Editorial 7.8, August 2005, by Deirdre Helfferich Changes at KUAC For those of you who don’t yet know, KUAC has changed its programming lineup, cutting “CounterSpin”, “51 Percent”, “Living on Earth”, “The Health Show”, “Tech Nation”, and the half hour of public comment at the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly meetings. Replacing them are the shows “Marketplace” and “On the Media.” A few other rearrangements have occurred as well, and a fuss has arisen, characterized by station director Greg Petrowich as coming from a “relatively small but vocal group.” I wrote to KUAC radio manager Scott Diseth objecting to some of the cuts and commenting that, while the replacement programs seemed decent, replacing this variety with one show (Marketplace airs five days a week during this time slot) didn’t seem to be a good way to improve the programming mix. I was concerned most by the elimination of CounterSpin and the borough assembly meeting public comment period. Diseth responded, but did not explain how removing the public comment period would “improve on an already excellent schedule.” So I wrote again:
I also asked about the community advisory board, but Diseth hasn’t yet responded. So I called the station and asked to speak with Petrowich. In his August 14 News-Miner community perspective, “KUAC programming guided by values, not by politics,” he responded to the more extreme charges levied by critics of the program changes, but did not address the question of public service with regard to the borough assembly meetings. However, in an article by Margaret Friedenauer (“KUAC alters program lineup”, 8/6/05, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner), alternative ways of making the public comment period available were suggested. I asked Petrowich about this, and why the station didn’t simply pre-empt a half hour of Marketplace twice a month. He pointed out that ever since the assembly moved its meeting time to 6 pm, the station had been airing only half of the public comment time anyway, and that Marketplace is a daily news show, comparing it to All Things Considered, and so shouldn’t be cut into by the assembly meetings. He said KUAC was considering a range of options to make the meetings available: recording it and playing it at a different time, webstreaming it and archiving the recorded meetings, and a few other ideas. Personally, I think that pre-empting Marketplace and webstreaming it is a better idea (it’s prerecorded anyway), and that airing the entirety of the assembly meetings live and making them available via webstream and archive is important, and part of the duty of a public radio station. I can handle missing one repeat of the news and a day of Marketplace twice a month in favor of the best part of local politics: this stuff directly and immediately affects us, right here in the Fairbanks North Star Borough. We need to know what’s going on at the assembly. I also asked Petrowich about the community leadership council to which he referred in his News-Miner piece. He wrote: “Recognizing the uncertain climate in which we operate, KUAC recently established a community leadership council and developed a strategic plan in 2004, gaining insight and feedback from community stakeholders to guide our organization.” This council is not yet formed, Petrowich explained on the phone, but the strategic plan is, available on www.kuac.org. There was a community advisory council to KUAC, but this was disbanded in the early ’90s. Petrowich said the leadership council is envisioned as a different sort of group than the advisory council: it would be an advocacy and fundraising organization. This is a different animal, and while important to public radio’s survival (given the myopia of the current legislature) is still not something that will directly “build an audience-driven KUAC that is responsive to community needs,” as one of the strategic directions from the 2004 plan states. The strategic plan outlines core values of sustainability, independence, integrity, community, and education. To maintain these values, the station will need to involve the public, not only in providing funding, but in feedback on the programming. And it will need to pay attention not only to the comments but also to the perceptions—misinformed or otherwise—that people have of the decisions made by the management. We live in a politically charged environment these days, and all decisions will be seen through that lense, justly or unjustly. KUAC’s management would be wise to remember that, and to alleviate the public’s fears through active community involvement. | ||
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