The following letter was sent to Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) board members this week to announce ARD's MPR "Un-Pledge" Drive.
Dear MPR board members,
On behalf of Minneapolis-based Americans for Radio Diversity (ARD) - a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting community oriented public and commercial broadcasting - and the co-signers below, I am writing to you regarding the FCC's Low-Power FM (LPFM) initiative and MPR's position on the issue.
MPR, to my knowledge, has yet to address the current Minneapolis radio market and how it proves LPFM can work without the interference MPR alleges would occur.
The "K-Love" translator at 90.7FM broadcasts from the Wells Fargo building, the second tallest downtown building, and causes no interference to full power MPR station KNOW at 91.1FM. Not only is this translator (which is LPFM under another name) spaced closer to KNOW than even the LPFM rules allow, it does not interfere with KNOW or the reading for the blind sub-carrier service carried on KNOW's main carrier (interference concerns have purportedly been a major concern of MPR). We also observe that of Minnesota's 63 LPFM applicants, only one frequency was applied for in the noncommercial portion of the
band where most MPR stations and their reading services exist. MPR's silence about these issues leads us to question MPR's actual motives in its opposition to LPFM. While ARD et al. supports and enjoys much of the programming found on MPR, we must take exception to MPR's transformation into just another profit-maximizing media corporation. MPR's opposition to LPFM is clearly driven by the desire to protect the company's bottom line and is a disappointing departure from its charter to serve the public interest.
This position is based not only on LPFM but on a pattern of MPR behavior: revenue to expenditure ratios, the questionable sale
of member lists, the opposition to the launch of community radio station KFAI in the 1970s, the attempted takeover of KBEM during the same period, etc.
We will make special note of MPR's recent takeover of community/college station KPCC-FM in Pasadena, California After the takeover of KPCC, MPR proceeded to relieve all 20 of KPCC's community volunteer music programmers who were replaced by MPR's news and talk format and MPR's flagship program, "A Prairie Home Companion" (a show which has been available on another station in L.A. for some time). This action displayed a total disregard for the diversity of the local community and is in stark contrast to the Carnegie Commission Report, which led Congress to pass the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 and which stated that public [broadcasting] programming 'can help us see America whole, in all its diversity,' serve as 'a forum for controversy and debate,' and 'provide a voice for groups in the community that may otherwise be unheard.'
In light of these facts and with much sadness we announce that we are launching a campaign to encourage individual and corporate donors to withhold funding of MPR until MPR fully addresses our concerns regarding their position on LPFM. As supporters of the original mission of MPR, we regret that it has come to this. Please feel free to contact us at any time to discuss the issues addressed in this letter as we wish to maintain an open dialog with your organization on media democracy issues. It is our hope that MPR can fully and fairly analyze these issues and follow the lead of Oregon Public Broadcasting
(OPB), KANW in Albuquerque and others by distancing itself from National Public Radio's position against LPFM.
Respectfully Yours,
Glenn Austin
for Americans for Radio Diversity (http://radiodiversity.com)
2355 Fairview Ave. #156
Roseville, MN 55113
612-874-6521
Alan Freed
for Beat Radio (http://beatworld.com)
Andrea Buffa
for the Media Alliance (http://media-alliance.org)
Andrea Vargas
for the Microradio Implementation Project (http://microradio.org)
Pete Tridish
for the Prometheus Radio Project (http://prometheus.tao.ca)