TerikKing.com

So I've noticed that my web traffic has dropped off dramatically in recent days. The reason for that is clear - even though I spend most of my time (aside from my graduate coursework) working to plan, book, research, execute, edit and promote my radio show, the most popular page on this website is the blog. I don't quite understand it - it's likely owing to our voyeuristic tendencies when using the internet - but still it's the fact. Therefore, if I don't blog too frequently, the traffic drops off. I'll do my best to step up the blog entries, but I do ask that people understand that I am one little man. Big mouth, yes, but only 140 pounds of flesh. There is a LOT in the works for me, and writing my musings about this'n'that on the blog tends to slide down the list of priorities. I can only do so much. But your absence over the last few days has sent me a clear message, and I have received it. I hope you all come back so that you can see it!

(Who ARE these people who manage to blog daily, anyway? Surely they can't ALL be trust fund babies...where do they find the TIME?)

However, if you are reading this, I ask you for your help with the OTHER popular area of this site, my New School Radio show, OPEN YOUR MIND. I'll be as brief as I can, which is difficult.

First, understand that I do not get compensated in ANY WAY for doing the show. I do not even receive any academic credit for it. I do it because it is a passion of mine. I do it because I have a voice that, apparently, people feel needs to be heard. I do it because there are subjects and perspectives that are too frequently underreported and ignored by mainstream media, and a University radio operation provides me with an excellent framework within which I can entertain and, hopefully, enlighten. And let's face it: I also do it because I am at a career crossroads and honestly have (for the most part) become disenchanted with being a performer and think that I'm getting too damn old to be competing with these mass-produced crowds of 22-year-olds at auditions when I have so much more to offer the world than I can show them while playing a 'happy darkie' in the chorus of RAGTIME. I've recorded four episodes already with the intent of releasing them weekly, however, as you can see on the OPEN YOUR MIND page (as well as the official www.newschoolradio.org page) only one has been released. I want you all to understand that this is not my fault.

Over the last 48 hours, I have struggled with trying to upload my second episode to the New School Radio station site. The technology has not allowed me to.

For a little background -- all last year, as some of you may have noticed, New School Radio operated with a bad JOOMLA interface. The player was awful (no downloads, no fast-forwarding/rewinding, no feedback/comments mechanism). This was the #1 complaint we received - tha the interface was AWFUL. At the time, I served as Program Director of the station, and tried my best to rally the more than 60 people (New School faculty AND students) to work steadfastly to move the station to a better platform. What the "web team" chose was the interface that you see today, and it was supposed to be launched in April. It was not. In the meantime, I struggled to work with a large number of student producers to create exceptional programs that people would enjoy DESPITE the horrible interface. Under my watch, the programming increased more than 300% from a disparate and meager collection of about 15 unrelated podcasts to an abundance of regular series (including mine), two weekly newscasts and a rich selection of special features. I did this without much assistance from the PAID faculty and staff who oversee the station. It exhausted me, physically and emotionally, and I decided to resign from the Program Director position and spend my last year focusing on delivering a top-flight talk show.

Over the summer, the WNSR geniuses decided to take the site offline completely while they supposedly migrated the entire archive from the old platform to the new one. I ask you, my friends: What media outlet truly believes it can go dark for three months and retain any semblance of an audience? (Answer: NONE.) I was hurt by this, because I felt that the rich array of programming that could still have been available, which I worked SO HARD to ensure was delivered to the station, was suddenly GONE. I also felt that this misguided move squandered all of the momentum that we had built over the last year. I took it personally, because I care deeply about everything I do. (Otherwise, I simply won't do it.)

When I returned, after this awful, tragic summer, to try booking the new season of OPEN YOUR MIND, I found that I had to work AROUND the absence of a working WNSR site to book guests. I am fortunate and extremely grateful that the four I have done so far were willing to take me at my word and do the interviews. Now, however, there is an inexplicable mix of technological and bureaucratic madness that has prevented me from delivering the show weekly, as I have promised. These faculty members haven't returned e-mails, ignored calls/texts, and refined the high art of making excuses rather than working steadfastly to fix the problem. One of my subjects, Craig Seymour, was interviewed FOUR WEEKS AGO, and I would love to be able to deliver on my promise to expose him and his work to a New School and online audience, however, the faculty apparently does not deem fixing this to be a high priority. In the meantime, this is making ME look like a fraud. My reputation, and possible future career in broadcasting, is predicated on establishing an audience and a portfolio of interviews, however they don't appear to understand this - or even care. And I am NOT the only show producer experiencing this frustration. However, when I complain, it is simply chalked up to Terik being a "perfectionist" and "difficult."What they fail to understand is that they are HUMILIATING me.

I beg you for your help. In the coming week I (and another conscientious show producer) will be seeking a meeting with Peter Haratonik, the Director of the Media Studies Program at The New School, to attempt to make him understand this, and ask that (a) the issue be fixed so that I can continue to deliver the show to my audience as they expect it, (b) to DEMAND more accountability from the FOUR different faculty members with oversight of the station, and (c) to make him understand that this culture of inertia and bureaucracy that is becoming epidemic at The New School is potentially damaging to our careers, and it is inexcusable that we pay $1,083 PER CREDIT to attend a school that is acting as a barrier to our achievement of excellence. This is a painful issue.

If you have enjoyed OPEN YOUR MIND, I ask that you open your heart and raise your voice. Please call and e-mail the following individuals and DEMAND that they do something to prioritize fixing the website so that I (and the other hardworking producers) can deliver our programs.

Peter Haratonik - Director, Media Studies Program, The New School; Phone: 212-229-8903  E-mail: haratonp@newschool.edu

Jim Briggs - Instructor, WNSR Radio Lab/Graduate Faculty Advisor, WNSR/New School Radio; E-mail: jimbriggs3@gmail.com

Sarah Montague - Instructor, ON AIR: New School Radio at Eugene Lang College/The New School; e-mail: montagus@newschool.edu

Jane Pirrone - Instructor, Parsons School of Design Radio course (with direct oversight of web operations); e-mail: PironeJ@newschool.edu

Please understand that this is my final year at The New School, and consistent dellivery of a well-listened-to program is critical as I prepare to re-enter the marketplace. Each week that I lose brings me closer to that date, and The New School, with this situation, is chaining me down and damaging my reputation and earning potential.

I thank you for your support, and hope to return to you on OPEN YOUR MIND very soon.