A REPORT ON THE WPFW LAB MEETING

by Sam Husseini

 

There were about a dozen people at the March 22 WPFW Local Advisory Board (LAB) meeting including Pacifica board member Rob Robinson and WPFW program director Lou Hankins.

Several members of the LAB were there, as well as some activists and members of the public. The only member of the Pacifica national attending the LAB meeting was Rob Robinson, who has voted against the management some of the time. [he was the only person other than Tomas to vote against Bert Lee for the Board --Les Radke]

The meeting began with Robinson filling the LAB on events at the recent Pacifica board meeting. Robinson noted that he is not on the Executive Committee of the National Board and is frequently only told of some decisions after they are made. Robinson did criticize some of the Berkeley activists. Acie Byrd, who is a long-time DC-area activist, [he co-sponsored the teach-in at the Unitarian Church that the CdP also sponsored --Les R.] cautioned against demonizing people from Berkeley and encouraged people in DC to better understand their criticism of Pacifica management. Former WPFW programmer Billy Ray Edwards emphasized the need for WPFW to be community oriented.

Ambrose Lane, a WPFW host who is on the LAB (and who attended the initial meeting of Alliance for Progressive Radio) was at the meeting and several people on the LAB voiced support for his program. Members of the LAB discussed plans to have some sort of community forum on the station. They also noted that the LAB meeting was promoted on WPFW, unlike previous meetings. (This was apparently because several activists strongly raised this subject with Hankins at the recent Pacifica board meeting.)

I voiced concerns about censorship at WPFW, asked for a regular report to the listeners and asked Hankins for his thoughts on Democracy Now! Hankins said that WPFW was going great. He dismissed critics generally, implied that critics of his management of WPFW were racists, including myself. I told Hankins to back up his statement or withdraw it. Hankins did neither. Hankins indicated that he did not want to have a forum for nay-sayers at any community meeting. He argued that a community meeting in DC would likely exclude listeners who live in West Virginia and such. Hankins seemed to suggest that instead, some sort of questionnaire go out to members and he would inform the LAB of the feedback from members. Gail Dixon and other members of the LAB stated that all members of the community should have their concerns addressed and should not be dismissed as nay-sayers. Hankins had only negative things to say about Democracy Now!, its cost and such. He encouraged the LAB to ask the Pacifica board to make Lane's show national. He claimed that CounterSpin, which he had censored, did not bring in significant money. He boasted that fundraising generally was going well and that audience numbers were up. He also said that NPR had no listeners since it doesn't own stations and portrayed WPFW has triumphing over NPR. I said that Hankins throws out baseless charges of racism to distract from the fact that his management of WPFW has been sorely lacking. A member of the LAB asked Hankins for assurance that he would support their decisions about what kind of community forum to have. He seemed to indicate his agreement. After the meeting, several members of the LAB apologized to me for Hankins' conduct.

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