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> Address to NFCB
Pacifica Executive Director Dan Coughlin
Address to the National Federation of Community Broadcasters
Cathedral Hill Hotel, San Francisco
March 20, 2003
As the Executive Director of Pacifica Radio, and on behalf
of KPFA 94.1 FM here in the Bay Area, I want to extend a welcome
to you at this 28th Annual Conference of the National Federation
of Community Broadcasters.
This is critical and a very difficult time in this country’s
history, more so than at any time since the end of World War
II when Pacifica Radio was founded. And it’s very difficult
today to even open up a discussion about our work, about community
radio, when this war means certain death for thousands of
men, women, and children. And we must remember, to paraphrase
Martin Luther King, Jr., that every bomb that falls on Iraq,
in a very real sense falls on us. We’re already seeing
the beginning of that with the Bush Administration’s
proposed cutbacks for public broadcasting in next year’s
Federal budget.
Today, I’m also reminded of Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old
student from Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington, home
of community radio station KAOS. When the US-supplied and
financed Israeli army killed Rachel as she defended a Palestinian
home from a bulldozer, Pacifica and community radio lost one
of our voices. Her courage inspires us. It is reflective of
a new humanity which has swept the world in recent years and
that gives us hope for a brighter future.
Just as Rachel Corrie and Pacifica founders Lew Hill, Richard
Moore and others were propelled by a deep sense of urgency
in a time of national and international crisis, we, too, must
put the same kind of energy, commitment, creativity, and political
principle into building independent, community-based, commercial-free,
mission-driven radio. We have no choice. If free speech, and
basic democratic liberties are to survive in the United States,
we must rededicate ourselves to the fundamental principles
of our movement.
One major challenge that we all need to deal with in the
upcoming months and years, is the concentration of media ownership
which is corrupting democracy and the diversity of voices
that are so integral to a free society and which forms the
very basis of public broadcasting. Never before has there
been such a mismatch between what is actually happening on
the ground, and what appears in the mass media. This phenomenon
can be directly tied to the impact of deregulation.
Take a look at Clear Channel, the country’s No. 1 radio
broadcaster. In 1996, at the time of the landmark federal
Telecommunications Act, the San Antonio-based company owned
36 stations. Today, Clear Channel is a behemoth, owning some
1,200 or 10 percent of all radio stations in the country.
And most industry analysts are saying that this is just the
beginning. And I might just add that the company’s radio
stations are active cheerleaders for the Pentagon, organizing
pro-war demonstrations nationwide.
The point here is that under these types of political and
economic pressures, community radio cannot survive as a lone
voice in the wilderness of broadcast media, even as a quaint
throw back to a bygone era.
The reality is that we collectively must challenge the crippling
effect that the concentration of ownership is having on the
mass media. In the same way that we all fought the Republican
attempt to defund public broadcasting in 1994, we must actively
join with the broader media and democracy movement in fighting
the hyper corporate powers who are corrupting democracy and
journalism. That means joining forces with and supporting
groups like the National Federation of Community Broadcasters
and the Grassroots Radio Coalition. It means building a relationship
with FAIR, Media Alliance, the Media Access Project, the Independent
Media Centers, and the Low Power FM movement. It also means
linking with media unions like the CWA and with journalist
organizations like the National Associations of Black, Native
American, Asian and Hispanic Journalists. Together, this kind
of social movement can roll back the hyper-commercial, corporate-directed
news culture that has so badly warped the public debate in
the United States.
As a start, what I would propose today the establishment
of a Community Radio Solidarity Fund – to support, strengthen,
and spread community radio nationwide. Working with the broader
media and democracy movement, the fund would enable us to
begin to aggressively challenge the takeovers of community
stations and to grow and develop our ability to shape the
political and social agenda. What I envision is a staffed
political campaign office for community radio financed by
the Solidarity Fund.
This kind of political challenge must be coupled with a rededication
to the mission of community radio. And at Pacifica, that’s
what we’ve been trying to do these past 15 months –
pick up the pieces from a struggle that nearly destroyed us.
And we’ve made tremendous progress in rebuilding the
network. Pacifica’s stations are no longer fortresses
and combat zones, designed to exclude listeners. Doors are
open and the winds of change are blowing through. New leadership
is in place around the network, and Democracy Now! and Free
Speech Radio News are on the air at all five Pacifica stations.
The stations are posting record fundraising drives and the
network has been pulled back from the brink of bankruptcy.
The network’s overall debt has been slashed from $4.8
million to an estimated $1 million, a remarkable turnaround
in such a short time. We’ve fixed the KPFK transmitter,
the largest public broadcasting signal west of the Mississippi,
which is now broadcasting at full power with the biggest signal
footprint of any FM station in the country. And in the process,
we’ve pioneered a unique form of programming, the Ultracast,
showcasing -- in a unique daylong, pinwheel format -- the
remarkable talent and voices of all of Pacifica’s five
stations. Soon, we will move Pacifica’s national headquarters
back to California, to the Bay Area where it was started some
54 years ago. And, finally, in the next few months, a new
Pacifica national board will be elected by listeners nationwide,
making Pacifica the first democratically run national media
outlet in the country.
I’m pleased to say that the Pacifica national board
has earmarked two of the seats on the new board for affiliate
representation. This is emblematic of the efforts of the new
reform administration at Pacifica to turn around our relationship
with the community radio movement. We want a partnership,
a real collaborative relationship. As a beginning, we thank
you for helping us out last November by participating in our
affiliates survey. The information you so generously gave
us has helped us take stock in understanding our relationship
with community radio stations.
When the new Pacifica reform administration took over, there
were only 17 affiliates left. Today, that number has more
than doubled. Taking into account all Pacifica-related programming,
we believe another 30 are open to officially rejoining the
network by the end of the year. Affiliate rates have been
reduced to 2/3 of the 1997 levels and all affiliates have
been offered a new contract. This is an important recognition
on the part of Pacifica that our service to and relationship
with the affiliates has been less than satisfactory. We recognize
that we have a long way to go.
We have not been able – up to now – to put the
kind of resources behind our affiliate relations that all
of us would like. We appreciate your patience and your recognition
of the fact that Pacifica still faces a huge financial challenge.
We are preparing to have a fully staffed affiliate program
office starting in October 2003.
In the meantime, we have retained an interim affiliates coordinator,
Ursula Ruedenberg (who conducted the affiliates survey) and
the interim Pacifica National Board (iPNB) has formed a committee
to develop policies for building effective affiliate relationships.
Deena Kolbert is here this weekend representing the board
committee. That board committee, by the way, will have an
affiliate as co-chair, which again reflects the new Pacifica’s
determination to include the voices of affiliates in the very
heart of the network. NFCB board member Valerie Van Isler
remains a senior Pacifica network manager also available to
all of you to answer your questions. National Board chair
Leslie Cagan had planned to join us this week but because
of the war cannot be here. In the months to come, Ursula and
other board committee members will be contacting you to improve
operational procedures and to obtain input for policies.
Also, our website now has an affiliates page at http://www.pacifica.org/stations/affiliates.html.
The KU schedule, upcoming special programs, contact information,
and a copy of the affiliates survey are some features that
can be found there.
We truly appreciate the support of the entire community radio
network as Pacifica gets back on its feet, and we look forward
to an exciting partnership.
As an example of what can be done, we are revitalizing the
spirit of collaboration and partnership with our affiliate
stations by working with a variety of community stations in
our special reporting on the Iraq invasion. During the first
two days of this war, over an 18 hour span, the five Pacifica
stations, Democracy Now!, Free Speech Radio News and ten participating
affiliates will lead our coverage with news, analysis, headlines,
features and breaking stories not only from the battlefront,
but from the peace movements on the homefront and abroad.
Pacifica is breaking new ground with this collaborative model
and the broadcast will be available to all stations on the
KU satellite band and via streaming on the Internet.
We know that in these stark economic and political times
that we need to reach out to our allies, to partner with other
independent media outlets, and progressive organizations across
the country. Pacifica cannot move into the future alone. We
need to work together and build strategic partnerships in
all aspects of radio programming and distribution. And as
we rebuild our programming, and our network infrastructure,
we are certain that we can relaunch a stronger, more diverse,
more effective relationship with the community radio movement
than ever before.
Thank-you.
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