District upholds pulling radio host

Published 4:43 pm Monday, November 24, 2008

By Mary L. Grady

A school district meeting scheduled last Tuesday afternoon that was to involve just a handful of administrators turned into a public forum about the fate of a hip hop radio talk show on the Mercer Island High School radio station, KMIH.

Superintendent Cyndy Simms along with Nick DeVogel, who is the teacher and head of the radio and media vocational program at the high school, had earlier made a mutual decision to take a morning radio show, run by an adult volunteer, Dumi Mararies of Seattle, off the air. The meeting was to be a follow-up about programming decisions at the radio station.

However more than 25 people came to voice their support of the show which was a combination of talk and hip hop music.

The meeting was neither a public meeting nor a hearing, Simms explained. But the meeting was moved to the administration board room to accommodate the visitors. When asked later, Simms was fairly certain that none of the people who attended the meeting were from the Island or associated with the high school.

The people who came to the meeting had been brought by word-of-mouth and an e-mail sent out to more than 120 people. The supporters say there was no other voice like this for hip hop listeners in the area.

“I have not listened to it, but it sounds like it was a good show. There have been conversations about marriage, finding work, disabilities,” said Simms. “Those are good topics. The station is trying to build a good listener base. It was bringing a more positive voice to hip hop music.”

However, Simms said the hosts also had made some inappropriate comments at different times while on air that had raised some concern.

Programming decisions were made that could have big implications for the school district, Simms said.

After an incident in October concerning comments made on the air, there has been a threat to sue the station, she said.

DeVogel had told Simms that the motivation for the show was to increase the number of listeners. Increasing listenership could help keep the radio license which may be taken over by a commercial radio station with a higher priority license.

What Simms told the group was that it is not the mission of the Mercer Island School District to have a radio station run by adults.

“When you look at the mission of the school district, it’s to educate children from 5 to 18 years old. We had no students involved in the program,” she said.

The DJ and his show remain suspended.

The superintendent said later that there will be further discussions about programming and policies for the station.