PACIFICA FOUNDATION PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 15, 1999 PRESS CONTACT: 510 843-0130
x461
    
WPFW LOCAL MANAGEMENT CANCELS RADIO PROGRAM Listeners not supporting
it, says manager.
    
  (WASHINGTON, DC) ---Community radio station WPFW-FM, the Pacifica
station in Washington, has decided not to continue to run CounterSpin,
a program offered on the Pacifca satellite service. The local station
manager, Bessie Wash, said she canceled the program because "our
audience wasn't listening to it." She added that during the last 3
pledge drives, less than $200 was raised during the segments when
CounterSpin aired.

  According to Pacifica's Executive Director, Lynn Chadwick,
CounterSpin is not a Pacifica-produced program. Rather, Pacifica
distributes the program for free on its satellite, and stations with
access to the satellite make their own decisions as to which programs
to broadcast. "Local managers make their own decisions about local
programming," said Chadwick. " Each Pacifica station's program
directors and general managers make the daily decision as to which
programs, among hundreds of options, best serve their local
communities. This is not an issue of censorship as some have charged.
CounterSpin is still on the satellite for any station that wants it,
and other Pacifica stations are running it. WPFW's local manager
decided her community just wasn't interested in the program, so she
decided not to air it."

  The Pacifica Foundation, founded in 1946, operates five community
radio stations, a satellite distribution service, and has dozens of
affiliates throughout community radio. It also produces 2 signature
programs- Pacifica National News and Democracy Now. Pacifica's goals
are to "promote cultural diversity and pluralistic community
expression, to contribute to a lasting understanding between
individuals of all nations, races, creeds and colors, to promote
freedom of the press as a forum for various viewpoints, and to
maintain an independent funding base."