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Save KUSF occupies Entercom hallway after 1-year anniversary rally
After a rally on January 18 in front of radio conglomerate Entercom on the one-year anniversary of the corrupt sale and shutdown of KUSF, a number of activists went up the office building elevator to the Entercom broadcast offices, to make their presence felt. By fortune or design, Brenda Barnes, a head administrator and media spokesperson for LA-based Classical Public Radio Network, was in the hall to meet and greet the unannounced activists. A patient, cooperative, and informative talk ensued for close to an hour. This audio is useful for radio insiders and Save KUSF activists to hear and use if useful. (56 minutes).
Listen now:
Irwin Swirnoff, Save KUSF spokesperson, DJ and former KUSF Music Director and Tracy Rosenberg, Director of Media Alliance, did most of the talking. Ms Barnes was very patient and communicative, even for a PR-type. After we got summarily walked out to the street by Entercom security, Ms Barnes patiently continued the conversation outside, despite not dressed for the cold windy day. Much of the conversation centered around what community radio is and should be and how the now 8-station CPRN purports to fit this model. What local “community” can be served by a chain, cookie-cutter music station and how is a good question, and something the FCC has not at all looked in good faith to define in any prior sale up to this point.
At the rally and subsequent events, activists and Attorney Peter Francke point out that CPRN has spent roughly a million dollars over the past year and till don’t own the station. Is this still deemed a good investment or can they be dissuaded from continuing to fight for this license?
My more pointed questions concern where exactly this money is coming from. While Ms Barnes insists that USC is putting out all this money for all these stations from its own operating budget without any significant return, while CPRN is reportedly not even doing on-air fundraising, I don’t believe this at all.
Ms Barnes provides some inside information, admitting for the first time that CPRN was the entity that attempted to buy KUSF 5 years ago. At that time, word of a pending sale was leaked and the KUSF community rose up and organized to block the sale. CPRN waited and this time hid behind radio conglomerate Entercom’s “non-disclosure agreement” to do a purposeful end-run around due process to basically steal it in a three-way deal that reads like an NBA basketball trade.
Irwin and Tracy close the conversation asking to open lines of communication to see whether CPRN is willing to directly assist KUSF get back on the airwaves one way or another.
At the rally and subsequent events, activists and Attorney Peter Francke point out that CPRN has spent roughly a million dollars over the past year and till don’t own the station. Is this still deemed a good investment or can they be dissuaded from continuing to fight for this license?
My more pointed questions concern where exactly this money is coming from. While Ms Barnes insists that USC is putting out all this money for all these stations from its own operating budget without any significant return, while CPRN is reportedly not even doing on-air fundraising, I don’t believe this at all.
Ms Barnes provides some inside information, admitting for the first time that CPRN was the entity that attempted to buy KUSF 5 years ago. At that time, word of a pending sale was leaked and the KUSF community rose up and organized to block the sale. CPRN waited and this time hid behind radio conglomerate Entercom’s “non-disclosure agreement” to do a purposeful end-run around due process to basically steal it in a three-way deal that reads like an NBA basketball trade.
Irwin and Tracy close the conversation asking to open lines of communication to see whether CPRN is willing to directly assist KUSF get back on the airwaves one way or another.
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Why is anyone even bothering to hassle a "conglomerate" (Entercom is quite reasonable, with ownership levels far far below the real megacorp radio owners)?
It's called the Internet. You can start your own streaming station tomorrow afternoon, and play whatever you want. You can hear it in your car, on mobile devices and tablets and laptops.
KUSF was a great idea, and a fun place to hear random shows and random music. It's over, and it isn't coming back. Ever. Radio has been democratized by the Internet, all genres and points of view. The big companies will be abandoning music on FM within a handful of years anyway.
I was in radio for 34 years. It's over, people. But go ahead, Fight on, and watch absolutely no one care. There's nothing to save. It's already dead. You should have cared when it was alive.
It's called the Internet. You can start your own streaming station tomorrow afternoon, and play whatever you want. You can hear it in your car, on mobile devices and tablets and laptops.
KUSF was a great idea, and a fun place to hear random shows and random music. It's over, and it isn't coming back. Ever. Radio has been democratized by the Internet, all genres and points of view. The big companies will be abandoning music on FM within a handful of years anyway.
I was in radio for 34 years. It's over, people. But go ahead, Fight on, and watch absolutely no one care. There's nothing to save. It's already dead. You should have cared when it was alive.
For more information:
http://johnscottstories.com
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