[Wpfw-lsb] FW: [alliance] Response to the usual WPFW version of reality

[billy edwards]

>From: John Jakulevicius <bojake at boo.net>
>To: alliance at lists.freespeechnow.org
>Subject: [alliance] Response to the usual WPFW version of reality
>Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 17:02:03 -0700 (PDT)
>
>
> >Re. These posts from Leslie Radford and "Wendy": why are we continuing
> >to slog down this road of culture v's news & information?  Is there
> >that much division in thinking that the two cannot comfortably co-exist
> >in a so-called "progressive" radio station format?
>
>Three points of observation to those above sentences.
>
>First culture is culture and music is music. Of course, music is a part of 
>culture, but there is no interchangeability of the words - one does not 
>"play" culture. Culture embraces all the arts - all forms of the written 
>word, graphic art, emotive art, culinary arts, styles of dress, belief 
>systems, language usage, and so on. It is a gross imbalance to declare that 
>music programming IS "culture" programming. So in the pursuit of open, 
>honest dialogue, let us use words and definitions for what they mean, and 
>not or what we may desire they mean. Doing so will clarify and delineate 
>the issues before us, instead of fogging them over.
>
>Second, the reference to a position that spoken mission programming and 
>music programming cannot co-exist ... that A CHOICE MUST BE MADE between 
>ONE or THE OTHER, is a posed FALSE DILEMMA to a position that I hear no one 
>favoring or even proposing. Again let's try to blow away the smoke to see 
>clearly.
>
>Third, when I hear someone refer to the anti-war, anti-propaganda, 
>anti-racism missions which are the very reasons for the birth of Pacifica, 
>... as news and information programming, I hear a person who is tone deaf 
>to the music of the Pacifica Missions. A New York jazz musician I witnessed 
>at a Pacifica issues meeting said, he loves to come down to play in D.C. 
>and when he does, he listens to WPFW. He said also, when he feels like 
>hearing the news, he puts on WTOP (the all-news station in D.C.). That 
>musician, in my opinion, is stone deaf to my music, while I at the same 
>time, can appreciate the beauty and artistry of his music. That doesn't 
>seem fair, does it ?
>
>
> >As a 15-year music
> >programmer at WPFW, and one who endeavors to mix the music in such a
> >way as to reflect a progressive viewpoint, I've grown quite weary of
> >the continued sniping at the exceptional people who pour heart & soul
> >into delivering cultural programming onto the DC airways.
>
>With all due respect, interspersing sets of music with calls for peace, and 
>why can't we all get along, and what a beautiful word it would be if we all 
>respected each other, and saying Peace at the end of two or three hours of 
>playing music, is still playing music. You are what you predominately do. 
>Do you believe people tune in to hear short homilies between the sets of 
>music, or is music the payload ? For me, the answer is clear. (A long time 
>music programmer told me music is the hook, and then when you have their 
>attention, you slip in a little peace and justice on them. Really ? Is that 
>how it works ?? That's news and information to me.)
>
> > Is there
> >absolutely no sense of WPFW's mission and mandate, which calls for a
> >strong cultural programming schedule first & foremost?
>
>I call this canard "The legend of the mandate that refused to die." Where 
>did this mandate come from ? Which man dated it, and by whose power in 
>Pacifica was it dated. Was the original intent from the very start to have 
>a music station, and the WPFW founders simply said, sure, sure, we'll do 
>mission stuff, don't worry. That could have very well been the case... I'm 
>not in a position to declare otherwise with certainty. Grigsby will talk 
>about the genesis of WPFW for hours, but one will be no closer to answering 
>that question than one was at the start of Grigsby's monologue. If someone 
>knows the birth year of this mandate, and who wrote it, they aren't 
>talking. If Pacifica mission fever was just a 24 hour flu, and music 
>programming a fever lasting twenty seven years, then this is an injustice 
>of a quarter century in duration, and continuing. Isn't  it time the 
>deception be fully aired? It is Airways Robbery from the Pacifica 
>Foundation.  How did WPFW, alone in the network, get
>   its very own mandate, when the other four stations were forced to share 
>the same mandate - the Pacifica Mission Mandate?
>
>
> >Is there no sense that WPFW was founded largely by African Americans,
> >and that fine balance between cultural programming and news &
> >information is part of the station's mandate?
>
>If a klansman uttered these words, he would fairly be labeled as racist. 
>Blow away the smoke real hard on this one, because it's just loaded with 
>stuff, all kinds of nasty sounding stuff.
>
>First, if a person in Oakland said KPFA was founded by whites, and the 
>mission should always be deferential to the racial heritage of the 
>founders, that person would be denounced as racist. This concept reeks of 
>Legacy Endowment from stem to stern. Say it on Lake WPFW, however, and that 
>boat floats 27 feet above the water line.
>
>Second, then how about this deal ? WPFW totally for African Americans, all 
>the other four totally for Whites and Hispanics and Asians- that's sliced 
>up pretty much along the lines of total population demographics. Does that 
>work for you? And if it doesn't, why not?
>
>Third, this fine balance of news/information and music programming turns 
>out to be 22% "news/information" and 78% music programming. That may seem a 
>just "fine" balance to some, but to me, that ratio mocks the word balance 
>to it's face.
>
>Fourth,is this saying that African-Americans favor hearing music over 
>message by a ratio of 78% to 22%? That sounds like a horrific stereotype to 
>me - one not to far removed from plantation owners taking about the 
>"cultural" proclivities of the field slaves. Shame on the very thought that 
>African-Americans are more into music than are other Americans, in their 
>collective concerns regarding issues of injustice, inequality, and civil 
>rights for all of the world.
>
>
> >Is there also no sense
> >that in the ensuing years it is cultural programming that continues to
> >be chipped away?
>
>First, let me say that since the hijackers were stopped in their collective 
>tracks, WPFW has seen a positive (in my view) change in programming The 
>heavy 8AM hour slot, previously music, now carries Democracy Now, 5 days a 
>week. The also choice hour time slot of 6PM, also previously music, first 
>carried PeaceWatch, and now a repeat Broadcast of Democracy Now. I 
>attribute those changes directly to Ron Pinchback. Bobby Hill, a music 
>player on WPFW, whose job, it appears to me, is to keep Ron "honest" 
>whenever Ron appears at various meetings, and, again I guess, Bobby is to 
>report back to the music crew if Ron is acting like he is about to give 
>away any more time slot cookies to the news and information crowd. So I 
>would guess that Bobby Hill would feel like music programming dropping from 
>83% of programming, to 78% of programming is "chipping away." For Williard 
>Jenkins, I don't have to guess - he tells me straight-away that it is.
>
>
> >I also find it quite questionable that someone from
> >Houston feels a need to snipe at WPFW in a manner that strongly
> >suggests that this person "Wendy" has little or no sense of the DC
> >community, its historic struggles, and the mandate under which WPFW was
> >established.
>
>First, the above comment is a variation and continuation of Askia's coded 
>reference to "those outside the community". I'll simply observe that a 
>statement by a White person claiming Black people can't understand a White 
>community, would be categorized as a racist remark. But one hears this 
>tugboat horn blast in nearly every  conversation about the issue of 
>programming, and no-one even flinches. Wendy's comments may be sniping, or 
>they could also be an attempt at dialogue with those who have no interest  
>or intention of being persuaded otherwise.
>
>Second, I have some news & information for you. While you may perceive that 
>the struggle is history, millions will tell you that the struggle is very 
>much alive, and kicking, and necessary, at the other Pacifica stations. Has 
>the Metro D.C. area been transformed into some utopian model of equality 
>and fraternity since 1977, and I simply don't realize it ?
>
>I guess we are doomed to continue this struggle as the
> >lone Pacifica station which was founded under and continues to operate
> >under a philosophy of being more sensitive to the needs of the African
> >American community than any other Pacifica station... and God love it
> >for that!
>
>This is simply more race-baiting, but I am impressed at the sheer number of 
>different forms of trim this boat can display.
>This is yet another iteration of the theme that African Americans need more 
>entertaining than other Americans, and that less important to African 
>Americans are racism, dis-enfranchisement, red lining, unemployment, and 
>other such issues...  that they are somehow secondary to hearing music on 
>the radio. It would seem to me that being more sensitive to the needs of 
>African Americans  would involve active participation of programming of not 
>just local issues, but of regional, and national discrimination. WPFW is at 
>the strategic center of political force in this country, and to say that 
>playing  music to African Americans is being sensitive to the needs of 
>African Americans, not only insults one's intelligence, it insults logic, 
>and the very meaning of words.  And god may seem generous to supply jazz 
>music via WPW, but it would have been more generous of god to supply the 
>vote, a good paying job, health insurance, and a nice 401K for everyone. 
>That would be a god even I could re
>  late to.
>
> >
> >I imagine I must also, once again with great feeling, continue to point
> >out that the cultural programming -- and in this case specifically the
> >MUSIC programming -- that is aired on WPFW is LARGELY an airing of
> >musical artistry that is totally unavailable elsewhere on our region's
> >airways.
>
>Well, that is exactly true. But the reason that is true, is that people 
>vote for what they want to listen to every time they turn the radio on. 
>Unfortunately, listeners, including African Americans in the D.C. Metro 
>listening area, vote WPFW's music format dead last. That may hurt to hear, 
>to realize, or to internalize, but that is the reality of the peoples' 
>choice. The unreal jazz (105.9) blows The Home of The Real Jazz (89.3) out 
>of the water in ratings. In fact, the WPFW listening audience is so 
>miniscule, it doesn't appear in the ratings when they are printed in the 
>Washington Post. A statistician would categorize WPFW's numbers in the 
>"Noise" range of readings.
>Given that reality, it is fair to ask Which community is being served - the 
>music players, or the music listeners. I think that the repeated numbers 
>tell the cold, hard truth.
>
>
> >Yes, there is some questionable music programming on our
> >airways that represents an unfortunate duplication of music available
> >elsewhere; goodness knows we have more than our share of DJ wannabes
> >who would be better served on the commercial airways.
>
>A very telling frame of reference you reveal there - that of the DJ's 
>interest, and not of the listener, being served. That is exactly the 
>question I raise regarding WPFW's DJs. And how many Cajun's are there in 
>the Metro listening area ? And on one show I tried to count how many times 
>the DJ's name was mentioned (Cleveland) - and I just gave up, there was so 
>many. In my opinion, in the area of music programming, WPFW, is now, and 
>perhaps always has been, Vanity radio for a few somehow selected DJs.
>
> >But for the most
> >part our cultural programmers strive to bring programming which is
> >thoroughly unique to the DC listening audience.
>
>I remember Errol Maitland of WBAI in New York, a Black activist, say, in 
>D.C., that the Pentagon War Planners like to listen to WPFW jazz as they do 
>their work across the Potomac River. Right-on Errol. And Ron Pinchback 
>heard that observation also.
>
>
> >And lest you forget,
> >this is the DC listening audience we're talking about, NOT the Houston
> >listening audience.  Let us also not lose sight of the fact that part
> >of the problem with American society today is that we have lost sight
> >of the precious value of culture in this country.
>
>Well, I both agree and disagree on these points. Michael Jackson is rich, 
>rich, rich because of the precious value (over-value some might insist) of 
>culture (I don't mean simply music  here - I mean style of dress, I mean 
>moral values,  movies and art - you know ... what culture means)in America. 
>And what you are calling a "lost sight" of the cultural time slice you have 
>wired in your mind as the ideal for all, has actually evolved through 
>gospel, blues, rock and roll, rap, hip-hop, which will be followed by 
>something else. It is the way of culture ... styles change, language 
>changes, music preferences change.   There is nothing more cliched than the 
>old person who insists, beyond question, that his/her formative years on 
>the time slot of the cultural merry-go-round was the golden age of back in 
>the day. Nothing wrong with that - most people feel that way - but, it is 
>the work of the self-delusionist to insist, that claiming that a particular 
>age is golden, is not a feeing, b
>  ut a fact for everyone. Who is one to announce jazz is sacred, and all 
>other music less so, or not so at all ? The D.C. community has spoken, and 
>it says there are 25 or so more other music stations they would rather 
>listen to, than to WPFW. It's hard. It's pain. It's reality. Let's move on.
>
>
> >When school systems
> >find themselves in meager financial straits, what part of their
> >curriculum goes first?  As a result we are raising generations of
> >cultural illiterates, which clearly impacts our collective thinking in
> >so many areas, and which creates an atmosphere that allows people like
> >our current administration to act with a free, unquestioned hand.
> >Something to think about...
>
>Well, I agree totally with that interpretation as reality. But I disagree 
>with the concept that the Pacifica Mission, that the WPFW mission is to 
>flood the day with music programming, for that is simply feeding a person a 
>temporary, single course meal and calling it a cultural feast.
>
>Pacifica, and WPFW have the POTENTIAL power to address and reverse  the 
>lop-sided spending choices being made by the so-called peoples' 
>representatives. That is how to address the insanity of mindless military 
>spending at the expense of every woman, jack, and child who doesn't have a 
>Legacy Endowment in their future. The answer CERTAINLY is not to play "So 
>What" a hundred times a year to the Pentagon War Machine.
>
> >
> >Peace,
> >Willard Jenkins
> >
>
>News & Information = Peace,
>bojake at boo.net
>
>OK to repost!
>
>
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