KPFT HOUSTON --RE-ENERGIZED LISTENERS TAKE A STAND AT THE CROSSROADSBy the Houston Committee for People's Radio Folio Update: Garland Ganter, manager of country-and-western music formatted KPFT, has been appointed Pacifica's interim national program director. Pacifica currently produces and distributes one and a half hours of daily programming.
EVENTS OVER THE PAST YEAR have put Pacifica Radio up against the loyal paying listeners that they are supposed to represent. The pressure to change Pacifica Radio along the lines of a corporate, money-making model has come from interests at the top of the Pacifica Foundation, who wish to feather their own nests at the expense of their listeners and the principles on which it was founded.
KPFT FM 90.1 was founded as part of the Pacifica network in the early 1970's. In the early 1980's, KPFT co-founder and perennial activist Ray Hill was the manager of a somewhat financially strapped, but seriously progressive KPFT. Those days were the golden years of KPFT. About 150 different volunteer programmers made their way to KPFT each month to operate their shows and there was a true synergy of talent and resources. The programming menu was varied, yet at the same time there was a wholeness to the output, where no show conflicted with another. You knew you were listening to a human-centered, progressive radio station whether you heard rock-n-roll, or new age, avant-garde or foreign language. In late 1981, Sharon Maeda, the executive director of the Pacifica Foundation came down to Houston to clean house. She got rid of manager Ray Hill and tossed out the people who produced the monthly program guide. Once her new manager, Jean Palmquist was ensconced in power, the crackdown began. Palmquist started her purges with foreign language programming, with the lame excuse that Pacifica couldn't monitor what was being said over the air. Of course this meant that many Americans in Houston who didn't speak English were now being deprived of their ability to receive information. Many ofthe foreign language programmers challenged Palmquist on her dictates. Palmquist responded by canceling their shows altogether.
Some foreign language programmers attempted to continue with their shows despite the management's heavy handed tactics. Palmquist simply called the cops and had them arrested for trespassing. This occurred several times in the mid-1980's. Sometime afterward, Palmquist hired current station manager, Garland Ganter, ostensibly to be the news director. KPFT slowly got rid of many of the other volunteer programmers culminating in the final purges of the mid-1990's. All that is left of community oriented programs at KPFT is a few shows late at night and on the weekends. Virtually all of the foreign language programming has been replaced. The station operates with paid DJ's during the day spinning from a proscribed list of acceptable music intended to appeal to an audience with cash in their pockets. They have turned Lew Hill on his head, seeking out money from listeners who have it and playing their tune, just like it would be if they had sought the support of advertisers.
As the old adage goes, whatever goes around comes around. In July of 1999, the Pacifica National Board sent quisling Garland Ganter to Berkeley to clean house there. Ganter may have been effective in pacifying KPFT in Houston, notorious for its plantation mentality, but he had another thing coming to him in Berzerkeley. Ganter arrested a programmer for trespassing, pulled the plug on the broadcast signal, put the entire staff on leave, and began airing Houston programming. The community in Berkeley couldn't stand it. Riot cops lined the streets, protesters camped out 24 hours a day, websites and listserves sprang up, and fifteen thousand people demonstrated one Saturday afternoon. After several weeks of this nonsense KPFA was back on the air with local programmers again.
Houston was re-energized by all the activity and started their own group in protest. We have a mission statement, are working on bylaws, and have decided to apply for non-profit status. Members attend the monthly KPFT Local Area Board Meetings, are trying to fill some of the vacant board seats with people who understand what a station true to the Lewis Hill Mission Statement would be like, and are eager to make KPFT a truly Pacifica station. The newest member to join the LAB Teresa Allen, is one such person. We had understood that we were to receive funds to help hire an organizer, but those plans fell through. We have found someone who could ably fill the position and are in the process of seeking money for her salary.
Former KPFT LAB member and board member of the Pacifica Foundation, Thelma Meltzer, died January 21 at age 78. At her memorial service, a plea was made to continue her work to return KPFT to its original Pacifica design. As a result, several people present signed up to work with us. It will be impossible to replace Thelma's energy and knowledgeable efforts, but it is great to have this new interest in democratic radio for Houston and the nation.
Pacifica is at a crossroads. On the one hand you have the national board with their ties to the Democratic Party and liberal lawyers in search of a cash cow in the post-welfare state era. These people are rumored to want to sell the Berkeley and New York City stations for upwards of two hundred million dollars. On the other hand you have the grassroots, totally up in arms in Berkeley, and growing in the sister station cities such as ours, all calling for the reinvestiture of the community at Pacifica Radio.
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