We, the undersigned, strongly oppose the new programming schedule (”grid”) adopted by management without listener input. We urge that it be swiftly replaced by a grid adopted after broad consultation with listeners about how air-time on KPFK can best be used to fulfill the Pacifica mission and meet the communities’ needs.

The new grid reflects an ongoing effort to sanitize the airwaves, silence voices of dissent outside the Democratic Party, and marginalize or eliminate grassroots community voices. It could only be imposed in the undemocratic way that it was, without engaging listeners, staff and stakeholders in an informed discussion about the station’s future.

The grid is expressly based on financial considerations and driven by Arbitron ratings, even though Arbitron is widely understood to misrepresent audiences, especially by under-counting young people and poor people, particularly people of color. The grid favors so-called “strip programming,” in which a single gate-keeping host controls a block of air-time throughout the week.

To carve out that time, management has dropped shows and cut others to 30 minutes, rescheduling them and others at hours unfamiliar to their audiences, and when talk-radio audiences are small. Intentional or not, the effect of this kind of rescheduling will reduce the listeners of these shows, increasing the likelihood of their ultimate elimination. These changes in programming correspond to other undemocratic changes in management and governance, including illegal “suspensions” of elected board members and efforts to pre-ordain the outcome of searches for new management.

These changes cannot be allowed to stand, because they will doom KPFK to irrelevance at best, exactly at the moment when economic, political, social and environmental crises cry out for a medium of communication open to the struggles and resistance of popular movements. The forces seeking to neuter KPFK as a voice of community activism, cultural and ethnic diversity, and incisive dissent have already driven away more than 10,000 listeners in the past 4 years. The new grid and other purges could destroy the station entirely.

We invite all those who share these concerns to come to a planning meeting on Sunday, November 8th to develop a grassroots community campaign to stop the sell-out and build a Pacifica-mission-compliant, community-based programming grid: 5-7pm, Echo Park United Methodist Church, 1226 N. Alvarado.

Please sign and circulate this petition and send in signatures to: grassrootskpfk@yahoo.com. Please sign the iPetition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/KPFK_Programming_Changes, forward this email to other supporters of Pacifica’s original Mission, and print out hard copies of the attached Petition to collect further signatures.  Thanks for supporting more diverse, grassroots, community radio!

Carta Abierta a la Gerencia y Mesa Directiva de la radio KPFK sobre su nueva programacion

Nosotros los firmantes de este documento nos oponemos categoricamente a la nueva programacion adoptada por la gerencia sin consultar a los radio oyentes. Y pedimos que sea reemplazada de inmediato por una derivada de una consulta con la radio audiencia sobre la mejor forma de usar las ondas herzianas para cumplir con la Mision de Pacifica y satisfacer las necesidades de la comunidad.

La nueva programacion refleja un esfuerzo por esterilizar las ondas radio electricas, silenciar las voces disidentes fuera del partido Democrata, y marginalizar o eliminar las voces de las comunidades de base. Esa programacion solo pudo imponerse en la forma anti democratica que se hizo, excluyendo de la discusion sobre el futuro de la emisora, a los radio oyentes-patrocinadores y a los empleados.

La nueva programacion esta basada estrictamente en el aspecto financiero y los resultados de encuestas de “Arbitron,” entidad que es bien sabido, deja fuera de sus analisis a segmentos de la poblacion especialmente los jovenes, los pobres y la gente de color. La nueva formula favorece la llamada “programacion de franjas” en la cual una sola persona controla un bloque de tiempo en el aire durante la semana. Para diseniar la nueva configuracion, la gerencia ha eliminado algunos programas y reducido otros por mitad, cambiandoles el horario de transmision a tiempos que su audiencia regular ignora, o a horas en que hay poca audiencia. Intencional o no, los cambios reduciran el numero de oyentes de esos programas, haciendolos vulnerables a su posterior eliminacion. Esos cambios anti democraticos en la programacion son similares a otros como “la suspension” de miembros electos de la Mesa Directiva y acciones tomadas con el fin de predeterminar la conclusion de la contratacion de miembros de la gerencia.

No se puede permitir que esos cambios se hagan permanentes pues eso condenaria a KPFK en el mejor de los casos, a convertirse en una emisora irelevante, en momentos en que la crisis economica, politica, social y ambiental, piden a gritos un medio de comunicacion abierto a las luchas de resistencia de los movimientos sociales. Las fuerzas que tratan de prevenir que la radio KPFK sea la voz del activismo comuntario, cultural, diversidad etnica y disencion aguda, ya han alejado mas de 10,000 radio oyentes en los ultimos cuatro anios. La nueva programacion podria destruir la radio completamente.

Favor de firmar y circular esta peticion y enviar las firmas a la siguiente direccion: grassrootskpfk@yahoo.com. Gracias. Las personas que quieran firmar y escribir un comentario pueden hacerlo en el siguiente lugar: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/KPFK_Programming_Changes.

Signed,

Tue, 22 Sep 2009

The war of words in the Local Station Board (LSB) elections for KPFK and other Pacifica radio stations is heating up. An open letter from Jim Lafferty, host of The Lawyers Guild (as well as a staffer at the National Lawyers Guild chapter in L. A. and a former interim station manager at KPFK) and a vicious counter-attack from Ian Masters, host of a double-serving of “insider analysis” by intelligence community honchos and academics, Background Briefing and Live from the Left Coast, are the latest salvos in a struggle over the direction of the station and the network that are some of the most valuable assets of the so-called left or progressive movement. As in any election, there is no possibility of bridging the gap — decisive and exclusionary choices must be made by everyone, no matter how much we may hate the in-fighting, name-calling, and finger-pointing that passes for debate when the left forms up its circular firing squad.

And in fact, in this election, the choice is clear. One side, the side of current LSB member and acting Executive Director of Pacifica Grace Aaron, of her husband Ken, a candidate for LSB, of Ian Masters and other staffers and hosts, is committed to purges, bannings and to ‘rule or ruin’ Pacifica as an adjunct of the Democratic Party under the mantle of ‘fiscal responsibility’. The other side, supporting a platform of a few key principles including loyalty to the Pacifica mission, has backed a list of grassroots activists from various communities around the KPFK listening area who have signed on to the following points of unity:

• Implementing the core values of the Pacifica Mission: voices by and for people not commonly heard in the mainstream media
• Greater autonomy and local decision-making for our radio station
• Fiscal transparency and responsibility: people, not corporate underwriters, supporting people’s radio
• Local, diverse, multilingual, and young voices from and for our communities
• Spanish language programming to bring progressive messages to Spanish language communities
• Effective, participatory governance that is accountable to listener-sponsors and responsive to the diverse needs and interests of the Southern California listening community Read more…

Hello, I’m Kahllid Al-Alim Parent member of CEJ-Coalition for Educational Justice and Chairperson of the Stakeholders Action Committee for the Park Mesa Heights Community Council asking for your support and vote in the 2009 KPFK Local Station Board Election.

I play a very active organizing role in Public Education reform and Community Development. I’m currently an LSB member due to a vacated seat and I wish to continue for a full term. Read more…