A Message from HEATHER GRAY, producer of “Just Peace” on WRFG-Atlanta 89.3 FM
Below is an article I wrote a while ago regarding a presentation I was asked to give at an FCC hearing in Atlanta in 2011. It is somewhat relevant to what we are experiencing with New Day Pacifica that is challenging the whole democratic process of media rather than accepting the fact that the media should be ‘Owned by the People’ and represented by the people as it was intended to be.
Without going into detail on it all in this note, the thing that has always disturbed me about Pacifica was when it decided, not long ago, to have paid producers. At a Pacifica meeting years ago at KPFA I immediately discovered the hierarchical and discriminatory relationship between the paid producers and those who were not paid – as in the paid producers acted like they were better than the non-paid producers! That plan of paying producers, in my opinion, severely lacked the integrity of the community radio democratic process/philosophy and also, in my opinion, it has not helped Pacifica either because of having to pay these producers. To me, having paid producers at ‘community’ radio stations is a contradiction altogether of Lew Hill’s intent. I am sure many at Pacifica don’t agree with that assessment.
Nevertheless, as I mentioned at a recent PNB board meeting, we at WRFG kicked the CPB representatives out of our station as they attempted to essentially force our station manager to hire a single producer for our 5-day weekly Good Morning Blues program. WRFG had this paid producer for about a month and we ended that as soon as possible, got our volunteer producers back, and got rid of our station manager. It was our understanding that the CBP was attempting to do this – as in having paid producers in community radio – because some of them had lost their jobs at NPR.
Some action: I frankly think we need to do a nationwide educational initiative on the history of community radio and the role it plays in all aspects of our national/local news and culture and thus also a major media entity in the United States that represents the 99%.
Peace, Heather
The Airwaves are Owned by the People
February 17, 2020
Justice Initiative
Preface
The last time I sent out this article was in 2017 not long after Trump was elected as the US president. I refer here to the challenges faced by those wanting to have a democratically based media entity in the United States.
While there are hundreds of community radio stations throughout the country, it was Lew Hill who created the concept of ‘community’ as opposed to ‘corporate’ owned media. While in California, Hill created the community-based Pacifica radio in 1949 because he realized that as a radio producer for NBC he was reporting on the interests of the radio corporate owners and not his views or those of the community.
Ultimately Pacifica Radio became a network with five stations throughout the country: KPFA in Berkeley, CA; KPFK in Los Angeles, CA; KPFT in Houston, TX; WPFW in Washington DC; and WBAI in New York City, NY. The stations are community based with democratically elected boards of directors along with racially, as well as, culturally diverse on-air producers.
The fact is there are, unfortunately, challenges today to maintaining Pacifica as a democratic community-based radio network. Without going into the details of it all, the issue today is largely whether or not Pacifica will remain, to repeat, a democratically based community radio network, particularly regarding the election of board members.
Regarding democratically based community radio stations across the country, on December 1, 2011 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) held a hearing in Atlanta inquiring about the “Information Needs of Atlanta”. It was hosted by Atlanta Congressman John Lewis, and FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn. The event took place at the auditorium of the Georgia Tech Research Institute.
This was the last hearing for Michael Copps who retired at the end of December 2011.
I was asked by WRFG-Atlanta 89.3 (Radio Free Georgia Broadcasting Foundation) to represent the station on the panel and my comments are below.
With respect to my background, I have been involved in community media since 1991 when I began producing a local public affairs show (Just Peace) on WRFG (FM) in Atlanta. WRFG is the only independent community-based radio station in Atlanta. Shortly after, I was elected to WRFG’s Board of Directors. In 2002, I was selected as chair of the board and held the position for 7 years. This encompassed organizing an FCC hearing in Atlanta in 2003 on deregulation.
This was when, in 2003, the FCC, under its chair Michael Powell (a President George Bush appointment), was about to attempt to make sweeping changes to relax media ownership rules in order to create a more consolidated and less diverse media landscape.
Heather Gray & journalist John Suggs at Atlanta FCC hearing in 2003 (photo: Jim Alexander)
Copps reported at the media event in 2011, that in 2003 three million people responded by contacting their Congresspersons expressing opposition to the deregulation efforts.
The point is, Americans obviously become concerned about media at critical times but it needs to be consistent and once again, in 2011, we needed to step up to the plate as it were. As Michael Copps said at Georgia Tech, to a crowd also composed of Occupy Atlanta activists, that “if you are concerned about issues other than the media then the media needs to be at the very least second on your list because your major area of concern won’t likely get the coverage you need if the media is all the more consolidated and less diverse.”
To set the tone regarding diversity issues in media, I wanted to share the excerpt below from a 2013 article by Dr. Jason Allen in the Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality entitled: ‘Disappearing Diversity? FCC Deregulation and the Effect on Minority Station Ownership’:
As part of the 2008 Diversity Order, then-Commissioner Michael Copps expressed his dissatisfaction with the ongoing failures of the FCC’s diversity initiatives saying, “Racial and ethnic minorities make up 33 percent of our population. They own a scant 3 percent of all full-power commercial TV stations. And that number is plummeting.
…It is almost inconceivable that this shameful state of affairs could be getting worse; yet here we are.”
This lack of diversity in media ownership emphasizes the importance of democratically controlled diverse community radio stations. We in community radio, in fact, represent the bastion of diversity in the broadcast media.
Below are my comments at the FCC hearing in Atlanta on December 1, 2011. We had five minutes to speak. I also thanked Commissioner Copps for his service as one of the few and rare public servants who actually has advocated for the people and in the public interest.
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I was on ‘Panel One’ with the theme being “The State of Atlanta’s Media”. Below are my comments. Heather Gray
I represent community owned radio in Atlanta – WRFG – Radio Free Georgia — offering voices from a vast diversity of people and opinions to empower individuals and communities. We stand against sexism, racism, classism, militarism and anti-immigrant chauvinism. Community radio “educates and informs the public in return for public investment.” Commercial media instead sells products for profit.
It has been found, in the history of capitalism, that privatization and consolidation of wealth leads to inequities, poverty and pain. And we have witnessed degradation and relaxation of regulations in virtually everything we’ve established in America that offers some kind of public commons that benefits the people rather than corporations. It is said that unregulated concentration of wealth led to today’s economic debacle, yet many want more of the same formula. This is insane. It has to stop.
We have seen this concentration in media. Today we have 4 corporate giants controlling vast numbers of radio stations and reaping billions of dollars at the expense of independent news. Media in America represents corporate America. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
The public spectrums that commercial interests use to transmit their signals, are owned by us – the people. Yet the government has allowed these interests to use the spectrums for free to then monopolize and make billions of dollars while offering next to no public service. It’s payback time. This cannot continue.
Democracy demands informed voters. With corporate media, however, we have a population tainted by information delineated by commercial interests rather than the breadth of views and opinions of an independent public media system. Given that the FCC has failed to regulate media in the public interest the situation cries for integrity and independence.
What does Atlanta need? It needs more non-profit community media and the existing non-profit media needs financial support on an on-going basis, rather than teetering on edge by consistently having to go to it’s listeners for funds – like a bake sale. Alternatives need to be adapted and planned for immediately.
Here are three recommendations to support and build community media:
For one – The government auctions off frequencies and there are plans to do more of this. This is the ultimate of gross privatization. Yet, these frequencies are owned by us, the public. Instead of auctioning them off they should be given to communities across America for public and non-profit broadcasters and public television. They are ours after all.
Secondly – Commercial media should be required to pay for the right of making use of the frequencies, owned by us, that they use for their own financial benefit. This is a gift from the public that they do not deserve. Substantial license fees from commercial media should be immediately implemented and the fees should be used to fund public and non-profit broadcasters and public television in a Public Media Trust Fund.
Thirdly – There should be a $300 media tax credit for Americans – tax payers will check the media entity they want their money to be assigned to, and/or have the money go into the Public Media Trust Fund.
‘Occupying Wall Street’ demonstrators protested economic inequities in America. The ‘Occupation of Media’ needs to be included – and that means occupying the FCC and the airwaves to demand that public/community radio be prioritized as a necessary public commons and there must be incentives and opportunities offered to make that a reality.
Finally, I agree with Commissioner Michael Copps when he said there should a PBSS – a Public Broadcasting System on Steroids. He said “That can’t be done on the cheap, and we’ll hear laments that there’s not a lot of extra cash floating around these days. But other nations find ways to support such things. The point is we need to start talking, start planning, now.” Indeed. Let’s do it!
References:
- Free Press www.freepress.net
- Black Agenda Report www.blackagendareport.com – articles by editor Bruce Dixon
HEATHER GRAY is the producer of “Just Peace” on WRFG-Atlanta 89. 3 FM covering local, regional, national and international news. She has been involved in agriculture advocacy and communications for 25 years in the United States and internationally. She can be reached at hmcgray@earthlink.net
