Public Comment

I want to cut through the endless series of charges and countercharges that have dominated KPFA’s Local Station Board campaign, and focus on the real, substantive difference that distinguishes Concerned Listeners (CL) from the other slate running for the Board. That difference is rooted in how the two sides view KPFA’s role. CL’s opponents argue that KPFA should be a “community radio station” as opposed to something they call a “top-down, corporate model,” which is what they claim CL stands for. The CL slate is made up of left activists who have spent the better part of their lives working for progressive causes. Why would we choose a “corporate model” over a “community model”? These two labels are completely misleading and are used to package a real, honest difference in a morally charged and disingenuous way.  

The members of CL also want KPFA to be a community radio station. The difference lies in how we define the community to which we think the station should belong. We want KPFA to be a station that serves the broad progressive community. We want it to be able to reach beyond the Left.  

Frankly, we are worried about the state of the left in America. This country just went through a critical election. In spite of a positive outcome and the election of America’s first African-American president, the forces that came together to defeat the right are deeply divided and are unable to reach agreement on the reforms that this country so desparately needs. The right, on the other hand, is beginning to regroup, based largely on the power of their vast ideological attack apparatus talk-radio, Christian media outlets, Fox TV, a far-flung system of think tanks and limitless funds for advertising and informationals. While we progressives lack the media muscle to effectively shape events, the conservatives possess the means to create enough confusion, disorientation and fear to stymie almost every step forward the country seems ready to take.  

We need media outlets that can compete with those of the right; that can reach large numbers of people and that can keep the pressure on. This is the context in which we think about KPFA. We need a very smart, very competent radio station. We on the CL slate come from that stream of the left that believes in coalition politics. We have seen that all gains, whether for civil rights, stopping wars, or for winning reforms like Medicare, were only made when progressives reached out and found common ground with other Americans. These others didn’t agree with us on every issue, but they were deeply concerned about specific problems that were affecting them. It was from their ranks that new people came to the left. We don’t want KPFA to be a radio station where the left just talks to itself. We want KPFA to be a station that can address issues in a way that people outside the left find compelling and enlightening. KPFA has a tough task. It must continue as a voice of the left, while at the same time, finding ways to make that voice resonate with those who are not yet entirely with us, but who are moving in our direction.  

We are not going to get a truly effective radio station, that is, one that can compete with the right and attract new listeners, without the collaboration of an entire radio community. We need professional management with real radio know-how; we need a core of paid, professional staff as well as an active volunteer staff and support base; and lastly, we need a Board that represents and can draw on the resources of a broad cross-section of the progressive community. All of these are vital. Without paid staff that can devote their energies to their work, we would not have Democracy Now or the Morning Show or any of the high quality programming we have heard recently on KPFA.  

The term “community model” as used by our opponents on the Board, is frankly, very misleading. What community, or communities,are they talking about? They propose what is essentially an all-volunteer KPFA no professional management and no paid staff. Who would run the station? They believe the board and the volunteers should manage and operate the station. I know these people. I have sat on the board with them for two years. They don’t represent any broad community—labor, minority, peace, political or other. They represent a particular, and in my opinion, narrow slice of the left. I am very positive about the people who volunteer their energies to work at KPFA. They play a very important and helpful role in running the station. But they are not deeply involved in the communities they say they want KPFA to represent. More importantly, radio is a demanding profession, and people who have other day-jobs lack the necessary expertise the tools needed to make the station function so that it can attract a broader audience. I fear that this “all volunteer, community model” would result in programming that would only appeal to those who were producing it. The station would deteriorate into a plaything for the in-group that has the time to serve as volunteers. It is important for us to lay out the substantive differences that divide us. There is no reason why these shouldn’t be debated in an open and honest way within the KPFA community. However, the truth is that we on the board are not capable of having such a discussion. Currently, the atmosphere on the board is colored by a negative, angry, blame-game that polarizes and precludes any real discussion about substance. Yet events have arrived at the point where we have to make some critical decisions about how to deal with a growing set of difficult problems. To be able to carry on the discussions required to make those decisions, we have to change the atmosphere on the Board. We need good ideas and mutual respect. We don’t need anyone who wants to bring more anger to this Board. 

Matthew Hallinan is a member of Concerned Listeners. www.concernedlisteners.org.