To the Editor:

Here is my letter that already has been sent to Ellen Rocco station director of North Country Public Radio, to include in the minutes of the next Comminity Advisory Board Meeting for NCPRadio.

Please address and answer each issue separately.

I question the legality, structure and proceedings of the stations CAB.

How can the meeting structure of “listen in only public meetings” held three times a year meet the spirit of open public meetings? How can the CAB truly have discussions among themselves, listen to public input, and function as an advisory board to the management of the station? I have read the stations bylaws, the CPB Corporation for Public Broadcasting rules for stations and CABs and all the minutes of all your meetings from the beginning. Proposals:

1. Identify your board as a Community Advisory Board CAB, the vernacular used all by all other stations, which identifies your true mission and drop the name of “executive council” entirely.

2. The entire board needs a reset and to draw from a wider community than people associated with SLU and handpicked by Ms. Rocco. I suspect the initial board handpicked is largely intact. Almost everyone has already served over three years (limit imposed by station bylaws) and it’s time for new blood. Put the date that new members started serving and a brief description of their standing in the community, schools attended. CPB rules state, “the CAB reasonably represents the diverse needs and interests of the communities served by the station.” (CAB Rule D Section3) We do not know who you are or how long you have served.

3. Ms. Rocco needs help with the CAB link on the website; getting the minutes posted; announcing future CAB meeting dates and not interfering with submissions to the CAB by the public. Could the CAB chair aide the station manager with follow up of these details on the website? Some of this is required by CPB regulations and it is not my job to keep after this station although it does keep me paying attention.

4. The meeting structure (public listens in only, and has to use email only through a station management filter) cannot possibly meet the spirit of open meeting requirements of an independent CAB meeting. Call the CPB 202-879-9600 to verify that the meetings meet the federal requirements and report the findings in the minutes of the meeting.

CAB Chair, please name several actions in which the Board advised the station management and SLU Board of Trustees that reflect the duties of a CAB under Corporation for Public Broadcasting Rules? The minutes of all past meetings do not reflect any review, deliberation, and advisement or fulfillment of any obligations set forth under CPB law. Past meetings appear under the complete control of station management. Has this board exercised any of its rights and obligations listed below required under CPB rules section E? If not, then it is not functioning as a board and needs to be replaced. A board is not a board unless it functions like a board:

1 the right to review the station’s programming goals;

2. the right to review the service provided by the station;

3. the right to review significant policy decisions rendered by the station; and

4. the obligation to advise the station’s governing body on whether the station’s programming and other significant policies are meeting the specialized educational and cultural needs of the communities served by the station, and to make recommendations the CAB deems appropriate to meet such needs. (CPB rules section E)

My previous communication to the board was overlooked.

The request below was addressed to the CAB Chair at the last meeting in October 2016 but was mostly ignored or overlooked by Ms. Rocco. I submit my request again as it did not even get posted (along with the minutes of the October 2016 meeting) until Jan 12, 2017.

I request that the CAB take the following actions: Each member listen to Democracy Now! for several weeks and then have a deliberation, cost analysis (free for first year), solicit listener feedback, and advise Ms. Rocco and the SLU Trustees at or before the July annual meeting. Democracy Now! is available on over 1,000 NPR, Pacifica, PBS, Dish Network, college and community radio stations. Democracy Now is “Public Media” and accepted on all CPB stations. Additionally, DN is on 47 NPR, 200 Pacifica and 66 PBS stations.

Times are changing; many of the listeners I have interviewed have given up listening to NCPR and pursue Democracy Now! online and listen to any radio station in the world online. As you know online competition is huge. Millennial's we hear so much about, are getting all their news online and through social media. NCPR has a multiplatform web presence, but it cannot compete with Facebook feeds with Democracy Now! interspersed with millions of other websites. The New York Times June 18, New Hits Needed; Apply to NPR, “If public radio sticks with its current franchises and sound, it will leave us open to other vulnerabilities, as the next generation audience goes elsewhere for its content.”

Industrialization of our rural landscape needs better coverage by NCPR.

The station needs to send more reporters to stories like this one. The proposed industrial wind farm for the center of St. Lawrence County is a huge story. Yes, NCPR has done stories on industrial wind farms in the past. NCPR needs to cover the growing organizing, educating, protesting of the proposal BEFORE it is a done deal. If a reporter cannot make a particular meeting, there is often complete YouTube documentation. Pull in and utilize citizens that are increasingly covering local stories on their own bypassing mainstream media entirely.

I hope this CAB can see the urgent needs for special coverage of this industrialization of the rural landscape of this county. Coverage as the NCPR Mission Statement states: "NCPR informs, enriches and connects the region-on air, online and in our communities."

The opposition to industrial wind, so close to college educated activists with means, will be an entirely different battle for industrial wind. Sixty people showing up in Parishville is huge.

It is a battle that NCPR needs to cover: to inform and connect the people with detail, frequently, and with, in depth, full quotes, of the people involved. David Sommerstien replied to this request and linked me to a story on wind farms from five years ago. That does not help us now! What are all the reporters doing every day?

Democracy Now! has been found compatible with many NPR stations surrounding the NCPR listening area. This is contrary to Ms. Rocco's opinion- That Democracy Now! is not compatible with NPR. Whether compatible at this station or not, the CAB has the obligation to advise Ms. Rocco and the SLU Trustees to explore the cost/benefits of the station becoming a Pacifica Network and/or an independent Community Radio Station?

I believe this would enable the station to slash costs, reinvigorate listener/supporters, begin a return to the stations grass roots, bring the station more in line with its mission statement and most importantly bring back ex-supporters and ex-listeners.

Richard Paolillo

Potsdam