Parish
Correcting an Error in KOOP Story
RECEIVED Fri., Dec. 15, 2006
Dear Lee Nichols,
Well, I suppose, it's a small conciliation that a friend made the error.
But, I was stunned to learn that you thought that Thomas Durnin was the first voice on KOOP, especially after your many stories about the place [“Naked City,” News, Dec. 15].
I started KOOP radio. I worked for 11 years to get the license. I was able to get the first-ever modification of the so-called "Wolfman Jack" Treaty with Mexico. I negotiated the timeshare with TSP/UT.
I was the first voice on KOOP. Why? Because I started the station.
And for all the changes the group has gone through, I’m still locked out of the station. They even deny I started it! When I asked them to simply put up their Web page that originally described how the station came to be, they refused.
They even rebuffed a mediation with the good folks at the Dispute Resolution Center.
They haven’t paid me back the money I spent putting the station on the air. And Austin Airwaves was thrown off the air for not doing a station ID (but it’s on the air check). Lee, you personally wrote about these scandals!
Apparently, none of this is newsworthy to the Chronicle anymore.
Errors happen, sure. Overall, the Chronicle, and you Lee, does an excellent job of accurately reporting the news week after week. But we both know nowhere near as many people will read the correction box, as did the caption of a prominently placed photo on the News page. Your error will only reinforce the rewriting of the station's history.
Lee, ol' chum, you want to make it up to me? Please write a story about how I am being treated by the folks at KOOP. Is that too much to ask?
11 years.
Well, I suppose, it's a small conciliation that a friend made the error.
But, I was stunned to learn that you thought that Thomas Durnin was the first voice on KOOP, especially after your many stories about the place [“Naked City,” News, Dec. 15].
I started KOOP radio. I worked for 11 years to get the license. I was able to get the first-ever modification of the so-called "Wolfman Jack" Treaty with Mexico. I negotiated the timeshare with TSP/UT.
I was the first voice on KOOP. Why? Because I started the station.
And for all the changes the group has gone through, I’m still locked out of the station. They even deny I started it! When I asked them to simply put up their Web page that originally described how the station came to be, they refused.
They even rebuffed a mediation with the good folks at the Dispute Resolution Center.
They haven’t paid me back the money I spent putting the station on the air. And Austin Airwaves was thrown off the air for not doing a station ID (but it’s on the air check). Lee, you personally wrote about these scandals!
Apparently, none of this is newsworthy to the Chronicle anymore.
Errors happen, sure. Overall, the Chronicle, and you Lee, does an excellent job of accurately reporting the news week after week. But we both know nowhere near as many people will read the correction box, as did the caption of a prominently placed photo on the News page. Your error will only reinforce the rewriting of the station's history.
Lee, ol' chum, you want to make it up to me? Please write a story about how I am being treated by the folks at KOOP. Is that too much to ask?
11 years.
Disappointed and dejected,
Jim Ellinger
Austin Airwaves
Jim Ellinger
Austin Airwaves
[Associate News Editor Lee Nichols, who wrote the photo caption to which Ellinger refers, replies: I regret the error; as near as I can figure, I misread the press release announcing the move into KOOP's new studios. As for the conflict between the station and its founder – and no matter what some at the station try to claim, Jim Ellinger is in fact the founder of KOOP radio – isn't it about time you guys patched this up? Seriously, this fight has been going for about a decade now (search the Chronicle's online archive for the history), and the point at which reconciliation should have happened has long since passed.]
