GrassrootsKPFK: Lawrence Reyes

Lawrence Reyes is running with GrassrootsKPFK for LSB because I feel the future of community-based free-speech radio is at stake. KPFK and the other Pacifica stations are electing new LSB members and selecting new management, AND THE NETWORK IS AT A CROSSROADS. “Radio powered by the people” must be a call to action and community empowerment. KPFK must address the survival issues of people who’ve been marginalized not only by the state and the wealthy, but also by those who try to monopolize the progressive discourse. Does what you hear on KPFK satisfy you, or do you feel as I do that it’s missing the boat on issues affecting your struggles, life and future?

Access to KPFK’s airwaves is a resource to provide diverse grassroots communities with the opportunity to communicate with one another and with the larger society. A few power-brokers or gate-keepers shouldn't dictate what we hear or say. Listeners and volunteers who power the station must have a say in how it’s run and what it airs. This is essential for true free speech, and to give voice to the voiceless.

KPFK must help advance solutions to the problems we’re experiencing – immigration raids and anti-migrant hysteria and scapegoating; homelessness and gentrification; lack of health care; denial of rights for the disabled, children and the aged; police abuse and criminalization of youth of color; repression and imprisonment of dissidents and resisters; absence of food sovereignty; militarization of schools; racism, war, colonialism and genocide. These issues affect me personally; I care about them passionately, and struggle about them daily as an organizer, parent and social worker. I’ve been involved as a listener at KPFK, speaking and reaching out about these issues for years; yet KPFK shies away from addressing those issues deeply and airing concerns and expressions directly from the affected communities.

An open evaluation process of existing programming is critical in order to improve the quality, depth and scope of what KPFK airs. We need a comprehensive training program of fresh, energetic people engaged in the communities and schools, our next generation of listeners who are already under attack and who have the commitment to carry the station forward. KPFK is threatened today by forces that would eliminate grassroots voices, Spanish-language shows, and collectives. The best antidote is allowing the community to speak for itself. On-air forums and town halls must be held debating these issues; I have played a key role in helping organize such events at the station.

I have served on the Governance, Outreach and Program Oversight Committees of the LSB. I authored the resolution for editorial support of Mumia’s new trial, and worked on the first LSB fundraiser with Cynthia McKinney. I’m running, along with others in the GrassrootsKPFK campaign, to bring strict accountability and openness to KPFK. Together, we can build a station that can survive the attacks that will come whoever wins the 2010 elections. A STATION THAT WILL LINK ARMS WITH THE COMMUNITY AND SURVIVE THE GLOBAL CRISIS.

My work in the Community includes Endorsements: Union Member SEIU 721, Coordinator of the Puerto Rican Alliance of LA, Vice Chair SEIU 721 Latina/o Caucus, 721 Socio-Economic Justice Committee Shop Steward SEIU 721, Community Worker, Department of Mental Health, Southern California Immigration Coalition, SEIU Community Labor Coalition, International Action Center, Westside Coalition on Hunger and Homelessness, Labor Council Of Latin America Action and many more.

Election flyer.

Voices for Justice Radio, Berkeley Public Forum, 8/30/2009 video.

Questions? call 310-460-8586 or email Lawrence by clicking here.

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Q & A

Why do you want to be on the Local Station Board (LSB)?

I want to preserve and extend free-speech grassroots community based radio, to help attract new listeners by addressing community needs and issues.

How do you envision the LSB working with the Pacifica Foundation, staff and listener members?

The LSB can open its committee process more widely to interested listeners, and allow more open discussion prior to narrowing discussion to a single motion. The LSB should work with the local station management and staff and the Community Advisory Board to develop a stronger community service vision for the station, and a greater openness to listener input and creativity. The LSB must work to ensure the accountability of its delegates to the PNB, and to build a base fpr Pacifica with a whole in a new generation of listeners who can carry the station and the network/foundation forward. Local stakeholders have the best sense of local needs and programming priorities; the network should focus on uniting and marshaling the efforts of local stations and affiliates to meet national priorities, goals and programming that are beyond the reach of individual local stations’ paid and unpaid staff.

How can your station better serve the community? Please define community.

Provide better programming that airs community voices and problem solvers, provide more training so that grassroots activists can produce high quality radio for themselves. More remote broadcasts. Set up listener focus groups, where neighbors can have a house party to listen to a show together and give the station feedback about how to improve it. Community is the form that civil society takes to sustain cultural continuity in the face of corporate attempts to dominate, homogenize, marginalize or criminalize poor and working people. KPFK can be a mechanism for building, integrating and uniting communities and cultures.

Describe some actions you would take to increase the influence of the station in underrepresented communities and to increase the diversity of the listening audience.

See above re: training, remote broadcasts, focus groups, etc. I would work on effective town hall meetings in various communities in the listening area, work with labor, grassroots organizations, progressive churches, and campus groups at high schools and colleges to get their issues and concerns covered in cultural, public affairs, and news programming. KPFK needs to fully comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

What sources of funding, other than listener donations, do you feel your station should solicit? Do you have any ideas with respect to improving the current funding mechanisms?

The station should emphasize large numbers of small donors. I do not support seeking major foundation funding or tying the fate of the network to underwriting. The vast majority of charitable giving in the US is from individuals, not corporations or foundations. For Pacifica, that is the best guarantee of our independence and ability to resist pressures from corporate or partisan interests. Here are some alternatives to encourage individual donors:

• Archived recordings should be the primary premiums during station fund drives.
• Pacifica should develop an on-line subscription to the archives themselves, where subscribers could download a program a week for an annual subscription fee.
• Fund drives should focus on outreach for and around the Mission. Subscribers should get a month’s extension for every new subscriber they sign up. We should develop local cultural events that raise funds.

Please state briefly the skills, experience, educational background, work history, organizational affiliations, areas of community service, areas of interest and expertise that you would bring to the Pacifica network as a member of the Local Station Board.

I have extensive experience as a listener-sponsor member of LSB committees, am a professional Community Worker, and a bilingual community activist. I am a shop steward in my work unit for SEIU 721 and Co-Chair of the Latina/o Caucus, a member of the Puerto Rican Alliance and numerous local coalitions. I am a member of Children Planning Area 5 Council, and a parent of a child dealing with autism.

On which Local Station Board committees are you interested in actively serving? If you are a current Local Station Board member, on which committees do you currently serve?

LSB: Governance, Outreach, Program Oversight. Regarding the PNB, I am interested in the finance and national programming committees.

If you are currently on the Board and wish to be re-elected please describe your 3 year experience on the LSB. What did you accomplish? What were the obstacles you faced? Do you envision any change in the next three years if you are re-elected?

I am not a current LSB member, but I have served as a listener member on several LSB committees including governance and program oversight for many years. I have contributed to opening the station and the network to listener input. The obstacles I have encountered were narrow thinking and limited social experience of some with diverse ethnicities and classes, and I hope to help change with my election to the LSB.

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