This panel was conceived because at the first Media and Democracy Congress, there was a lot of interest in radio, NPR, Community Radio, Pirate Radio…or micro broadcasting…and also, and perhaps most importantly Pacifica, uh, the developments at the Pacifica group of stations. And there was a thought…because we organized this congress that the issues that were sort of festering around public radio need to be debated openly at this congress, and not be just debated in the hallways -- but actually, there's a lot of information that's necessary that people attending the congress would like to know; to get some facts, to get some information, to hear some argument and debate on the points about what is happening in public radio, community radio, and specifically Pacifica, but all community and public radio. So that's why this panel was assembled. Our initial hope was that it would be one-half community radio, dealing primarily with Pacifica and one-half NPR. As it developed in our negotiations we were unable really to get anyone from NPR willing…that were unable to get to come here and I don't know the exact reasons why I wasn't on the negotiations, so I don't want to say they refused to come for any reason, but in any case we weren't able to get anyone to come. Much like yesterday in our discussions of public broadcasting we couldn't get someone from the top echelons of PBS either to come to explain how they work or to answer questions from people assembled at the congress. So, as its developed we have a panel now of six people which we think represents a variety of perspectives and interests in public broadcasting.

And initially, once again, we were going to have it in two halves: first NPR, second community radio and Pacifica, but because of the fact that we couldn't generate an NPR official to be here we've decided to have to be just everyone give brief talks then we'll just have an open question period for the balance of the time and go directly to what is of interest to the audience, rather than try to split it in half to NPR and non-NPR. So, that's going to be the basic model for the format for what we're about to do.

Before I introduce the six panelists, let me just say a few brief words about radio; radio is an area of particular interest to me, I've written about it, and radio I think for activists, political activists is always been an extraordinary medium because it is relatively inexpensive, relative to other broadcast media and even to print media. It is in many ways the most democratic medium available for utilization currently and historically, and I think will remain the most democratic medium in many respects for the foreseeable future. So, in one hand it has tremendous promise and it's an area where activism is crucial where establishing stations, show, networks is absolutely essential for a progressive notion of the media.

Unfortunately, we do not…we live in what's called a capitalist society and in this society the way radio has been developed overwhelmingly is there's a commercial enterprise the point of which is to have take the American radio listeners, turn them upside down and shake money out of their pockets…it the sole purpose of our radio system for the most part. It has been historically owned and operated by a relative handful of firms usually serviced by two, or three, or four national networks, all revenue generated by selling advertising to four or five major national advertisers, to generalize. I the past two years radio has undergone a stunning transformation in this country quite unlike any other medium, this conference often talks of media concentration, media mergers, the effects of corporate control well radio is really the lightening rod of media concentration in this country.

The telecommunications act of 1996, arguably one of the most corrupt laws in American history, a law written by and large by powerful lobbyists that regulates the industry that they represent with virtually no public and minimal congressional consideration. This law, one of its primary features was to relax the ownership requirements on radio stations in the United States, and since the passage of the law, the singing of the law, in February 1996 there's been little short of an Oklahoma land rush to create radio chains. Something that…there's been no community that hasn't been affected by this process, such that independent and small chains have been bought up by medium chains, medium chains have been bought up by the largest chains, and we currently have a situation in the United States now where a handful of three or four chains that have really…of groups like Westinghouse, CBS that really have been built in the last two years now completely dominate the spectrum. So, we have the irony or the absurdity that the least capital intensive and arguably most accessible communication medium is now the most tightly controlled and offers the least amount of diversity, that's the reality of commercial broadcasting in this country. The need then for public broadcasting becomes all the more paramount in that context.

Public broadcasting meaning non-profit and non-commercial broadcasting or radio assumes many forms in the United States the three dominant…let's see…there are four basic forms or three forms, depending on how you break up the list. First is the National Public Radio network of approximately (and David correct me if I get this wrong) 300 or so stations…300-plus stations which is the lion's share of what we think of when we think of public radio in this country, secondly are the community radio stations…

Refers to David Barsmian: …and, David once again, David Barsamian our resident encyclopedist… and Lyn [Chadwick] our resident encyclopedist too… How many community radio stations?

Lyn Chadwick: Well, I think there's probably about 200 stations that could be identified.

McChesney: O.K. about 200, roughly, community radio stations and then there is the burgeoning movement that I think some people in this audience are familiar with of micro-broadcasting or pirate broadcasting, which also is a fast growing phenomenon, which is a form of public radio and some community…

Audience member: [undecipherable]

McChesney: …and also there's the religious broadcasters in the spectrum which we shouldn't forget, they are very important. That's right that is a…

Audience member: [undecipherable]

McChesney: Excuse me? …over a thousand, thank you very much. And then there's Pacifica which I think is a community station technically, [turns to Pat Scott] we'll find out exactly…community. But it's sort of distinguished because of the size of the operation, the number of stations, and the overall political and cultural impact it has quite outweighs, I think, pretty much the balance of the community stations. It's really quite a force in radio in this country, in community radio.

All non-profit broadcasting faces certain core problems: who's going to pay the bills, who's going to make the decisions, what's the orientation of the station; is the point to…is it run by people who work there, is it run by the people who listen to the station, is it run by elected boards, is it run by…is the goal to serve a potential audience or an existing audience? There are tough decisions that need to be made at any public station, regardless of whether it be NPR, community, or religious, or pirate or microbroadcaster. That's some of the issues we're going to talk about today, how these decisions are being made, whether they're the best decisions, if we don't like them what we can do about them, and try to understand how the situation is working.

There are extraordinary opportunities in radio (just to get back to that point) we really…it's a medium we have to work at. I'm a volunteer at Madison's [Wisconsin] WORT which is a really outstanding community station and we've made a lot of tremendous advances in the last five years; growing our audience, working together in a democratic manner to solve the conflicts that are unavoidable at any community station. And I think the lesson from Madison is that it can be done if people put their minds to it and are willing to negotiate and work at it.

So, the format today…we're going to let each of our speakers go hopefully no more than ten minutes, I'll stop them at that point or ask them to wrap, and then after that we'll go to a question period. We'll take questions, there are two microphones here, people can line up. During the question period we ask that people keep their comments relatively brief there's plenty of time for questions, so it's not like…I think everyone here who wants to ask a question should be in a position to ask it…that's our goal.