NORTH COAST TIMES E A G L E , MARPRIL2001
PAGE 6
RADIO FREE AMERIKA
OR WHATEVER HAPPENED TO PUBLIC RADIO
JONIK
BY DAN ARMSTRONG
Recent management problems at the Pacifica
Foundation verify concerns for the diminishing voice of alter
native radio. Pacifica is five large, left leaning public radio
stations in Berkeley, Los Angeles, Houston. New York and
Washington. During the last six months, internal struggles
motivated by increasing centralization of power into Pacifica's
national board, talk of selling KPFA-FM Berkeley, and a new
ratings-driven commercialized direction have caused lock-outs,
firings, and demonstrations in Berkeley reminiscent of the
antiwar years. One of Amenca’s most important dissenting
voices is under siege.
When Lewis Hill first conceived of KPFA in 1947, he
set the standard for what public radio was about: freedom of
expression and listener sponsorship KPFA was really an
experiment in non-commercial radio and an attempt to build
a station with money and talent from listeners, not advertising
This was the origin of community radio Simply people nsing
up out of listenerships, volunteenng, creating their own shows,
doing their own engineering, and raising funds in any way from
radio-thons to rummage sales. Community radio has long
provided and still does provide an important though modest
balance to the glut of commercial radio that fills the airwaves
In the 1960s, as commercial radio boomed and the little
community stations struggled along, it was felt that public radio
could be strengthened through networking — that is. building
an infrastructure for funding and programming available to the
community In 1967, Congress passed the Public Broadcasting
Act to do just this for both public television and public radio by
creating the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a pnvate, non
profit corporation to oversee the distribution of federal funding
Three years later, National Public Radio came into being as an
adjunct to CPB and a national programming distribution service
for public radio. In 1971, NPR produced its first news show, the
hugely popular and successful All Things Considered NPR news
shows are aired today by over 600 public radio stations (which
includes Astoria’s KMUN-FM) to some 14,000.000 listeners in
the United States — and millions more in Europe. Asia, and our
military installations around the world
In 1979, through funding from the CPB, NPR installed
its own satellite system This enables stations not only to receive
programs from NPR. but to also exchange programming among
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themselves. The network was in place and expanding. Several
new public radio-programming services — like American Public
Radio and Public Radio International — have since come into
being Today community radio stations have access to a variety
of syndicated national shows and news services (as well as
world news services like the Bntish Broadcasting Corporation
and Monitor Radio) that they weave into their local program
ming.)
Partly due to Newt Gingrich’s blustering in the
mid-1990s about withdrawing public funding from public broad
casting and partly due to the changing face of public radio in
America, community radio is no longer non-commercial.There
are exceptions, but in general, the corporate hand has become
more and more visible in what was once grassroots radio
Unfortunately, it seems that those agencies which initially
empowered public radio, the CPB and NPR. now tend to shape
it for the market
For instance. CPB guidelines for funding essentially
dictate an operating structure for community stations Comply
ing with these guidelines is critical to getting federal money, yet
too often, getting that money becomes the primary consideration
in station management In the case of Pacifica, compliance with
these federal regulations and its relationship with the CPB have
become a central bone of contention between Pacifica's five
local advisory boards and its national advisory board These
kinds of CPB management intrusions and interceding corporate
complications are contrary to the original vision of public radio
— freedom for small, local voices
Similarly. NPR programming, the hourly news updates.
Morning Edition. All Things Considered Talk of the Nation, has
become such a community radio standard, that the sound and
format of these stations tend to conform to a NPR template.
Local music shows and community news are spliced between
NPR news shows and regularly punctuated with the NPR
manner — the soft horn interludes or jazzy flute accents
Oh. yes. it's pleasant to the ear But sadly, it has all begun to
sound the same Whether you are in Eugene (Oregon). Topeka
(Kansas), or New York City The individuality and freedom of the
community station has become 600 public radio clones running
the same news and feature shows What's up with this? Certainly
nothing Lewis Hill had in mind
Let's take a deeper look
Consider the background of Robert Coonrod, CEO of
CPB He was deputy director of Voice of America He oversaw
the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (including Radio & TV Marti)
and Worldnet Television. Prior to VOA. he held senior positions
at the U.S. Information Agency's Bureau for Educational &
Cultural Affairs
Kevin Klose, the CEO of NPR was director of the U.S.
International Broadcasting Bureau, which oversees Voice of
America, Worldnet Television, and the Office of Cuba Broad
casting He was President of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
He also worked as an editor and reporter at the Washington
Post, and served as the Washington Post bureau chief in
Moscow and Chicago
Kenneth P Stem, Vice President of NPR holds a
J D degree from Yale Law School He was a senior advisor and
consultant to the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau, a job
that included management responsibilities for Voice of America,
Radio & TV Marti, and Worldnet TV He was Deputy General
Counsel for the Clinton/Gore 1996 campaign and held manage
ment and legal consultant positions for Radio Free Europe/
Radio Liberty
These three resumes show incredible similarity and
overlap Voice of America. Radio Free Europe and Cuba Broad
casting are essentially powerful pro-Amencan (of the Oliver
North old school of patriotism) propaganda interests The IBB
and IAB are also pro-American information services These men
come from the highest order of the establishment network This
is not the kind of netwrking that the original charter of the CPB
intended for public radio. And we haven't even mentioned the
corporate and political connections that are integrated into the
boards of directors of both the CPB and NPR It's sad but true;
the tv\o most powerful institutions in public radio are run by men
whose backgrounds are steeped in American jingoism. They are
company men of the corporate kind They do not represent the
voice of community radio or anything even faintly resembling an
alternative voice
All Things Considered. Morning Edition, Weekend
Edition, these are some of the best news shows offered on radio
They are the favored news sources for Amenca’s intelligentsia
They are presented in a sophisticated information collage of
music and voice. The subtle nuance of each vwrd, each phrase,
each musical note are critical to the meaning When all the facts
are otherwise correctly aligned, the suggestion of each story
sways on the slightest intimation. Of course, we know this.
Information always comes with a spin and counter-spin. And
NPR is no exception. Hardly Between news blurbs from NPR
international reporters and anecdotal stories with musical scores
we have the repeated reminder: "Funding for this program has
been supplied by..." Merrill Lynch or Archer-Daniels-Midland
or the John D MacArthur Foundation or the Ford Trust or the
Rockefeller Foundation in other words, these programs have
been paid for by some of the biggest names in the Amencan
Aristocracy Regardless of how the little university radio station
intersperses its local news, blues shows, community messages,
and rock&roll, this is propaganda from the highest financial
order Radio Free Amerika
The situation at Pacifica is merely predictable fallout
from the corporatization of public radio "Bottom-line" manage
ment has steadily replaced listener sponsorship. Corporate
censorship more and more has crawled in upon freedom of
expression And one of the grand old flagships of public radio
KPFA has now become a very marketable radio interest.
But what is there to argue with this? We have watched
the United States move progressively more conservative
through the Clinton years Democrats and Republicans are
harder and harder to tell apart We live in the new age of
corporate democracy Look at our tnm-line new President
Perhaps his title should be CEO of the USA Because, of
course, good business is good business — for a country as
well as a small community radio station
And perhaps all this satellite streamlining and
business-wise efficiency is necessary for public radio to keep
up to speed on the multi-media information highway. Perhaps
it is an unavoidable evolution in the concept of community radio
as our society complicates into the 21st century
Perhaps.
But perhaps not
Let's try a bigger picture
The consolidation and syndication of information works
in direct opposition to the freedom and the stability of our demo
cracy. Media mergers, software giants, and the incorporation of
publishing houses with financial institutions are antiethical to the
dream of our founding fathers. Freedom of speech may be the
dearest right the Constitution promises, but something happens
to that freedom when money can buy that right, vtfien just a
handful of voices have the power and influence to drown out all
the rest.
The last ten years have seen just this Rupert Murdoch,
John C. Malone, Reinhard Mohn, the Newhouse family of New
York, the Randolph Hearst family, Time-Wamer-AOL, Disney —
these are powerful broadcasting and publishing giants with
agendas and loud voices The CPB with its wde ranging radio
and television funding influence and NPR/PBS with its world-
wde audience of tens of millions of the generally best educated
of the world has become a comparable media force Public radio
has become a megalith in sheep's clothing. Whether intentional
or not this has changed community radio from many little voices
into one that is large and establishment compliant The alterna
tive voice is no longer alternative The changes at Pacifica are
symptomatic.
Dan Armstrong is a frequent contributor to the NCTE.
His most recent article appeared in the Winter 2000 issue
(Odious Debt: Jubilee 2000 vs the International Credit Cartel)
After several years residence in Astoria, he has moved back
to Eugene
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