> I agree. I think one of the main problems facing Pacifica is the bloated
> staff rolls at KPFA and WBAI especially which lead to the constant need
> for fund drives. WPFW and KPFT run mostly on volunteer staff. If there
> are enough progressives in Houston willing to to radio for free, I think
> New York (and Berkeley for that matter) should at least be able to match
> that.
There are plenty of talented progressive media people out there who could provide good programming at little or no cost. I've never been involved with any radio station, but I suspect that most of these stations can find people chomping at the bit to do programming.
Another plus of going with more volunteers is that you break up the hegemony of the existing staff. I'm sure we can all name programs on our local stations which suck ass, but are left running because some bigshot is squatting the airwaves with his/her show. I can think of one show on WPFW that immediately followed Democracy Now--it is/was utter crap featuring some dingbat pontificating for hours about his pet theories.
Fortunately, here in Kansas City, we have KKFI, whose programming knocks the socks off the stuff I heard on WPFW a couple of years ago.
Chuck