I wish to extend my great appreciation to all the folks that e-mailed,
texted, phoned, and stopped me on the street to express their disgust of
KFUG manager’s, Paul Critz, on learning of my dismissal from the Sunday
line up.  I certainly was not quite aware that my show, Conversations
with Sam, would be as well attended as the well wishers seem to
indicate.   KFUG under the leadership of Mr. Critz has by enlarge become
exclusively a liberal/progressive radio station that would take a
persistent listener some time to ferret out my show as an outlier during
the weekly lineup.  For those listeners I am eternally grateful.KFUG as a community radio station is required by FCC regulation to have
in its content a broad range of programing to reflect the community that
they serve.  In the course of the three years that my show was part of
the regular lineup less than one percent of the content weekly was other
than liberal/progressive.   With my dismissal, there is no diversity on
KFUG, no freedom of speech, no inclusion, no equity, nor anything that
resembles the broad range of ideas that make up this community.   As
such, KFUG currently is in violation of that licensing agreement with
the FCC and should have its content reviewed.

Mr. Critz,  KFUG’s station manager seems to be unable to maintain a
professional posture which would allow the free expression of thought
that community radio relies on to insure robust debate. Rather than
attempt to provide content that challenges other ideologies, he often
seemed terrified that those offering would not measure up.  Being
dismissive seems to be his only alternative rather than remaining
professional in an effort to debate the issues where he felt
challenged.  As station manager he would have been more than welcome to
discuss any issue that was entertained on my program, yet I was never
given any indication he was up to the challenge.  While I bear no ill
will toward KFUG as a community radio station, it is unfortunate that
the station manager can pervert its messaging to the point that it is no
longer representative of the community it serves.

I have been accused by Mr. Critz of content during the Pandemic that was
“irresponsible” in spite of the fact that all of my content can be
sourced to many other references, and generally are not positions that I
hold alone.  I fully understand that there are a great many unknowns
with regard to how Covid-19 will ultimately affect us in this country;
however, to blindly follow a questionable response to the virus, I
firmly believe that it is imperative certain questions need to be asked,
particularly in light of the fact that a great many “experts” have
proven to be wrong in their pronouncements.  This may seem
“irresponsible” to the “faithful” but never the less is a responsible
path that all thinking people should be allowed to pursue.  If Mr. Critz
is not up to the challenge of operating a community radio station in the
way it was meant to be operated, perhaps it is time to turn over the
reins to someone that is up to the challenge.

KFUG’s governing board may wish to change its leadership, sooner, rather
than later, before mounting complaints to the FCC affect its licensing,
and then it funding sources.