Wed 11/12 @ 4PM
The quarterly board meetings of Cuyahoga Arts and Culture (CAC), the organization tasked with distributing the money from the Cuyahoga County arts tax, have gotten tamer lately. The controversy about how little of the money dispersed to nonprofits was reaching artists has died down, partly due to Assembly for the Arts taking on some of that role and partly due, like, to fatigue.
But now, another controversy threatens to ignite the next CAA board meeting taking place at 4PM on Wednesday November 12 on the second floor of the Downtown Cleveland Public Library Main Branch, Louis Stokes Wing, 2nd Floor 325 Superior Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44114.
People in the music community, angry about the abrupt and secretive transfer by Cleveland State University of the airwaves of its eclectic student station WCSB 89.3 FM to Ideastream Public Media to broadcast a 24/7 mainstream jazz format, have spread the word to show up and challenge CAC’s annual grant to Ideastream. They’re urging CAC to pause approval until Ideastream and CSU agree to return the station to the students.
CoolCleveland was copied on an articulate and passionate note that Jordan Davis, a longtime member of Cleveland’s cultural community and a former college radio DJ, sent to Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, urging them to reconsider their upcoming grant to ideastream. His letter is worth your time reading: click here.
While CAC is unlikely to nix that grant altogether, new developments, including the possibility that CSU and ideastream violated public meeting laws, have cast even worse light on this transfer. If the erasure of this nearly 50-year-old station, a situation that’s attracted national attention and outrage, has attracted YOUR outrage, show up — the meeting is public. There’s a public comment period but you must show up before the meeting starts at 4 and register to talk. We’ll undoubtedly hear from Happy Dog owner Sean Watterson, who got the ball rolling on the proposal to hold up Ideastream’s funding and who is one of the best informed people on how college radio is a key player in supporting the local music club scene. Prepare your comments—they’re more effective when you don’t ramble!
You can also submit an online comment to CAC here.