Making a Public Comment
Council welcomes public comment before regular council meetings. Fill out the online form below for your chance to make a public comment at the next regular Monday Council meeting. Please read the revised rules and procedures.
Registrations can also be submitted:
* In person at Cleveland City Hall, Room 220, 601 Lakeside Ave. NE. Paper forms are available to register.
* If you don't want to fill out the online form below, you can download this form and fill it out, and email it to publiccomment@clevelandcitycouncil.gov or drop it off at Council offices. (Parking at City Hall on the upper lot is free on Mondays after 5 pm when Council is meeting.) If you need assistance, language, or disability, go here to make a request (at least 3 days in advance.)
Make a Comment in Person
Registrations to speak up to 3 minutes at a regular council meeting can be submitted between noon Wednesday and 2 pm on the Monday before a regular 7 pm council meeting. (Early, incomplete and false registrations are not accepted.) Only the first 10 are accepted.
Make a Comment Online
If you don't want to speak at a Council meeting, please submit your written comments below.
Public Comments
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Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. This decision appears to have been driven by personal gains and ulterior motives, not the best interests of students or the community that WCSB served for decades. Unfortunately, this is often how corporate agendas operate — the needs of the few end up outweighing the needs of the many.
Perhaps the president needed a new addition to their home, or this move guaranteed a yearly bonus, or even a convenient title bump. Whatever the incentive, it’s hard to imagine this decision was made without awareness of the backlash it would generate. I imagine those responsible thought: "Let the kids be mad and hold signs for a while — what’s done is done. And I’m getting that new car."
This action reeks of self-interest and disregard for the broader community. It may be irreversible now, but it should go on record — add this to the growing list of complaints from disappointed and disillusioned Cleveland citizens. We expected better.
Thank you for the opportunity to make a public statement about WCSB. Born and raised in Cleveland, I’m a proud CSU alum (BA 2007, MS 2009), former WCSB student member and Public Affairs director, and long time listener and donor to WCSB. Being part of the radio station while studying at Cleveland State was an amazing experience and led me to a career of public service. Even after moving out of state, I have continued to be a ‘CSB listener, supporter, and Radiothon donor.
Like so many, I was heartbroken by the news that WCSB was being taken over by Ideastream for a canned jazz format, and that students and community volunteers were unceremoniously ousted. Those responsible for making this decision, more interested in advancing their careers than serving the public interest, have no understanding about what WCSB has meant to CSU students and the community for almost 50 years.
At WCSB, people across many ethnic backgrounds and from all walks of life volunteer their time to broadcast the most unique, diverse programming imaginable. They represent their backgrounds and lived experiences and come together as one cohesive community. It was an amazing privilege, to be a listener and a member. I was just one contributor, during one era, among many generations of students who poured their hearts and souls into WCSB. Imagining the airwaves without this treasure is unfathomable.
Thank you for your attention to this situation and the opportunity to share my comments. Please take every action in your power to reinstate WCSB, for the students and the COMMUNITY.
Respectfully,
Holly Whisman, PhD, RN
I am a CSU Alumni (Levin College of Urban Affairs 2002). Ever since my undergraduate days at CSU when I studied jazz appreciation as one of my Urban Affairs elective courses, I've been a huge jazz aficionado (thank you CSU.)
But today I'm disappointed that WCSB has been taken away from some of the the brightest young Clevelanders, then handed over to the local public media conglomerate, Ideastream for 24/7 jazz.
Cleveland can be very proud of what her local young people have brought to us with WCSB - for over 50 years. WCSB is unique and special and belongs on the air as just as it was. It will be a disservice to Cleveland to silence their voices now. Escorting these vibrant young folks out of the radio station by police with no notice should make Cleveland feel ashamed of itself. As Cleveland's top decision makers, please do what you can to upend this injustice.
Please investigate how this came to be, and how it is that CSU president Laura Bloomberg is now to be seated on the powerful Ideastream Board of Trustees. Her seat there appears as highly self-serving, and a quid pro quo for her giving away something that belonged to the present day students at my Alma-mater. 'Given away in exchange for a powerful voice in local media for herself.
These days, I'm a long-serving librarian at a public library and I understand from where I sit how important it is when we lose independent voices like this. Cleveland please honor your your young people and investigate this travesty. I hope you will do what you can to encourage the return of WCSB to our students. Allow them to continue presenting their messages to our city - not to only fetch coffee for Ideastream bigwigs.
Sincerely yours, Rob Schneider
Not only is this an outage to the countless students and community members who have volunteered their time, talent, and voices for the past 50 years, helping to form the actual cultural backbone of Cleveland’s music legacy, but it smacks of the shameful authoritarian moment we are living in. I previously had a positive impression of both CSU and Ideastream, having listened to WKSU for years, but now I don’t want to have anything to do with either. Shame on both for this corporate coup, and I hope for the sake of all of the fans of the station and programmers and staff, as well as the reputations of CSU and Ideastream that you reinstate WCSB as a student and community-run entity. It enriches our lives and city immeasurably.
What is right is to GIVE IT BACK!
For all of its history until this past October 3, WCSB has been a unique and vital resource for the critically under-represented voices in Cleveland and beyond. It's not about disliking jazz (WCSB played jazz!) and it's not about limiting the voice of Ideastream (accessible through other media channels in our market, including existing terrestrial radio!). It's about the needless destruction and erasure of all those OTHER voices, from the all of the foreign language audiences, to the on-air personalities, to that one nerdy weird middle school girl who gets exposed to that life-changing music at the end of the dial while she works late into the night on her homework. GIVE IT BACK!
The action by Laura Bloomberg to hand over operations of the station to Ideastream has disenfranchised those voices -- and HOW it was done, in such a surreptitious way, speaks clearly of the actors' knowledge that what they were doing was WRONG. My voice is just one, but I am part of a unanimous response by our community who DOES NOT WANT to lose "our" WCSB. With the exception of Dr. Bloomberg and Kevin Martin, EVERY person I have spoken with on this issue thinks that it is a BAD IDEA, and a terrible loss. GIVE IT BACK.
This can all be resolved with a very simple solution: Return operation of the radio station WCSB at 89.3 to the students and volunteers who have run it for nearly 50 years. JUST GIVE IT BACK.
In doing so, Dr. Bloomberg and Kevin Martin can redeem themselves as supporters of diversity and public discourse, which are the stated goals - and should be the ACTUAL missions - of their respective organizations, as well as the right side of history at this moment in time.