. Dramatic funding cuts, staff firings and the sudden clear-out last week of KHSU-FM, Humboldt State University’s popular public radio station, have outraged North Coast listeners and lawmakers who are demanding to know what has happened to a community institution.
The removal of staff was done under the watch of university police.
“KHSU is the heart of this community and that heart was ripped out,” state Sen. Mike McGuire told The Sacramento Bee on Friday.
The North Coast Democrat joined state Assemblyman Jim Wood along with former state Sen. Wes Chesbro and former Assemblywoman Patty Berg in a letter to California State University Chancellor Timothy White and obtained by The Bee that blasted the university’s April 11 decision as reckless, secretive and short-sighted.
As first reported Thursday in the Eureka Times-Standard, Humboldt State officials, in a sweeping series of moves, fired five staffers, ended direct funding from the university to KHSU-FM, eliminated the station’s general manager and chief engineer positions, shelved programs run by station volunteers and installed new requirements that funding for an interim station director come from outside sources.
