Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
KPFA Women's Magazine Show Call For Support
KPFA's Sasha Lilley has unilaterally without any notice shutdown the Women's Magazine show with another show. There is a call to let Lilley and KPFA know what the community thinks about your decision. Sasha Lilley with the support of the manager Lemlem Rijio has also shutdown the KPFA program council which allowed for some community imput into programming. Their autocratic decision to shutoff Poor People's Radio, Youth Radio and now the Women's Magazine and clear examples of their method of operation. It's time to let them know that this will not be tolerated by the supporters of community radio.
Dear listeners, friends and supporters of Women's Magazine,
Near the end of January 2009, Women's Magazine producers learned that Women's Magazine, the show we have been bringing to you--our valued community--since June 2005, was abruptly being pre-empted so that KPFA could air a "special": Letters from Washington: The First 100 Days. This means we will be off the air until the end of April.
We at Women's Magazine know how much you appreciate, rely on and value the only program airing on KPFA that is about, by and for women. Some of you are listeners, some of you have been guest on our show, some of you have contributed to our show, and all of us feel women's issues need coverage on KPFA. Many of you have already telephoned the station, expressing your concern and inquiring about why Women's Magazine is not on the air since there has been no explanation given about this change. We at Women's Magazine are deeply concerned and completely uninformed as to why Women's Magazine has been selected for replacement by Letters from Washington. Not only are we very disappointed that there will be less coverage of gender issues for the next 3 months on KPFA we are unclear what that means for KPFA's commitment to these issues and don't know what their future plans are at the end of the 100 days.
It is important that as listeners, friends and supporters of Women's Magazine, your voices are heard and represented.
While we are attempting to discuss this decision with our interim program manager Sasha Lilly to express our objections to this process and ask for an explanation of their decision we need your support to show to KPFA that we are not the only one's who are concerned about gender issues being present on KPFA. We would like to present them with letters of support from our listeners, to show that women's programming is important to KPFA's "base."
Please take a few minutes to send a letter of support in the next few days. A sample letter follows, but if you can spare the time to write your own, letting them know which segments you have heard on Women's Magazine that you particularly valued, or how Women's Magazine has been of importance to you. It will help us a lot to keep our show. You can also help by circulating this request to other supporters of the show.
Please write to:
ipd [at] kpfa.org (Interim Programme Director, Sasha Lilly), with ccs to
womensmagazine@ kpfa.org, gm [at] kpfa.org (General Manager, Lemlem Rijio), ameliagg@yahoo. com (Arts and Humanities Director, Amelia Gonzalez), and to me at cositas1 [at] comcast.net.
You should also feel free to express your disappointment by calling KPFA at:
510-848-6767
x209 (Sasha Lilly, Interim Program Manager)
x203 (Lemlem Rijio, General Manager)
Please help us to make sure Women's Magazine continues to thrive on the airwaves at KPFA. We can not succeed without you.
Regards,
Lisa Dettmer, Rivian Berlin, Yvette Hochberg, Eryn Matthewson, Safi wa Nairobi, Kate Raphael, Jovelyn Richards, Preeti Managala Shekar, Meri Simon
SAMPLE LETTER- PLEASE PERSONALIZE
KPFA Program director:
I am deeply disappointed in the KPFA management team's decision to take Women's Magazine off the air for three months. Women's Magazine is the only show on the KPFA airwaves that is explicitly feminist and consistently puts women's issues in the forefront. It has been a source of support to the feminist community in the Bay Area and beyond and consistently covers issues that no other show on KPFA does. Women's Magazine has also brought in a range of women's voices that are not often heard on KPFA. It is particularly upsetting that the only specifically women's program is taken off the air just in time for Women's History Month. (please include what women's magazine has meant to you) In the past there was an entire women's department at KPFA. It seems that KPFA is now moving away from its commitment to gender and women's issues , feminism and alternative media subjects.
I ( am a member/ listener of KPFA ) and support KPFA because it is a democratic alternative to mainstream media . But your decision to eliminate the only hour of women's programming on your airwaves, a show that is produced by a multicultural, multigenerational group of volunteer programmers, calls into question your commitment to that alternative vision. ( makes me reconsider my support for KPFA )
I urge you to reconsider your decision to replace Women's Magazine and to find another slot for Letters from Washington. If that is not possible, I do trust that you will bring back Women's Magazine at the end of the 100 Days and demonstrate more support for this show .
Near the end of January 2009, Women's Magazine producers learned that Women's Magazine, the show we have been bringing to you--our valued community--since June 2005, was abruptly being pre-empted so that KPFA could air a "special": Letters from Washington: The First 100 Days. This means we will be off the air until the end of April.
We at Women's Magazine know how much you appreciate, rely on and value the only program airing on KPFA that is about, by and for women. Some of you are listeners, some of you have been guest on our show, some of you have contributed to our show, and all of us feel women's issues need coverage on KPFA. Many of you have already telephoned the station, expressing your concern and inquiring about why Women's Magazine is not on the air since there has been no explanation given about this change. We at Women's Magazine are deeply concerned and completely uninformed as to why Women's Magazine has been selected for replacement by Letters from Washington. Not only are we very disappointed that there will be less coverage of gender issues for the next 3 months on KPFA we are unclear what that means for KPFA's commitment to these issues and don't know what their future plans are at the end of the 100 days.
It is important that as listeners, friends and supporters of Women's Magazine, your voices are heard and represented.
While we are attempting to discuss this decision with our interim program manager Sasha Lilly to express our objections to this process and ask for an explanation of their decision we need your support to show to KPFA that we are not the only one's who are concerned about gender issues being present on KPFA. We would like to present them with letters of support from our listeners, to show that women's programming is important to KPFA's "base."
Please take a few minutes to send a letter of support in the next few days. A sample letter follows, but if you can spare the time to write your own, letting them know which segments you have heard on Women's Magazine that you particularly valued, or how Women's Magazine has been of importance to you. It will help us a lot to keep our show. You can also help by circulating this request to other supporters of the show.
Please write to:
ipd [at] kpfa.org (Interim Programme Director, Sasha Lilly), with ccs to
womensmagazine@ kpfa.org, gm [at] kpfa.org (General Manager, Lemlem Rijio), ameliagg@yahoo. com (Arts and Humanities Director, Amelia Gonzalez), and to me at cositas1 [at] comcast.net.
You should also feel free to express your disappointment by calling KPFA at:
510-848-6767
x209 (Sasha Lilly, Interim Program Manager)
x203 (Lemlem Rijio, General Manager)
Please help us to make sure Women's Magazine continues to thrive on the airwaves at KPFA. We can not succeed without you.
Regards,
Lisa Dettmer, Rivian Berlin, Yvette Hochberg, Eryn Matthewson, Safi wa Nairobi, Kate Raphael, Jovelyn Richards, Preeti Managala Shekar, Meri Simon
SAMPLE LETTER- PLEASE PERSONALIZE
KPFA Program director:
I am deeply disappointed in the KPFA management team's decision to take Women's Magazine off the air for three months. Women's Magazine is the only show on the KPFA airwaves that is explicitly feminist and consistently puts women's issues in the forefront. It has been a source of support to the feminist community in the Bay Area and beyond and consistently covers issues that no other show on KPFA does. Women's Magazine has also brought in a range of women's voices that are not often heard on KPFA. It is particularly upsetting that the only specifically women's program is taken off the air just in time for Women's History Month. (please include what women's magazine has meant to you) In the past there was an entire women's department at KPFA. It seems that KPFA is now moving away from its commitment to gender and women's issues , feminism and alternative media subjects.
I ( am a member/ listener of KPFA ) and support KPFA because it is a democratic alternative to mainstream media . But your decision to eliminate the only hour of women's programming on your airwaves, a show that is produced by a multicultural, multigenerational group of volunteer programmers, calls into question your commitment to that alternative vision. ( makes me reconsider my support for KPFA )
I urge you to reconsider your decision to replace Women's Magazine and to find another slot for Letters from Washington. If that is not possible, I do trust that you will bring back Women's Magazine at the end of the 100 Days and demonstrate more support for this show .
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
The phone numbers above have voice mail so you can leave a message, and keep it clean. Here are some talking points:
--Women are the MAJORITY of the population, 51%, and therefore what affects women, affects the entire population.
--The latest presidency is no different from all the other capitalist presidents, and we all hear about it every day on the news, which we all listen to because we know we have to.
--We do not want women's life to become like that of Ethiopia, that of Ms. Rijio's home country, or like Poland and Ireland, where abortion is banned. Abortion is already illegal in this country in the last trimester, and Obama has done nothing to reverse that Supreme Court decision, although he could promote legislation to reverse it in the Democratic majority Congress.
--This women's program MUST BE RESTORED IMMEDIATELY.
Pleaes everyone get on the phone and call. At least say something simply like restore the Women's Magazine show.
--Women are the MAJORITY of the population, 51%, and therefore what affects women, affects the entire population.
--The latest presidency is no different from all the other capitalist presidents, and we all hear about it every day on the news, which we all listen to because we know we have to.
--We do not want women's life to become like that of Ethiopia, that of Ms. Rijio's home country, or like Poland and Ireland, where abortion is banned. Abortion is already illegal in this country in the last trimester, and Obama has done nothing to reverse that Supreme Court decision, although he could promote legislation to reverse it in the Democratic majority Congress.
--This women's program MUST BE RESTORED IMMEDIATELY.
Pleaes everyone get on the phone and call. At least say something simply like restore the Women's Magazine show.
There are 43 music programs on KPFA each week. There was 1 Women's program, which has been preempted for 100 days. Actions speak louder than words, so what does this say about KPFA's current Mgt.????
Richard Phelps, Former Chair of the KPFA LSB and supporter of the Women's Magazine Program.
Richard Phelps, Former Chair of the KPFA LSB and supporter of the Women's Magazine Program.
Remember the attempt to corporatize the Pacifica stations in the "90s?
How we won our stations back?
Or did we?
The management faction now in control at the station, General Manager Lemlem Rijio, her appointee, Program Director Sasha Lilley, & their supporting faction on the Local Station Board, have been running the station autocratically with no input from such democratic (or semi-democratic) bodies such as the Program Council, of which they cut down the meetings & relegated it to "advisory" status, though they are never even consulted for advice!
They are not opposed by the Local Station Board because it is run by the majority faction, the Concerned Listeners (Listeners Concerned with Any Challenge to Management or Entrenched Staff Running the Station).
Management's disregard for the vast majority of staff, the volunteer programmers, has been shown by Rijio's last minute attempt to disenfranchise many unpaid staff prior to the last election, by derecognizing their Unpaid Staff Organization.
This faction badmouths the democratic electing of the board, & the hard won bylaws which mandate this.
They have never challenged the system of block programming put in place to please the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Healthy Stations project, which ties up the airwaves from much new & local programming. Nor reinstituted the Folio, or much public affairs programming in the evenings.
This decision to preempt Women's programming, the elimination of Youth Radio & Poor
Magazine's program, the lack of a Black issues program, are obviously a part of this trend which disempowers local communities instead of serving them.
The CPB did not need its deposed Pacifica agents to do this, it is being done for them.
So yes, let's let KPFA management hear from us about this latest preemption - which could take other timeslots (music, for one).
But let's also make sure we know who to vote for in the fall LSB elections - not the Concerned Listeners, but true listener reps who will prove a counterbalance to present management's autocratic decision making.
Join the station now to be eligible to vote. And do donate - we need our station to be there for us.
How we won our stations back?
Or did we?
The management faction now in control at the station, General Manager Lemlem Rijio, her appointee, Program Director Sasha Lilley, & their supporting faction on the Local Station Board, have been running the station autocratically with no input from such democratic (or semi-democratic) bodies such as the Program Council, of which they cut down the meetings & relegated it to "advisory" status, though they are never even consulted for advice!
They are not opposed by the Local Station Board because it is run by the majority faction, the Concerned Listeners (Listeners Concerned with Any Challenge to Management or Entrenched Staff Running the Station).
Management's disregard for the vast majority of staff, the volunteer programmers, has been shown by Rijio's last minute attempt to disenfranchise many unpaid staff prior to the last election, by derecognizing their Unpaid Staff Organization.
This faction badmouths the democratic electing of the board, & the hard won bylaws which mandate this.
They have never challenged the system of block programming put in place to please the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Healthy Stations project, which ties up the airwaves from much new & local programming. Nor reinstituted the Folio, or much public affairs programming in the evenings.
This decision to preempt Women's programming, the elimination of Youth Radio & Poor
Magazine's program, the lack of a Black issues program, are obviously a part of this trend which disempowers local communities instead of serving them.
The CPB did not need its deposed Pacifica agents to do this, it is being done for them.
So yes, let's let KPFA management hear from us about this latest preemption - which could take other timeslots (music, for one).
But let's also make sure we know who to vote for in the fall LSB elections - not the Concerned Listeners, but true listener reps who will prove a counterbalance to present management's autocratic decision making.
Join the station now to be eligible to vote. And do donate - we need our station to be there for us.
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$215.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network