New Study Finds 106.1 KMEL Locks Out Youth Leaders and Local Artists

For Immediate Release: November 13, 2002
Contact: Jeff Perlstein, Media Alliance (510) 435-8481
or Jen Soriano, Youth Media Council (510) 444-0640 x 314

New Study Finds 106.1 KMEL Locks Out
Youth Leaders and Local Artists
"People's Station" Lacks Access, Accuracy, and Accountability

(San Francisco/Oakland) A ground-breaking study released today finds scant evidence of representation of youth leaders or local artists at the Bay Area's self-proclaimed "People's Station", 106.1 KMEL-FM. One year after popular Public Affairs Director David "Davey D" Cook was fired from the radio station, the Youth Media Council analyzed three weeks of the station's September programming. This analysis resulted in the report released today - the first community assessment of its kind addressing radio content in the Bay Area.

Findings of the study, entitled "Not the People's Station", include:

Youth Leaders Locked Out: Representatives from local youth-led organizations for social change were not heard on KMEL at all.
Crime and Violence Dominate Content: Hosts overwhelmingly discussed crime, drugs, and violence as the primary themes of non-music content.
Youth Blamed, Public Policy Ignored: No public policies related to crime and violence were mentioned. Root causes, such as racism and poverty, were ignored. Proposed solutions were limited to changing personal behavior and making better choices.
Lacking Community Access and Accountability: KMEL provides no known avenues for receiving meaningful listener and community feedback.

"Young folks are listening to KMEL, not the news, " said Nicole Lee, organizer for Let’s Get Free. "We need the station to include the voices of our youth leaders, not blame them, and be willing to look at the public policies that are the root causes of the problems in our communities."

The majority of listeners to KMEL are under 35 years old and are predominantly people of color.

The report offers a six-step plan for KMEL to become more accessible to the communities it claims to represent. The recommendations include sponsoring on-air roundtable discussions co- hosted by youth leaders, increasing the number of public service announcements on peace and justice events, working with local artists to increase their presence on station playlists, and creating an advisory board and accountability hotline.

"Today's media shape policy and public opinion. Our young people and our communities need information that is balanced, provides context to the issues of the day, and includes their voices," said coalition member Eva Paterson, Executive Director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights.

The Coalition for Media Accountability, a broad coalition of journalists, youth organizations, media advocates, and community members led by the Youth Media Council, Media Alliance, and Mind's Eye Artists' Collective, has requested a meeting with KMEL management to discuss the findings and these recommendations.