[Imc] WILL Patterns article

[Kranich, Kimberlie]

Here's the Patterns article Peter was referring to:
Electronic Convulsions
By Don Mullally, Director of Broadcasting




Pullout Quote:
"Is this the end of free-speech radio? In my view, this is just another
convulsion in a long series made almost inevitable by the management
structure (or lack of it) that pervaded Pacifica.'


A remarkable American radio network is said to be close to meltdown. Its New
York station is in crisis; some staff argue that the form of radio to which
they have dedicated their lives has died. I believe we are witnessing only
another inevitable conflict in a series that began more than half a century
ago.
In the early 1940s, a group of pacifists decided there should be a forum for
dialogue that allowed people to profit from each others' ideas, especially
about the evils of war and the way America could embrace a philosophy of
peace. They were vigorously anti-Communist; indeed, they rejected the label
of "liberal," for they distrusted the entire spectrum embraced by the
liberal-conservative realm. They created the Pacifica Foundation, and to
promote their philosophy and ideology they decided to bring debate and
dialogue to people via radio.
In 1949 they created the first "listener-supported" station in the new
medium of FM: KPFA in Berkeley, Calif. There were few FM receivers at that
time, and the low-powered station had few listeners to send money. It
struggled and nearly died before it was given a $150,000 grant from the Ford
Foundation, whose 1949 goals were "the establishment of peace, strengthening
democracy, and education in a democratic society," goals which resonated
well with Pacifica's rhetoric. In keeping with Pacifica's philosophy and
style, KPFA was run almost as a "co-op," with an army of volunteers and a
few paid staff, all arguing endlessly about politics, policy, philosophy and
programming.
Pacifica's willingness to air controversial ideas resulted in KPFA being
pilloried in a publication called "Facts to Counteract Communism and Those
Who Aid Its Cause" and excoriated by people shocked by a discussion of
homosexuality aired in 1958. Liberals disliked the right-wing commentaries
of Gerald L.K. Smith and Caspar Weinberger.
Pacifica added stations in Los Angeles (KPFK-1959), New York City
(WBAI-1960), Houston (KPFT-1970), and Washington, D.C. (WPFW-1977). Those
stations, too, had independent local management that veered from
unstructured democracy to near-anarchy. This was purposeful: "corporate" was
considered as bad, local autonomy was better. At the same time, corporate
Pacifica was fending off attacks from a wide-ranging group of government and
commercial interests who found Pacifica outrageous: the stations reported on
Vietnam atrocities, read literature which some found offensive, played
recordings of "Seven Words You Can't Say On The Air," thumbed its electronic
nose at the establishment, and litigated its free-speech rights all the way
to the Supreme Court. 
The years of Pacifica's growth began with the witch-hunts of the McCarthy
era and encompassed the protests of the anti-Vietnam-war period, the
rebellions on college campuses, civil rights marches, the anti-nuclear
movement, murders of the Kennedys and Dr. Martin Luther King, the Watergate
scandal, the rise of feminism, the beginning of the gay-rights movement, and
the remarkable changes in American society that resulted from those and
other conflicts. Pacifica stations were at the center of all of those
issues, often raising difficult questions with a strident voice.
Periodically the Pacifica Foundation attempted to assert some level of
control over one or another of the stations, which were then almost
completely autonomous, but in many cases the local staffs and "managers"
viewed such efforts as "takeovers," and "the issuing of orders!"
By the early 1990s, the Board of the Pacifica Foundation had determined that
it needed to change course: local staff were still at the microphones
fulminating for peace and justice, but in an era of peace and prosperity
there were fewer and fewer followers in front of the radios. The Pacifica
Board made some management changes and took greater control over the
stations in Los Angeles, Houston and Washington.
But when Pacifica tried to assert a greater measure of control at KPFA in
Berkeley, staff and volunteers locked themselves into the studios and
broadcast pleas to the audience to save the station. Ten thousand protesters
surrounded the studios and marched in the streets. In the face of those
pressures and the negative publicity (largely fueled on-the-air by the
staff) and by lawsuits to remove members of the Pacifica Board deemed "too
corporate," the board relented.
Last December, the board replaced the manager of WBAI in New York, fired a
number of staffers, locked out some employees--and was treated to a barrage
of bad press. But this time the board replaced the former manager with one
of the current staff, so there could be no unified staff rebellion against
an outsider. 
Is this the end of free-speech radio? In my view, this is just another
convulsion in a long series made almost inevitable by the management
structure (or lack of it) that pervaded Pacifica. There are two facts which
seem to get lost in the heated rhetoric about Pacifica: Under the law, 1)
the licensee (The Pacifica Foundation Board) must be responsible for
everything that goes on the air: local managers and staffs cannot assume
that responsibility. 2) The Pacifica Board has a fiduciary responsibility to
all those who fund Pacifica stations to operate them in a prudent and
fiscally responsible manner; sometimes prudence means that program changes
must be made.
I'm confident that there are avenues by which the views espoused by Pacifica
staff can be heard, and that the public will still be served.  I'd like to
hear your views, of course; drop me a note when you have time.


Don's email address is:



dpm at will.uiuc.edu