KCRW Confidential
Remember Cindi Burkey, who used to voice the local wraparounds for the KCRW broadcast of ‘All Things Considered’? She was mysteriously replaced last month by Ken Borgers. Turns out she quit after being transferred unwillingly to an off-air position by Ruth Seymour, and of couse, she’s now blogging about it. Well, it’s not so much a blog as a web-page with lots of text. Lots and lots of it. Worth reading the whole thing for a look at KCRW internal politics.
If I had to sum this up quickly, I would tell you this: One listener letter was influential enough to get me booted from my job as local host of All Things Considered. The letter came in February, and it came from a subscriber who criticized me for stumbling on the air.
[...]
Fast-forward to early April: Ruth calls me into her office, tells me I am stumbling and generally sounding terrible on the air, and says the situation has forced her to take me off, and replace me (permanently) with Ken Borgers. This would be effective in one week. Ken Borgers had, very recently, become a weekend announcer during news programs. Also, Ruth told me, my voice had changed: It sounded different, strained, thin. She strongly suggested that I see an ear, nose and throat doctor.
Ruth went on to tell me that my new job would be running the board for Ken–ie, engineering the afternoon broadcast –ie, pushing the buttons. I would be “allowed” to do traffic, but they would have to monitor me. She said, “I don’t know what’s going on with you that’s causing you to do this–” and went on to probe me as to whether I was having some sort of problem that was rendering me incompetent on the air.
Now Burkey is selling things on eBay and looking for voiceover work.
(link via L.A. Observed)
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