Protest the Cancellation of KPFA’s Morning Mix

Protest the cancellation of the Morning Mix, a radio show on KPFA during morning drive time, which was hosted by diverse programmers who are based in the local community. It is being replaced with a show, with one radio personality, that will be piped in from Los Angeles.

Only some Morning Mix segments have been rescheduled, and at times of the day when most working people are at work and unable to listen, including the labor show Work Week Radio (https://soundcloud.com/workweek-radio), and Project Censored (http://www.projectcensored.org/category/radio/).

This removal of the Morning Mix from drive time is part of a larger, ongoing coup, which you can read about here: http://www.unitedforcommunityradio.org/

[UPDATE May 26, 2014: The Monday May 25 rally at KPFA was a success: “Great morning at KPFA today! The Morning Mix was broadcast today as usual, with several hosts taking back the studio. The doors of KPFA were wide open, the way community radio should be, and supporters filled the hall. Beautiful sight! -The battle continues tomorrow. Since it won’t be a holiday, it may be more of a struggle, and we need more people to come out to help keep the show on the air.”

Support the Morning Mix hosts and real Community Radio.

Upcoming protest rallies in support of the Morning Mix:

Wednesday, May 28, 2014
7:30am

Saturday, May 31, 2014
10am

At KPFA
1929 Martin Luther King Jr. Way
Berkeley, California

https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/05/23/18756199.php

May 23, 2014
For Immediate Release

Stand Up And Fight Back For Free Speech Radio

“This is Miguel Gavilan Molina. It has come to my attention that this past Wednesday – the same day that Pacifica’s new interim executive director was introducing the staff of KPFA to the three finalists for the general manager position – KPFA’s outgoing interim manager was slashing and scattering the Morning Mix and removing it from the morning.

Whose idea was it to make major changes and have them put in place by a manager in his last days at KPFA? Regardless of who decided this, what reason was there to rush it through, with no prior notice to listeners, instead of waiting for the new manager to come in?

The co-hosts of the Project Censored Show, part of the Morning Mix on Friday mornings, were told by the interim General Manager last Friday that they were pre-empted for the final week of the fund drive, but were moved to the 1 P.M. slot for that week only, and that no program changes would be implemented until a new manager was in place.

I ask, as a former child farmworker, who toiled in the fields of misery, and as a producer on Pacifica for over thirty years: Who is running KPFA? Who is making the decisions?

And what do those people who are killing the Morning Mix, think they are doing to the morale for our newest group of emerging producers? Once again, mostly white people are deciding for the entire KPFA community—mostly black and brown – how things are to be run at KPFA.

It is time to defend this station or lose it: the white-minority ruling group does not have the right to drive through their own changes, which now include destroying the Morning Mix.

One of the Morning Mix crew, Sabrina Jacobs, is now calling for support by the black, brown, Asian, and progressive white staff and the community, to rIse up and support the Morning Mix.

I quote our colleague, Sabrina Jacobs:

“The People of Color that are affiliated with KPFA and Pacifica Radio will not be silenced until the questions of all those concerned are answered. The world outside of this “bubble” that has been created where white supremacy reigns will cease to exist when the necessary changes are made and our demands to be treated equally are heard and executed, post haste.”

Dr. Marc Sapir, a long time generous supporter of KPFA, and a long time activitist said in a widely distributed statement: “The stepping forward of minority programmers along with the rest of the Mix staff can be a signal that this resistance is possible and this could lead to a much improved station and network…”

STAND UP AND FIGHT BACK FOR FREE SPEECH RADIO: LONG LIVE THE MORNING MIX.

This is Miguel Gavilan Molina standing strong for Free Speech Radio, KPFA Pacifica”

After this statement on air Miguel continues to discuss this with Dennis Bernstein on his program; hear more at http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/103089 ; statement at about 28 minutes and 35 seconds into the program.

ACTION PLANNED:
Come to KPFA at 7:00am Monday morning (or as soon afterwards as you can) to support the Morning Mix hosts in objecting to their treatment by KPFA.
1929 Martin Luther King Jr Way at Berkeley Way in Berkeley.