The president of Lost Coast Communications Inc. and a former KHSU staffer do not believe the desire to cut programs airing on public radio station KHSU played a key role in the management change at KHSU.

“The only comment I have ever heard from the university is they might want a little more diversity of opinion, but never to the extent that they would cut back something that’s already running,” said Patrick Cleary, a founding and current member of the Humboldt State University Advancement Foundation headed by HSU vice president Robert Gunsalus.

Cleary owns three radio stations in Humboldt County.

The university announced on July 16 the departure of KHSU station manager Elizabeth Hans McCrone.

Two days later, Hans McCrone sent an e-mail claiming she was forced out. Almost half of Hans McCrone’s e-mail focused on her allegations that Gunsalus, vice president for university advancement at HSU, and President Rollin Richmond were “this close” to pulling “Democracy Now” off the air because it might be the “right thing for the university to do.”

Hans McCrone also expressed concern about the fates of Thursday Night Talk and Eco News. Hans McCrone said she had conversations going back over two years with both Richmond and Gunsalus that the programs were biased to the progressive left, advocacy in nature and inappropriate for a campus radio station.

Stacy Savona, who worked at KHSU from 2001-2006, served as Hans McCrone’s administrative assistant until moving out of the state.

“I do not recall once when I was there ever seeing any correspondence relating to the content,” she recalled. “Amy Goodman (host of “Democracy Now”) came to the university and put on a show. It was very well-attended. People seemed to really appreciate ‘Democracy Now.’ From the station’s perspective, it seemed like a really good fit.”

Rich Culbertson, operations director and chief operators of station KZYX. worked at KHSU for 11 of the last 18 years, most recently as an administrator from 2001-07.

He said the university had a “fairly good track record with not interfering with programming that was highly controversial. They were usually able to ride through that stuff. But it does sound like they were tampering and that’s not a good thing.”

On July 22, Gunsalus stated in an e-mail “we are constantly reviewing, revising and questioning our programming, striving to better meet the needs of our listeners.”

Culbertson said the change came as no surprise.

“We all expected there would be a change pretty soon,” he said. “Either (Hans McCrone) saying ‘I’ve had enough’ or the university kind of feeling they had to take action as they apparently did.”

Culbertson described a HSU staff that “works unbelievably hard for as much as the HSU bureaucracy makes you beat your head against a brick wall. There are some serious issues there.”

Staff salary and morale may have been part of the equation.

“In the time I was there, when I heard folks talking in the station and around the office, they had the perception that (Hans McCrone’s) attendance wasn’t what it should have been in light of what she was making,” Savona said.

HSU spokesperson Paul Mann said Hans McCrone’s monthly salary was $7,725, with monthly benefits at $2,308.92.

“I know for a fact that a letter concerning her attendance was sent to the president’s assistant, Denice Helwig, and she said it would be investigated,” Savona said. “Either they did and found nothing to it, or it could have gotten lost in the administrative changes.”

Savona said it was “rarely the case she was there eight hours a day when I was there. But in the nature of radio, you don’t always know what a person is doing when they are not in the office and some of the people who expressed that, the volunteers especially, weren’t around all the time either.”

Culbertson said there’s fault on both sides and hoped the controversy would bring about open dialogue.

“Maybe this will bring change to a system that been dysfunctional for many, many years,” he said. “Staff was frustrated with the direction the station was going.”

KHSU’s Community Advisory Group provides management and staff with feedback on programming, policies, community outreach, and station priorities.

Its next meeting is Wednesday, July 30 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the Kate Buchanan Room at HSU.

CAG meetings are open to the public and the agenda includes time for listeners in attendance to voice their comments, concerns, or suggestions for the station.

For more information, phone 707-826-4807.

(Carol Harrison can be reached at charrison@eurekareporter.com, or at 707-269-7435.)