MEMO TO KFAI, MINNEAPOLIS: FIRE YOUR PROGRAMMING COMMITTEE

Community noncom KFAI is trying to stay in business.  According to news reports, KFAI is more than $100,000 in the hole and they need money now. MPR News reported that Board president Mary Bensman said they've already taken steps to cut back on staff:

"Our finances have been in decline gradually over the last seven years -- we've made a few changes to address that, but it hasn't been enough change," Bensman said. "The board determined that this is the point at which we really had to draw our line in the sand and figure out how to get financially stable." 

Listening to KFAI has fallen to perhaps its lowest level ever. The most recent Nielsen Audio PPM numbers I could find were from Summer 2014.  KFAI had 100 AQH listeners and 15,600 Weekly Cumulative listeners.  That is hardly a pulse.

THE PROBLEM IS ADHERENCE TO “THE PACIFICA GOVERNANCE MODEL”

KFAI, like many Community noncoms is constrained by too many committees, particularly a committee to determine the station’s programming.  Way back when Community Radio started in the 1970s, stations were advised to make collective decisions regarding a station's most important resource: Its Programming.  Organizations like NFCB are still pushing this flawed idea.

Programming Committees ensure the status quo, make certain people in the “in group” keep control of their schedule turf and mean no one is held accountable. That is the current situation at KFAI. According to the KFAI website, they are searching for new management.  But the Programming Committee remains.

Pacifica is best example of the curse of Program Committees. You’ve no doubt seen the news reports of litigious battles inside Pacifica and the five stations they own.  Despite having awesome signals in New York, LA, Bay Area, DC and Houston, Pacifica has very, very few listeners. Last year they posted an RFP for someone to lease WBAI, New York.

Program Committees are a major part of the Pacifica governance scheme. BAD MOJO! Stations that use The Pacifica Model are doomed to the same fate as Pacifica: Irrelevance.

INSIDE THE KFAI PROGRAMMING COMMITTEE

KFAI provides downloads of Programming Committee meetings. The most recent meeting notes are from October 2014.  Here are some examples of the discussions:

[NAME] spoke of KFAI’s aging demographic (both listeners and programmers) and our failure to devise a way to turn over timeslots and keep programming fresh. He cited his own show, [PROGRAM NAME] as an example. He told the committee his show was “tired,” “stale” and “no different now than it was 12 years ago.” He added, “Why would anyone want to listen to that?”

Citing recently acknowledged financial woes, [NAME] talked about the “existential” situation faced by the station, which was driving changes faster than a one would prefer. He suggested a two-stage schedule, one that quickly addressed money concerns (i.e., “survive”), and followed that with a broader assessment of the kind of station we aspire to be (i.e., “thrive”).

The proposed solution: Ask members of the Programming Committee to come up with hypothetical schedules:

The [PROGRAMMING COMMITTEE] decided to ask each member to work out a schedule grid structure for the next meeting. [NAME] emphasized that this was a “what if” exercise only, and not to be construed as formal committee-sanctioned proposals.

If KFAI is to survive, they need to fire the Programming Committee and stop playing "what if."