[lbo-talk] KPFA (was MALIK RAHIM: Yesterday's Radicals Devolve....)

[Joseph Wanzala]

To the extent that you are describing the experience at WBAI, I agree that 
the democratic process there has been a very unhappy one. At KPFA (and even 
KPFK and KPFT) I think I can say that it has been a more encouraging story 
overall. I don't share your characterization of people as 'loons' however.

I disagree that the threshold number of votes for a board seat somehow 
signifies that the process is unfair or undemocratic. All it shows is that 
more people need to get involved and reminds us that this is a very new 
process - should we scrap democracy in the US because of low-voter turnout? 
Nevertheless The level of voting for Pacifica boards remains high when 
contrasted to comparable community radio station or non-profit boards (KQED, 
Sierra Club etc.) The answer is to get more people to the polls as it were. 
(note that the staff have separate elections which require even fewer voter 
proportionately and yet have equal standing as other board members) Voter 
participation levels however will not in themselves fix the fundamental 
problems we face.

Joe W.


>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] KPFA (was MALIK RAHIM: Yesterday's Radicals 
>Devolve....)
>Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 15:15:11 -0400
>
>Joseph Wanzala wrote:
>
>>For me, as long the process is democratic, it provides a potentially level 
>>playing feild for the many competing visions, rather than letting whoever 
>>happens to be on staff pretty much decide everything.
>
>One of the problems I have with this is the definition of "democratic." The 
>constituency for a radio station is highly plastic, and the number of votes 
>required to win seats on the board is quite small (as low as 200 in some 
>cases). So a gang of loons could easily organize themselves and vote in 
>representative loons, who could then program loonily, shrinking the 
>audience to a hard core of loons, etc. Listeners driven away by poor 
>programming would then have no voice.
>
>But maybe things work better in the Bay Area.
>
>Doug
>___________________________________
>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk

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