You ask how much has fuundraising increased - well at KPFA fundraising has increaded at least in direct proportion to its budget - three years ago KPFA's operating budget hovered around $2 million - today it is $3.5 million with virtually all that money coming from listener support. People are either giving more and/or giving in greater numbers - and presumably listening as well.
I think your perspective on what is happening at Pacifica nationally is jaudiced by your tendency to view everything through the prism of WBAI and base your judgment of what is happening at KPFA in your personal/political connection to certain staff people there rather than an objective view. Everyone in Pacifica recognizes that WBAI has been in crisis for some time, KPFA and KPFK have even had to bail it out financially by doing special fund drives. As to arbitrons, of course the self-serving and hypocritical management clique at WBAI will reference them when it suits them and ignore them when it does not suit them. For a more nuanced analysis of the on the use of Arbitron ratings as a tool for Pacifica programming decision-making I invite you to read: http://www.radio4all.org/fp/arbitro5.htm
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] Facts in KPFA Dispute Hard to Grasp
>Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2005 22:05:45 -0400
>
>Joseph Wanzala wrote:
>
>>This is not be true, and you offer nothing to back up your assertion other
>>than a vague reference to arbitrons. An objective measure of listenership
>>is money raised from listeners. This figure has only increased over the
>>last two decades.
>
>Increased by how much? Total personal income in the US is up by 192% over
>the last two decades.
>
>It's funny how the Arbitrons are used. At WBAI, when the went up from one
>quarter to the next, management bragged like crazy. When they fell by
>nearly half, as they did from the 1st to the 2nd quarter of this year,
>managment says nothing, and its apologists say the Arbitrons are
>irrelevant. In any case, they're the best measure we have, and lots of
>people with serious money rely on them.
>
>>In any case, arbitrons are a dubios measure of listenership especially for
>>public radio since arbitrons were designed primarily to measure the
>>commercial radio listenership.
>
>WNYC pulls down big Arbitron numbers, and I bet KQED does too. WBAI was the
>highest-rated FM station in New York in the mid-1970s; now it's bouncing
>around near the bottom.
>
>>In terms of programming, people obviously like different things. So its
>>okay if you only like Sasha and CS's programming (Against the Grain) Some
>>people around Berkeley refer to KPFA as 'KPLO'. However, Dennis
>>Bernstein's Flashpoints raises a lot of money for the station showing that
>>it is more popular than Against the Grain at least in terms of listeners
>>voting with their wallets.
>
>The nutty stuff raises lots of money, sad to say. Like Eric Hufschmid
>videos. What that says to me is that a lot of Pacifica listeners are also
>tuning in to Art Bell too (as I heard one say at the WBAI bookfair a couple
>of weeks ago).
>
>Doug
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