Open Letter to Adrienne Lauby: You were one of the early organizers behind the creation of the Morning Mix shows at 8:00 AM three and half years ago on KPFA. I thank you, Tracy Rosenberg, and Arlene Engelhardt for having the vision to make that effort in support of local community volunteer programming. I agree with this statement you have recently posted. KPFA obviously needs engineering and accounting staff, a General Manager, Program Director, Music Director, Volunteer Coordinator, and Webmaster, and a Promotions Director to connect with the community. It probably also needs at least one, perhaps two, paid News Anchors, because producing a newscast is a labor intensive, all day affair, especially if its done well. Maybe a paid daily investigative reporting hour, or, maybe an investigative reporting hour instead of a newscast, because as it is now, KPFA News headlines dont vary much from those one might hear or read elsewhere. Other music and public affairs programming could be done by unpaid staff, if KPFA were simply more open to the Bay Areas rich community of engaged political intellectuals, writers, activists, artists, experienced community radio broadcasters, and others willing to undertake training. Many of the stations paid staff do more harm than good by interviewing any and every person of status who shoots a book and/or press release through the mail, and then has a publicist follow up with a call. Unless of course there is something more sinister going on, which we have no evidence of. Many on-air guests who thus present themselves to KPFA and other public affairs programmers throughout the network are in fact Pentagon propagandists who should not be on any Pacifica airwaves. I would add that Pacifica news programs primarily need to reflect independent news sources and news analysis instead of depending on Associated Press and other main stream (State Department) news suppliers. The news on Pacifica should be exposing the propaganda reports from the US-NATO Empire and providing other points of view. Pacifica news should include deep investigative reports from a variety of sources worldwide. Obviously this cannot happen over night at Pacifica, but I think we need think about about what kind of radio network we want Pacifica to be. It is clear that elements within the network are seeking to develop national daily shows on par with NPR and Democracy Now! as the primary programming in Pacifica. We cannot allow that to happen at the expense of local, community volunteer programming. We need a policy that insures Pacifica remains listener supported and mostly volunteer produced, combined with a policy that reduces paid staff in the network (primarily by attrition). Paid professional staff inside Pacifica should mostly be employed to provide logistical support and training to volunteer programers nationwide. As stated above we do need reporters/journalists to anchor news programs and investigative reports, but we cannot continue to supported an expansive paid staff without big donor assistance or the selling off of Pacifica assets. We clearly are at a cross-roads in Pacifica. Do we want a grassroots diverse community based network of volunteer programs that are not subject to government, corporate or foundation funding pressures, or do we want professionalized national daily programs, essentially unconnected to local community issues, and increasingly dependent on big donors to maintain staffs of dozens or even hundreds of people? The choice is clear, we must encouraged Pacifica supporters at all the stations to support representatives to local station boards who will keep Pacifica open, diverse, volunteer oriented and listener funded. Peter Phillips Support diversity and local community labor programming. Return the Morning Mix to Prime time at KPFA.
Posted on: Sun, 22 Jun 2014 00:26:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015