>From: Krpomer at aol.com
>Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 22:23:09 EDT
>To: imc-la at regenerationtv.com
>MIME-Version: 1.0
>Subject: [imc-la] Ex-KPFK'ers respond to "Letter to Amy Goodman"
>Sender: imc-la-admin at regenerationtv.com
>
>The letter below was presented to "Democracy Now!" Amy Goodman by Blase
>Bonpane of the Office of the Americas. last night in Los Angeles at a
>National Lawyers Guild dinner when Amy received an award and standing ovation
>from the Guild.
>
>Just prior to the recently concluded KPFK fund drive, a list of
>current KPFK staff sent a letter to Amy Goodman regarding her
>references to the banned and fired at WBAI. (see the bottom of the
>page)
>
>Some ex-KPFK'ers have recently sent letter to Amy in response to
>the one from the present staff.
>
>Below is a letter signed by a group of people, as well some
>individual responses.
>
>============================
>
>An open letter to Amy Goodman from KPFK's FIRED, BANNED,
>or DRIVEN OUT:
>
>Dear Amy,
>
>We have seen the recent letter sent to you by the programmers of
>KPFK, i.e., those who have benefited from the removal, firing and
>banning of, by Mark Schubb's own estimate, over 150 programmers
>and staff from KPFK since 1995.
>
>There are a few things you should be aware of when considering
>their appeal to you.
>
>First, KPFK is what you describe WBAI as, the studios of the fired
>and the banned. However, it is not the studios of its listeners.
>Over the past several years KPFK has seen it's fundraising
>revenues nearly double. But total subscribership still remains in the
>range of 14,000 subscribers, well below its peak of approximately
>16,000 in the eighties, when KPFK made a genuine effort to be a
>voice of diverse communities. But money is what matters now. It
>is the main measure of success.
>
>This increase in funding has coincided with:
>* Elimination of the station folio
>* The decimation of the community calendar (from twice daily to
>once weekly now)
> * The destruction of the internship program * The loss of a
>functioning local news department, with local news replaced by a
>third daily airing of the ever more tepid Pacifica Network News
> * The removal of all programmers of color from drive-time public
>affairs programming, and the reduction of all local public affairs
>programming by people of color to fewer than four hours a week
>total, in a city in which a majority of people are people of color
>
>In addition, the station no longer has a program director, a news
>director, a development director, or an on-site engineer.
>
>Where is all the money going?
>
>Current programmers have been silent about purges that have
>taken place at KPFK since the mid-nineties -- purges of Native-
>Americans, African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans and
>white programmers who didn't appeal to their desired target market.
>They do not like your raising the specter of those purges to their
>target market. They comfort themselves with the illusion that they
>are somehow more professional in their conduct than those who
>were displaced to make room for them, and they want the money
>to keep flowing in, even though with every additional dollar that
>comes in the community seems to get less and less service, and
>the audience becomes more and more a commodity.
>
>Now the public affairs programmers during "peak drive times" -- are
>all white with one exception: Earl Ofari Hutchinson, who stepped
>happily into the 7 PM Tuesday spot vacated when Ron Wilkins was
>banned for attempting to notify the listeners of the purging of
>African-American and Latino programmers at Pacifica in 1996.
>
>Nearly all the 'diversity' of KPFK's broadcasters comes through
>music programming. But more importantly, the range of political
>perspective represented by the public affairs programmers signing
>this letter is so narrow that only they themselves are likely to
>imagine it represents a broad swath of political thought. And of
>course, there are no signatures from news broadcasters at KPFK
>because there is essentially no functioning local news department
>at KPFK.
>
>So yes, they are disturbed that your message to the listeners
>about what is being done with their money may be heard. They
>don't want the listeners to ask questions about what is being done
>to community radio. They want the listeners to buy the product.
>The money tells these programmers they are right, and you telling
>the truth threatens that money.
>
>We - those programmers and staffers fired, banned, removed, or
>driven out of KPFK - thank you for your courage, and urge you to
>stand by your principles and speak the truth without fear.
>
> In solidarity,
>
>Blase Bonpane, Ph.D.,
>Former Senior KPFK Programmer
>Focus on the Americas
>1969-1995
>Fired for no reason 1995.
>(Message of termination received on his answering machine).
>Resurrected by News Director, Frank Stoltz to be News
>Commentator. 1996-1998. Went on strike after constant
>annoyance by management -1998.
>
>Ken 'Dedon" Carr
>1983-1994 programmer and executive producer, "Freedom Now".
>Held positions as chair and vice-chair to the Local Advisory Board
>and served on the National Board. Purged so Pacifica could make
>way for the more affluent westside European-American listener at
>the expense of the Africian Self Determination Community
>
>Wanda Coleman and Austin Straus
>Poetry Connexxion 1982 on the air 15-16 years
>
>Bill Davila Approx 15 years from 1981 - 1996 at KPFK, "Journey
>Through the Realms of Music" Fired by the General Manager for
>being a white-male producer - who was brought back on-air by the
>support of listeners and staff who circulated a petition and wrote
>letters.
>
>Bill Gallegos
>Volunteer programmer approx. 8 years, " Read All About It"
>At the time the only early morning Chicano programmer.
>His program was put on "hold" without discussion or notice.
>
>Lyn Gerry
>Former production engineer, union steward
>and independent producer from 1988 -
>Sept 1995 (fired and banned)
>
>Lee Siu Hin
>Former KPFK Los Angeles, WBAI New York Reporter/Programmer
>1992-1999
>Walked away from KPFK in solidarity with John Martinez in
>October, 1999
>
>Vince Ivory
>Tuesday Community Calendar'
>14 year volunteer purged for exercising free speech outside KPFK
>December, 1999
>
>Miya Iwataki
>"East Wind"
>13 year volunteer
>KPFK Producer/Programmer/Staff
>Purged for, among other reasons, not confining program to Asians-
>only (Management insisted on sitting in studio for my last program
>so I wouldn't blast KPFK)
>
>Roz & Howard Larman
>Folkscene
>After almost 31 years at KPFK, we were
>cancelled for only the greed of Mark Schubb.
>If there was a format change, we
>could live with the cancellation.
>
>
>Arturo Lemus
>Volunteer programer for the Colectivo Latinoamericano from
>1981 to 1985 and a coordinator for a program called "Flor Y Canto".
>The Colectivo Latinoamericano spanish programming was
>dismantled by the then KPFK station manager, Susan Anderson,
>in 1985
>
>John Martinez
>'Radio Chicana'
>7 Year Volunteer KPFK Producer/Programmer/Staff
>Purged for Airing a Half-Hour Documentary on the Pacifica Crisis
>October
>1999
>
>Loraine Mirza
>Islamic Perspectives
>and newsroom reporter for KPFK for 5 years
>January 1995
>
>Oly Mogollan
>Long Time Volunteer
>1986 - 1994 "Producciones Pajaro Latino"
>1994 -1999 "Enfoque Latino"
>Cut in the middle of on air interview and censored for political
>content
>
>
>Shel Plotkin
>Southern California Federation of Science
>15 years at KPFK, "The Wizard Show"
>Was given a time-slot they could not accept - 8am Sunday
>morning. This was a science show and they gave him the gospel
>hour.
>
>Raymundo Reynoso
>Alternative Media Agency Trade Editions (AMATE)
>and a former producer at KPFK
>
>Robin Urevich
>KPFK News volunteer between 1992 and 1999
>and, a contributor to Pacifica Network News from 1993 til 1999.
>barred from the station after publishing an article critical of KPFK
>and Pacifica. The offending article was published in the "Random
>Lengths"
>
>Fernando Velasquez
>20 years KPFK
>Programmer/Producer
>Spanish-English News/Public Affairs
>Purged in 1999 after participating in a protest in front of KPFK in
>solidarity with the KPFA Free Pacifica Community".
>
>Ron Wilkins
>Continent to Continent: An African-Issues Magazine
>1983- February 26, 1996
>Banned for Speaking on Air about African-Americans
>and Latinos being purged from the Station
>
>In memory of MIchael Taylor From hIs frIends
>News Room Intern
>FIred 1995
>
>========================
>Individual Letter from Al Huebnerm former host of "The Health
>Department"
>
>An Open Letter to Amy Goodman.
>
>Dear Amy,
>
>You are to be congratulated for the excellent job you do on
>Democracy Now!, a program that is must-listening for me. I'm
>aware that you are working under difficult conditions, to say the
>least. I hope my words will assure you that your efforts are deeply
>appreciated.
>
>I saw a copy of the letter that some current KPFK broadcasters
>sent you before the recent fundraising. It was nauseatingly
>sanctimonious, self-serving, and worst of all, lacking in concern for
>a comrade under attack.
>
>Let me describe my background at KPFK. In 1995, after more than
>21 years of doing a program on the politics of science and health,
>my program was terminated. I had closed my one-hour broadcast
>with a four-minute commentary on the sudden disappearance of the
>Station Manager and the Program Director. The LA Times reported
>in a brief, easily missed piece that they had been fired, the acting
>Station Manager wrote in the program guide's "report to the
>listener" that they had resigned. Workers at the most anti-labor
>corporation are treated no worse. In my commentary I went on to
>deplore the fact that it was chiefly, but not exclusively, the listener-
>sponsors who were deceived by the new management.
>Remarkably, management didn't seem to see any contradiction
>between this deplorable behavior and the concepts of free speech
>and progressive politics that the station purports to serve.
>
>As for the other Pacifica stations, I would have no idea of what's
>going on at KPFA and WBAI except for reports and commentary in
>The Nation, Extra!, Toward Freedom, Censored Alert (Project
>Censored), and The Humanist, two of which I write for. Even your
>remarks about the banned and the fired, and comments by Michael
>Moore and a few other guests, would remain obscure to me had I
>not read material from non-Pacifica sources -- that apparently
>means sources that can't be censored by Pacifica.
>
>I admire your courage and I hope you win both your near-term and
>long-term struggles.
>
>Best,
>
>Al Huebner
>
>====================
>
>Below is the letter that the responses above are in answer to:
>
>5/15/01
>To: Amy Goodman
>From: The On-Air Programmers of KPFK
>Re: Up-Coming Summer Fund Drive
>
>Dear Amy,
>
>We're writing to ask for your full, unequivocal support during our up-
>coming fund drive. We are concerned that the past four months you
>have signed off your show, "Democracy Now," by declaring that
>your broadcast had come "from the embattled studios of WBAI --
>the studios of the banned and the fired."
>
>We are convinced that for you to continue signing off in this manner
>during our up-coming fund drive, would not only be antithetical to
>our money raising efforts, but put you squarely in the camp of
>those seeking to sabotage those efforts. We ask therefore, that
>you stop discussing Pacifica' problems on-air, and do nothing
>detrimental to our fund drive.
>
>As a Pacifica veteran, you know that this rule has existed for
>decades -- and for good reason. Our listeners support us because
>we are a bastion of truth and alternative politics and culture, one of
>the few left in a broadcast medium in which almost else operates
>under the thumb of a homogenized, monopolistic corporate media.
>In this age of George W. Bush, we are, as you yourself regularly
>put it, the one "exception to the rulers."
>
>As you are also aware, only the dollars of our listener-sponsors,
>the hard work of our tiny, low-paid staff and the goodwill of our
>hundreds of unpaid volunteers, enables KPFK -- and we, its
>programmers -- to remain on the air. Unlike yourself, many of us
>are also unpaid; and devote uncountable hours to KPFK because
>we passionately believe in Lou Hill's anti-war vision of social-
>justice, and of a radio station answerable to no one other than its
>own listener-sponsors.
>
>As we're sure you're also aware, your one-hour show, "Democracy
>Now," airs twice daily in and around prime drive-time on our station,
>and a substantial amount of the money we raise at KPFK goes to
>support your show and pay your salary.
>
>That is one big reason why we're convinced it would be exceedingly
>harmful for you to do anything less next week than give our fund-
>drive your whole-hearted support on-air, and to mention supporting
>KPFK by name as our fund-drive unfolds. A full commitment is
>needed from all of us, of course, because of our proud refusal to
>accept any corporate underwriting; and -- with the exception of a
>small grant from the federally funded CPB -- to exist solely on the
>funds we receive directly from our listeners.
>
>But there's another reason we expect your full cooperation. For the
>past several years now, a small group of dissident picketers have
>appeared outside our studio on the first day of our fund drive;
>determined to undo our hard work, and our struggle to make KPFK
>a relevant force in Southern California. This time, however, this
>group is also calling for our listeners to engage in an economic
>boycott of our station.
>
>In a letter dated just four days ago, for example, your former
>colleague, Juan Gonzalez, sent a letter to many of us literally
>urging that we sabotage KPFK's summer fund drive. "Do not work
>overtime to find attractive premiums," wrote Gonzalez, "shave off
>minutes from your actual time pitching funds[and] privately
>encourage listeners who are friends of yours to withhold their
>contributions."
>
>Such calls are new, but not the rumors, lies and distortions that
>have already been denounced in a letter signed by 90% of KPFK's
>staff about 18 months ago. The biggest of those lies is that we --
>the station's programmers -- are being censored by the
>management of KPFK.
>
>Although you occupy 10 hours a week on our airways, you're 3,000
>miles away in New York, and therefore have no direct knowledge of
>what takes place at KPFK. So we'd like to take this opportunity to
>set the record straight and ease any doubts you might have on this
>issue. Other than the very few occasions of out-right, on-air, racism
>and anti-Semitism, and violations of the dirty laundry rule,
>management has never once interfered with the content of our
>shows. Nor would we tolerate such interference.
>
>Those of us at KPFK fortunate enough to speak for millions of
>voiceless people living here in Southern California take our
>responsibility very seriously. We feel that to let internecine politics
>and power plays interfere with our mission at a time when all that
>Pacifica stands for is under great threat, is myopic and
>irresponsible.
>
>
>That is why we are taking our up-coming fund drive so seriously,
>and are urging you to do the same.
>
>
>Sincerely, *
>
>Joe Domanick -- "Beneath the Surface"
>
>Beto Arcos -- "Global Village"
>
>Jon Wiener -- "Beneath the Surface"
>
>Robert Mora -- "The Root"
>
>Yatrika Shah-Rais
>
>Marc Cooper -- "The Marc Cooper Show"
>
>Sergio Mielniczenko -- "Global Village"
>
> Susan Weissman, Beneath the Surface
>
>John Retsk, "Car Show"
>
>Jay Kagelman -- "Sound Exchange
>
>Art Gould -- "Car Show"
>
>Barbara Osborn -- "Deadline LA"
>
>John Beaupre -- "Up for Air"
>
>Barry Smolin -- "The Music Never Stops"
>
>Hector Resendez -- "Canto Tropical"
>
>Earl Ofari Hutchinson -- "Tuesday Live"
>
>Simeon Pillich -- "Global Village"
>
--
Marta Russell
author, Los Angeles, CA
http://disweb.org/
Beyond Ramps: Disability at the End of the Social Contract
http://www.commoncouragepress.com/russell_ramps.html