What shall we do?
By Joseph Orozco
My thanks to KIDE Hoopa to fund my attendance to the 2024 Grassroots Radio Conference, (GRC) in New Orleans, LA. I am also a Board member of the Association of Affiliates, (AOA) to the Pacifica Radio Network. We are relatively a new organization established under the Bylaws of the Pacific Radio Foundation to function as the affiliate’s resource to nominate Affiliate representatives to the Pacifica National Board, (PNB). But the AOA and the Affiliates are separate from the Pacifica Radio Foundation.
The PNB is made of 4 representatives from each of the 5 Pacifica Foundation stations, KPFA-Berkeley, CA; KPFA-Los Angeles, CA; KPFK-Houston, TX; WBAI-New York, NY; and WPFW-Washington DC. There are 2 seats available for Pacifica Affiliates of which there are 235 affiliated stations. AOA recruits Affiliate candidates to serve 1-to-5-year PNB terms. If you want to learn more about the AOA, go to www.pacificanetwork.org and click on the Affiliates option.
Why I like the Grassroots Radio Conference, is because it is a conference created and hosted by community radio stations. Not by established media organization such as the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, or the former Public Radio Conference, or American Public Radio, or Native Public Media, or the Koahnic Broadcasting Company, although station members these agencies can and do attend the GRC. These national organizations are important means to connect with national foundations, broadcast venders and governmental agencies for funding and policy matters. The GRC is a time for community radio to share insights on the ground level with one another, networking is important.
This year AOA had a display table to promote what we do for the Affiliate stations. We provided some AOA swag items and hosted a luncheon for the Pacifica Network membership meeting where 3 of our 5 Board members introduced themselves and listened to the Affiliates advice and suggestions.
Two things I came away with a better understanding of is, 1, that as a media option, radio AM or FM is used by more Americans than any other electronic medium. I have known this and have seen such info-graphics. The info-graphic shared at the GRC 2024 showed not just the age demographics of listeners, it explained the general listener profile breakout in the age brackets. By and large radio is used to hear music genres although every listener profile may lean heavily toward certain radio formats. What I also saw by this data is the programming slant of station broadcasting. Go here: https://forms.gle/wPbDEGqmD2WyTjzZ7
The worst I learned is the threat of Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 has for Non-Commercial Educational (NCE) licenses like KIDE’s. The Republicans have tried to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for decades. Project 2025 has a different plan. Do not defund CPB. Instead have the Federal Communications Commission eliminate NCE licenses changing them all to Commercial licenses. The CPB Bylaws allows CPB to fund only NCE licenses. The Radio Ink Magazine explains this plan, go to: https://radioink.com/2024/07/19/heres-what-project-2025-says-about-radio/ This will reduce KIDE’s and other NCE station’s operational funds and all CPB funded personnel wages. Small rural community stations will have problems competing for enough commercial revenue to replace what CPB funds they lose. With Trump as President, Project 2025 has a better chance to fulfill its recommendations.
“First, they came for the journalist. I did not speak out – because I was not a journalist. We have no idea what they did next.” From the executive summary, Hurricane Warning white paper.
What shall we do?