Making an In-Person Public Comment at An Upcoming Council Meeting
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Decorum
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Public Comments
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WCSB taken over by Ideastream
This comment is not intended to express a blanket hatred of the genre of jazz or the color gray, HOWEVER...
SHAME on CSU and SHAME on Ideastream. Nobody asked to kick one of the best student led stations off the dial. And it was really dirty to do it on World College Radio Day. Ideastream was given reign over one of the last vestiges of creativity, diversity, cultural enrichment that CSU offered and has painted it landlord gray. We don't need more monochrome radio. This smacks of an initiative to squash voices of dissent that may be speaking on particular current issues and appease wealthy donors.
This was one of three radio stations I actually liked. I can't stand commercial radio and after working in sheet metal, developed a loathing for the same 50 classic rock songs played ad nauseum. I told friends and coworkers about 89.3. I can't even stand NPR stations anymore since entities allegedly dedicated to cultural enrichment keep becoming tools for political propaganda and homogeneity. I listened to hundreds of hours of 89.3 while driving routes for work. I recorded bits of music to look up later if i didn't catch the name of the artist. I loved the Halloween themed programs. I could hear new but obscure music and vintage obscure music. These stations make listeners aware of local artists and promote under represented local cultural events. The students who ran the station gained far more practical experience than they would through internships and a very different skill set for solving problems live instead of making pre-recorded content.
Smooth jazz is a dilution of everything that influenced jazz in the first place. It's the musical equivalent of office wallpaper. CSU has been trying to sanitize its image for a while, ridding the place of any programs geared toward women and cultural diversity, and this is yet another step in that direction. We do not need more on-hold music on the radio.
SHAME on CSU and SHAME on Ideastream. Nobody asked to kick one of the best student led stations off the dial. And it was really dirty to do it on World College Radio Day. Ideastream was given reign over one of the last vestiges of creativity, diversity, cultural enrichment that CSU offered and has painted it landlord gray. We don't need more monochrome radio. This smacks of an initiative to squash voices of dissent that may be speaking on particular current issues and appease wealthy donors.
This was one of three radio stations I actually liked. I can't stand commercial radio and after working in sheet metal, developed a loathing for the same 50 classic rock songs played ad nauseum. I told friends and coworkers about 89.3. I can't even stand NPR stations anymore since entities allegedly dedicated to cultural enrichment keep becoming tools for political propaganda and homogeneity. I listened to hundreds of hours of 89.3 while driving routes for work. I recorded bits of music to look up later if i didn't catch the name of the artist. I loved the Halloween themed programs. I could hear new but obscure music and vintage obscure music. These stations make listeners aware of local artists and promote under represented local cultural events. The students who ran the station gained far more practical experience than they would through internships and a very different skill set for solving problems live instead of making pre-recorded content.
Smooth jazz is a dilution of everything that influenced jazz in the first place. It's the musical equivalent of office wallpaper. CSU has been trying to sanitize its image for a while, ridding the place of any programs geared toward women and cultural diversity, and this is yet another step in that direction. We do not need more on-hold music on the radio.
Zenith
WCSB
Please support the EMERGENCY RESOLUTION to fully restore WCSB radio to its students.
Intervention is desperately needed. The students are getting a big education throughout this debacle. They have been repeatedly told that this was a Win-Win - but their autonomy was ignored and sacrificied. Please stand up for them, and prove to them that they matter. These young people have answers to questions that we don't even yet know how to ask.
Kevin Martin publically stated in the recent City Club forum "I would not put myself in the place to make judgments about what is important in terms of the values and the priorities of Cleveland State University. That is not what I do, and that's not what public media does," This was a bit disgraceful to hear, since educational opportunites were promised by Ideastream in this deal, and public media touts education as essential to their values! Mr. Martin also denigrated the value of clubs in having professional value... while sitting at The City Club! Is that cruel irony?
I work with CSU students, both as an instructor, and as a member of WCSB. They have intelligence, grit, and love for arts, and politics, and community. How I've seen them dismissed in this deal is a full tragedy.
Thank you for being involved!
Intervention is desperately needed. The students are getting a big education throughout this debacle. They have been repeatedly told that this was a Win-Win - but their autonomy was ignored and sacrificied. Please stand up for them, and prove to them that they matter. These young people have answers to questions that we don't even yet know how to ask.
Kevin Martin publically stated in the recent City Club forum "I would not put myself in the place to make judgments about what is important in terms of the values and the priorities of Cleveland State University. That is not what I do, and that's not what public media does," This was a bit disgraceful to hear, since educational opportunites were promised by Ideastream in this deal, and public media touts education as essential to their values! Mr. Martin also denigrated the value of clubs in having professional value... while sitting at The City Club! Is that cruel irony?
I work with CSU students, both as an instructor, and as a member of WCSB. They have intelligence, grit, and love for arts, and politics, and community. How I've seen them dismissed in this deal is a full tragedy.
Thank you for being involved!
Helen Schneider
WCSB
I would like to echo my support for the proposed emergency resolution to send to Ideastream and CSU. As both a longtime resident of Cleveland, a music lover and radio nerd, I have to say the sudden and complete loss of WCSB as it was as a student ran non commercial radio is a travesty that should be rectified. This topic has gained much support and it is a easy political win for all of city council to support the proposal.
When I woke up Friday morning on October 3 to being locked out of the radio station, I felt like a best friend had just kicked me out of their life without warning. I had no idea the community of my hometown would rally behind this cause as much as I can recall since Art took my Browns. For this I am grateful and I hope both my current outgoing councilman can see that before taking his leave to work to sell other city councils on AI surveillance technology.
Alex Howe
Formerly of Good Morning Metal on WCSB
When I woke up Friday morning on October 3 to being locked out of the radio station, I felt like a best friend had just kicked me out of their life without warning. I had no idea the community of my hometown would rally behind this cause as much as I can recall since Art took my Browns. For this I am grateful and I hope both my current outgoing councilman can see that before taking his leave to work to sell other city councils on AI surveillance technology.
Alex Howe
Formerly of Good Morning Metal on WCSB
Alex Howe
WCSB 89.3
The abrupt and aggressive removal of one of Cleveland’s most beloved student-run radio stations is the tasteless removal of one of our community pillars, and a gutting of our sense of place. As a Cleveland resident and radio consumer, this station is the soundtrack of my human experience, it’s the weaving between the Monday’s and the Friday’s, the subtle art of human connection and the feeling of belonging to the fabric of this city. I’ve listened to this station for almost a decade, switching back and forth between Cleveland State and Case Western from one DJ to the next, always finding comfort in the idea that despite whatever was happening outside the four walls of a home, or a nation, we at least had college radio to hold us together in Cleveland. WCSB is my Sunday morning, my Tuesday afternoon, and my Friday evening; its connection, community and culture, and it was unfairly taken from the residents and the students. We are grieving a loss so profound in Cleveland. Please help restore WCSB student-led radio programming and ensure that nothing like this ever happens again in our community.
Kimberly Lessman
WCSB radio
The destruction of beloved, community radio station WCSB was a change nobody asked for or wanted. Neither party has ever expressed any reasoning as to why there was a need to cancel a Cleveland institution with almost 50 years of history and respected nationwide. WCSB was a student and volunteer run station featuring completely original, non commercial programming available nowhere else. It's as if CSU and Ideastream came and torched a museum without even asking what was inside.
Steven Mastroianni
WCSB radio station takeover by Special Interest Group
Sending out a S.O.S. - SAVE OUR STATION
The Germans, largest ethnic community in Cleveland just lost its only native language public radio program.
The familiar Sunday sounds of German melodies from the Cleveland German Radio Program (CGRS) at WCSB 89.3 FM at Cleveland State University, hosted by Ambassador Renate and David, gave way to the bland elevator music as Ideastream Public Media’s JazzNEO took control of the stations programming.
In an instant, on national College Radio Day, nearly 50 years of student- and community-run programming—not to mention ethnic broadcast legacy—vanished from Cleveland’s airwaves.
For half a century, the old WCSB (now going by “XCSB” as it remains in limbo/transition) had been more than a student organization. It was a independent radio hub, a beacon of Cleveland’s community - a place where punk sat beside jazz, talk shows mingled with esoteric late-night programs and under served ethnic voices. "Preserving the Past and Promoting the Future" as Ambassador Renate, the German Voice of Cleveland stated uncountable times on the CGRS.
WCSB promoted itself on the Cleveland German Radio Show (CGRS) as the "...Station with all the Nations". Ethnic Programs for the German, Polish, Hungarian, Arabic, Slovenian and Latin and many more had an audiences and culture flourished. Immigrants, Students, artists and outsiders found a home here where expression and opinion aired in their own language.
And now, without warning, it was all gone.
As shocking as it feels locally, what happened to WCSB fits a national trend: slow absorption of college radio stations by public/NPR affiliates.
CSU is the third American university in the last month-plus to remove students from their own station. Cleveland State University and Ideastream silenced independent ethnic voices by abruptly seizing control of WCSB’s student-run radio station — a move that columnist Leslie Kouba sees as part of a growing and troubling trend of suppressing free speech in America.
Public media relies on listener trust. Alienating those listeners can lead to donor defections, negative press and lasting reputational harm—or all of the above, something CSU and Ideastream are now confronting in real-time.
Peace Friends,
David and Ambassador Renate Jakupca
Cleveland German Radio Show (CGRS)
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17EmyhMZwL/
The Germans, largest ethnic community in Cleveland just lost its only native language public radio program.
The familiar Sunday sounds of German melodies from the Cleveland German Radio Program (CGRS) at WCSB 89.3 FM at Cleveland State University, hosted by Ambassador Renate and David, gave way to the bland elevator music as Ideastream Public Media’s JazzNEO took control of the stations programming.
In an instant, on national College Radio Day, nearly 50 years of student- and community-run programming—not to mention ethnic broadcast legacy—vanished from Cleveland’s airwaves.
For half a century, the old WCSB (now going by “XCSB” as it remains in limbo/transition) had been more than a student organization. It was a independent radio hub, a beacon of Cleveland’s community - a place where punk sat beside jazz, talk shows mingled with esoteric late-night programs and under served ethnic voices. "Preserving the Past and Promoting the Future" as Ambassador Renate, the German Voice of Cleveland stated uncountable times on the CGRS.
WCSB promoted itself on the Cleveland German Radio Show (CGRS) as the "...Station with all the Nations". Ethnic Programs for the German, Polish, Hungarian, Arabic, Slovenian and Latin and many more had an audiences and culture flourished. Immigrants, Students, artists and outsiders found a home here where expression and opinion aired in their own language.
And now, without warning, it was all gone.
As shocking as it feels locally, what happened to WCSB fits a national trend: slow absorption of college radio stations by public/NPR affiliates.
CSU is the third American university in the last month-plus to remove students from their own station. Cleveland State University and Ideastream silenced independent ethnic voices by abruptly seizing control of WCSB’s student-run radio station — a move that columnist Leslie Kouba sees as part of a growing and troubling trend of suppressing free speech in America.
Public media relies on listener trust. Alienating those listeners can lead to donor defections, negative press and lasting reputational harm—or all of the above, something CSU and Ideastream are now confronting in real-time.
Peace Friends,
David and Ambassador Renate Jakupca
Cleveland German Radio Show (CGRS)
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17EmyhMZwL/
Ambassador Renate Jakupca
WCSB
Thank you for hearing this issue. WCSB has been an asset to the city of Cleveland for 50 years. It is a resource like no other. The short sighted decision to turn it over to a narrowly delineated market robs the station of the cultural richness it has provided our culturally diverse city. It also robs the citizens who for fifty years have volunteered their time, energy and resources to keep the station alive. It needs to be returned to and remain in those hands.
Debra Weita
WCSB
WCSB ran by students is part of the fabric of Cleveland as is the West Side Market, as is The Cleveland Museum of Art, as is Tower City, obviously the authors of the take over don't understand or know much of our city, what they did is equivalent to replace a fine art painting with a print they just bought from a discount store on sale for $5.99 this is extremely detrimental for the Cleveland people, WCSB was the vibe of the city, we never took it for granted, this move by CSU/Ideastream is an assault to all Cleveland residents and beyond, please help in restoring sanity and reverse this outrageous aberration made by CSU/Ideastream, I put my trust in you, thank you.
David Fernandez
WCSB radio station takeover
WCSB's original sin was that it was dreamt up by students. Students with enough foresight realized that in order to maintain their mission statement, to provide an alternative source of radio programming to its listening audience, they would have to integrate their community into their programming.
For almost 50 years, record labels, bands and alternative media groups from different backgrounds have contributed to WCSBs library. A library the president of the university thinks she can just take away from its community.
The shady action of the university president and her idea stream counterpart, speaks volumes to WCSBs value to the community.
It speaks volumes when the president wants to constantly remind the idea stream audience that WCSB was just a so-called student run organization. WCSB was composed of all members of the community dedicated to the same goal.
The president's constant use of undermining language tries to discredit station members as simple budget processors and not as active members of the WCSB family.
A student, in the eyes of the president and its board members, has no voice in university.
When interviewing the president of CSU on idea stream all she could produce was a so called “win win” strategy with absolutely no substance, no time tables or actionable items, while her idea stream counterpart was peddling jazz like it was fentanyl on the streets.
The president talked about an audience of students where they seemed excited about her new non existing program. Did she let the students know what it was replacing?
I think if she had been a little bit more honest to those students, they would have realized that the president is filled with terrible business decisions that only serve a minority that is already quite well served.
Let's be clear, this deal does not serve students in any shape or form. To be perfectly frank, if you are “preparing students for the career of the future” radio ain't it.
This is a corporate takeover where the “win win” goes to the board and executive members involved.
CSU, like Idea stream, would like to remind everyone they are public institutions. That does not equate that they are stakeholder driven.
CSU has a history of increasing their student headcount at the peril of its programs and organizations that were actually serving its students and community.
If this deal is allowed to continue, a few executives will get some cushy jobs and something for their legacy, a handful of students will get some training and experience just to justify the budget, all this at the expense of one of the most realist and honest representations of what it means to be from Cleveland.
If the president and idea stream get their “win win”, Cleveland and the world will lose one of its greatest gems with nowhere else to go.
I already lost my respect for CSU and Idea stream. All that's left is my respect for Cleveland and its community. Don't make me lose that too.
For almost 50 years, record labels, bands and alternative media groups from different backgrounds have contributed to WCSBs library. A library the president of the university thinks she can just take away from its community.
The shady action of the university president and her idea stream counterpart, speaks volumes to WCSBs value to the community.
It speaks volumes when the president wants to constantly remind the idea stream audience that WCSB was just a so-called student run organization. WCSB was composed of all members of the community dedicated to the same goal.
The president's constant use of undermining language tries to discredit station members as simple budget processors and not as active members of the WCSB family.
A student, in the eyes of the president and its board members, has no voice in university.
When interviewing the president of CSU on idea stream all she could produce was a so called “win win” strategy with absolutely no substance, no time tables or actionable items, while her idea stream counterpart was peddling jazz like it was fentanyl on the streets.
The president talked about an audience of students where they seemed excited about her new non existing program. Did she let the students know what it was replacing?
I think if she had been a little bit more honest to those students, they would have realized that the president is filled with terrible business decisions that only serve a minority that is already quite well served.
Let's be clear, this deal does not serve students in any shape or form. To be perfectly frank, if you are “preparing students for the career of the future” radio ain't it.
This is a corporate takeover where the “win win” goes to the board and executive members involved.
CSU, like Idea stream, would like to remind everyone they are public institutions. That does not equate that they are stakeholder driven.
CSU has a history of increasing their student headcount at the peril of its programs and organizations that were actually serving its students and community.
If this deal is allowed to continue, a few executives will get some cushy jobs and something for their legacy, a handful of students will get some training and experience just to justify the budget, all this at the expense of one of the most realist and honest representations of what it means to be from Cleveland.
If the president and idea stream get their “win win”, Cleveland and the world will lose one of its greatest gems with nowhere else to go.
I already lost my respect for CSU and Idea stream. All that's left is my respect for Cleveland and its community. Don't make me lose that too.
Felipe Amunategui Rivera
WCSB
The councilpersons addressing the debacle of Ideastream abruptly taking over WCSB have my thanks, and my hope that this will be opposed directly by our city.
I have listened to WCSB for most of my life, and it informed and enriched this life as it has for so many. The oblivious reasoning from Laura Bloomberg and Kevin Martin reflect an utter disregard for the community at large, and the many spaces of public life and public thought contained in community radio. WCSB provided direct connections to music that would be otherwise difficult to hear, events in our various forms of community, voices, ideas, challenging views that lead always to enrichment. What does not lead to enrichment is the silencing of everything but the most sterile community forums.
This has left a palpable emptiness in each day as my hand naturally heads to the left of the dial at 89.3
Everybody can use a little weird.
Thank you,
Rebecca Green
I have listened to WCSB for most of my life, and it informed and enriched this life as it has for so many. The oblivious reasoning from Laura Bloomberg and Kevin Martin reflect an utter disregard for the community at large, and the many spaces of public life and public thought contained in community radio. WCSB provided direct connections to music that would be otherwise difficult to hear, events in our various forms of community, voices, ideas, challenging views that lead always to enrichment. What does not lead to enrichment is the silencing of everything but the most sterile community forums.
This has left a palpable emptiness in each day as my hand naturally heads to the left of the dial at 89.3
Everybody can use a little weird.
Thank you,
Rebecca Green
Rebecca Green
Submissions are accepted up to 5 hours before a hearing if time slots are available