The first thing that I

The first thing that I need to talk about is public radio. It is a great thing, for the most part. I cannot imagine what the airwaves would be like without NPR, PRI, even, to a much, much lesser extent, Pacifica. I listen to public radio for my jazz (KCSM, 91.1fm), for my news (KALW, 91.7fm), for my classical music in Sacramento (KXPR 90.9fm), for my late night weird music (KPFA 94.1fm), for interesting radio shows (KQED, 88.5fm), and to get my blood pressure up by listening to the incoherent nattering of Amy Goodman, Howard Zinn, and their ilk (said with a sneer). Without public radio, let's see, we would have Kenny G for jazz, Rush Limbaugh for blood pressure raising, etc.

The nature of public radio is that it is somewhat supported by government and somewhat supported by listener donations. As I am not a libertarian, I have no problem so far. The price we pay for having the listener support is the intrusion of the pledge drive, the begathon, etc. Part of the begathon is the pitch, "what would you do without this valuable resource? If we do not make our goal, I don't know how we will manage."

Now, the assumption is that "how we will manage" means something along the lines of, "we will have to seriously curtail what we are offering," or in extremely flush times, "we will not be able to afford the moderate growth we have planned, you know, the transmitters to get our signal into deprived rural areas." This is what it means when KCSM says it, it is what it means when Capital Public Radio says it, it is what it means when KALW says it. It is what KQED hopes you will think it means when they say it. However, the story is a little darker with KQED.

Now KQED does some good for the Bay Area. It brings in the wonderfully professional war coverage we have been getting on NPR, it brings in my weekly dose of Minnesota, via Prairie Home Companion, and it covers interesting local issues with Michael Krazny's Forum. However, KQED has one of the largest budgets of any public broadcaster, and produces nearly the least amount of programming, and this is in an area with probably more creative folks than anywhere else! So what does KQED spend its money on?

Well, re-broadcasting the same thing over and over. So we get a rebroadcast of All Things Considered in the middle of the night, as well as Forum. That is one thing they give us.

The other is what they are planning on giving Sacramento, namely another public radio station offering almost identical programming to the existing Capital Public Radio station (KXJZ, 88.9fm). For some reason KQED thinks that it is serving its community by buying a defunct religious radio station so that it can penetrate another area. The KQED PR folks, as well as the broker, who specialized in buying and selling public radio stations (!), assure us that there will be no competition, that they will serve different audiences, etc. I believe them about as much as I believe the Iraqi minister of information.

First, let me give you a little background. Sacramento is served primarily by two public radio stations, KXPR and KXJZ, both licensed by Sacramento State University, the local normal school, as a service to the community. They are the founders of the Capital Public Radio network, which includes KUOP and other smaller Central Valley stations. KXJZ was created as a jazz station, but, due to the market, they have had to retreat from jazz quite a bit. For those of us jazz fans this was devastating (I listened to KXJZ's very first broadcast - they started life with Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage), but it ultimately worked out for the better, as using the NPR talk programs to generate funding took the pressure off the jazz programming, so the whole trend towards blander music was halted and the jazz programming has improved in quality. In fact this arrangement has worked out so well, that Capital Public Radio was going to buy the aforementioned defunct religious station to play jazz, real jazz, subsidized by the talk station. Wow! Talk about serving the community. Well, imagine the surprise that they had when they were outbid by KQED!

So, instead of having more variety on the airwaves, Sacramento will get a funddrive siphon that duplicates their own programming, and draws from their Bay Area base to completely dominate the market. Shame on the bloated pig of a radio station KQED (the truly awful KQED TV is the subject of a different rant, down the line)! This is not serving the common good, this is building a fief for the non-profiteers who run this station.

For anyone who thinks that only for-profit corporations act in blatant disregard of the principles outlined in Rerum Novarum, look at KQED. They are right now asking for $2 Million from their Bay Area listeners. Don't send them a dime. Donate instead to Capital Public Radio, to KALW, to KCSM (please! They could use it, and their programming is mostly local, and is dedicated to the great American art called Jazz), or to Ave Maria Radio (who are in dire straits, too). Furthermore, most of KQED's programming can be found on KALW, and the remainder of their programming is better than KQED's anyway.

Wow! This is a longer rant than I thought. I will save my tirade against children singing on children's records for another day. Have a prayerful Passiontide, and an observant Palm Sunday.

Nag of the week: is your menu ready for Easter? Tomorrow is a good time to go to the farmers' market and see what is fresh.

Posted by erik at April 11, 2003 3:20 PM | TrackBack