July 29, 1999
Nation's Oldest Public Station Under Arrest
By Dennis Bernstein
BERKELEY -- As a broadcaster at radio station
KPFA for the last ten years, I often wondered just how many people
were tuning in. After all, these are the apathetic 1990s, the
passions of the 1960s are supposedly long gone.
But when Pacifica Foundation pulled me off the air, arrested
me for trespassing and seized the station, the response came
from an inspiring diversity of people -- from far beyond Berkeley
and well beyond the 1960s. They had been listening, and they
cared deeply about progressive, alternative radio.
Pacifica's action touches some very raw nerves. It involves not
just one radio station, but the new world of corporate control
and the relentless logic of the market. This battle is about
the future, not reliving the 1960s.
Those who pay attention to media issues -- including many in
mainstream organizations -- were shocked at the news that a radio
journalist was forcibly removed from his radio station and put
on "administrative leave" for covering a public press
conference. Or that broadcasters would be fired for discussing
the overall direction of a listener-sponsored station. Or that
armed guards would be hired to seize a station founded by pacifists.
KPFA is the country's oldest community radio station, founded
in 1948. The board of Pacifica Foundation, which includes KPFA
and stations in Los Angeles, Dallas, Washington, DC and New York
City, has moved to take accountability away from local stations.
At KPFA, it fired the station manager without explanation, illegally
locked out the staff, and secretly discussed selling off the
stations.
Pacifica claims it is simply trying to modernize, expand and
diversify the network. Pacifica's envisions "modernization"
along corporate lines -- more top-down control, greater reliance
on foundation money, and programming based on ratings. It characterizes
those who oppose these moves as holdovers from a bygone era.
Pacifica's tactics mirror those used in corporate takeovers.
It has hired lawyers who specialize in fighting unions, a high-powered
PR firm and IPSA International, a security firm which specializes
in "hostile terminations" or firing in hostile takeovers.
These moves took place with the connivance of the government's
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which worked closely with
the top Pacifica management and encouraged the move away from
local oversight.
Of course all radio stations want to attract more listeners,
but robbing KPFA of its independence will rob it of its uniqueness,
its loyal listener-base and its reason for existence. KPFA at
its best has been about conscience and truth, not about audience-share.
We have seen what happens when market-driven
solutions are implemented. They lead to less diversity -- racially
and politically.
For millions of us, the market just doesn't work. Sure, stock
prices are soaring, there are more Silicon Valley millionaires
than ever, and U.S. military and economic supremacy is unchallenged.
But there is also an obscene chasm between rich and poor. There
is still racism, discrimination, and official brutality. More
prisons are being built than universities, the numbers on death
row keep growing, dictators thrive, unjust military actions continue....
KPFA has drawn wide support by speaking forcefully and directly
about these issues.
The corporate market-driven approach has particularly troubling
features when applied to the media. Will everything we see and
hear be filtered through corporate public relations departments
and market-share accountants? Will sensationalism, celebrity
and homogenized coverage rule everywhere? In this era of U.S.
triumph, is even one alternative, sometimes radical, voice too
many?
My arrest by Pacifica is a violation of everything KPFA stands
for. But I will not be silenced. What's at stake here is the
future of community radio and the preservation of a Bay Area
institution, nourished by listeners for 50 years, that has provided
a voice for the voiceless and a platform for activists and progressives
to speak truth to power -- without fear of reprisal.
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