Since my on-air resignation on January 31 from Pacifica's national daily news show, Democracy Now!, and my call for a nationwide campaign to oust the Pacifica Foundation's board of directors, thousands of listeners responded with e-mails and phone calls. By an overwhelming margin, they expressed support for my actions. Many asked how they could help.visit the story link to read this complete commentary from former Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez
A few, however, were confused about one of the tactics I am urging -- a national listener boycott of funds to Pacifica. Along with some activists who have been fighting the corporate takeover of Pacifica, and many staff members at the five Pacifica stations, those few worry that a listener boycott risks destroying the only independent, left-wing radio network in the country. Those concerns should not be dismissed lightly. Neither should they be accepted outright.
WJHU-FM Baltimore, currently owned by Johns Hopkins University, is on a reserved non-commercial frequency, 88.1 mHz, but even so, an editorial in today Baltimore Sun worries that, "Unfortunately, all this talk about a sale is likely to make Hopkins realize it's sitting on a gold mine." The Sun notes that the University of the District of Columbia got $13M for its non-commercial station in Washington, DC four years ago. When the newspaper revealed Friday (3/16) that the university was shopping the station, it noted that expansion-minded Minnesota Public Radio had already taken a look at the station. Several Religious group operators might also be potential bidders. "Instead of starting a bidding war, Hopkins should look into developing WJHU into a powerhouse of programming with syndication potential," the Sun suggested in today's editorial. Weighing against that scenario, is the university's lack of involvement in WJHU, which is located off campus and operates with a professional staff and no student involvement.
This in via e-mail:
Riddle: If a black cat has 9 lives, how many lives does a Black Panther have? Answer: We don't know, but human rights activist Mbanna Kantako is determined to find out.
Kantako, frequently referred to as the Father of the Micro-Radio Movement, returned his micro station, Human Rights Radio (106.5 FM) to the air on Tuesday, March 20. Those of you who have followed the Kantako chronicles, for the past 13 1/2 years, know that he has been raided and ripped off-the-air by the FCC Thought Police, and their local armed forces (called Multi-Jurisdictional SWAT Teams), two times in the last six months. Well, "He's Baaaack!" and once again in violation of a federal court order not to broadcast.
Kantako has steadfastly declared that the United Nation's Declaration of Human Rights guarantees ordinary citizens the right to communicate with their fellow citizens and that giant media corporations, with the support of their bought and sold politicians, have usurped that right from the people. Defending himself at the last hearing in federal court, he demanded that Human Rights Monitors from the International Community be invited by the court as observers at his hearings. The court, predictably, denied his demand. Kantako, by returning to-the-air for a third time, has put the ball back in the FCC's court. General Colin Powell's son, Michael, plucked (with Daddy's help) the political plum of a job as new head of the FCC in the illegitimately elected Bush Administration. The volley is now his. Let's see how he plays the blind Black Panther.
What did Kantako do during the few months he was off-the-air, you ask. Well he certainly didn't sulk around feeling depressed and sorry for himself. Quite the contrary. What he did was put together a weekly half-hour cable access TV program entitled Raw African Power (R.A.P.) which began it's run on local Channel 4 a few weeks ago.
Most people don't know that Kantako has run a summer school for low-income youth for the past 15 years, known as the Marcus Garvey School of Human Rights; it's run by neighborhood volunteers and university students working together. Seven years ago he started the Senseia Kankaji Human Rights Club, an after-school mentoring program for students who attend the summer school.
Inspired by the oral history method of teaching utilized by "Griots" in African societies, Kantako has written over 200 rap songs in the past two years, dealing with human rights, social injustice, black history, etc. He teaches these songs to the children in the summer school and mentoring program. They, in turn, perform the songs on the cable access TV program and the audience learns the lessons through them. Over the years, Kantako has established contacts around the country and now some of these people are taking copies of Kantako's shows to their own cable access channels for showing. Kantako has enough songs in hand to do 50 more TV programs.
Well, that's one thing he did. Another was to transfer more than 1000 of his old micro-radio programs from cassette tape to CD's, which will make his 24/7 broadcast life a little easier now that he is back on-the-air.
So, there's your update. You can reach Kantako at 113 N. 5th St., Springfield, IL. 62702. Phone # is: 217-789-0038. E-mail is: Kantako@warpnet.net
Mike Townsend
Mtown1@uis.edu
217-206-7574
To read the complete press release, visit the story link.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE! FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE!
WHAT: F.C.C. RAID SHUTS DOWN RADIO FREE CASCADIA 98.5FM
WHEN: AM MARCH 15 TH, 2001
CONTACT: STEVE BOUTON at 242-0943; email: radio985@efn.org;
PO Box 12200 Eugene, OR 97440
Early in the morning of Thursday, March 15th, the Federal Communications Commision (FCC), along with 8 U.S. Marshalls, 3 local cops, and other agents arrived with a search warrant, battering ram, and drawn guns to search and seize the long running micro-power station, Radio Free Cascadia (RFC) 98.5 FM.
People living at the Whiteaker neighborhood residence were awoken and
questioned individually as to the operations of the station and people
involved. All broadcasting equipment was taken into custody. Radio Free Cascadia has been providing an alternative to corporate radio for over three years to the Eugene community. This was an obvious attack on free speech and autonomy. RFC claims "We will be back on the air!" Stay tuned for more information.
Does radio seem bad these days? Do all the hits sound the same, all the stars seem like cookie cutouts of one another?
It's because they do, and they are.
Why? Listeners may not realize it, but radio today is largely bought by the record companies. Most rock and Top 40 stations get paid to play the songs they spin by the companies thatb y the companies that manufacture the records. But it's not payola -- exactly. Here's how it works. (visit story link above to get the details)
The Federal Communications Commission has cleared 32 radio mergers that had been flagged by the commission for closer competitive analysis. In 1998, the FCC began putting aside certain radio deals to look at them more carefully because of worries over widespread consolidation stemming from a 1996 telecommunications law that ended restrictions on how many radio stations a company could own nationwide and eased caps on how many stations a company could own in a local market. "I do not believe the public interest is served by inaction," said newly appointed FCC Chairman Michael Powell. "Further delay is neither warranted nor just."
Clear Channel Communications, the nation's largest radio broadcaster, wants a share of the tens of millions of dollars in record company promotional funds that go to independent promoters--and sometimes smack of payola.
The move is sending a shudder through the major labels, which see legal and ethical problems with paying money directly to broadcasters to help get their artists on the air.
The initiative, which the company expects to roll out around May, reflects a fundamental shift of power in the record business. In the past, powerful record labels were accused of bribing deejays operating at small, independent radio stations to influence what songs got airplay.
Industry mergers have moved the balance of power to radio groups, which today have the clout to launch a song simultaneously in scores of markets across the country--or consign it to oblivion.
When Labour talks about "radically modernising" broadcasting, it means handing it over to big business. Last week, the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom held a conference in central London about a threat to broadcasting that few people know about. Most of the participants were academics. Dorothy Byrne, the current affairs editor of Channel 4, came. There was no one from the BBC and no national press.
The aim of the conference was to alert the public to thegovernment's white paper on the media, A New Future for Communications, which was announced in December by the Culture Secretary Chris Smith and the Trade Secretary Stephen Byers with these words: "Rules governing all British broadcasting and communications industries will be radically modernised to ensure that citizens, consumers and the media industry are to be winners in the new communications revolution." There was the need, they said, to give broadcasters "lighter touch regulation so that they have the freedom to operate effectively".
It was a brilliant new Labour policy statement. Almost all of it was
the diametric opposite of the truth. Legislation rushed through parliament, probably in the autumn, will begin the conversion of British broadcasting to the ultra-commercial American model, which has long ceased to be a medium of free expression. The BBC will be forced into direct competition with huge commercial interests, "creating for the first time", say the ministers, "a level playing field for British broadcasting".