Save KUSF occupies Entercom hallway after 1-year anniversary rally

Irwin Swirnoff, Save KUSF spokesperson, DJ and former KUSF Music Director and Tracy Rosenberg, Director of Media Alliance, did most of the talking. Ms Barnes was very patient and communicative, even for a PR-type. After we got summarily walked out to the street by Entercom security, Ms Barnes patiently continued the conversation outside, despite not dressed for the cold windy day. Much of the conversation centered around what community radio is and should be and how the now 8-station CPRN purports to fit this model. What local “community” can be served by a chain, cookie-cutter music station and how is a good question, and something the FCC has not at all looked in good faith to define in any prior sale up to this point.

At the rally and subsequent events, activists and Attorney Peter Francke point out that CPRN has spent roughly a million dollars over the past year and till don’t own the station. Is this still deemed a good investment or can they be dissuaded from continuing to fight for this license?

My more pointed questions concern where exactly this money is coming from. While Ms Barnes insists that USC is putting out all this money for all these stations from its own operating budget without any significant return, while CPRN is reportedly not even doing on-air fundraising, I don’t believe this at all.

Ms Barnes provides some inside information, admitting for the first time that CPRN was the entity that attempted to buy KUSF 5 years ago. At that time, word of a pending sale was leaked and the KUSF community rose up and organized to block the sale. CPRN waited and this time hid behind radio conglomerate Entercom’s “non-disclosure agreement” to do a purposeful end-run around due process to basically steal it in a three-way deal that reads like an NBA basketball trade.

Irwin and Tracy close the conversation asking to open lines of communication to see whether CPRN is willing to directly assist KUSF get back on the airwaves one way or another.