The Concerned Listener Management Group is Changing the Culture of KPFA To Pay To Hear!

The Concerned Listener Management Group is Changing the Culture of KPFA, Adopting Commercial Values: Putting Money Before the Mission and Honesty

“The most important thing of all is the unfettered flow of radical information, culture, arts, news and politics that you get here on KPFA”. (Sasha Lilley, Interim Program Director on KPFA, May 20, 2008 at 11:47 a.m. during a fund drive)

I happen to agree with this statement. It fits right in with our Bylaws: Article One, Section 2, in part: “In radio broadcasting operations to promote the full distribution of public information…”

Unfortunately, for the current "Concerned Listener" administration, it is only sales talk. As I pointed out in previous articles, Berkeley Daily Planet, “Alternative Home Shopping Network” etc., 5-22, 6-12, 7-24, 2008, the CL/Rijio administration has quietly been selling important speeches and public affairs programs that they DO NOT PLAY ON THE AIR FOR ALL TO HEAR! I have no problem with selling as many as possible, as long as they are played on the air for all to hear, which is our Mission.

Below you will find a partial list of these speeches and programs. During a 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, like those on the back page! Shouldn’t honesty to our listeners be a fundamental principle at KPFA/Pacifica?

I have a simple solution for the problem of getting them on the air. We have four music programs on M-TH at 8 pm. To free up a two-hour time slot to play these programs, Tuesday or Wednesday could be freed up for public affairs by either the Monday and Tuesday programs or the Wednesday and Thursday programs alternating every other week on one night. This way we could have an interesting weekly program with speeches and public affairs available for our audience to sit down in their comfortable chairs and listen to after dinner. It could also be used for hot topics when they come up, like police shootings, invasion of Gaza etc. I will gladly volunteer to help put it together.

When we don’t have any current programs and catch up with the backlog, we could play something topical from the Archives (police brutality, Palestine etc.) or have a political discussion time for callers, similar to Air America, so our listeners could share their ideas with each other about current topics. Having these speeches and programs on will increase loyalty and thus donations. It will put some excitement on the air. It would also bring back subscribers we have lost.

Then we will be able to say on the air what Sasha Lilley is quoted as saying above, and it will be an honest statement, not a sales pitch to get you to buy something that should be played for all to hear. We won’t have two classes of listeners: those that can afford to spend hundreds of dollars to hear speeches and programs and those that can’t and don’t get to hear them. This change will be in line with Pacifica’s goal to have a diverse audience. Low-income people are more oppressed by injustice in our society and need to know who is doing it to them and what they can do to fight back. Also low-income people are more proportionally women and people of color. We should want all these folks to be loyal listeners and not be priced out of important programs and resentful.

Please tell management that KPFA must be honest to its listeners and play programs for all to hear, regardless of wealth: (510) 848-6767 ext. 3 or http://www.kpfa.org/contactus/



KPFA PREMIUM$: must buy to hear! (Is this part of our Mission?)

Tariq Ali Berkeley 2008
Naomi Wolf Berkeley 2008
Robert Fisk 2008
Vandana Shiva
Noam Chomsky 2008
Deep Sports Dave Zirin & Michael Lewis Berkeley 2007
Thomas Frank Berkeley 2008
Michael Eric Dyson 2007
Winona La Duke Green festival 2008
George Lakoff In Santa Monica
Michael Eric Dyson 2008
Gallagher v. Hitchins Debate
Howard Zinn 2007
Naomi Klein Financial Crisis
God is Great Debate 2007
911 Forum
David Harvey’s Marx on Capital, free on line, $ 250 from KPFA
Rachel Corrie Speaks 2007
Take Back America Conference 5 CDs
Derrick Jensen “Now this war has two sides.” 2 CDs
Steve Bezruchka “Is America Driving You Crazy”
Steve Bezruchka “Health & Wealth”
Michael Klare
Maude Barlow
Erwin Chemerinsky debates John Yoo 2 CDs
Naomi Klein and Tariq Ali at Left Forum
Left Forum Opening and Closing Plenaries
Michael Meade “The World behind the World”
Karen Armstrong “Understanding Islam and the West”
Isabel Allende At Dominican University
Dr Joy Degruy Leary “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome”
Jack Rasmus Financial Crisis in America; Global Context
Harry Belefonte – Commeration of 40th Anniversary 1968
Van Jones Speaking in Oakland
Amy Goodman at 2008 Green Festival
Robert Scheer in LA
Brecht Forum with Tariq Ali
Susan George Neoliberalism
Ethics of Synthetic Biology
Rumi 800 Birthday 2007 2 CDs

As far as I know none of these have been completely played and the program promoted on the air for all to hear. They have all been sold. This is a partial list. How many of these would you have liked to hear? Do you feel cheated? Does this build a loyal audience? 2003-2008; 50% increase in paid staff and 5,000 lost subscribers. For more information go to http://www.Peoplesradio.net

Richard Phelps, Former Chair KPFA LSB, 34-year listener/subscriber, former AM & FM Radio Announcer.