.

* Food Lion in Weaverville to close soon. The closure is part of a nationwide closure of 113 Food Lion stores, including the one in Hendersonville.

* Ashvegas is reporting Westall Chandley Lumber in Woodfin has closed. The store has been having an inventory reduction sale since last fall. It has been in the area for more than 100 years and in Woodfin since the 1970s. This would be the second long-standing hardware store to close in Woodfin in a year. Citizen's Do It Best Hardware closed last summer after more than 70 years in North Asheville and Woodfin.

* Zaxby's in Weaverville scheduled to open next week.

What other business news is out there?

Mars Hill College graduate recipient of Rotary scholarship

Release from Mars Hill College...
 

Tina Rathburn, a 2011 graduate of Mars Hill College, was back in the area for her holiday break from the University of Peace in Costa Rica where she has been pursuing a Masters’ Degree with the help of a $25,000 scholarship which she was awarded by Rotary International.

Tina was nominated for consideration by the Rotary Club of Madison County to go through the rigorous selection process last year. With her impressive resume of community service and top academic scores, Tina was one of two students chosen from the western North Carolina District to be part of the Ambassadorial Scholar program. As part of the requirements for receiving the scholarship for studying overseas, Tina agreed to serve as an ambassador to represent the ideals of Rotary and become involved with humanitarian programs in the country where she is studying.  While there, Tina has also been making presentations to groups about Rotary and participating in Rotary events.

The overall goal of the program is to encourage scholars to dedicate their personal and professional lives to improving the quality of life for the people of their home community. While in the program, the scholars are made aware of cultural differences and learn to become leaders who can address the humanitarian needs of the world community.  The Club in Madison County is proud to have Tina represent Rotary and western North Carolina in Costa Rica.

Taking a break

The office of the Weaverville Tribune will close Christmas Eve and remain closed through Jan. 1. We will reopen at 9 am on Jan. 2. Thanks to everyone in North Buncombe for making this another great year and happy holidays to everyone.

If you need assistance while our office is closed, please send an e-mail to wteditor@weavervilletribune.com.

Group opposes public station's license renewal

A group of 30 WCQS-FM Asheville-area listeners, calling themselves the Ad-Hoc Committee for Responsive Public Radio, has filed a petition with the FCC to deny the public radio station's license renewal. The station's license expired on Dec. 1, but the FCC automatically extended it while they consider the petition to deny, the station's response to the petition, and the Ad-Hoc Committee's rebuttal, which was submitted by mail on Saturday (Dec. 17).

The committee faults the station for being unresponsive to, and uninterested in, the views of its listeners. The group cites the fact that the station violated the Public Broadcasting Act for 13 years by not having a community advisory board (CAB), while testifying each year that they were in compliance with all federal laws in order to receive funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Forced to re-establish a CAB four years ago, WCQS management did not ask their Community Advisory Board for its advice before making sweeping program changes this year. These included the elimination of all local and national half-hour public affairs programming, a popular gardening show and a one-hour Celtic music program.

The committee also complains that the station, until this year, had not conducted any listener surveys, and the recent survey took place only after the program changes were made. Other gripes include not broadcasting programs requested by many listeners, not responding to mail from listeners, not airing programs created by any local independent producers, and violating the station's own mission statement as presented on their own website. That statement says that part of their mission is to broadcast local talk programs.

"Rather than offer to meet with critics, the station is spending who knows how much listener-donated money hiring Washington communications attorneys to represent them," according to Fred Flaxman, the committee's coordinator. "This is further evidence of their non-responsiveness to the community they are licensed to serve," he added.

Flaxman has a public broadcasting background, having retired to Weaverville after serving as a top executive for five public broadcasting stations throughout the U.S.

"It truly pains me to be fighting with a public radio station," Flaxman said, "because I have devoted my career to public radio and television and believe very strongly in the benefit they are to society. I moved to this area six years ago and volunteered to serve on WCQS's Community Advisory Board. That's when I learned that they didn't have one -- and didn't want one. I helped them reinstitute one, but gave up when I saw that their manager wanted to control the CAB and didn't want it to be the independent advisory body it is supposed to be. I only wished to see WCQS become the excellent public radio station this great community deserves. I would have preferred to work with them toward that end rather than against them."

Access to online pdf files of the Committee's "Petition to Deny," the station's "Opposition to Petition to Deny," and the Committee's "Response to Opposition to Petition to Deny" are available on request. Contact Flaxman at fflaxman@frontier.com.

Development hums along at Villages at Crest Mountain

Construction is moving along at the Villages at Crest Mountain in Woodfin. The new residential development is next to the Crest Center on Dryman Mountain Road. 

As of December, seven full-time residents now occupy homes in The Villages at Crest Mountain with three more homes nearing completion soon. Seventeen lots have been sold. Development began in 2009.


The homes and the community tout a wide range of environmentally friendly designs such as community rainwater harvesting and south-facing lots designed to optimize solar orientation.


The Villages at Crest Mountain sits on the former campus of Ben Lippen School.