KPFA Local Station Board election campaign is underway


Bay View-endorsed candidates are listed below

by Renée Asteria Peñaloza

KPFA-transmitter-59000-watts-304-tall-on-1500-Grizzley-Peak-in-Berkeley-Hills2, KPFA Local Station Board election campaign is underway, Local News & Views Greetings, fellow activists. As you may know, KPFA’s Local Station Board (LSB) election, one of the greatest experiments in media democracy, is currently underway. We have 29 candidates running to fill nine seats on the LSB, KPFA’s governing body, composed of elected listener and staff members. The LSB has real teeth as it must approve the budget, oversee programming and create policy. Given the weight of these responsibilities, it is important that people elected to the board represent the community that they serve – that means you.

We need your voice. We need your vote. The survival, relevance and diversity of Free Speech Radio are at stake. I urge you to look out for your ballot this first week of September. If you do not get one, please contact me, KPFA election supervisor, by writing to election@kpfa.org or calling (510) 848 6767, ext. 626.

You may wonder how to make your choice. Who are these candidates? How will they represent your voice? Meet the candidates, present your ideas, raise your concerns and challenge them with your questions at the debates and forums scheduled throughout the Bay between now and mid October. Visit myspace.com/kpfaelection2009 for an updated calendar.

I invite you to read candidate statements on http://pacificafoundation.org/ and to please listen to the first on-air forum which presents 26 of the 29 candidates in a series of six-hour debates (http://kpfaelection2009.blogspot.com/2009/08/august-22-2009-kpfa-local-station-board.html).

In-person candidate forums

Meet the candidates. Ask them your toughest questions.

  • Friday, Sept. 11, 7–9 p.m. – Sebastopol Center for the Arts, 6780 Depot St., Sebastopol
  • Sunday, Sept. 13 1:30–3:30 p.m. – Theatre in the Women’s Building, 3543 18th St. # 8, San Francisco
  • Monday, Sept. 14, 7:30–9:30 p.m. – Methodist Church, San Rafael
  • Tuesday, Sept. 15 5:30–6:30 p.m. – Berkeley Community Media, 2239 Martin Luther King Way, Berkeley
  • Saturday, Sept. 19, 11 a.m.–1 p.m. – Milpitas Library Community Room, 160 Main St., Milpitas
  • Sunday, Sept. 20, 1:30–3:30 p.m. – Panama Red Cafe, 289 Mare Island Way, Vallejo
  • Monday,  Sept. 21, 7–9 p.m. – Unitarian Church, 505 E. Charleston Road, Palo Alto
  • Wednesday, Sept. 23, 7-9 p.m. – SF Green Party, 1028A Howard St., San Francisco
  • Wednesday, Sept. 30, 6:30–9:30 p.m. – 325 Civic Center Plaza at MacDonald Ave., Richmond

On-air candidate forums on KPFA 94.1FM

During each hour, four or five candidates will discuss questions and take calls.

  • Sunday,  Sept. 20, 6:30-9:30 p.m.
  • Sunday, Sept. 27, 6:30-9:30 p.m.
  • Monday, Oct. 5, 7–8 p.m.
  • Tuesday, Oct. 6, 7–8 p.m.
  • Wednesday, Oct. 7, 7–8 p.m.
  • Thursday, Oct. 8, 7–8 p.m.
  • Friday, Oct. 9, 7–8 p.m.
  • Saturday, Oct. 10, 9–10 a.m.

On Oct. 14, all ballots are due.

For more information, contact KPFA Election Supervisor Renée Asteria Peñaloza at election@kpfa.org or (510) 848-6767, ext.626.

The Bay View recommends

Adam-Hudson1, KPFA Local Station Board election campaign is underway, Local News & Views Willie and Mary Ratcliff, publisher and editor of the SF Bay View, count on KPFA to expand the Bay View’s revolutionary voice to reach millions of people in Northern and Central California. With bolder, more progressive leadership and programming at KPFA, we believe that millions more minds can be opened to the kinds of ideas and movements you read about in the Bay View.

We strongly recommend against voting for any of the candidates on the slate of the Concerned Listeners, whose members on the current Local Station Board have paralyzed it so as to maintain the status quo for the past three years.

Instead, we are supporting the Independents for Community Radio, who include two young men, Adam Hudson and Rahman Jamaal, who were well received when they spoke at the Bay View fundraiser featuring People’s Advocate Cynthia McKinney at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland on Aug. 20. We also have confidence in the three incumbents on the ICR slate: Henry Norr, Sasha Futran and Akio Tanaka. Go to www.IndyRadio2009.com to read the statements and see the photos of all the ICR candidates.

We also endorse long time Bay View supporter and well known labor journalist Steve Zeltzer. Learn more about Steve at www.VoicesforJusticeRadio.org.

All the candidates we endorse have agreed to do whatever they can to support Cynthia McKinney as the next executive director of the Pacifica radio network, a nationwide network founded at KPFA, and a Black public affairs show on KPFA in a regular, desirable time slot produced by a collective headed by Block Report Radio and the SF Bay View.

We vigorously encourage all our readers who are KPFA members to cast their votes in this critical election. Readers who live within the sound of KPFA’s voice are urged to join KPFA – for $25 or three hours of volunteer service per year – and we’re asking all readers to forward our recommendations to all the KPFA members they know.