BBG, POORLY MANAGED
Good for RW to finally devote sufficient space to this instead of just parroting BBG or IBB press releases (“How Effective Is the BBG in 2014,” June 4 issue).
As your readers can see, this is not a simple story but deserves attention because any expenditure of public funds, including the FY 2015 $720 million request, should be understood by tax payers.
And what they should know is that this has long been one of the most poorly managed agencies in the federal government, with documented failures when it comes to news and programming. Many of these were detailed by the BBG Watch website which, along with HR 4490, is now the target of the wrath of BBG/IBB managers trying to hold on to their GS or SES jobs.
Dan Robinson
Potomac, Md.
The author is a former VOA White House, congressional and foreign correspondent.
THE CASE OF THE NAKED TOWER
We received numerous comments about the July 7 online story “The Case of the Naked Tower,” in which Mike Rapeer of Conoisseur Media in Pennsylvania discovered that a tower at his mountaintop transmitter site had been “decommissioned” without any notice. Mike’s photos of the tower are shown here (top is before and bottom is after the thieves made their appearance).
While I’m not sure about the legal mechanics, in the abstract I would not be above filing a police report for theft and property damage.
Pretty sure that tower crew won’t make such an egregiously stupid mistake again after getting a felony indictment against them.
Aaron Read
President & Owner
Fried Bagels Broadcast Consulting
Providence, R.I.
This exact thing happened to me! I was driving to another one of my sites and was listening to another one of our stations when I heard it go silent. I drove up to that site and found a tower crew cleaning up their gear with all my antennas (except my broadcast antenna) in the back of their truck!
Marcos O’Rourke
Chief Engineer
K-Wave Radio
Costa Mesa, Calif.
I will admit that this is really bizarre. And your company sold the site to whom?
This is the downside to selling off station assets for some quick cash. It’s not pretty, and a complete pain to boot.
Michael Payne
Contract Engineer
Twin Falls, Idaho
