My name is Steven Starr, and it’s a privilege to be at this Pacifica National Board meeting as the interim general manager of KPFK.
When I walked into the station a little more than a month ago, there was a far different climate than there is at KPFK today. Outside the building, there was a deeply concerned community of listeners that had been engaged in a struggle to reassert community participation in KPFK’s future. Many of whom, on principle or as a result of prior station manager edict, had not set foot inside KPFK in years.
Inside the building, there were staff and programmers of widely divergent opinions about the long struggle that just ended, who were meeting me for the first time. There were deep fears expressed that day, deep concerns, deep misapprehension. Some of the staff and programmers were happy to see me; some were not. Some were committed to supporting the efforts of the newly reconstituted Pacifica National Board; some were not.
I told the staff two things on that day; that I had no intention of firing anyone, and that I was there for a 60-day transition period, so that a new permanent General Manager could be found. So here we are, about halfway through that period, and today I’m happy to report on some of the remarkable successes we’ve had to date as well as identify some real challenges for the future.
First of all, the Fund Drive. When I walked into KPFK a month ago, it was made abundantly clear to me by some members of the staff that the very idea of doing a fund drive at that moment was misguided.
Some, as you know, were resistant to the extreme. Listeners were mistrustful, having seen their pledges disappear into the ether, with their premiums never showing up. Programmers felt ethically unable to encourage listeners to send money, the staff felt the same way. Further, the details of the previous administrations’ outrageous misappropriations had not yet seen the light of day.
And all of this in the face of a station financial crisis consisting of a mounting local $250,000 debt, utilities and services that were being shut off for nonpayment, a transmitter signal under severe threat, and revelations of a national financial crisis that exceeded anyone’s worst hopes.
We had to move quickly and we did. KPFK made an unprecedented deal with Pacifica national. We would take control of all proceeds of our Winter Fund Drive. We signed this agreement, posted it on the KPFK website, and went on the air and told our listeners that this agreement and this bank account were in place. That there would be no repetition of recent history, no misappropriations, no plundering.
Most of the staff and programmers responded immediately. The work progressed well, and aggressive preparations got underway. And better yet, the community responded. They responded not only with their money, but their time. KPFK’s volunteer coordinator, Keola Kamma, was flooded with calls. The LAB took ownership over the care and feeding of the volunteers.
And then we threw open the doors.
We all know the rest; we just finished the most successful fund drive in KPFK stations’ history, and I’m happy to report that our current tally, still climbing, is now approaching $715,000.
There’s more. Dave Adelson called me early on to pass along a suggestion from Robbie Osman. Robbie suggested we consider the prospect of network wide fund drive to Save the KPFK signal. So we got on the phone with all of the Station Managers and floated Robby’s idea of having a 1-day event, and the reaction was thrilling.
In an act of unprecedented solidarity, every station manager committed on that day, on that call, to what we all now recognize as a historic effort, and we got busy, seriously busy. The results of our Feb. 28 Save the Signal national fund drive are still coming in, but when all the pledges are counted, we expect to break $200,000.
It’s important to make clear that this wouldn’t have happened without the cooperation of the Pacifica National Staff, without Leslie Cagan and Dan Coughlin’s serious and total commitment toward returning to us control over our financial future. I just want to thank them publicly, because again, as a result, we now have a local KPFK bank account, and an agreement that provides for control over all funds raised during the winter fund drive. Thank you.
And congratulations to all of us., these numbers are record-breaking. As many of you have emailed me, it’s hard proof of just how seriously this community takes it’s radio station, just how deep into it’s pockets this community is willing to reach to assure KPFK"s future, Pacifica’s future. We’ve a great deal to be proud of, and I congratulate you all.
Beyond that, I’d like to move quickly through some other areas of interest and concern.
As for the Transmitter, Don Mussell, our excellent consultant on the project, tells us that SoCal Edison has just finished it's design work. The vendor who will make the electric switch gear will need to see these plans and then go ahead and start building this equipment. The switch gear consists of all of the breaker boxes and panels that mount inside the KPFK transmitter building, as well as the wiring to the switch gear itself. A concrete pad must be poured for a new high voltage step-down transformer, 4" conduit placed underground, and new high capacity wiring pulled through and attached.
This all needs to be carefully engineered to make sure we don't have the problems we had before with circuits burning up and surges taking out critical transmitter equipment. Romney Tripp of RWT Construction, our contractor, assures us that he is doing all he can to speed the process along.
As it is, it will be early May at best before we can install the new transmitter and return KPFK to full power operation. John Crigler and Don Mussell will work up another request from the FCC to allow us more time to complete the work, and are confident that given our efforts, we will be granted one.
Given the remarkable success of our fund drive, fortunately there will be no financial challenge to the related studio build out project upstairs. Bob Conger, KPFK’s longstanding chief engineer, tells me that by years end we should have completed the upstairs studio project, which means more in-house resources for the development and execution of local programming.
In terms of programming, we’ve brought back to KPFK's airwaves some of the shows that Pacifica listeners have been demanding: Democracy Now, Seditious Beats, and Alternative Radio. We’ve re-instituted Report to the Listener, opening the phone lines to unscreened calls from listeners. We've added Free Speech Radio News to our airwaves, and we’ve brought back the Community Calendar twice a day.
Additionally, we're in the process of developing a community voices project with the Independent Media Center, designed to bring a host of new voices from many communities to the air to give short commentary on current events, and we’re anticipating the delivery of a new book show, 'Shelf Life", by Salvadoran activist/novelist, and KPFK book critic, Marcos McPeek Villatoro.
We’ve held a series of on-air discussions this week about Pacifica to educate listeners about Pacifica in advance of the board meeting this weekend--this is a topic that had not been allowed to be discussed on KPFK's air for a very long time
We’re encouraging the development of programming collectives who can create programming in some areas that the station needs to strengthen--the most active collective so far is the West/South Asian collective. I hope to have some programming from them soon and to figure out how we can incorporate them into the schedule at KPFK
One of the recognized functions of the LAB is to make programming Recommendations based on the community needs and in-put as well as identify community resources to fulfill those needs. For the first time in a long time, if ever, the station management has been able to work hand in hand to establish mechanisms to facilitate this process.
We began with a West/South Asia Collective and now the Community Needs Assessment Committee of the LAB, co-chaired by Lydia Brazon and Kwazi Nkrumah are moving forward with management in order to establish a Latina/Latino collective, Native collective, youth collective, Black collective and Arts collective and some regional collectives as well. I encourage all interested parties to contact the Community Needs Assessment Committee of the LAB for further information.
As for personnel, we’ve presided over a transition inside the station in which several staff members have decided to move on, including Operations and Music Director Beto Arcos, Development Director Stacey Fancher, News Director Katy Chen, Producer and on-air host Jeff Kaufman, and Programmer Marc Cooper.
We are posting job descriptions on these and other openings at the station, and look forward to the incoming permanent general manager to make these critical staffing decisions.
On an interim basis, we’ve begun bringing new staff into the station, including Andrea Buffa of Media Alliance, Armando Guidinio as an interim producer, and Sonali Kolhatkar, who is hosting our Morning Show. These interim folks are going to help the other staff hold down the fort until, as I said earlier, we can create a good process for hiring permanent new staff, under the supervision of the permanent general manager.
We’re talking with a variety of people--from LAB members, to staff members, to free Pacifica activists, to people who've been fired and banned from KPFK—to make sure they know they are welcome at the station and also to develop a process for bringing new programming onto the airwaves. And I’m quite sure that I haven’t done this perfectly, and I welcome all of your input on how do accomplish this.
I must confess that I’m learning as I go, and am eager to learn from your criticism and incorporate your suggestions. We are also developing a co-sponsored forum with the Paul Robeson Center to deal with the issue of racial slurs and stereotyping, with the hopes of bringing the results of that forum to the listening audience as special programming.
Further, I want to say publicly that while I believe self-promotion and personal attacks should be given no quarter on KPFK’s airwaves, I am going to redouble my efforts to allow the articulation of political differences onto the airwaves, and I accept that suggestion willingly.
I’m also very clear that there are some communities of people who feel I'm not moving quickly enough, or that I haven't adequately addressed the issues they care about. I understand these concerns, and am deeply committed to developing processes to address them.
I want to say publicly that I am committed to addressing significant issues that are still festering at KPFK--from figuring out how to incorporate people who've been banned and fired from the station back into the station community to addressing the issues of race and racism at KPFK, and to making KPFK a good place to work with some form of workplace democracy.
These are my greatest challenges, and I look forward to giving these matters major priority over the next month as I help KPFK look for a general manager who can help KPFK to develop its full potential.
Finally, I'm deeply proud of what I and the other people who've been working with me have been able to accomplish in such a short time. It's been an incredible privilege to do this work, on of the great privileges of my life, and I thank you for it.
Steven Starr
KPFK - Interim General Manager
March 8, 2002