By Richard Phelps
Wednesday January 21, 2009
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 during a fund drive
I happen to agree with the above 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 lListener administration, it
is only sales talk. As I pointed out in previous commentaries in the
Berkeley Daily Planet, 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.
In (this) online version of this commentary 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, “The
Great and Mighty Walk was not available anywhere else.” I easily
found it on the web and purchased a copy for a third 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 Monday through Thursday at 8 p.m. 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 www.kpfa.org/contactus.
44 KPFA PREMIUMS: 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 the programs listed in the online version
of this commentary has been completely played and the program promoted
on the air for all to hear. They have all been sold. It is only a partial
list. How many of these would you have liked to hear? Do you feel cheated?
Does this build a loyal audience? The years 2003 to 2008 saw a 50 percent
increase in paid staff and 5,000 lost subscribers.
Richard Phelps is a former chair of the KPFA LSB, 34-year listener-subscriber,
and a former AM and FM radio announcer.
For more on this subject, see the commentary
"KPFA:- The Alternative Home Shopping Network?" also by Richard
Phelps, Thursday May 22, 2008 in the Berkeley Daily Planet
http://www.berkeleydaily.org/issue/2008-05-22/article/30068?headline=KPFA-The-Alternative-Home-Shopping-Network-
