La Onda Bajita Archives being Kept from the Public@kpfa.org

La onda bajita is being prohibited to have their archives in public access due to FCC policy implementation at kpfa a year ago that only applies to music programs, and has only been getting two archives for fourteen days on kpfa.org even though they are a Arts and Cultural affairs program. While multiple archives of all other Arts programs are still made public, and all their archives are still saved, la onda bajita has been kept from the public.

While I have been looking for La onda bajita's old shows they all seem to have disappeared, but I found out that is not the case. They are not being made public since last year due to a FCC hearing that put limitations on all programming at kpfa.org since all programs play music for more than 30 seconds. However, all programming archives do not have this limitation till this day, even though it has been a year since the ruling. Even though the FCC clearly states these limitations are for all programs on KPFA, some how la onda bajita was targeted as a music program and had the removal of their archives without notification. As I the Co producer of the program tried to make contact with management, I got the run around that went like this : Lemlem Rijio wrote:
Hi Pedro,
I am forwarding your email to Michael Yoshida. Questions, concerns, comments concerning broadcast technology including the internet, you can direct to Michael at: engineering [at] kpfa.org or ext. 218.
Lemlem

Michael Yoshida Head Techincal engineer deals with web as well:
According to the guidelines issued by NFCB in the recent webinar with FCC attorneys including Pacifica's John Crigler, any program that uses more than 30 seconds of music is subject to performance royalty. Under the CPB umbrella agreement signed with SoundExchange, such programs can be archived for only 14 days. In addition, the minimum length of each archive must be no shorter than 3 hours.(to comply with the archive not being a 'play on demand') And there are other restrictions such as only being able to play 3 cuts per CD in any three hour period. Thus since all programs use more than 30 seconds of copyrighted music, all our archives should not be visible to the public for over 14 days.

Like everything else at KPFA, it's all been pretty arbitrary based on loose KPFA history. La Onda was a Third Wld Dept show and never a music department show. R&R didn't exist when we had the Third World department but it was never a music department show. So theoretically, the show should have no archive limits. Maybe someone thought that La Onda was a music show. I don't know. But like I said, we may implement a 2 week archive policy for all shows since all shows use copyrighted music. How much we comply with the SX agreement is ultimately up to Lemlem since that's and maybe the Executive Bd of Pacifica since they need to decide how much exposure they want to a potential SX lawsuit.
Michael

pedro wrote:

"Thus since all programs use more than 30 seconds of copyrighted
music, all our archives should not be visible to the public for
over 14 days." this is why i am writing michael, because not all shows
have the 14 day limit as you stated. I am asking why only certain shows have more archival space than others, if the case is that "all programs use more than 30 seconds of copyrighted music," shouldn't all programs be only have 14 days, and obviously on kpfa. Org that is not the case. I understand there is regulations by the FCC so if they are applied it should be for all as you said, and not just the few programs as is the case on the website at kpfa.org. This law has been in effect for a while, and have not seen all the programs with the fourteen day notice for a while, why?

Thank you, and appreciate the timely response.
Pedro Reyes
Ps, we can start to use 30 seconds of music if it comes down to
that.

However, after all my dialogue with Michael, it we both agreed that it comes down to Lelem Rijo ultimately, and that she needed to decide how much exposure they want at KPFA to a potential SX lawsuit by the FCC. Therefore, after all this I went back to where I started, and got this response eventhough I had been Ccing management this whole time with Michael:

Lelem rijo wrote:
No, I have not been reading the dialogue between you and Michael. I will do so now and respond to your questions.

Since la onda bajita is an Arts and Cultural program I asked to have the archives placed back on the website since they were definitely not complying with this law, and that I would like to see KPFA’s policy of archives placed fairly across all programs if they are going to apply these policies.

La onda bajita, and its’ archive space are an important part of the community Arts and Cultural affairs mixed with music show for the Raza. It has been about 25-30 years ago that la onda bajita started, and does a new show every week. The show is only once a week for two hours, which doesn’t take up much space compared to daily programming. Kpfa started archiving the show in 2004 on the internet, but since last year they have made them unavailable to the public, and will only be archived for fourteen days. I am asking management that I would like to know the soonest possible, “why this is happening, and also why it happened without notification to the programmers as well”. We would like you to join in helping us get back our archives, and tell management, or tell management to practice fair policies and not to attack people of colors show.

As organizers in the community we need la onda bajita to have more archival space, and If the FCC mandates that an SX law be place on all of kpfa programs not just the few. La onda bajita should not be singled out along with other programs who have been singled out as well. We would like to see some change, and hope you can understand how this doesn't make sense to our community.

Please be aware that there are other programs as well that are not music programs and also have the same issue with their archives as well, and that this is one of the many examples of these unbalanced policies being applied at KPFA. Please support us in getting our archives back for public viewing, and hold management accountable for their half applied policies on certain programs, and not on all of KPFA.

If folks could email igm [at] kpfa.org and demand our archives be made public. Also folks can leave a message at kpfa 510-848-6767 and tell management you support La onda bajita, and will take away your pledge if we do not have action sooner than later. We at la onda bajita demand our archives not be held hostage, and want them to be publicly available to every one for as long as possible.Thanks to all those who support a change at KPFA, and to those who support and see the need to have fair, and transparent policies being applied at KPFA.

I still have not heard back from management Lelem Rijo on this matter

Pedro Reyes
Co Producer of La Onda Bajita