Comments

1
Assholes.
2
It's like the beginning of Murder, She Wrote, and next everyone will be SHOCKED when the station manager winds up with a knife in their back.
3
Pro tip: If you see Jessica Fletcher coming, drop everything and run the other way.

Don't question it--just freaking run!!!
4
@1. And if you had to fire 7 people, how would you do it? A fruit basket?
5
The whole local media industry is in such decline that the bottom feeders and herp-derps are finally getting around to cannibalism.

This is not an industry to seek a career in if you need money to survive. Even back before the internet fad, competition to break in to local (and ultimately national) media was fierce with low pay, but if you were good you could make a name for yourself and build on it. Now it just doesn't matter. The internet has not gone away, and there is not enough money to spread around for the type of skilled talent required for the work. The tacit 'prestige' of being a local media type is absolutely vacant as well. Everybody is viral.

Affirms my career decision to NOT pursue journalism. Those guys are all selling football bats now.
6
@5 How depressing. I don't think you'll find any successful people in journalism, entertainment, politics, business, tech, whatever, who haven't been fired or let go, even multiple times. If these employees still have their passions for journalism after this, then there's no reason to think that they will not eventually succeed -- even in tough markets.
7
Having trouble comprehending "We're experiencing record audience growth" with "we need to fire most of our on-air personalities". I've got lots of issues with KUOW (some really bad, unimaginative reporting on key issues like growth and development) but none of the on-air announcers were the problem.
8
@4

They did not need to be fired, a point actually addressed in the post, dimwit.
10
@7, I thought the same thing. If they are experiencing record growth, why are they dumping a bunch of their best-known voices? That makes no sense. Smells like BS to me.
11
Drive time is my primary npr listening these days. Glad i've made the switch to knkx instead.
12
I switched my membership from KUOW to KNKX years ago, when they got a new PD and he moved shows into wacky time slots (Weekend All Things Considered from 5pm to 2pm??!).
13
I switched my membership from KUOW to KNKX years ago when they got a new PD and they moved shows into wacky time slots like Weekend All Things Considered from 5pm to 2pm.
16
@15) I see. 1% of people do not matter. Thank you for clarifying your moral stance.
17
"First, the affected employees got little advance notice before the staff-wide email."

LOL welcome to the big bad world. Having experience 3 layoffs in our household during the recession, I am pissing my pants laughing here. There is no GOOD WAY to lay off people. I've talked to managers that have had to do it. Its horrible. Most just rip off the band aid. In an era of disgruntled employees shooting up places, I don't see the issue. Anyone, ANYWHERE can lose their job just like that - poof. The privileged attitude here is rich: "WHAT - I can't be laid off like some common blue collar worker!!! I went to college - this isn't supposed to happen!"

No. One. Is. Immune.
19
Oh, this sucks. I listen to many of these folks daily and feel like I know them. I hope they get rehired or land on their feet.

For those that are acting like it's NBD... Have a little compassion. This was their livelihood, and they were good at their jobs. It's not easy to get gigs in journalism, so who knows what the future holds for them?
20
Sucks that they were laid off, but telling everyone at more-or-less the same time is standard procedure during layoffs to prevent demoralizing rumor-mongering among the remaining employees.
21
So? KUOW operates just like the rest of America's workplaces. You thought its employees were exempt from the vicissitudes that other US workers face on a daily basis? Do you also believe in unicorns and the sugar plum fairy?
22
@15: Where'd you get that 500 number? KUOW's website states that they 85 full time employees.
24
It must be hard to sleep at night when you fire 7 people while pulling down a $300,000/yr salary.

25
At least now it’s clear which public radio station my donations will go to. Farewell, KUOW.
26
@23 Verbatim from the KUOW website: "The station employs 85 full–time employees; plus freelance reporters, part–time staff, and work–study students." Please cite the source for the "500 employees" number that you quoted. That number sounds preposterous.
27
The timing of this layoff is mighty suspicious - post Spring pledge drive. Hmm.
28
@23: It appears they have 93 people listed as Staff on the KUOW website. You're just making shit up.
29
@16. Who says they didn’t need to be fired? Heidi fucking Groover?

Talk about dim witted. What expertise or inside knowledge does she have on whether or not those people did or did not need to be fired? None that I read. Just some disgruntled snitch who says “this isn’t how things are USUALLY done”.

You’re so dumb you read this half assed conspiratorial insinuation and take it as fact.

30
What is wrong with KUOW?!? ...first, they lay off workers willy-nilly. Then, they subject us to Canadian (!) radio shows *every* night of the week—and twice on weekends & holidays. We are made to listen to riveting interviews with the Assistant Deputy Provincial Secretary in Charge of Polluting Petroleum Projects. What gives...does nothing ever happen in Seattle worth talking about? Everyone knows that *nothing* ever happens in Canada ...except bus beheadings, pig farmer murders & hockey riots.

And is there no local radio talent to draw from in Seattle? KUOW let one of the best & funniest radio hosts, Luke Burbank, decamp to Portland rather than hiring him to do Live Wire! in Seattle. Enough already!!! If I wanted to listen to endless Canadian accents & tales of Canuck 'culture', I'd spend more time with my relatives from the upper Midwest.
31
looking at you KUOW President Caryn Mathes:

http://fiscal.wa.gov/salaries

next fund drive think about all the cash they have to raise to pay her exorbitant salary
32
#4: You're assuming they HAD to fire people. Why take management's word for that? This is clearly retribution for the staff's decision to go union. No other justification when listenership was up and revenue was up.
35
@28 -- That is including hundreds of authors that are not KUOW staff. Looks to be every byline on their site, so includes all of NPR, AP and other sources. So just a sloppy, deceiving label of "Staff"
36
@31 -- Holy shit! I would be so pissed if I was a KUOW donor, and saw that Caryn Mathes is making upwards of $300,000/year! Who knows where that is at now since that list only goes through 2016.
38
@34: Stop lying. The "Staff" is 93 people on that link. "Syndicated" is much larger, but I doubt people like Alan Greenspan are KUOW employees.
39
I'm pretty sure that "500" figure would be counting every volunteer who does a board shift.

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