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Pacifica Board Elects New Chair, Vice-Chair
BERKELEY (Feb. 17) - Directors of the five-station Pacifica
Radio network elected civil rights pioneer Rev. Ambrose Lane
and farm-worker advocate Julie Chavez-Rodriguez as Chair and
Vice-Chair of a new 22-member National Board at its annual
meeting in Los Angeles.
The election follows listener-member elections late last
year at the network's five stations located in New York, Washington,
D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, and Berkeley, California.
About 11,380 listeners and staff across the country - out
of some 95,000 active members - cast their ballots for 136
candidates running for 60 Local Station Board seats.
 Rev.
Ambrose Lane, who grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, has been
a Washington, D.C., radio talk show host and a political and
religious commentator since 1978.
His weekly show, "We Ourselves," airs each Monday
and Friday at 10 am on WPFW-Pacifica
Radio 89.3 FM, Pacifica's 50,000 watt station in the nation's
capitol. He is currently an elected member of WPFW's Local
Station Board.
A writer and journalist, Lane has authored books, pamphlets,
and articles on current events and non-profit governance.
His latest book is "For Whites Only? How and Why American
Became a Racist Nation."
He was a founder, part owner, editor and publisher for 17
years of the weekly newspaper, The Buffalo Challenger, serving
Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse, New York. While living in
Buffalo, he was the first African American to be a mayoral
candidate.
Rev. Lane is the 1999 recipient of the Washington, D.C.-based
United Black Fund's 1999 Media Excellence Award "for
20 years of outstanding service to the community through superb
journalism."
 Julie
Chavez-Rodriguez is the Programs Director for the Los Angeles-based
Cesar E. Chavez Foundation, a non-profit organization. The
family and friends of the farmworkers' leader founded the
organization in 1993 to empower people, especially youth,
to improve themselves and their communities through promoting
and applying the legacy and values of Cesar Chavez.
Born into the farm worker movement, she learned at an early
age the importance of civil rights for working people. She
has worked with the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation for the past
four years spearheading their educational and service program,
the National Youth Leadership Initiative.
Rev. Lane succeeds outgoing Pacifica Board chair Marty Durlin,
the General Manager of Pacifica affiliate station KGNU
88.5 FM in Boulder, Colorado. Julie Chavez-Rodriguez follows
Henry Cooper of Pacifica station KPFT
90.1 FM in Houston.
"The entire Pacifica community is thrilled and honored
to have two such esteemed individuals leading the network
in this critical period of war abroad and erosion of civil
liberties here at home," said Dan Coughlin, Pacifica's
Executive Director.
The new leadership signals a renewed commitment by the network
leadership to its peace and social justice mission as well
as a move to reach out to under-served communities in its
five signal areas, added Coughlin. Arbitron estimates show
that more than 35 percent of the network's audience is Black
and Latino, which makes Pacifica the public broadcaster with
the most diverse audience in the country, said Coughlin.
"Pacifica's diversity and community-base makes it a
leader in public broadcasting and the U.S. media as a whole,"
said Coughlin. "But to maintain and deepen that commitment,
Pacifica must redouble its efforts to build organic relations
with the communities we serve. The new Board leadership is
a bold step forward."
Founded in 1949, Pacifica's mission
is to engage in any activity that shall contribute to a lasting
understanding between nations and between the individuals
of all nations, races, creeds and colors.
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