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www.hopedance.org
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| <back | home The Story Behind the Struggle to Bring Democracy Now! to KCBX by Mark Phillips The 21-month struggle to bring Democracy Now! to KCBX five days a week culminated with substantial success on Feb. 7th when they first began airing it M, W, Th, F at noon and Tuesdays at 4:00 pm, Board of Supes permitting. Along with the return of Radio Nation and New Dimensions this represented a stunning turnaround from a station that had only weeks prior dealt a devastating blow to the progressive community. No one could have been more surprised than I was. My thanks goes out to everyone who sent cards and emails, phoned and gave pledges in support of DN! The KCBX advisory council deserves a grateful nod not only for their support of DN! but also for putting up with me. And to Guy, Frank and Paul at the station, thanks for proving me wrong when I said it was clear you could not hear what we were saying. Since May of 2003 it has been a special project of mine to pester the powers that be at KCBX, making the case that DN! is an alternative voice to the corporate news, an alternative voice that must be heard by a wide audience if free speech is to have any meaning. "It’ll cost too much," "We don’t have room in the schedule," or "It doesn’t fit with our format" were some of the early replies. On the one-year anniversary of the struggle, I wrote a four-page open letter to Guy Rathbun (program director at KCBX) answering every argument I had heard from him as to why DN! could not be aired. I used specific examples to illustrate why it was vital to our democracy to give voice to this non-corporate version of the news (see http://www.hopedance.org/new/dn/mark_july04.pdf). The totality of his response was that we would have to agree to disagree. Early on, I realized that talking only to Frank and Guy would not be sufficient, so I showed up at a meeting of the KCBX advisory council. They received me generously and allowed the discussion of DN! to proceed for an hour or more. Heartened by what I perceived as significant support, I became a regular at their quarterly meetings. I’m not certain they were fully prepared for the likes of a radical outsider armed with a resolution using several "whereases" and a "therefore" to draw the inescapable conclusion that DN! must be added. And while the procedure may have been a bit awkward at times, several meetings later they had morphed my request into a one-page advisory statement addressed to the management of KCBX, which included: "We recommend increasing the weekly programming for alternative/progressive news and information programming, such as Democracy Now!, The BBC News Service and others." And: "We suggest that in considering future program selections, KCBX actively seek out diverse viewpoints to increase its role as a forum for alternative points of view." For a group whose meetings had been as much about tea and cookies as any real influence on programming decisions, this was an honorable effort. When I requested access to the final wording of the resolution I was asked not to go public with it, to allow the management of KCBX to work on this privately, without a public spotlight. Being a reasonable guy, I agreed, and for nine months I let them have it their way. During this time I continued to have discussions with Guy, but it was clear my arguments fell on deaf ears. My resulting anger became a huge part of the struggle. Anger is poorly contained in its vessel of origin, and even my relationship with my partner was affected. It was during these dark days, when success seemed so distant and the price so high, that I began to think I would spend more time doing the things I felt should be done, and less time trying to convince folks of anything that they weren’t ready to understand. It was in light of this advisory statement that the changes KCBX made at the end of the year seem particularly repugnant. Originally intending to cut the one hour of DN! that KCBX had been carrying for 18 months, their decision to take Radio Nation, instead, still meant that the meager four hours per week of alternative news would be cut by 25%. New Dimensions and 51% were also sacrificed to make room for The World, to be aired weekdays at noon. Frank asked me to give the show a chance so I went to their web site. The first thing I noticed were the corporate sponsors which included Merck (a pharmaceutical company), the Medtronic Foundation (medical technology), Capital Group Companies (an investment management organization) and The Economist (a financial publication). I looked at two weeks of archives to see if there were any stories about the drugs recently recalled by the FDA. There were none. They covered voting in Ukraine and Iraq but not our own dysfunctional system. They utilized the highest standards of stenography in covering one of President Bush’s rare press conferences, offering little in the way of critical commentary. At this point something snapped. I’m not much for tactical strategies since I don’t believe we can fully consider all of the unintended consequences but one thing I now know is that you should never put your opposition into a position in which they believe they have nothing to loose. This allows for unbridled freedom which can unleash forces difficult to resist. I had been pushed to such a point. I was angry and was no longer interested in hiding that fact. I wrote an email to the HopeDance list serve (copied to Frank and Guy) with the subject, "Stop giving money to KCBX!" I went to another advisory council meeting and met Maclyn, a lovely lady who had shown up because she was upset about the loss of New Dimensions. As the only members of "the audience," we chatted before the meeting. It was clear she appreciated DN! and supported my efforts. Once the meeting began, the advisory council offered their critique of the new schedule. While they did voice some criticisms of the revised program, the relationships between the advisory council and KCBX management, which go back years, perhaps decades, rendered them a bit tepid. Finally, it was my turn to speak. Allowed only three minutes per the recently adopted rules designed primarily to keep me in check, I proceeded to give a 10-minute uninterrupted, impromptu speech unencumbered by such restraining forces. I did not pull any punches. I entered an utterly calm zone as I delineated the reasons we needed to have access to non-corporate news. It helps to believe, to really know, that the position you’re advocating is logically and morally unassailable. I really don’t know exactly what I said, only that I ended by telling Guy, Frank and Paul they had won. That it was clear to me I had said everything I could possibly say in every way I could conceive of to say it and that it was now perfectly clear there was no way they would ever hear any of it. I told them I was giving up trying to convince them of anything and offered my congratulations on their supreme effort. I did this in a perfectly calm, if sad, voice and when I stopped there were several seconds of what I gauged to be stunned silence. It seemed to me I had administered a dose of honesty and passion that those present had rarely experienced. The silence was broken by the enthusiastic applause of the audience. Aside from breaking the exquisite tension, this one-woman response by Maclyn produced the most precious gift the struggle had produced to that point. A huge grin and grateful laugh were offered in return. It was clear that talking to Frank and Guy was not a meaningful exercise so I determined that my last hurrah would be to address the board of directors at their Feb. 15th meeting. My intent was to simply make my case to them and then be on my way, to make biodiesel or establish our own low-power FM radio station with like-minded souls but to leave the operation of KCBX to the fools that were currently in charge. But before that day arrived, the universe provided an interesting coincidence. A story buried on page A6 of the Tribune spoke about the painkilling drug Vioxx. It had been linked to 140,000 cases of heart disease and 56,000 deaths. I was stunned by the magnitude of this disaster and knew it would get little coverage in the mainstream media. Since Vioxx was made by Merck, I looked to see if The World covered the story. I was utterly unsurprised to find that they did not. So I wrote another letter, this one to the Tribune, and again copied to Frank and Guy. KCBX contacted Public Radio International, producers of The World, and asked why they had not covered the Vioxx story, one that goes to the very heart of how our drugs are regulated. The answers they received were clearly evasive and inadequate, so, in an inspired moment we may never fully understand, they decided to drop The World and put DN! in its place. Perhaps they had grown as tired of fighting me as I had of fighting them. We may never know exactly what they had in mind while they were resisting our efforts nor exactly what elements of the struggle changed their heart. Still, there are several lessons I’d like to share. Aside from advocating a cause which is clear and just, it helps immensely to be dealing with decent people. They will still resist changing the status quo for reasons you deem indefensible, but their decency gives you a fighting chance. Be patient. You must avail yourself of every step offered within their existing structure before blazing a new and unconventional trail. Then, when criticized for going too far or too fast, you will be able to respond with a list of the actions taken which demonstrate your integrity and reasonableness. Be persistent. At the same time, know your own limits and protect yourself. Leave open the possibility that you may have to abandon the struggle to preserve your own sanity and then hang in there as long as you can. Some of the most valuable lessons exist at the edge of your tolerance. In the end, the only thing you can control is your own actions. You really have little-to-no control of the outcome. The process can teach you a lot about attachments. Please don’t become an activist for the glory. Try not to take anything, neither the defeats nor the victories, too personally. The only entity of any importance is the issue. One of the main benefits of a mindful struggle is the withering of the individual ego. With this successful conclusion, I am now calling in all of the pledges made in support of DN! Just over $5000 in pledges were made, and, after touting these as evidence that the progressive community would support DN!, I would like to make good on my boast. Please send donations to KCBX in support of their decision to carry DN! I am trying to gather a large portion of these pledges and hope to present them en masse to KCBX by the end of the month, prior to their next pledge drive. For those who wish to support this effort, please send your checks, made out to KCBX, to: Mark Phillips 8600 Santa Lucia Rd. Atascadero, CA 93422 (805) 461-0376; mrppy@fix.net For those who want to pay by credit card or otherwise would prefer to send their donations directly to KCBX, please explain clearly to them that this is in response to their decision to carry DN! They will keep track of these and I will add them to my total. I am committed to making good on my $5000 boast. Thanks for your support, Mark Phillips <back | top^ |