Local Community Radio Attacked by JPR
Paul Cienfuegos and forces for media freedom, 04.01.2004 19:43
Dear friends of community public radio across northern California and southern Oregon,
Many of us here in northern Humboldt County, CA have discovered only recently that Jefferson Public Radio (JPR), based in Ashland, OR, is about to take away from us one of our most beloved local radio stations - KZPN. And they plan to do this against the will of many Humboldt County listeners.
* URGENT: Can you spare a few minutes to help us protect our local radio station from a buyout?
We are writing to you to urge you to help us SWIFTLY as it may not quite be too late to stop the FCC's approval of the sale. We ask you to please consider taking ten minutes of your day - as soon as possible - to write and mail (or fax) a short letter of support to our cause. Send it to Federal Communications Comission, 445 12th St SW, Washington DC 20554. Better yet fax it to them at 888-418-0232. Their web address is www.fcc.gov/mb/audio .
Now, here's the full story of what is unfolding.
For the past eleven years, local radio station KZPN has been owned by a local non-profit corporation, offering the ONLY 24/7 BBC World Service IN THIS COUNTRY - here in the Arcata/ Eureka listening area. The corporation has entered a contract with Jefferson Public Radio (JPR) to sell the station. The problem is - JPR says they will replace BBC news coverage with what they call "Rhythm and News Service", which is almost entirely national NPR programming, much of which we already have here on an existing NPR station run by the local university (HSU).
Perhaps the more upsetting issue for many of us is that JPR is a non-locally based, very large public radio network, and we have no reason to believe it will be at all responsive to the needs of this community. I understand that JPR has a near-monopoly on public radio in the southern Oregon and Northern California region, precluding any access to alternative sources for news and current events, such as 'Democracy Now' or 'Alternative Radio'.
JPR owns more than 50 AM and FM radio stations - along the Pacific coast from Coos Bay to Mendocino, along interstate 5 from Eugene to Redding, and inland into the Cascades from La Pine to Burney. It's fast becoming the non-profit equivalent of Clear Channel Communications!
Our goal in Humboldt County is to stop the sale of our beloved BBC station (KZPN). Will you help us?
In the next few days, we need to deluge the FCC with letters of objection from hundreds if not thousands of people from across JPR's listening area in CA and OR. Word is that the programming will switch over to NPR on January 1st, so we have no time to lose.
The public hearing deadline for this purchase may have already passed (although none of us ever saw the required public notice in our local papers), but there are indications that it can still be stopped, or at least delayed. Thus, we are asking you to please write a letter of concern to the FCC, and send copies of it to the other addresses listed below. Here is some suggested text.
-------------------------------
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th St SW
Washington DC 20554
Re: File No. BALED-20031016AAZ
Call sign KZPN
Facility ID: 12486
Dear Commissioners:
I am writing to request that you delay any decision on the application by Jefferson Public Radio for transfer of the license from Humboldt Educational Enhancement Radio Service, Inc to JPR, pending an investigation on your part of the following community concerns:
* JPR's "Rhythm and News" will duplicate at least five hours a day of existing NPR programming, and much of it at exactly the same time that it is already available locally.
* JPR's new station will jeopardize the fundraising base for the already existing NPR station in our community (KHSU), located at the local university.
* Our listening area will lose 24 hours/ day of international news and public affairs which cannot be replicated by any other existing radio stations in our area (or anywhere else in the whole country, for that matter!)
* The residents of our county will no longer have any say over the programming of our local station - all decisions will be made from another state. And a frequency that has been licensed to local owners for the past eleven years will be lost forever.
* Thousands of local listeners will lose their favorite radio station.
Please let me know as soon as possible whether you will grant this request, and what is the disposition of JPR's application. Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
signature
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Please consider making copies of your letter and sending or faxing it to the following additional addresses:
Steve Nelson, JPR Board President, c/o 1250 Siskiyou Blvd, Ashland, OR 97520
JPR Program Director Eric Teel, 1250 Siskiyou Blvd, Ashland, OR 97520
ph # 800-782-6191
(He coordinates the programming for all of their dozens of stations.)
And if you still have the energy and time to do one MORE thing, please email or mail a copy of your letter to me so I can share it with the hundreds of others here locally who are working to oppose this sale: ( or POB 27, Arcata CA 95518). And don't be surprised if you don't hear back from me for a few weeks, as i'm about to hit the road again.
Thank you all so much! And please forward this email to your own e-lists.
Paul Cienfuegos
(one of hundreds of concerned KZPN supporters)
e-mail:: cienfuegos@igc.org
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What Can Be Done 07.01.2004 - 14:38 Money talks, even for non-com stations. JPR started out as a very locally based service, but now is often criticized for becoming the 5000 lb gorilla they were supposed to be the antithesis of. From what I've seen, sales of non-comms are not normally blocked by the FCC due to programming issues. But then again, I'm not an attorney. Obviously, the current station ownership couldn't make a go of it. You might urge (beg!) the seller to nix the deal, if they still can, and get a large commitment for a new infusion of cash for them, to sweeten the deal. Or perhaps more likely: Get a commitment from JPR to allow some locally originated programming from a local studio, including carrying BBC via a local satellite downlink. There are many NCEs that program partly from a local studio, and partly from rebroadcasting the "mothership" station. The funding to maintain this local studio would probably have to come from local fundraising sources. Once again, if there is a local "sugar daddy (or mommy)" or two, it might help. Or perhaps the most likely Urge HSU to start carrying the programming in question. I think that lobbying the FCC to nix the deal is the strategy that has the least chance of ultimate success. It might, however, buy some time to put some of these other plans into place. JPR does not own 50 AM and FM stations. By my count, they own 19 stations, and over 40 translators. Comments? |X|-c |X|-c |X| |X| |X| / \ / \ Michael D. Brown Brown Broadcast Services, Inc. 3740 SW Comus St. Portland OR 97219-7418 USA 503-245-6065  mike@brownbroadcast.com
Michael Brown/ suzia> |