SF Radio: Union Accuses Entercom of Unfair Labor Practices

KOIT 96.5 FM, the station listeners may recognize for wall-to-wall holiday music, mellifluous canned DJ voices, and the inimitable, irrefutable jingle, "Lite rock, less talk," is ready to speak truth to power.

SFWeekly.com reports the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. (SAG-AFTRA), are circulating a petition to support the station's 5-member bargaining unit as it negotiates a new contract with Philadelphia-based, Entercom Communications.

According to SF Weekly, since Entercom took over in 2007, KOIT staff say they've endured massive pay and severance cuts, personnel supplanted by computerized voice-tracking and pre-recorded programs, and union protections worn down. They've accused the company of eroding creativity and talent at the station, whose staff members embrace the old-fashioned ideal of terrestrial radio.

Listeners amassed with pitchforks when the company bought R&B station KBLX three years ago, assuring that corporate ownership would dilute KBLX's well-hewn "quiet storm" brand identity. In fact, their arguments had merit: one of Entercom's first actions, after signing the deed, was to fire a long-standing morning show host and replace him with canned broadcasts from comedian Steve Harvey.

The company will hold its next mediation session is May 20.