Some bad news – KFAI recently had its board meeting & just hired a new Director who used to work for Minnesota Public (corporate) Radio. They have taken First Voices Indigenous Radio off the air & replaced it with a Chican@ community program on Sunday afternoons…
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Tiokasin Ghosthorse’s program needs to come back to KFAI, because he addresses imperialism, not just the surface issues!
In his excellent book on media, Dr Bob McKesnie famously said that by the late 1920s resources of mediocrity have begun to make their influence felt in radio.
In the early 20’s, Radio Showed its unlimited potential for good. In fact the first lecture ever given on the air was in 1921.
Thus 90 years ago we realized that broadcasting could be a force for good.
But by the late 20’s, commercialism began to rear its ugly head.
Even though we had many decades and many examples of excellence in broadcasting, there was always the danger that we would be pushed backward & downward by greed, the race to the bottom, the lowest common denominator, call it what you will…
In our own time, here in the Twin Cities, we are engaged in such a struggle. I’m referring to individuals & to a mentality determined to make community radio station KFAI every bit as dull & homogenous as its counterparts at Minnesota Corporate Radio. Formerly known as Minnesota Public Radio!
My relatives, forgive the medical metaphor but one must seriously ask the question, Is there a kind of spiritual muscular dystrophy or cerebral palsy spreading in the population?
Do we have the muscle tone anymore to not only stop this race to the bottom but reverse it?
Let me get specific. At the end of June last year, KFAI made some curious program changes. Not all of them were negative. One of the finest additions to the new schedule was and is a program called First Voices Indigenous Radio. It is based in New York City & the presenter is one of the most articulate, ethically & intellectually grounded native voices we have ever heard. He is a citizen of the Lakota nation, although he lives in New York City & broadcasts from Pacifica Network & WBAI specifically.
Many of us lived for the rebroadcast of that program every Sunday at noon on KFAI.
The program committee at KFAI made a cavalier & contemptuous decision to cancel a program after only a few months. The villain in this piece
is the program director Mr Adam Mel.
TS Elliot must have had him in mind when he famously said “The world will go out with a whimper.”
If ever we needed a radical indigenous perspective, on the radio & Internet, it’s now!
I’m calling upon all of you to email
board@kfai.org
or call KFAI at 612 341 3144 ext. 20, followed by # sign.
Tell Mr Mel in no uncertain terms that First Voices Indigenous Radio must be returned to the air immediately! If he & the program committee do not concede to our demands, I am calling upon all people who support KFAI to withdraw their support & help me challenge their license next time it comes up for renewal. As a member of the Board of Directors of Kalpulli,
we will take over the station & make it part of Radio Turtle Island.
Thus we will have defeated & destroyed the forces of homogenization & mediocrity!
If you wish to hear more about this, you can contact me:
rtricomo@yahoo.com
651 714 0288
There is more to say for the changes here run deep.
Let’s be good Prometheans & take things back into our hands! If the Egyptians can do it, so can we. Finally, my relatives, if you want corroboration for what I am telling you, feel free to download archived programs from firstvoicesindigenousradio.org
Please let me hear from you as soon as possible! These are my words & I take full responsibility for them,
Love & Respect,
Brother Ray
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