Curses Again

Can UW officials be stopped from pulling the KCMU News Hour off the air?

by Mark Worth
The Free Press



Editor's Note: Those interested in joining the struggle to save the
KCMU News Hour are encouraged to contact Wayne Roth and Don Yates
by phone: (206) 543-2710;
by mail: KUOW/KCMU, U of W, Box 353750, Seattle, 98195;
and/or by e-mail at [email protected];
or contact UW President Richard McCormick at 543-5010.

A public meeting on the situation will be held:

7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 20, at the
University Christian Church, 4731 15th Ave. NE.
For more info, call 782-8292.


In a move that sounds like it could have originated in a corporate boardroom, the KCMU News Hour has been abruptly canceled by the joint management of KUOW and KCMU, two community-supported radio stations operated by the University of Washington. Members of the all-volunteer News Hour staff - none of whom were consulted before the decision was made - are staging an aggressive campaign to save the show, since 1988 the main carrier of the Pacifica Network News in Seattle. (Pacifica is also broadcast from Bellevue, WA on KBCS 91.3 FM weekdays at 3pm, but reception in Seattle can be a problem.)
Since the June 3 decision, news director Sheri Herndon and other staffers have taken a moment every night to urge listeners to contact UW officials to preserve the News Hour, which airs weekdays from 6-7 p.m. The station has received up to 15 calls per day in support of the show. Jesse Jackson, Ralph Nader, author/lecturer Michael Parenti, and media analyst Norman Solomon are among the national figures who have publicly endorsed the program. Local leaders supporting the show include state Sen. Dwight Pelz, King County Council member Larry Gossett, and John Boonstra of the Washington Association of Churches.
Unless KCMU program director Don Yates can be persuaded otherwise, the News Hour's last broadcast will air Friday, June 30. If the decision sticks, Pacific will be lost, as will a daily half-hour of progressive news and commentary, featuring:

  • Counterspin, a weekly show produced by Fairness and
    Accuracy in Reporting, a respected New York-based
    media watchdog group;
  • Interviews and stories by Herndon, an authority in Native American
    and environmental issues; labor, trade, and international affairs expert
    Sally Soriano; local news correspondent Kay Pethe; and health and
    environment reporter Alan Ismond, amongst others;
  • Interviews and speeches by Mumia Abu-Jamal, Ben Bagdikian, Jerry Brown,
    Noam Chomsky, Manning Marable, Ralph Nader, Michael Parenti,
    Vandana Shiva, Cornel West, and a host of other national political and
    media figures; and
  • Weekly film reviews by Kathleen McInnis.

    Herndon, a KCMU volunteer for more than three years, was outraged by the decision. "Within a week I have 50 to 75 telephone messages from activists and organizers with information about issues they're working on. Now where are they going to go to get the word out about their work? Next door to KUOW? I'll tell you where they'll go ... they will go nowhere."

    C.U.R.S.E. Redux
    The sudden move is reminiscent of the crackdown on musical freedom at KCMU three years ago that led to the protracted C.U.R.S.E. flap (which culminated in the UW losing a federal lawsuit filed by several fired volunteer DJs).

    For starters, program director Yates seems to be telling different people different things. DJ Greg Weber, host of the Thursday night Blue Shadows program, said Yates told him the station could no longer afford to carry the Pacifica news (which, because the recent KUOW/KCMU merger placed the station into a higher earning bracket, increased from $2,880 a year to $7,300). Yates, however, has told others (including the Free Press) that he wanted the station to focus more on music. (That rationale is spurious, as the five hours of news accounts for less than 3 percent of KCMU's programming.)
    Further, Yates and his boss, UW's broadcast services director Wayne Roth, told the news staff after last year's merger that they wanted the news operation to become "more professional." But did Yates and Roth actually try to make this happen? According to staffers, they sat idly by as much of the KCMU news department's equipment fell into disrepair, without following through on verbal promises to make KUOW's vast resources readily available to KCMU news staffers.
    Then, Yates and Roth forbade KCMU news staffers from participating in last month's quarterly fund drive. One can't help but think the two were fearful that Herndon & Co., who had been setting records of late, would raise so much money that killing the News Hour couldn't be justified.
    Yates strongly defended his decision. "I don't think people look to KCMU as the Pacifica station or the news station." This exposes another discrepancy: when promoting the station, KCMU's on-air hosts almost invariably remind listeners of its unique "music and information programming" that they can't find anywhere else on the dial.
    Downplaying the value of the News Hour, Yates said the program disrupts the flow of music from Amanda Wilde's variety show to the stations "specialty programs," such as Shake the Shack and The Roadhouse. Without citing specifics, Yates said many listeners "tune out" at 6 and turn back on at 7.

    Political Downsizing
    Yates, who recently added a CD of Chomsky speeches to the station's playlist, explained that giving listeners political information in 2-to-3 minute blurbs was "more effective" than a solid hour's worth of news. In another curious rationalization, Yates said he didn't believe the station had a special responsibility to supply its largely under-30 audience with news and information, even though political apathy among people in that age group is at an all-time high.

    What's more, by eliminating a regular news show, the station further serves to divorce music from political thought - a disturbing trend that youth-oriented publications such as The Stranger are perpetuating. Said Herndon: "Once you take that link away, a slow transformation will take place. You will suck the life out of the music. How can you look at all that rap music and say it's not political?"
    KCMU will continue to air its weekly public-affairs show, Mind Over Matters, Saturday and Sunday mornings from 6-9 a.m. According to Yates, MOM may have been canceled had it not been for its inconspicuous time slot.
    Attempts to reach Roth regarding the possibility of KUOW picking up Pacifica, were unsuccessful. However, because the station airs so much National Public Radio programming, that seems unlikely.
    Pacifica's executive producer, Julie Drizin, said KCMU's decision to drop the news is indicative of ominous changes unfolding in radio. "There's a growing corporatization and commercialization of what was once called public radio," she said, adding, "Pacifica is not brought to you by the 'Supermarket to the World,' or by 'We Bring Good Things to Life.' We're the last network left in public radio that's truly public and that doesn't accept corporate underwriting."
    Seventy stations currently air the Pacifica Network News. Along with KCMU, Drizin said, publicly owned stations in Eugene, OR, Duluth, MN, and Columbia, MO, have dropped the daily broadcast in recent months.



    This story was updated in our September/October edition. Please see "Radio Waves at KCMU".

    Plus: A reader responds to this article.




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