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New Study Finds 106.1 KMEL Locks Out Youth Leaders and Local Artists
"People's Station" Lacks Access, Accuracy, and Accountability
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.
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.
For more information:
http://www.youthmediacouncil.org/pdfs/KMEL...
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I'd just figured it was - am I wrong?
KMEL sucks.
Please see indy media story on our protests in the Minneapolis/St Paul twin cities indy media site of the pro-war, corporate media. Time for the Bay Area to start your own Flying Pickets Squad perhaps?
Please see indy media story on our protests in the Minneapolis/St Paul twin cities indy media site of the pro-war, corporate media. Time for the Bay Area to start your own Flying Pickets Squad perhaps?
The place to be on Planet Three.
If you're for freedom, why would you want to force people to express themselves one way or another?
What kind of people are you, who want to deny people the escape of listening to some music they like? Fascists.
Maybe we should require science facts on CDs, too.
What kind of people are you, who want to deny people the escape of listening to some music they like? Fascists.
Maybe we should require science facts on CDs, too.
For more information:
http://pub30.ezboard.com/barcaeum
The fact of the matter is that there are not that many staions even playing the hip-hop genre...should the other stations be required to use youth leaders as a means of information also??
The Reality in the hood is that to be something you have to change yourself, the system sucks and some people get caught up in using that as an excuse...KMEL is only trying to help the young find the positive within themselves and not depend on the system...who needs to hear what the news tells us about the hood, we are already a product of it....You think about it!
The Reality in the hood is that to be something you have to change yourself, the system sucks and some people get caught up in using that as an excuse...KMEL is only trying to help the young find the positive within themselves and not depend on the system...who needs to hear what the news tells us about the hood, we are already a product of it....You think about it!
Oakland Teecher ......well your lack of grammar is validation of your credentials.
let's look at test performances from the Oakland school district............( dismal at best! )
now tell us how this radio station will teach the children of Oakland? what will they teach the children of Oakland? how to be good consumers of hip hop music?
your statement lacks merit
let's look at test performances from the Oakland school district............( dismal at best! )
now tell us how this radio station will teach the children of Oakland? what will they teach the children of Oakland? how to be good consumers of hip hop music?
your statement lacks merit
why does it matter if KMEL is owned by clear channel? 94.9 is, too, and they're supposedly "competitors" or whatever. what's clear channel got to do with it?
Let's examine Clear Channel for a second:
From a music standpoint, one of the stations they own here in Sacramento called V-101 was a lot better when it was Magic 101.
Magic101 was an old-school R&B station that played nearly everything old school, even the rare songs e.g. "Come and Go With Me" by Pockets. They would have an rare old school Sunday program. But then when ClearChannel took over, everything changed. And it started with the music.
I had done a special on Barry White when he died on July 4 and I got my special together on the 17th on VisionRadio.us. My source was his boxed set "Just For You" released in 1994; it was sent from Universal Music Group. When I opened the boxed set and read the charts positions of the songs included in the collection, I came to realize that with V-101 and stations like it, you're only going to hear the "pop crossover" tunes, NOT the rest of the good stuff. White's music in that collection had more charting Top 40 hits and equally more charting R&B hits --all before SoundScan. So why aren't we hearing these tunes?
I could never make a request on V-101 because what I request they don't have or they refuse to play. Case in point: After hearing The Stylistics "Betcha By Golly Wow" for the umpteenth time on that station, I called and requested their smooth hit "Hurry Up This Way Again"...and wouldn't you know it. The Stylistics came back on after 90 minutes but it was "You Are Everything". This is insulting to music everywhere.
Another thing that is insulting is when an old school act comes to town (like The Gap Band, Lakeside, et al), you'll hear songs only for when they are in town but the moment they leave or are out of earshot, it goes back to the same old 20 songs playlist.
And finally, what makes matters worse is that they run this promo called "Respect The Music" which the announcer talks about downloading music illegally and ends with the tagline "Respect the music". Well, shouldn't they also respect the music? No they do not...because a few years ago before they purchased V-101, they said that they were going to add newer R&B songs because "there are not enough songs in old school" Excuse me?
ClearChannel is EXTREMELY limited on choice. I like my old school music they way I heard it when I was going to college: good songs, not to get hit over the head with the same ones, various album tracks (even if they were 15 minutes long like Funkadelic's "(not just) Knee Deep"), even fusion jazz like Bob James and Stanley Clarke -- they had a place on the radio in the old school universe. But not with corporate media --especially ClearChannel.
From a music standpoint, one of the stations they own here in Sacramento called V-101 was a lot better when it was Magic 101.
Magic101 was an old-school R&B station that played nearly everything old school, even the rare songs e.g. "Come and Go With Me" by Pockets. They would have an rare old school Sunday program. But then when ClearChannel took over, everything changed. And it started with the music.
I had done a special on Barry White when he died on July 4 and I got my special together on the 17th on VisionRadio.us. My source was his boxed set "Just For You" released in 1994; it was sent from Universal Music Group. When I opened the boxed set and read the charts positions of the songs included in the collection, I came to realize that with V-101 and stations like it, you're only going to hear the "pop crossover" tunes, NOT the rest of the good stuff. White's music in that collection had more charting Top 40 hits and equally more charting R&B hits --all before SoundScan. So why aren't we hearing these tunes?
I could never make a request on V-101 because what I request they don't have or they refuse to play. Case in point: After hearing The Stylistics "Betcha By Golly Wow" for the umpteenth time on that station, I called and requested their smooth hit "Hurry Up This Way Again"...and wouldn't you know it. The Stylistics came back on after 90 minutes but it was "You Are Everything". This is insulting to music everywhere.
Another thing that is insulting is when an old school act comes to town (like The Gap Band, Lakeside, et al), you'll hear songs only for when they are in town but the moment they leave or are out of earshot, it goes back to the same old 20 songs playlist.
And finally, what makes matters worse is that they run this promo called "Respect The Music" which the announcer talks about downloading music illegally and ends with the tagline "Respect the music". Well, shouldn't they also respect the music? No they do not...because a few years ago before they purchased V-101, they said that they were going to add newer R&B songs because "there are not enough songs in old school" Excuse me?
ClearChannel is EXTREMELY limited on choice. I like my old school music they way I heard it when I was going to college: good songs, not to get hit over the head with the same ones, various album tracks (even if they were 15 minutes long like Funkadelic's "(not just) Knee Deep"), even fusion jazz like Bob James and Stanley Clarke -- they had a place on the radio in the old school universe. But not with corporate media --especially ClearChannel.
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