Women's Day at KPFA is Insulting to Thinking Women

For what it's worth, the original plan for Intl Women's Day WAS to pre-empt Democcracy Now at 6 am rather than 9am, but some of the People's Radio contingent yelped that "MORE people listened at 9 am than at 6am" and insisted on the later pre-emption - so really .... yell at them, will ya?

And you do understand that the women's day program was put together entirely by women? What's up with treating other women in such an elitist, dismissive and condescending manner? Where's the solidarity in that?

Just wondering ....

It is obvious and well known that most people are at work at 9 a.m. but not 6 a.m. Thus, whoever at KPFA promoted the lie that the 9 a.m. hearing of Democracy Now receives more listeners can only be a friend of George Bush, who hates Democracy Now.

The elitism comes from the promoters of this phony Women's Day program, who had total contempt for the women listeners of KPFA and did not bother asking us what we want. We, men and women listeners of KPFA, pay for KPFA, and it is we who must decide what goes on at KPFA. KPFA is not the plaything of the staff of KPFA, nor is it a playpen for song and dance acts.

I noticed that THE MEN RECEIVED A PAID DAY OFF WHILE THE WOMEN WORKED on Women's Day. Did George Bush come up with this reactionary idea? Thus, the Morning Show and Flashpoints had a woman alone doing the show.

As to content, Flashpoints again, as usual, won first prize. Robert Knight's excellent daily news briefs started the show, Dr. Helen Caldicott was interviewed on the pending nuclear holocaust, June Jordan's famous speech circa 1991-1992 on the first Persian Gulf Massacre was replayed, and the children of Palestine were given an opportunity to express their views as they learned radio journalism.

Perhaps taking 3 weeks to raise less than than the $1 million goal during the February fundraiser did not drive home the point clearly enough that a lot of us will not contribute to KPFA anymore, some 4.5 years after the legal settlement, as we will no longer be treated with contempt. You can rest assured that future fundraisers will be equally difficult as more and more people simply say they have had enough insults. The Local Station Board was elected to run the station but has not done so. They have had 2 station managers in the past 4.5 years and are now looking for a 3rd, all because neither the LSB nor these managers know how to tell the staff that the paid subscribers tell the staff what to do. WE WANT REGULAR PROGRAMS ALL DAY LONG ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN"S DAY AND THE MEN SHOULD WORK, THE SAME AS THE WOMEN.

I'll pass on the message to People's Radio that they are the best friends of George Bush - I'm sure they'll be thrilled - lol. Because as stated, the simple fact of the matter is that the evil staff you rag on originally intended to put on DN at 6am and pre-empt the 9 am airing and they changed it due to the vehement protests of People's Radio who argued specifically that the 9 am broadcast has more listeners, which is consistently supported by both the respective fundraising totals and listenership reports (Arbitrons).

As for men getting the day off, it is a long tradition that women's day programming is directed, produced and hosted by women only, with no male prescence. If this is oppression, it is an oppression demanded, fought for and won by a women's collective years ago who sorely wanted such oppression.

As is usual with such posts, while reflecting some understandable frustration with programming that can be stale and a little resistant to change, the arguments used to express the frustration are inaccurate, illogical and reflect a poor understanding of reality.

If you want to convince people that you and your ilk can do better things with KPFA's programming, you're going to have to start demonstrating that you can make a sensible argument, be factual and accurate in what you say, express ideas clearly and execute them, and work cooperatively with a diverse community.

Until then, you aren't providing an appealing option and people who aren't bonkers will stick with the status quo.

i'm usually asleep myself until +/-7:30 a.m., but i just happen to be awake now.

re Democcracy Now at 6 am: "It is obvious and well known that most people are at work at 9 a.m. but not 6 a.m."

re a lot of us will not contribute to KPFA anymore:

kpfa is getting too much money anyway.

i believe that people should be paid decently, but someone informed told me that base salaries have gone crazy through the roof for personnel who don't do that much and who's positions are not that demanding.

it seems like kpfa has become a little pork barrel for some favored people who don't have very demanding work there to get way over-paid. this is what happens when a non-profit gets way too much money for what they are doing: you get wage or salary favoritism, in-station hustlers, people running their own private enterprises out of the station and pocketing all the money, people given station vehicles for their own personal use, etc. - and people intimidated or cut out who don't play the game or shut up about it.

you get the community non-profit institution raising more and more money primarily for excessive salaries, fancy digs (which is what was then invisioned to turn kpfa into npr or to sell the station) and inordinate perqs, instead of primarily for the original mission of the institution - with the community increasingly taken out of the picture. i've seen it over and over again.

kpfa has steadily increased the number of its pledge drives. everytime you turn around there's another pledge drive for money. and now everytime kpfa is expecting a million dollars! what are they doing with all that money four, five, six times a year? or is it seven by now?

i _don't_ at all agree that all music is filler and that it should be cut out; some music is very culturally important, and some not, like the old hippie music stuff. (and while i don't mind folk music, there are at least four or five programs that play the same kind of folk.) But, what is kpfa doing with its near million dollar pledge totals? kpfa does the really major anti-war rallies a couple times a year, but how often do you see kpfa out in the bay area community? why isn't the money going for increased and improved coverage of community political issues and community political events?

re "[mystic]-superstition-religion-[visionary-herbal ad nauseum]-anti-science idiocy and the mother-daughter psychological gibberish everywhere, always in lieu of labor, science and politics"

i agree: too much of the first clause, not enough of the second

before i ever give again, i'll wait for kpfa to draw down on their million dollar pledges, bring the station into line with its original mission, and cut some of the bloat.

"i believe that people should be paid decently, but someone informed told me that base salaries have gone crazy through the roof for personnel who don't do that much and who's positions are not that demanding. it seems like kpfa has become a little pork barrel for some favored people who don't have very demanding work there to get way over-paid. this is what happens when a non-profit gets way too much money for what they are doing"

And you get this from what informed source?

The highest paid employee currently is the Development Director (as at many non-profits) at around 50K. After that, a few senior managers (most with 10+ years of seniority) make in the mid-forties (on union scale) and everybody else makes
between $14 and $20/hour with the majority being paid for ( 15-32 hours a week.

What part of this resembles "overpaid"?

What do you consider a decent rate of pay? Less than $14/hr?

KPFA has had a significant uptick in its personnel costs. True. In the record-breaking days of fundraising after the takeover was defeated, it was decided that it might be nice to use the money to finally pay people a little for doing jobs that traditionally, due to poverty, had been performed for free, as unpaid labor, by generations of volunteers. Seemed like a progressive thing to do with extra money.

If the listening audience prefers exploiting volunteers to creating living wage jobs at their institutions - then so be it.

But you theiryour taxes are used to support welfare mothers and their cadillacs :>

The last sentence above should read:

But you sound a bit like the people in the corn protesting that their taxes are being used for welfare mothers and their cadillacs :>