Lyn Gerry
315-539-2848

-------------------------------------------------------

Date sent:       Fri, 18 Jun 1999 11:07:58 -0700
To:              redlyn@loop.com
From:            David Phipps <phippsd@best.com> (by way of
savepacifica <savepacifica@peacenet.org>)
Subject:         FCC

Hi.

My name is David Phipps, and I am Director of Engineering at Zing Network, a venture-backed startup in San Francisco.

I work many long hours - twelve to fourteen a day, seven days a week - and I can't be there to protest, but I have been keeping up an incessant hail of letters, FAXes, and eMails to  congressmen/congresswomen, the FCC, the governor, and of course, I have singled out the Pacifica board of directors for the majority of my ire and withering verbal assualts.  I prefer to follow in the steps of Hunter S. Thompson and use words like blunt instruments.

As part of my (rather wimpy) protests, I contacted William Kennard, the chairman of the FCC, and spoke to a staffer in his office.  She basically stated that the *broadcast license for KPFA had been transferred to the original owners*, something that the original owners can do *without notice*. They only need to send a letter to the FCC which is *dated* - not even postmarked - within ten days of the transfer.

Horrified, I called back today and followed up.  Since my call, the FCC has constructed a phone-routing arrangement, probably to keep us from bugging Kennard's staff.  I got bounced to "Complaints / Political", where I was given this eMail address:

complaints-enf@fcc.gov

I then asked this complaints lady about where I could find out about KPFA's broadcast license status.  She connected me to "Audio Services", which handles licensing issues.  The person who ansered the phone there transferred me to Brad Deutch (spelling?  pronounced "doitch"), where I left a clean and pleasant message requesting more information about KPFA's license status.

As you may know, a license is usually transferred back to the original owner prior to a sale to allow proper legal transfer, if the current owner is "leasing" the license (an underhanded pile of crap which often goes on in the broadcast industry).  Keep in mind that we *still* do not know the actual story; the staffer at William Kennard's office could easily have been mistaken and we should approach this problem like journalists.

Please disseminate this information as widely as possible.  Keep up the good fight. Power to the people.  I was very depressed yesterday and getting your eMail today was like a breath of fresh air.  It is *very* important to all of us on the outside that you keep communicating.

David Phipps
140 Dominican Drive
San Rafael CA 94901

(My wife, Dr. Patricia Sheppard, and I have been members since we moved to the Bay Area from Santa Fe, New Mexico three years ago, where I was a contributor to your sister station KUNM.  KPFA and KUNM have been the two major voices of freedom in the US for 50 years... I think KUNM was started  30 years ago, actually..)