August 15, 1998
by Lyn Gerry

Last month, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) notified KPFK that the station would not meet the criteria to qualify as a "minority grant incentive" recipient in the upcoming fiscal year.  In
the past, this has entitled the station to an additional 15 percent in CPB funds as well as, more importantly, lowered requirements to receive funding. (the station receives about 15% of its annual funding from CPB)

CPB minority grant incentives are awarded based on the composition of a station's audience, staff and board of directors. KPFK failed to meet the qualifications of 35 percent minority listenership based on Arbitron surveys, as well as falling below the 50 percent minority staff requirement, according to the CPB.

The ramifications of this? Perhaps a total loss of CPB funds for KPFK.

Listeners to KPFK in Los Angeles might be amazed that KPFK would be considered a minority station at all, as under General Manager Mark Schubb's direction, virtually every program addressing the issues of Los Angeles' communities of color has been axed, and replaced with
programs aimed toward the affluent, largely white West side. Why then this pretense? Money, plain and simple.

Those who have been following the struggle at Pacifica may be aware that Pacifica's National Board of Directors instituted a policy mandating that 50 percent of the National Board must be people of
color. This was followed recently by new Local Advisory Board guidelines, which placed the same requirement on Local Boards.Presented as an attempt to give greater representation to communities
historically under-served by media, these changes were not questioned. Some have observed that these racial guidelines have been used, at least at KPFK, to remove a National Board representative not viewed as sufficiently compliant with the Pacifica management's plan of creating centralized decision-making in a corporate-style hierarchy.

But these are sidelines to the true purpose of the "minority status." In 1996, the CPB implemented punitive new guidelines (crafted with the collaboration of Pacifica CEO Pat Scott, Lynn Chadwick - then President of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, and National Public Radio) which forced any station wishing to continue to receive CPB funds to gear its programming toward Arbitron ratings. as well as forcing many stations to turn to corporate underwriting in order to meet fundraising quotas.

Stations are now required by the CPB to gain a certain number of listeners, based on the total population figures or, a certain dollar amount of "public" support. Stations that could not achieve the
numbers of listeners required, needed to receive larger donations. Thus, programs appealing to small or less affluent groups were dropped from the schedule. Ironically, in KPFK's case, the casualties were the listeners from the working class communities of color. The chickens are now coming home to roost.

However, stations which were eligible for "incentives" as "minority" stations had quotas 50 percent lower than those not in that category. If not for KPFK's classification as a minority station for the past two years, it would have failed to meet CPB criteria at all. As it is, the station made it by a hair last year after an aggressive campaign of soliciting large donations from celebrities such as Ed Asner and Jackson Browne.

In the fiscal year 1998, KPFK would have had to achieve an Average Quarter Hour (AQH) listenership of 8319 persons as a minority station. Its actual measured AQH was far less than that, 4800. Had KPFK not been classified as a minority station, it would have been required to
have an AQH of 16, 637 persons - numbers currently achieved only by two stations here in Los Angeles -- one a jazz station, the other a classical music station.

KPFK did not qualify for CPB funding based on listenership. It did so on income, and only because of its "minority" status. As a minority station, it was required to raise $1, 247, 790 -- and actually raised $1,320,096. Had it not been classified as a minority station, a funding goal of $2, 495, 579 would have had to be raised.

Unless something radical is done to re-orient the priorities at Pacifica, KPFK listeners should expect a further increase in programming and fundraising appeals geared toward the affluent and the
lowest common denominator, decrease in the already meager service to inner city communities, and a broader ban on radical or controversial material with the potential to offend wealthy contributors. This already being done, as programs are put to the "BMW test."

RadioNation host Marc Cooper, now a major force behind the scenes in decision-making at KPFK, recently told a KPFK producer that programming quality can be judged by applying what he termed "The BMW Test." It goes like this:

"If a lawyer is driving in his BMW, and tunes to KPFK on his way to KCRW (the NPR station adjacent to KPFK on the dial), will he hear information which is useful and relevant to him, or will he hear something that sounds like a broadcast from a UFO?"

Beam me up, Scotty.
 

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