By MICHAEL NAPP

KPFA (94.1 FM Berkeley) was the first listener-sponsored, non-corporate supported, community radio station. KPFA was founded 50 years ago by a group of pacifists whose vision was that, in a violent age, the flow of news and information was limited to those who reinforce established beliefs and government policy. Lou Hill, and others, was particularly concerned with the increasing militarization of life at the end of World War II and at the beginning of the nuclear age. FM radio was relatively non-existent in 1949. KPFA gave away FM radios to early supporters. Today FM radio is national/international and brings massive revenues to commercial broadcasters.

The little station at 94.1 was and is different. "FREE SPEECH RADIO" has been the slogan. The station has been a source of exposure for those with unpopular causes; civil rights and nuclear disarmament in the 1950’s; the social movement against the US war in Viet Nam in the 1960’s; environmental protection and anti-imperialism in the 1970’s; support for progressive governments and resistance to counter-revolutionary movements in the 1980’s; opposition to the growing horrors of neo-liberalism internationally and in the US.

KPFA gave a forum to Allen Ginsberg’s banned poetry and the commentaries of political prisoners like Mumia Abu Jamal. Reporters, like Dennis Bernstein in his show FLASHPOINTS, have kept in the forefront issues that are important to everyone such as the CIA’s role with the Contras in Nicaragua in the importing of crack/cocaine into the United States.

KPFA is one of five stations in the Pacifica network. The management of Pacifica has become highly structured. Pacifica’s future plans include expanding listeners by appealing to a broader audience. The stations in Houston and Washington, D.C. have eliminated most locally produced shows in favor of nearly all-music formats. There have been verified reports that many on the National Governing Board favor selling some stations and accepting corporate funding. This is seen as a step on the road to sounding like NPR (aka National Pentagon Radio).

The controversy began to reach crisis when Pacifica eliminated the membership of local advisory boards from the national board. Two weeks before fiftieth anniversary of KPFA, Pacifica fired the very popular general manager, Nicole Sawaya. Ms. Sawaya was credited with uniting a highly divided staff, enlarging the apprenticeship program, and expanding the roles of women and people of color. Lyn Chadwick, Pacifica Executive Director said Sawaya was "not a good fit." Many saw her firing as a reaction to questions she had raised about Pacifica’s long and short-term goals.

When Sawaya was terminated, Pacifica ordered on-air staff not to report the firing as news. This "gag rule" was defied unanimously by the staff, which demanded Sawaya’s reinstatement. Larry Bensky, award winning national affairs news reporter, was fired for discussing Sawaya’s termination on his Sunday show, "Living Room."

There have been numerous, on-going demonstrations in solidarity with KPFA’s staff. When there was a sit-in at Pacifica’s offices, Lyn Chadwick made citizen arrests when Berkeley police were hesitant. US Justice Department officials intervened with the Berkeley police chief about the incident and, since then, the police have been more aggressive. (The chair of the Pacifica Board is Mary Francis Berry head of the Civil Rights Commission and a Clinton appointee.)

Pacifica installed an expensive security company at KPFA, and events escalated when, on 7/13, FLASHPOINTS producer Dennis Bernstein reported on a press conference by those arrested. This was attended by numerous press representatives but Pacifica said it was a violation of the "gag order." Bernstein was placed on suspension immediately after the broadcast and security guards attempted to remove him from the station. Bernstein refused to leave and the physical attempt to remove him was heard on the air. While being reported LIVE during the evening news, the station went off the air for several minutes. The news broadcast was replaced by canned music. Pacifica announced that the entire KPFA staff was on "administrative leave" and the doors to the station were pad locked.

Within minutes hundreds of people who had heard the event live began demonstrating in front of the station.

Within days demonstrators established CAMP KPFA in front of the station 24 hours a day. A sold-out benefit concert featuring Joan Baez was rapidly organized. Expressions of support and unity were massive. Most significant was support from KFCF, a Pacifica affiliate in Fresno. The station immediately opened its airwaves to broadcast "locked out" shows. FLASHPOINTS began broadcasting daily from KFCF, which also assisted in broadcasting "censored" KPFA over the Internet.

The lockout ended after 23 days with the "gag rule" lifted. The unanimous demands of the staff for the return of those fired, written guarantee that KPFA will not be sold, and democratic selection of Pacifica’s governing bodies have not been met. All sides are currently in mediation.

Supporters of Free Speech Radio understand that this will be a protracted struggle. The realization is that this is not just localized but is an example of a broad-based attempt to limit access to information and to prevent dissenting voices from being heard.

ACTION: Donations should be sent to: FRIENDS OF FREE SPEECH RADIO, 905 Parker Street, Berkeley, CA 94710.

Veteran Reporter Bernstein brings KPFA struggle to Modesto

When KPFA-FM reporter Dennis Bernstein was literally pulled away from his microphone by hired security guards during his show this summer and arrested for trespassing in the newsroom where he had worked for a decade, he had one consoling awareness: the whole incident was happening on the air.

The listening public’s resulting outrage at the lockdown of Berkeley’s public radio station, the nation’s oldest and one of its most vital, an institution thoroughly identified with the diversity and activism of Bay Area residents, has sparked the biggest wave of public protests across Northern California since the Vietnam War. The corporate-style takeover of the popular, listener-sponsored station by its own parent agency, the Pacifica Foundation, has focused national and even international attention on the struggle of independent media to maintain their autonomy in the face of increasing corporate control – even under the banner of the publicly funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Dennis Bernstein, veteran reporter and host of the National Public Radio show, "Democracy Now," will bring his testimony and analysis of the issues at stake to Modesto on Tuesday, Sept. 14, in a free public presentation tentatively titled "KPFA Radio: A Test of Free Speech and Corporate Control." He will be joined by a number of other KPFA staffers and participants in the KPFA protest. The struggle, he wrote in a recent editorial for Pacific News Service, "involves not just one radio station, but the new world of corporate control and the relentless logic of the market.

"This battle is about the future," he wrote, "not reliving the 1960s."

The presentation, the first in the 1999-2000 Modesto Junior College journalism lecture series, "Views on the News," is co-sponsored by the Modesto Peace-Life Center. It will take place from 7:30-9:30 p.m. in Forum Building, Room 110, on the Modesto Junior College East Campus. Admission is free; donations will be accepted.

ACTION: Contact Laura Paull, MJC instructor of journalism, at 575-6224 for further information.

By NORMAN SOLOMON

Creators Syndicate

Is it really possible for broadcasting and democracy to mix?

In theory, yes. But right now, the prospects look bleak. Most Americans live in areas where just a few media conglomerates dominate. Overall, what’s on the airwaves is more like centralized monotony than democratic discourse.

Over 4,000 commercial radio stations have been sold since the bipartisan Telecommunications Act of 1996 became law. Radio mergers occur almost every day. The major media firms keep getting larger in size and fewer in number.

For three years, we’ve had no national limits on how many radio stations a single corporation can own. In a big city, eight radio stations can belong to the same firm. And the Federal Communications Commission just ruled that one company can own two television stations in the same city.

Media moguls are thrilled about the new ruling. The owner of the PAX TV network, Lowell Paxson, told a reporter: "I can’t wait to have a glass of champagne and toast the FCC!" And so it goes. Lobbyists for broadcasting firms continue to prevail.

Causes of deregulation mania are similar to its effects: Democracy has very little to do with what’s on the air. The last thing we’re likely to hear on networks owned by General Electric (NBC), Westinghouse (CBS) or Disney (ABC) is in-depth debate about the wisdom of surrendering the nation’s airwaves to unabashed profiteers.

Millions of Americans, eager for news coverage, depend on "noncommercial" stations. But National Public Radio affiliates, like their TV counterparts with ties to PBS, are so corporatized by now that the public has little voice — even at stations that call themselves "listener supported."

Actually, there’s a direct connection between how a station is governed and what it airs. When decision-making is insulated from real public participation, the bottom-line priorities that emerge are predictable — and audible.

Meanwhile, the public’s designated role in "public broadcasting" is usually confined to sending in money, as if democratic processes would undermine broadcast outlets. But some community stations around the country (such as KBOO Radio in Portland, Ore.) have proven that "democratic media" need not be an oxymoron.

In this context, a key battle is continuing in the San Francisco area as thousands of KPFA Radio supporters struggle to protect their station against its owner, the Pacifica Foundation (which also owns noncommercial radio stations in Los Angeles, Houston, New York City and Washington). Pacifica has yet to apologize for its indefensible actions during the past few months — including repeated attempts to throttle the free speech of KPFA journalists, placement of armed guards inside the station to harass and intimidate staff, cutting off a newscast in mid-sentence on July 13, ordering the arrests of KPFA journalists in their own workplace and then locking out all of the station’s employees.

The lockout lasted 23 days, until Aug. 5 — nearly a week after 10,000 station supporters marched through the streets of Berkeley. The situation remains dire. Pacifica’s national board chair, Mary Frances Berry, has denied the well-documented truth that the board considered a proposal last month to sell KPFA’s frequency.

In Northern California, the enormous support for KPFA throughout the region is a historic instance of grassroots activism on behalf of community radio. KPFA’s battle with Pacifica is a struggle for democratic possibilities at a time of rampant go-along-to-get-along homogenization and centralization.

For anyone familiar with the facts, strong support for KPFA would seem to be a no-brainer. But ambivalence about the option of democratic media can be found in many places, including some prominent liberal quarters.

In a recent issue of The Nation (Aug. 23), the magazine took an editorial position. Well, sort of. It turned out that The Nation’s hierarchy could not muster any outrage about Pacifica’s outrageous actions. Instead, the editorial merely described them as "a series of heavy-handed moves."

In contrast, The Progressive magazine is forthright in its September issue. "With these actions," writes editor Matthew Rothschild, "it became clear that Pacifica management was violating the sacred trust which all of us in the alternative media are honor-bound to uphold. That trust is not just to preserve our institutions, but to uphold the principles behind those institutions."