Independent filmmaker recounts year-long struggle to get film programmed on university station

Lynn Merrick, an independent producer and filmmaker, described prolonged efforts to have her documentary aired on the Bozeman-area public station KUSM and said the experience illustrated a need for formalized policies on how independent work is handled.

“I don’t have time to watch that, Lynn,” Merrick quoted Ron Jetson, whom she identified as the station’s program director, as saying after she brought a cassette to the station. Merrick said the tape “sat on it for about 4 months” before she returned and later, after public recognition for the film, the station scheduled a single broadcast about a year after she first submitted it.

Merrick said she was told by multiple people that Jetson makes programming decisions individually and that the station’s friends/fundraising group does not set programming. She said that, when her film finally aired, she received calls from viewers who had been treated rudely when they contacted the station to find out when it would be shown.

Merrick described the experience as censorship and called for clearer, documented policies at university stations so independent producers can understand distribution pathways and scheduling practices. She also named station manager Jack HIPAA and program director Ron Jetson and said she had raised concerns with Marilyn Wessel (associated with Montana State University) without satisfactory resolution.

Workshop presenters did not adopt any formal recommendations. Merrick’s account was presented as a first-person example of barriers independent producers face when seeking distribution on institutional public-broadcast outlets.