Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Why am I not listening to the radio station I support?

Because they are never out of pledge drive mode and they are quite ugly at it.  I tried to listen this morning to the radio station that I support twice a year only to be told “come on people, it is time to cough up what this station is worth” and something about how much I might spend on coffee.  The tone that they take is something between petulant and accusatory and the discourse sounded like a berating for not having given enough.  There is also a pitch language that seems to treat the public as if we were all in the same place together listening to them.  A few people call in, and it is a “rally” and nobody calls and we are not getting “with it”. 

Now Denis Bernstien can be all of that any time he does a pitch and I have no idea how many listeners he has personally and permanently lost to the station, but the others don’t pitch much better.  Somehow being told how exceptional the news will be whenever we stop this fund drive by Amy Goodman, who will have dinner with me for a cool thousand dollars does not sound like a radio station reaching out to its community.

Speaking of that community, where is KPFA?  Are we doing anything to increase listenership?  Are we doing anything to bring in new voices?  Seems like I only hear from Pacifica when they want us to donate or when they are infighting.  For anyone who is paying attention the infighting is vicious and destructive.  On the one hand we here endless and misleading vitriol from the “Save KPFA” group and on the other, we have groups of people who seem to be holding on to some kind of turf.  I do not watch it close enough to know who is entrenched and how but the shows do not change much and I have no idea who some of them are reaching out to.  Serious HR practices are not being dealt with and programing seems more like a confederation of non-profits than a coherent radio station.  It seems to me that as our national government is shut down and paralyzed by two similar groups fighting for turf something not so different happens throughout US culture. 

So I switch off the radio station that I support and listen to the biased, high class version of the corporate news on KQED, which I tell people not to send money to.  Is there any wonder why my son and girlfriend both have KQED membership gifts? 

9 comments:

  1. Ouch. Interesting and provocative commentary on the 'perma-drive' KPFA guilt-a-thon. While I often enjoy some of there guests, they have way too many repeat programs and you are correct that the holier than though messaging that wafts out from their likely unmonitored control room could be doing their storied brand more disservice than good. I also find it curious how they pitch the so-called poor, yet the 'tude is as if dropping $150-300 or annually is just a drop in the bucket - given how many other good 501c3s exist, it seems to me they could do a better job first by making you feel OK sending them $20 and concurrently executing a kickstarter program that built up their base.

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  2. So, er, I have to again ask the question, "Why not give to the station(s) you listen to?" When was the last time you listened to a station with COMMERCIALS? The grains of salt are kept next to the radio. I listen to that which shouts and preaches least and when I have money I give them some because I prefer pledge drives to ads. (Oh, and those nice gifts... they are nice to receive, aren't they, Don?)

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  3. There was an outreach committee meeting this week, led by Local Station Board Member and Berkeley Copwatch Founder Andrea Prichett. They are working on outreach to San Jose, which the signal reaches, at the moment. I have long felt that some of the outreach that most needs done is on the website which should, for one, be driving more traffic in Google Search, but there's an impasse about that which seems all but impossible to overcome.

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    1. I have a lot of respect for Andrea. I think KPFA, sort of like the SF Mime Troope, needs to reach out to a new generation of listeners, supporters and managers. I really wish there was more structure and support to the work you Ann, and folk like Sabrina are doing. A lot of our longer serving staff have become a bit stale.

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  4. I also wanta say thanks for voicing what I know a lot of listeners are feeling. I shared it with the station's general manager and with a Yahoo list of programmers and listeners. Please understand that plenty of staff, paid and unpaid, are feeling the same way about the length and tone of the drives.

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  5. To answer Peggy's question. I do not support KQED, even though I listen to it because it is not community media. It is as corporate influenced as any other. Non commercial just means that the commercials are read by the announcers, not that it does not have commercial relationships. The idea that NPR is somehow "better" news is wrong. It is more professionally delivered news of the same type the rest of the media provides. Without such things as Pacifica, Counterspin and other such projects, we would have little to even critique it with. For example. If you are an NPR listener alone, what do you know about Israel. Are the settlements legal? What do you know about our banking system? Has it been reformed? Then NPR listener who does not have other sources of information may be bamboozled more by NPR because of its venire of professionalism and quality. Furthermore, if we in the public did not pay for it, the financial interests behind it have shown time and again that they have the funds to prop it up. In fact, the current budget is not mostly covered by donations. Donations are more of a ploy to give it the appearance of being non-commercial, independent and "public"

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  6. This love/hate relationship people have with KPFA especially during pledge month is interesting. i know people also have ti with KQED during their pledge periods. Any thoughts as to what stations that want to be independent of corporate control, commercialism and big donors can do. I believe as you implied that KPFA for the most part really does, while KQED only fakes it.

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    1. I know you're asking Don, but my own answer would be "Expand the audience," which is actually one of those he gave.

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