Written by Dallas Hyland
Welcome to the court of public opinion
Last week, under an ominous threat of federal litigation for “liable” (I shit you not, that’s how he spelled it) we reported a story about the recent somewhat tenuous overthrow of local public radio station KTIM.
Attorney John Christian Barlow was very vague about who precisely he represents but made it quite clear to The Independent and to me on the phone that any inquiries about KTIM were to be made through him or there would be “serious trouble.” He wrote that he finds federal court fun but that his adversaries do not and inferred, without citing anything resembling an actual statute let alone a legitimate concern, that we would somehow find ourselves there with him.
We are pretty sure that what he was doing was trying to dissuade us from publishing an article of interest to you, the public. A process of which we are, as you are, guaranteed the privilege under the First Amendment.
Sounds like he missed a few classes in law school.
He and his clients are avoiding me and The Independent now so I would like to take this opportunity to invite them to the arena I and others find fun. Welcome to the court of public opinion.
Some History
In 2011 and 2012 I hosted a show on the station called The Seventh Day. A primarily guest driven political talk show that invited rigorous dialogue on matters of consequence. I estimate, not counting my friends and family, that I had about ten listeners. Those who know of KTIM’s shaky and somewhat erratic programming will not find this hard to believe.
During the course of my work there I locked horns often with station manager Tim Porter but curiously absent was Perry Holmes, the stations executive director, and along with his wife, board member, treasurer, and secretary of the non-profit parent company Waste Con.
In the year or so I was there I never saw, let alone heard of a board meeting taking place but I did see that money, time, and equity was donated to the station.
It came to a head with Tim when I questioned him on it and he subsequently canceled my show.
Perry called me not long after and assured me everything at KTIM was on the up and up. That he had a board in place and that he saw to it everything ran in accordance with the laws governing non-profits.
In light of the fact that in a recent press release, regarding his firing of Tim and the relocation of the station to another place on the dial, and also his somewhat obtuse throwing of his board under the bus for not following the laws of a non-profit, he appears to be engaging in some doublespeak.
Confounding to the intelligent mind it is that he did not consider that by accusing his board of not running a legal non-profit, he was implicating himself.
What they are trying to sell
If you feel so inclined, you can research for yourself just exactly how completely full of holes this entire thing is. But here’s my take.
KTIM did not run a legitimate non-profit. Perry was at the helm. But no one really cared because KTIM was broadcasting at a very low power and was, according to some sources, not worth the piece of paper it would take to write down its worth. Financially that is.
Recently however, it obtained the ability to broadcast at what is reported to be considerably more power and potentially reach the entire Washington County audience.
The lawyer was hired to dismantle Perry’s agreement with Tim, remove him from the station and facilitate a deal he articulated to The Independent in a letter that would result in KTIM broadcasting from Dixie State University. (The irony of the new call letters, KDXI, sounding a lot like “K” Dixie, should not be lost here).
(DSU has categorically denied this is happening although the school does admit that preliminary talks with Holmes, Barlow, and DSU Professor Shawn Denevan did take place).
Additionally, Barlow, under threat of charging the board with legal consequences for running an illegitimate board, dismantled said board under color of some pretty vague interpretation of law but apparently failed to realize that in so doing, he would implicate his client, Holmes.
You read that right. The client he represents in the facilitation of this deal is guilty of the things he is now accusing the board of and using to dismantle the station for a more presumably profitable arrangement.
You cannot make this shit up.
(Also as of this publishing, DSU lists Barlow as working there but have stated in writing that he has not since 2013. Update your websites maybe?)
It appears that Holmes is trying to make a profit from the sale of the non-profit he partook in running illegally and he has employed an attorney who has an interest, (financial perhaps) in the deal and both of them have managed to drag DSU into the conversation.
What a complete cluster.
I care and so should you
For all of its misgivings, of which are many, the board of directors, who did a disservice to the community by not properly running their board, did so out of naivety and a blind trust in Perry Holmes.
Tim Porter donated ten thousand dollars worth of equipment, secured by credit card debt and debt against his home, also believing in the station passionately but perhaps not responsibly.
(Incidentally, Holmes does not dispute the equipment belongs to Tim but after firing him will not return it. Last week, Holmes told Tim in a phone call that if he did not change his story and “clean up the bad press”, he would instruct his attorney to auction it off. I’m not a legal expert but apparently neither is Holmes or his attorney. I looked it up in the Utah Criminal Code and found a statute, 76-6-404.5. Wrongful appropriation, or theft in the amount exceeding five thousand dollars, is a felony. Add to that the possible implication of extortion and, well, someone ought to look in to that.)
KTIM is gone folks. What happens next will depend on the veracity and the give-a-damn factor of the community it has just bamboozled. And that is sad not because it likely needed to be gone for a host of legal and ethical reasons, but because of what it represented.
Save The Independent, there is no counterculture voice that speaks for minority communities of this county. There is no public radio or other news or entertainment source. Anyone who has lived in a bigger city can attest to the value such an entity brings to a community and KTIM blew that. Big time.
I for one will miss it. You may not realize it, but so will you.
See you out there.
Dallas Hyland is a freelance writer, award-winning photographer, and documentary filmmaker with three films currently under his belt. The opinion editor of The Independent, Hyland’s investigative journalism and opinion columns have ranged in topics from local political and environmental issues, to drug trafficking in Utah, as well as the international front, covering issues such as human trafficking in Colombia. On his rare off-days, he can be found with his family and friends exploring the pristine outdoors. Listen to him live as a regular guest co-host on the Perspectives talk show on Fox News 1450 AM 93.1 FM in southern Utah.
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