TakeBackKPFK Community Radio

The following emails, which appeared on the New Pacifica Yahoo group, say much about their author, KPFK listener candidate Christopher Bayard Condon. They’re posted here in the interest of informing and educating the electorate.  Condon is responding to a blog by Doug Henwood, host of “Behind the News” at KPFA in Berkeley. Condon, who answers to “Chris” and often signs himself as “Bayard,” is not running with a slate, but as of this writing, he remains a committee member of one of them, the Committee To Strengthen KPFK. We’ve highlighted those ideas that we find troubling, but we ask that you judge for yourself.

Photo by NoHoDamon.

Subject: [Fwd: Doug Henwood: the state of WBAI]
Posted by: “bayardcondon” lacitizensgrandjury@earthlink.net bayardcondon
Date: Wed Aug 11, 2010 9:49 am ((PDT))

Gentle Pacificans,

There are two types of people in the world; those who take responsibility and those who blame others. Now I have been a fan of Doug Henwood’s since I lived in NYC and listened to the then much better WBAI, so this is not a personal attack although I can predict that he will take it as such and respond with a personal attack. He knows a great deal about the economy and wall street, pre-911, but he knows nothing about the 911 attack, planning, execution, and cover-up; and knows even less about natural medicine.

Part of the reason he knows nothing about these things is that he, and for that matter the entire left gatekeeper leadership, Jews and Gentiles alike, have swallowed from the beginning the pre-scripted propaganda fabrication of the fictitious al-quaida and Osama bin forgotten conspiracy theory – advanced by the most powerful propaganda apparatus in world history. Not only that, but he cannot even see this apparatus and grip on the intellectual jugular of the left for having become part of it, any more than fish can see the water they swim in.

Now they can’t, aren’t big enough, to acknowlege being wrong from the beginning, played a role themselves in advancing the propaganda fabrication, and failed to educate themselves in the now conclusive body of evidence that points to, well, other parties as the perps of the 911 attack summed up in the assertion that “911 was an inside job.”

Flowing from this intellectual collapse is a failure to understand all its consequences; the purpose and meaning of Guantanamo, the preplanned attack on Afganistan, the pre-scripted Patriot Act, the plan for permanent occupation and control of central Asia, the control of the global drug trade, and, dear Doug Henwood, the control of the global financial system. In short, a failure to understand anything else and a retreat into the comfort of the collective delusional hallucination into which our media has invited us to live, permanently, for the rest of our lives. No thank you.

All this, and much more, was the objective of coup d’etat which we suffered on September 11, 2001. We, and our stepinfetchit President, are now governed by those who planned, executed, and covered-up the greatest crime in American History. Henwood, most of the so called Pacifica public affairs programmers, most specifically including Amy Goodman, cannot, will not, wrap their tender little brains around the magnitude of their intellectual failure. Nor do they have the capacity to look directly into the heart of darkness, describe what they see, and give challenge to absolute evil.

Thats why we can’t attract and keep listeners, because we are politically, intellectually, and morally irrelevant. Read more…

Sherna includes part of an explosive email by Brian Edwards-Tiekert at the end of this article.  -ed.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Six years ago, preparing for the very first KPFK Local Station Board elections, Ed Pearl, Don White, Jack Van Aken, Arturo Lemus, Alan Minsky, and I joined together with others to form (the now defunct) PIRCR (Progressive Independents for Responsible Community Radio). We engaged actively in that election and won the majority of seats. Today, Don White is deceased; Arturo Lemus has dropped out (and is in Ventura County); and Alan Minsky and Jack Van Aken are silent on the current LSB elections.

Ed Pearl, on the other hand, is not silent. Unfortunately he is misinformed and completely out of touch with what has really been happening. Relying on others, especially Carole Spooner, he has promoted voting for all fourteen candidates featured on the expensive, slick flier that CTSK (Committee to Strengthen KPFK) sent to all listener subscribers. CTSK was founded by interim Executive Director Grace Aaron, and its slate endorses her husband, Ken Aaron.

Because I believe in due process for both paid and unpaid staff and open hiring practices, and because I believe that respect for the listeners means good programming and not filling our airwaves with “mumbo jumbo” and pseudo-science, and because I believe in remaining true to the radical vision in the Pacifica Mission, I have joined along with other radical programmers and grassroots activists and groups in endorsing the PRINCIPLES of the Ad Hoc Committee for KPFK Community Radio.

Above all, because I am quite aware of how the current Grace Aaron led Pacifica Administration has misrepresented both the current problems and her allegedly successful remedies, I have not been silent.

If you want to understand more, I urge you to read the following response to Carole Spooner by Brian Edwards-Tiekert, KPFA LSB Treasurer and one of the best number crunchers in Pacifica. It is the best response to Ed Pearl’s uncritical embrace of CTSK- see especially, the last section, “Performance.” It might just open your eyes!

Sherna Gluck,
(Unpaid) Staff Representative, KPFK Local Station Board, former member of WLA Free Pacifica Neighborhood Network Read more…

September 16, 2009

Dear Friends and Listeners of KPFK:

I believe that KPFK is in real danger of losing its political soul. My fear is that the current national leadership, perhaps out of a sincere desire to solve Pacifica’s very real financial problems, is prepared to turn the station, programmatically, into another KCRW. Now, KCRW is a perfectly fine public radio station. But it is not KPFK. L.A. does not need another KCRW, but it surely needs at least one KPFK! KPFK must continue to bring the “voice of the voiceless” to our airwaves. It must continue to host shows with a decidedly left, anti-establishment, anti-government, anti-racist, anti-sexist, etc., view point. It must use its ability to reach out to all the diverse populations in L.A. by broadcasting from the union halls and churches and meeting rooms of the rainbow of working class neighborhoods in and around L.A. so that their voices are heard and so that the progressive causes that concern them are known and advanced.

Another basis for my fear is that while it was a fight from the very beginning to get some Spanish language programming on the air at KPFK, it now appears that we are retreating on our committment to Spanish language programming at a time when we ought to be increasing its time on our station. After all, Spanish speakers represent the majority population in Los Angeles. Other Spanish language stations do not air the sort of left political programming that KPFK does. KPFK should be making a special effort to recruit the best new on-air Spanish language hosts it can find; work to improve the skills of current Spanish language programmers (just as it should be working to imrove the on-air skills of every non-Spanish language programmer at the station, myself included!); and, make every effort to employ more people of color, in general, at the station. Read more…

Fernando Velasquez, former KPFK News Director, produces “Informativo Pacifica,” a Spanish-language morning news program, and broadcast from it three Pacifica stations and across four countries.  The budget axe of November 2008 swung at KPFK’s news department, and Fernando was jobless, but he continues to produce “Informativo” as a volunteer.

The New York station’s WBAI Unpaid Staff Organizing Committee is under ferocious attack from the new interim WBAI General Manager, LaVarn Williams, who was installed after Pacifica Executive Director Grace Aaron removed the management from that station.   On July 15, the USOC wrote a letter to performers at a WBAI fundraiser, mentioning, “In Berkeley, after a baseless, public smear campaign, Chief Financial Officer Lonnie Hicks was fired. In Los Angeles, KPFK Program Director Armando Gudiño has been fired, as have News Director (and “Informativo Pacifica” producer) Fernando Velasquez, and programmer Jerry Quickley. In Washington, D.C., General Manager Ron Pinchback was fired and humiliatingly escorted from the premises.”

In response, Williams inflamed the situation when she asked the Pacifica National Board and others for help, “in countering this contra appeal to the Staff at WBAI that encourage Staff insubordination with an intent to also deleteriously impact Staff morale.”

Velasquez was the only one of the four mentioned by the Unpaid Staff Union still affiliated with Pacifica.  Six days later, “Informativo Pacifica” disappeared from its daily slot at Houston station KPFT, and the time slot remained empty of regular programming until August 19, when the decidedly English BBC World News took over the time slot.

On July 23, Velasquez spoke at an event with Tim Wise in New York City criticizing the racism in progressive media and at WBAI.  At WBAI, the show disappeared from live broadcast for several weeks, although it still appeared in the station archives, until local pressure by Take Back WBAI forced its return.

On August 27, Velasquez was informed by KPFK’s interim Program Director Alan Minsky that “Informativo Pacifica” would be reduced to a 4-day broadcast and moved to 9:00 p.m. from its 5:00 a.m. timeslot to make more time for Roy Tuckman’s “Something’s Happening.”  The new time meant that “Informativo Pacifica” would be “yesterday’s news fresh to you today” for it’s international affiliates morning news shows.

Tuckman regularly broadcasts Gary Null, who promotes his Natural Living methods and, by extension, his Natural Living products. Speculation is that Null will fill Tuckman’s new half hour, perhaps, ironically, with more of his rants against unintellectual, demented Latino Program Directors and screams that ethnic- and race-identified programs are, “Wrong, wrong, wrong!”

The Pacifica National Board established “Informativo Pacifica” in January 2005 at the urging of its Committees of Inclusion and listeners from across the network.  Motions to fund the program were never implemented, but, nevertheless, the program’s staff made the transition from the bilingual “Pueblos sin Fronteras” to the Spanish-language “Informativo” and continue to arrive at the station at 3:00 a.m. to prepare for the early morning broadcast.

Norma Martinez, host of KPFK’s bilingual program now broadcast in four countries, sent us the following letter.  Her Spanish version follows the English.

Los Angeles, California
28 de agosto del 2009.

Dear compañeros and listeners,

With sorrow and disbelief I want to inform you that last Thursday interim Program Director Alan Minsky notified us that starting September 15, the national and international Spanish newscast Informativo Pacifica broadcast Monday through Friday at 5:30 am will be re-scheduled to 9 pm Monday through Thursday.

The reason Mr. Minsky gave us is that he is restoring the half hour to Roy Tuckman’s show “Something’s Happening,” currently broadcast Tuesday through Friday, from midnight to 5:30 am.

As you may recall, some 6 years ago, half an hour of Mr. Tuckman’s 6-hour slot was assigned to a bilingual show called Pueblos sin Fronteras, which later turned into the Spanish newscast Informativo Pacifica.

For people not familiar with KPFK’s programming let me explaining to you that for the last 32 years Mr. Tuckman produced “Something’s Happening” broadcast Tuesday though Friday from midnight to 5:30 am. And also on Sunday he produces the Alan Watts show from 8 to 9 am.

So, he is actually in charge of producing 23 hours a week at KPFK. And now Mr. Minsky is planning to give him back 2+ hours and at the same time cutting Informativo on Fridays.

I salute Roy Tuckman’s hard work and commitment to the station, but I think to give a person 25 hours of programming would be very hard to justify in the corporate media.  How can community radio Pacifica explain this? We know he had built, in 3 decades, a very loyal audience, but we also want to bring to the station other communities living in los Angeles, neglected by the private, corporate media.

Let me explain to you how the changes at the time slot and the cut of half an hour for Informativo will be very harmful for our program.

We produce Informativo Pacifica on a daily basis as volunteers working during the night to broadcast at 5:30 am at KPFK.

At the same hour in Mexico (7:30 am there), Radio Bemba picks up the internet signal to broadcast Informativo in Hermosillo City in the state of Sonora.

Also at least a dozen community radios in the US, Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico broadcast Informativo Pacifica, which we put together every morning with the most relevant news of the previous day.

Our newscast covers stories from the US and Latin America, as well as other regions of the world with special emphasis on the people’s struggles and the social and political challenges in the global south. Also we cover issues related to war and peace, discrimination and persecution against the migrant community.

With the cancellation of Informativo on Fridays and a new slot four nights a week, our collaborative effort with other community radio stations will be severely damaged.

Not only that, but we don’t even receive much publicity during the day on KPFK, like the entire Spanish language programming block. Nevertheless, we are building  an early morning listenership, consisting mostly of Latino workers preparing for work or on their way to work, as some people have let us know. Those listeners will be irremediably lost.

For those not familiar with Informativo Pacifica, please don’t hesitate to listen Monday though Friday at 5:30 am or on the KPFK audio archives

We will keep you posted on the future developments for our show.

Gracias.

Norma Mtz.
Informativo Pacifica
5:30 am Monday though Friday

KPFK Radio Pacifica
90.7 FM Los Angeles
98.7 FM Santa Barbara
www.kpfk.org

Email: pwithoutborders@yahoo.com Read more…

Greetings!

I am sista Tej Grewall. I am of Indian descent, born and raised in Southern California, and have also resided for some time in India and Jamaica. I grew up watching tourists from all over the world at my parents’ retail stores in Newport Beach.

The Arts, Culture, Multi-Cultural, Globalism, Music, Color and Numbers are bell-ringing terms for me.

I earned my degrees from UCSB in both Art Studio and Global / International Studies (Emphasis in the Cultural Ideologies of South / East Asia).

I honor the Pacifica Mission Statement, will continue to excercise it and maintain its practice as a volunteer, ANY DAY. I read it the first day I came for the recent June Fund Drive, and believe that is what truly magnetized me to KPFK.

I am running for the election to become a member of the Local Station Board in order to be a voice and liason between especially the youth and the outreach programs being proposed, here at KPFK. Read more…