KPFA’s Current Dialing for Dollars Plan Is At Odds with Pacifica’s Mission

This is the second part of a critique of KPFA’s current management’s “selling” and not playing public affairs. You will find Part One at the end of this article.

As I pointed out in the first commentary, “KPFA: The Alternative Home Shopping Network,” speeches and other public affairs programs are being recorded, not for play on the air for all to hear, but for sale as “gifts.” This is a gross violation of Pacifica’s Mission as a source of alternative ideas in a society where the corporate media severely limits our access to “non-status quo” presentations.

In my vision of Pacifica the stations would play important speeches etc. for all to hear in a timely fashion and with the programs ask us to contribute so that we may have access to such programs on the radio or in the station archives. Some of these speeches, when appropriate, could be aired live to give the station a sense of excitement, “this is where you hear it when it happens.” People talking on the streets and at work would be saying “did you hear Michael Eric Dyson on KPFA yesterday, he gave a really interesting perspective on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversy.” This comment builds loyalty and encourages new people to tune in and donate.

Now the comments are “ I heard part of a Dyson speech, and to hear it all I have to pay $60 and wait several weeks to get the CD.” And maybe “Damn, why aren’t they playing that all right now so I can hear it when it is timely?” or “I love KPFA and I can’t afford to pay for all the speeches, why aren’t they playing them so we can all hear them?” This type of comment kills loyalty and is partly responsible for the loss of 5,000 subscribers in the last five years. Unfortunately, this type of comment is appropriate given KPFA’s “selling” of public affairs instead of airing public affairs for all to hear!

KPFA could also use such speeches to do outreach. For example, the Dyson speech could have been promoted in and thus made available to the Bay Area African-American communities. This community service would have increased KPFA’s listeners in these communities with a few dozen well-placed flyers. Mission accomplished!

Speeches/programs could be played shortly after recording or when the station gets them, while still fresh and with on-air promotion to let everyone know when to tune in. Fund pitches could be made with the programs. And of course copies could be sold to anyone who would buy one. KPFA develops a reputation for being the place to get the current programs when they are happening. Not sometimes, all the time.

This would give the station more presence in the community and develop more loyal listeners who, I believe, will donate for something that is “live” and responsive to community interests. This is much better than being known as the stations that plays one third of a speech to get us to buy it! “Pay per listen” radio is a retrograde concept at a “Free Speech” Pacifica station! Too much like “Pay Per View” on cable TV.

The Pacifica Mission is to get alternative information out as far and wide as possible. KPFA is a radio station for all those with a radio to enjoy, not a CD sales center for those with the money to buy programs. Unfortunately in the last few years it has become much more of the latter and less of the former!

Here are a few examples of the last fund drive tea$er program$. Michael Eric Dyson, $60, Isabel Allende, $60, Left Forum, $200, Dr. Stephen Bezruchka, $175, Rachel Corrie Speaks, $75.

If you wanted to hear these programs with their several hours of current and interesting material it would cost you $570.00! And you wouldn’t get the CDs for several weeks or months, when they won’t be current.

Along with this retrograde method of fund raising comes “Madison Avenue double talk.” Is this appropriate for Pacifica? Shouldn’t honesty and straight talk be the Pacifica method? A “gift” is something that is given, not paid for. There were some concrete examples of this “sales double speak” in the first article and here is a quote from Sasha Lilley, the interim program director, from the last fund drive:

“The most important thing of all is the unfettered flow of radical information, culture, arts, news and politics that you get here on KPFA.” (May 20 at 11:47 a.m.)

Now excuse me if you think I am going too far, but I believe that $570 is a fetter to most people who want to be well informed! Especially four times a year! And from the Mission perspective, every loss of non-corporate analysis or thoughts from public consciousness is a default to pervasive, corporate spin. Not playing important public affairs for all to hear prevents Pacifica from playing its part as the largest presumptive antidote for this poison.

Non-corporate ideas are necessary to help develop alternative politics and culture. That is why the corporate media won’t provide them! Without these alternatives our rights and human possibilities are continually diminished. Is this what Pacifica is about? I think NOT and I don’t understand why the current management, who claim to be Mission adherents, doesn’t see the contradiction. Is it lack of vision or concern or both?

The current “Concerned Listener” majority on the Local Station Board supports management’s “Madison Avenue” approach of selling public affairs instead of playing them for all to hear. They must be voted out in the next election if we want to save KPFA from this rightward drift.

If you want more information on the struggle for the Pacifica Mission and democratic process, transparency and accountability at KPFA and Pacifica go to http://www.peoplesradio.net.



Richard Phelps is a former chair of the KPFA Local Station Board, a 34-year listener/subscriber and a former AM and FM radio announcer.

PART ONE if you missed it.

KPFA, “The Alternative Home Shopping Network?” aka “The Privatization of Public Affairs by a Non-Commercial Station.”

Recently Michael Eric Dyson spoke in Oakland about the Jeremiah Wright controversy. He is a dynamic and entertaining speaker. This speech was about a hot topic in national politics and race relations. It is the kind of progressive commentary that should have been broadcast live or shortly thereafter given its current public affairs importance. KPFA recorded his speech. Has KPFA played it on the air for our listeners? NO! KPFA management has played a portion of it to promote it for sale! So instead of tens of thousands hearing it when it was current, the few that could or would spend their money have purchased it and will get it some weeks or months later when it is no longer current.

Each of us may have our own interpretation of the Pacifica Mission. I do think we would all agree that getting public affairs, news and culture, that the corporate media won’t broadcast, out to the people, is the essence of Pacifica’s Mission. Educate and activate.

Pacific Bylaws, Article One, Section 2, in part:

“In radio broadcasting operations to promote the full distribution of public information…” (Emphasis added.)

In March 2007 KPFA recorded another Dyson speech. Was it played for the KPFA listening audience? NO! It too was sold on multiple occasions and never played entirely on the air! This is also true of a Howard Zinn speech, April 2007,the “God is Great” debate,May 2007, and a Bill Moyer’s speech recorded and sold last year with some others. This year we have “Rachel Corrie Speaks”, the Left Forum and the recent Dyson speech among others not broadcast except for a tease portion. KPFA management holds them back, creates scarcity, and sells them, like any other corporate operation.

If you wanted to hear the complete program for all of the above it would cost you several hundred dollar$!! Doesn’t Pacifica and KPFA exist so that we can hear such speeches and programs as they happen? This is starting to look like cable TV. Basic Service for all, with only teaser portions of great new speeches and programs and Premium Service that gets you the complete speeches/programs at significant additional cost.

The current management has created two classes of listeners! What happened to our Mission? I ask you to see through their spin and look at what they have done to our Mission! The Mission is now incidental to fundraising.

What does this say about the management’s commitment to diversity? It is common knowledge that people of color and women make up a larger proportion of low income people given the racism and sexism in our society. Instead of helping to end this situation, KPFA’s pay for knowledge approach to public affairs will only perpetuate this societal oppression.

I have no problem with selling the speeches and programs to support the station, as long as they play them for all to hear, preferably in a timely fashion. The corporate media has a political wall to stop progressive speeches, programs and culture from getting to the people. KPFA has a gla$$ sound barrier, stopping those that don’t have the money from hearing these important speeches and programs. Unlike the corporate media, KPFA lets us know of them so they can sell them. How do you think this makes our low-income listeners feel, excluded, not good enough, not deserving? This is one of the hidden injuries of class.

Does KPFA’s management think this creates loyal listeners? Do they care? This has been raised many times and they don’t seem to give a damn about our low-income listeners or our Mission. Instead of playing these speeches for tens of thousands of KPFA listeners, they sell them to a small number of people. Is this what Pacifica is about?

Last year I made a motion at the Local Station Board to require that the station play the speeches that they sell so everyone could possibly hear them. It was voted down by the “Concerned Listener” majority, the group that is in bed with management on issues like this. They have fought together against transparency, unpaid staff representation, fair elections and Democracy Now! in prime time, etc.

What slippery slope does KPFA’s commodification of public affairs lead to? Here are a couple of the many examples I could give. Dr. Stephen Bezruchka gave a speech called “Is America Driving You Crazy?” His thesis is that there are more mental health problems in America given our great disparity in wealth. How ironic that KPFA replicates this class divide by making the entire program available only to those that can afford to BUY it!

It gets worse. During the winter fund drive the Morning Show folks proudly proclaimed three times during the pitching that “ The Great and Mighty Walk was not available anywhere else”. I easily found it on the web and purchased a copy for 1/3 of KPFA’s price. The entire program has never been played on the air! Shouldn’t honesty be a fundamental principle at Pacifica? Or are they approaching the used car dealer mentality?

When my motion was debated on an LSB Show last year, Brian Edwards-Tiekert, of “dismantle the LSB” fame, argued that it would be difficult to play many of these speeches since they are longer than most program times. This raises a fundamental question: does the airtime belong to the current holder of a time slot or does it belong to all of us as a commons? When a good speech comes along the station should find room for it to be promptly played and programmers should be willing to share their time to make it happen. In the words of Robbie Osman, from his 2004 paper on the DN! time change struggle, ( http://www.peoplesradio.net Pro Democracy paper): “We will have to choose whether to defend the station's mission or defend our own turf.”

Unlike the KPFA of old, where programmers produced specials for the fund drives, now most fund drive programs are recorded speeches, or DVDs or CDs that are bought and resold and never completely played on the air. If these speeches and programs are as great as they promote them to be when asking for your money, why aren’t they played on the air for all to hear?

I yearn for the days before the August, 1995 purges, (over 100 community activist programmers fired, including many from communities of color, and the beginning of the Healthy Station format with strip programming etc). The station was more spontaneous back then. When a prominent person gave a speech we heard it live or shortly thereafter, we didn’t have to pay for it and get it some weeks or months later. I donated much more then than I do now!

KPFA’s management is afraid that if speeches are played on the air no one will buy them or donate. If there was more excitement on the air, live or current speeches, and the news wasn’t straight off the AP wire, and more like the Knight Report, and the listeners felt that their concerns mattered, I know I would donate much more and I believe many others would also. If the station is dedicated to bringing the best to the listeners when things happen then I believe the listeners will strongly support the station.

Instead of pitching “this is a great speech, we have played part of it for you and you can have the entire speech for $100.00”, why not “We played this great speech for you live (or when it was fresh) and this is why you need to support KPFA, we bring you what is happening, when it is happening, please donate to keep us going, if you want a copy of this speech you can have it for a donation of $100.00 or make a donation of the size you can to keep KPFA on the air.” KPFA needs money to exist and yet selling out or ignoring the Mission to raise money defeats the reason for its existence.

KPFA could be so much better with progressive management that puts the Mission first! This management group has run the station since 2003 and has lost 5,000 subscribers during the Bush regime, while increasing the paid staff 50%.

There are many other problems that need to be addressed if our struggle to save the network in 1999 is to mean anything.