I received several messages about my post last week about
the fiscal, programming and governance problems at KFAI, Minneapolis. One was from Patti Walsh, the new President
of the station’s Board of Directors. I posted her complete comment below my original
post.
Patti says things are looking up at KFAI and they will be
even better when a new GM is hired. Her approach
sounded good until I reached this part of her comment:
Once the new GM is in
place, he or she will hire a Program Director who will be in charge of KFAI’s
programming with the guidance of a Content Advisory Committee.
I asked Patti for clarification because it sounds like KFAI
is replacing the Program Committee with another committee with an ominous sounding
name. This how I read Patti’s comment:
Once the new GM is in
place, he or she will hire a Program Director who will be in charge of KFAI’s
programming with the nitpicking,
second-guessing and neutering by a Content Advisory Committee.
I hope this isn’t what they are planning but once a
committee is established it takes on a life of it’s on. I will let you know if/when Patti explains
the necessity and purpose of this committee.
After all these committees are artifacts of the 1970s -- sort of like Mood Rings -- you feel better when you have one but they are ultimately useless.
After all these committees are artifacts of the 1970s -- sort of like Mood Rings -- you feel better when you have one but they are ultimately useless.
WHAT I RECOMMEND FOR
KFAI
• Have as few committees as possible. Make certain any
committees are absolutely necessary and their scope is clearly defined.
• Hire qualified management, folks who have hands on experience operating and programming successful noncom stations that reach significant audiences.
• Give the new management measurable goals and the time
necessary to make their plan work.
• Evaluate management’s work by using quantifiable data:
pledging, membership, underwriting, ratings, online and mobile usage stats,
etc.
• Remember that serving a mission is about doing, not
talking about doing. Management should
embody the mission and lead by example.
WHERE DID COMMUNITY
RADIO’S OBESSION WITH COMMITTEES COME FROM?
Back in the 1970s, Community Radio began as an outgrowth of
Pacifica, which itself began in the late 1940s. Lew Hill and early Pacifica associates
established totally listener supported radio.
Back then there were very few listeners to FM. Pacifica was built listener-by-listener.
Also in the 1970s media activist Lorenzo Milan released an
influential pamphlet called Sex and
Broadcasting. I bought my copy for
one dollar at a head shop – it was next to High
Times on the rack. There was no sex in it – Milam choose the name because
it had a sexy (pun intended) and got attention.
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| BACK & FRONT COVERS OF SEX AND BROADCASTING |
Sex and Broadcasting
was an excellent “how to guide” for applying for an FM license. Milam’s timing was good because there
were many unused FM licenses available from the FCC including some in major
markets. Milan’s advice spawned many stations such as KDHX in St. Louis, KBOO in Portland and KFAI in
Minneapolis. (KFAI signed on in 1978.)
The problem was Milam’s utopian vision for governing and
operating community stations. He felt a
radio station should be run like a commune with “the people” in control. He recommended committees to decide every
aspect of a station. This was based on Pacifica’s governance model. I call it the The Pacifica Model. Even today it is considered by many yo be the
SOP and politically correct way to run a community station.
The stakes got higher when the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting (“CPB”) started funding community stations. In the 1970s and early 1980s CPB began
providing public funds to Pacifica and other community operations. That led to the
creation of the National Federation for Community Broadcasters (“NFCB”). NFCB
embraced The Pacifica Model and
committees became a permanent part of the community radio landscape.
COMMITTEES ARE NOT
REQUIRED
There is no FCC requirement that noncommercial stations
operate with committees. The Commission
wants stations to ensure they are operating in the public interest by knowing
and addressing needs of people in their coverage area as documented in their Public Inspection File.
CPB requires noncom stations to have periodic public
advisory meetings with local citizens. CPB
wants stations to be transparent, have open meetings and have financial and
compliance documents available online.
Stations choose to have committees or not. KFAI has the choice not to use The Pacifica Model. Stations using The Pacifica Model will likely meet the same fate as Pacifica: Irrelevance.
I have often heard staff and volunteers at stations like KFAI say something like, "But we're offering a true community service. We're doing programming nobody else is doing." There is no community service if nobody is listening. I am assuming the audience is small because of the financial difficulty the station finds itself operating under. There's an intersection between content and community support. The first step in getting somebody to contribute is to have that someone listen. Once they listen, they have to find value in the listening experience. Once the content is found to have value, they need to understand their support is important. Finally, they need to actually have the means to make a contribution.
ReplyDeleteDoes KFAI have listeners in sufficient numbers to support its efforts? If not, it all starts with the content.
"But we're offering a true community service. We're doing programming nobody else is doing."
ReplyDeleteKim, I still - to this day - hear that a lot within the college radio world. In recent years I have found it particularly effective to challenge that assumption straight up in front of a large group of station members/DJ's. Ask them for a specific example of something they do that "nobody else is doing." So far, in every case I've been able to find another radio station that webcasts who is also doing it, and I've found it within seconds via Google searches on my iPhone, while I'm standing there in front of people. Really pounds home that there is only one thing that is unique to the station and that's the DJ's....DJ's who, at college radio, are often untrained and have little experience at attracting and retaining an audience (I don't begrudge them that, of course - they're just college students!) and who the station rarely promotes as the public face of their brand.