7/13/96

Editorial Page Editor, Oakland Tribune

Editor:

Your story about the changes at KPFA radio was shockingly off target, and contained a significant amount of misinformation.

Your reporter's need to have fun with a serious topic demeans the concerns of a large active group of KPFA listener/subscribers (over 500 people - not at all the "small group" of disaffected programmers referred to by Pacifica's executive director Pat Scott). Listeners and programmers are organized in similar dissent at every one of Pacifica's five stations, for basically the same reasons.

It is specifically because Pacifica receives $1.5 million each year from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that they are obligated to abide by the federal open-meeting laws, which assure some semblance of democracy within publicly funded stations.

If, as Scott says, they have been meeting in retreat for over two years (during which time they have not only made dramatic changes in programming, but laid plans for pursuit of a broader, less political audience and made a decision to hire for their labor negotiations a company that is and was on the AFL-CIO union-busting list!), where does that leave public input?

Yes, Pacifica radio stations appeal to a small segment of the population. That, and local programming and control, is what public radio is about. That small segment, which has provided the majority of the funding to keep Pacifica's stations running, is losing that progressive voice in favor of centralized national programming, union-busting contracts, and appeal to "safer" funding streams that require "safer" programs.

Mad? You bet we're mad!

Sincerely,
Marianne Torres
Member, Coordinating Committee
Take Back KPFA

freekpfa@rop.edu

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