By Eric Lam
The hosts of a Sunday-morning CKLN talk show have filed several formal complaints with the CKLN Board of Directors, alleging financial infractions at the campus station.
According to an anonymous source at CKLN, three complaints have been filed by Greg Duffell and Daniel Besharat, the hosts of the “International Connection” radio show. One complaint alleges that $500 donated to their program during CKLN’s fundFEST charity drive in 2002 was surreptitiously redirected to another show by CKLN staff.
The complaints are against Board Chair David Barnard, News Director Kristin Schwartz and Program Director Tim May.
The CKLN board has formed a task force to investigate the complaints, but have refused official comment thus far.
“Those two are nuts,” said one board member, who withheld his name.
“Two of the three complaints are crap. It’s not the first time we’ve had complaints from them.”
The third complaint, which he described as having “financial implications,” has involved CKLN’s lawyers.
Duffell and Besharat went on the air in their usual Sunday timeslot this past weekend, but made several cryptic comments alluding to their future, or lack there of, with the station.
“Did you judge people by their politics and remove them if they disagreed with yours?” Duffell asked David Newfeld, a former news director at CKLN, during an on-air call-in.
Duffell also asked Newfeld if McCarthyism was part of his job description while at CKLN.
Politics shouldn’t matter, Newfeld replied, “Everybody should have a chance to mouth off.”
“They’re itching to get rid of us,” Duffell said after his show.
“We back up everything we’ve said in the complaints,” he said. “Our termination will be on the basis of our complaining, not on any investigation.”
Duffell would not confirm what the complaints contain, but he is planning on hiring a lawyer soon.
“The staff is essentially doing an investigation on themselves. For a station talking about social justice, they’re completely hypocritical,” Duffell said.
“They want to get rid of us because they don’t like being criticized.”
One of the indivuals complained against, Tim May, said that he did not want to comment until the task force had made its ruling.
“I don’t think it’s proper to comment on the complaint process until that process is complete,” he said.
The task force is expected to have some form of a ruling or comment for the media by this Friday. The station’s annual fundraising, fundFEST, starts this Friday and lasts until Sunday, Oct. 22.
Leave a Reply