Controversial dismissal rocks local radio

A former UNC Asheville instructor recently launched a heated media controversy when he dismissed a radio host, which forced the cancellation of her program on local station WPVM and ignited a backlash among WPVM listeners and local media.

Former university employee Wally Bowen dismissed Gillian Coats, a volunteer radio host and a founder of WPVM. Bowen, executive director of MAIN (Mountain Area Information Network), the nonprofit that owns the radio station, cited behavior in opposition to WPVM's mission and a record of questioning MAIN's right to manage and control the radio station.

"This was all about a nonprofit organization's right to pursue its mission without interference from a volunteer," Bowen said about the controversy.

Coats' dismissal displeased volunteer Cecil Bothwell, contributor to three of the station's programs.

"I quit working for the station pending Board action," he said.

Several other WPVM radio personalities also ceased their volunteer hosting efforts, in solidarity with Coats. Some broadcast only silence during their show. Station manager Jason Holland resigned. 

Bowen served as UNC Asheville's Public Information Officer for several years in the late 1980s. According to mass communication Department Chair Alan Hantz, Bowen taught one news writing class during one semester before being dismissed.

"I was not party to his dismissal, and honestly don't recall what he did that led to it," Hantz said.

WPVM is a low-power FM station broadcasting from downtown Asheville at frequency 103.5. Calling itself "the progressive voice of the mountains," WPVM broadcasts music and programs with a liberal political format hosted by local volunteers.

Asheville new media entrepreneur David McConville is a former WPVM volunteer and, like Coats, one of the station's founders. As the new station launched, he worked as a volunteer technical director and provided the musical database WPVM initially used.

Years before the Coats controversy, he left his own volunteer position at WPVM because of his unhappiness with Bowen's level of control over the station.

"I left when I found out that although (WPVM) was presented as a 'community radio station,' there was no intention on the part of Bowen to provide a mechanism through which volunteers could be empowered to vote on station direction," he said. "If (WPVM is) going to be presented as a community radio station, dedicated volunteers from the community should be empowered to help steer its direction and mission."

Despite leaving the station, McConville said he respects Bowen's work in fighting media consolidation and providing rural Internet access, community-oriented web technologies and local low-power FM.

"His contributions to the community have been countless, which is why so many people have volunteered for various MAIN initiatives," he said.

The relationship between Bowen and WPVM's volunteers changed after Coats' dismissal and the ensuing controversy, according to volunteers like Bothwell.

On Sept. 8, MAIN's Board of Directors held an emergency meeting. The following day the board announced a new governance structure for the station via a press release that also refused Hollands' resignation.

"We are hoping that by changing the structure and the way the board does business with WPVM, volunteers will feel they're on the same page and not have the sense of working at cross purposes with MAIN," Chair of the Board of Directors George Peery said. "We, by not paying attention to them, allowed that perception of neglect to exist."

Peery said the board proposed a new structure which requires WPVM volunteers report to a subcommittee of the board, rather than directly to Bowen.

Following the rejection of his resignation, Holland returned to work at the station. At press time Coats had not resumed volunteer efforts at WPVM.

Holland would not comment on Coats' dismissal, calling it a personnel matter.

Bothwell said he is pleased with the changes the board offered her. After the board's announcement, he returned to his volunteer responsibilities at WPVM.

He compared the station's proposed new volunteer model to a worker-owned cooperative.

"Not that we will actually own the business, but that we will have a sense of ownership and real democracy," he said. "In a way, we are becoming what we always expected we would be. We're growing up."

Peery said Asheville NPR station WCQS, which began as UNC Asheville's first college radio station, also struggled in its early years.

"(WCQS) had growing pains and various and sundry crises on its way to becoming a valuable community resource," he said. "WPVM has only been on the air for five years now, so it's a growing institution that has expanded to become a more important community asset."

That expansion caused conflict and change, according to Peery.

"Change is always hard," he said.

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