Leigh Robartes: Dismissed Without Cause from University Radio Station

[Robert Hoffmann <escape@alt-escape.com>]

The City of Moscow and the University of Idaho are apparently losing one of
its most valuable resources, the journalistic reports of Leigh Robartes.
Leigh has recently been dismissed from his reporting duties by the new
KUOI-FM station manager, Loren Finn.

If you would like to immediately view an appeal for help with this
situation, please scroll down to the bottom of this message (starting with
"What this boils down to").  What follows is background of the conflict.

Leigh had been with KUOI-FM for about 10 years, and produced Weekly Scan, a
half-hour radiojournalism show on "News Affecting the Palouse, Idaho, and
the Northwest." Among his numerous other contributions to KUOI were live,
call-in candidates' forums during election season.  He also generated
nationally-syndicated news reports on the Pacifica Network and other
programs.  I have posted his full radio resume at 
http://www.alt-escape.com/Robartes.html.

Leigh's side
Leigh has stated for some time now, that ever since Loren assumed the
Station Manager's position six weeks ago, Leigh's access to the production
room at KUOI has been increasingly limited. Because he found Loren
unresponsive to his requests for the flexibility needed in the news
business, and because the requirements for requesting production time
seemed to shift constantly, he began to discuss the matter via email with
other KUOI deejays and KUOI listeners.  Leigh arranged a mediation session
with Loren, and stated that Loren was inflexible and irritable.  The sole
compromise was that Leigh could gain access to the locked room for
"breaking news stories" (and when is the news not breaking?).  Rules for
requesting production time were spelled out in the meeting. Leigh claims
that Lauren later found out about his communications with others, and "said
it was underhanded and childish and he said when he receives a copy in his
hand he'd relieve me of my duties."  Shortly thereafter, Leigh was told in
an email that he had been fired.

Loren's side
I spoke to Loren Finn today about the matter.  As the manager of Incredible
Growing Workers, which periodically underwrites programming at KUOI, I have
a vested interest in quality programming. Loren stated that he respected
Leigh as a journalist, but that his behavior was unacceptable.  Loren
stated that Leigh was not fired for talking behind his back, but for "not
following procedures." He was never specific about which procedures, but
the conversation at this point revolved around the access to the production
room, which has been kept locked under Loren's administration.  Loren
stated that Leigh agreed to procedures, and violated then them.

Loren says that access to the production room must be controlled because of
the possibility of theft or vandalism.  I mentioned that Leigh had, within
recent memory, discovered a theft in progress by KUOI deejays, reported the
theft, and the deejays were fired.  Loren conceded that this had indeed
been the case.  Loren further stated that Leigh hogged access to the room,
spending 8- 10 hours at a time there (which Leigh has denied), meaning that
other people couldn't use the production room.  I pointed out that
according to KUOI procedures that Loren was enforcing, production time had
to be scheduled a week in advance, and recorded on the production room
door.  This being said, I had viewed the schedule for the current week, and
the only times scheduled were jointly held by Loren and his assistant, and
huge blocks of time were unfilled.  He stated that the other person who
used the room (the only other person for the summer?!) couldn't be in that
week.

The matter of "not following procedure" was the "third warning," according
to Loren.  The first two "warnings," Loren claims, reportedly came as a
result of individuals (including deejays) coming to Loren to complain that
Leigh was involving them in the dispute, and they felt intimidated and
harassed.  Loren asked Leigh to stop bothering people (Leigh said that
Loren basically told him to stop talking behind his back).  When I asked
Loren if he had told Leigh which people felt intimidated, he said no.  I
asked how Leigh would know whom to stop talking with, and Loren said Leigh
could have asked the various individuals to whom he had been speaking.  I
basically stated that if a warning was not detailed, including the name of
the person who felt offended, that it was not a fair and legal warning (but
more likely an infringement of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Association).

Loren has also stated that KUOI is predominantly a STUDENT radio station
(no argument there).  One of the (in hindsight) more bizarre portions of
the conversation occurred early, immediately after Loren denied that he
fired Leigh for talking to other individuals about the conflict.  He said
that he was not part of a conspiracy to get rid of Leigh (I had never
implied any such thing....).  He spoke at some length about plans for a lot
of new types of programming at KUOI, including a more heavy involvement of
the athletic department (broadcasting sports events, etc.), better
publicizing KUOI among University students, etc.  It seemed that this was
somehow related to his termination of Leigh.  I asked if Leigh had
interfered with any of these plans.  Loren said no, Leigh had posed no
obstacle.

At one point, I asked if he had considered the propriety of a station
manager being on the job for six weeks, and firing a person who had been
with the station, filling various roles, for ten years, when that person
was apparently able to co-exist with all other station managers.  Loren
asked me if Leigh had told me that he had been fired by three other station
managers in the past.  I said no, Leigh had not; I was only aware that he
did have periodic conflicts with station managers over the course of his
tenure.  I later mentioned this exchange to two individuals with long
histories at KUOI, and they stated that Leigh had never been fired.  I also
mentioned this to Fred Cunningham, deejay and former staff member.  He said
that although he has only been with the station for 1.5 years, he has
conducted considerable research in the KUOI administrative records, and had
never found documents stating that Leigh had been terminated.

It goes without saying that not all of the facts are established in this
case, although I personally feel that I have enough information to make an
appeal to the KUOI listening public.

What this boils down to:
After consulting with Loren Finn, station manager, and even if I give full
credit to everything he says, I can only conclude that Leigh was DISMISSED
WITHOUT CAUSE.  Why?  Because he received two warnings which were not fair
and legal warnings (one of which, by Loren's admission, was not written),
and because the third "warning" (not a warning, but the cause for
termination) was apparently for some extremely minor violation of policy,
such as requesting time in the production room verbally instead of in writing.


Things to do?
If you are concerned about this situation, and would like to see a fair
resolution (possibly including the return of a dedicated news provider to
our University and City), you can:

Attend a meeting on Wednesday evening.  Neither Leigh nor Loren will be at
the meeting; its purpose will be to discuss background and develop a
constructive plan of action for resolution of the matter.  Call 882-0191
for details.

Contact the following individuals to express your concern:

Dr. W. Harold Godwin, Vice President of Student Affairs, 885-5886,
vphg@uidaho.edu, SUB 154
John Sulgrove, Director of Student Media, 885-2220, 3rd floor SUB
Loren Finn, KUOI Station manager, 885-2218, lfinn@sub.uidaho.edu (11-3,
MTWTh), 3rd floor SUB
Cristina Carney, KUOI Music Director, 885-6433, cristina@sub.uidaho.edu, (W
12:00-4:00), 3rdfloor SUB
Editors of the Argonot and the Gem (members of the U of I Media Board;
names & phone numbers not available at this time)


KUOI Underwriters:
(Most will probably be sympathetic to issues of quality journalism at KUOI,
but let them know in a nice way that you are concerned.  I have tried to be
as accurate as possible with this list, and I apologize for any error.)

Moscow Food Co-op 882-8537
Gambino's Italian Restaurant 882-4545
Copy Court 882-5680
Book People 882-7957
Eclectica/Safari Pearl 882-9499
Paradise Ridge CD's & Tapes 882-1670


Thank you for your patience.  I feel that this is an important matter to
our community; otherwise I would not have taken so much space discussing
the matter.

Sincerely,


Bob Hoffmann                         229 East C St., Suite B
Alt-Escape Adventures                Moscow, ID  83843  USA
http://www.alt-escape.com            Phone: (208) 883-0642
                                     Fax: 1-800-683-3799