KPFT Notes

Although this piece was written for the Los Angeles market, the status of Black radio in the United States is rather painful. Tom Joyner airs in Houston as well, and the public-interest reporting is negligible. Especially when one considers the lack of a Black news network, the commitment of media to that coverage for listeners needs to be even more solid. Right now, the focus on media seems to be on the growing Latino presence and media, but we do need to recall the position of African Americans as community radio seeks its audience. This most recent article is followed by the Houston Chronicle piece on Obidike Kamau’s KPFT program. The status of Black radio is discussed as well.

Among the major issues for commercial media is understanding Blacks want to discuss issues, and are intelligent enough to lead the discussions. Here at KPFT and other Pacifica stations, where Black talk radio is supported, we see listener loyalty and appreciation, but judging from the commercial media, you might not think African Americans want to discuss the war, jobs, immigration or relevant topics of the day. Well worth considering in our consolidated media landscape.

How Radio Continues to ‘Dumb Down’ Blacks in Los Angeles

By Kennedy Johnson
May 2, 2006 / EURWeb

One need only to look at the recent booting of John Salley of “The John Salley Block Party” on Radio One’s KKBT-FM (100.3) The Beat and the chosen replacement of Dallas based personality Tom Joyner, to see the crisis in black radio in Los Angeles.

In the nation’s second largest media market that is home to almost one million blacks, there is only one daily talk show that focuses on issues relevant to blacks in Los Angeles and unless you’re up at 4:30 a.m., you miss it. And this is not a plug for the “Front Page” on KJLH, but it is what it is.

Please tell me that I am not the only black person in Los Angeles to notice the gradual yet progressive downward spiral of black radio into meaningless banter by obsolete personalities who are solely focused on their own lives and use four hours during morning drive time to tell you about it. And if it’s not the “Chatty Kathy” personalities then it’s the celebrity who has a new movie, television show, album, video, ring tone, sneaker, or whatever that just won’t shut up.

Then there’s the issue of community news, you know news about issues relevant to you and me. Well, that’s just about disappeared too. If radio stations read news, it’s usually Associated Press or City News copy that wasn’t written by us and usually doesn’t pertain to us. How many black radio news reporters do you know of? Off the top of my head I can only come up with one, Jacquie Stephens.

Let’s be clear here. There are only two black owned radio stations in Los Angeles, Stevie Wonder’s KJLH and Radio One’s KKBT.

KJLH gets a pass simply because they are home to the only daily black talk show in Los Angeles and they actually have a black reporter that goes out into the community to report our news. However, KJLH would do better by moving the “Front Page” into the “Home Team’s” time slot and vice versa.

Radio One’s KKBT has been a constant disappointment for years. I didn’t think they could go much lower after hiring Steve Harvey but then they hired John Salley and made a fool of me. It was a bad move to nix then KKBT personality Dominique DiPrima, but Da Poetess has been trying to hold it down over there for the community.

Consider this. Spanish language radio disc jockeys were the moving force behind the mass numbers of people in attendance at the pro immigration rallies and marches. They told their people where to go, when to be there, what to bring with them, and the people came.

When was the last time John Salley, Big Boy, or Cliff Winston told you to attend a rally in support of an issue that was important to blacks? My point exactly.

Illegal immigration is all everybody is talking about these days, everybody except you know who.

So imagine my own surprise when I found myself tuning in to KFI 640 AM of all stations to get briefed on the latest immigration news. Notoriously known for being Los Angeles’ conservative talk station, KFI has been the only station in Los Angeles to really address immigration in a language that I can understand, English. And even though I don’t always agree with their points of view, I can appreciate a station that is actually willing to at least talk about the issue. It was KFI not a black radio station that first asked blacks how they felt about illegal immigration and had blacks call in to the station to voice their opinions. Go figure?

Someone reading this article is going say, “Well, these stations play music. Their focus is not news.” That may be true, but if it’s a black station, we should also be able get our news from them as well. I don’t expect KFWB News 980 or KPCC 89.9 FM to do a special broadcast on community news specific to blacks, although it would be nice. I do however expect stations that cater to this community to address the issues that are important to us and provide us with comprehensive news that we can use to educate ourselves.

Who was voted off of American Idol the night before is irrelevant when we are in danger of losing a community like Leimert Park.

Somehow I just don’t think a Dallas based radio personality who has no connection to the community is who we need on the airwaves in Los Angeles. It’s just a hunch.

ON THE AIR

Radio diplomacy
Talk host Obidike Kamau provides forum for dialogue for listeners of all races

By ANDREW GUY JR. Houston Chronicle Staff / January 25, 2006

The revolution may not have been televised, but it’s certainly being broadcast. Has been for the past few years. Not by a band of radicals stomping through the streets, waving flags and handing out fliers, but by a small group of people hoping to create a useful dialogue on Houston’s airwaves.

They gather every Sunday night at 8:45 in the lobby of KPFT’s Lovett Boulevard studios. Waiting for the booth to be free, they bide their time chatting about current events and doing last-minute tweaks of the script.

By 9, they’re live.

“Callers, you are listening to KPFT Radio Pacifica, and welcome to “Self-Determination.”

A bearded Svengali commanding callers from across the city, Obidike Kamau croons into the microphone as if he were born with it. His voice is deep and commanding.

Kamau is a teacher. That’s how he was trained, that’s how he’s spent his career, and that’s how he approaches his show. It’s all about patience and knowing how to differentiate between a caller trying to push his buttons and a caller who is disconnected.

He remains calm and diplomatic at all times – or at least he tries to.

It is weeks after Hurricane Katrina. Still outraged at the storm’s aftermath that left thousands of black New Orleans residents homeless, Kamau has dubbed the month Black Agenda Month and focused each show on African-Americans’ lack of influence on social and political policies. There’s an emphasis on how to change the tide.

“Hurricane Katrina showed us that we should probably be prepared to be our brother’s keeper,” Kamau says. “I think you could probably use the Katrina situation to do extensive lectures on policy. Is that correct or not? Talk to me.”

The calls come in.

Andy is first. He wonders why most post-Katrina discussion has focused on the plights of black people.

“All the talk is centered on black America,” Andy begins, his voice rising with each word. “There were a lot of white people who lost their homes in New Orleans, too. What about those people? What about the white people?”

Steps forward

Kamau is an imposing man. Standing well north of 6 feet, he looks like a young version of Red Foxx’s “Sanford “” & Son” character, scraggly beard and all. Back in the day, he used to wear dreadlocks. That’s if one could call a few years ago “back in the day.” The dreads were a victim of a man always looking to make things a little better, to move forward.

Kamau is a professor at Texas Southern University and executive director of the campus library. His spacious office at TSU is filled with the trappings of a busy man: birthday cards, photos of his wife and three kids, various pieces of Afro-centric art and piles of paperwork.

His telephone constantly buzzes, prompting him to say several times, “Excuse me, let me take this “one” call … ” There is a secretary, but many people have his direct line because Kamau likes to be accessible.

To call Kamau complicated isn’t telling the whole story. He is a whirl of contradictions: forceful in his opinions, yet diplomatic enough to let dissenters have their say. The revolution may not be televised, but it’ll be discussed, dissected and debated.

“Yeah, it’s all about the dialogue,” Kamau says. “That’s what I’m trying to do on my show. People need a place where they can discuss issues and be themselves. If I can provide a little bit of that, I’ve done what I needed to do. Not everyone is going to like what we’re talking about on a particular day, but they have the right to call in and air their views. I’ll hear them out.”

Kamau has been doing so on KPFT every Sunday night for three years. “Self-Determination” is the anchor of KPFT’s Sunday-night lineup of urban talk radio geared to black audiences. The format is simple: Kamau picks a topic, sometimes there’s a guest. Listeners call and offer their views.

The topics are provocative: What are the consequences of bling? Why was Richard Pryor’s comedy relevant? How can blacks in New Orleans rebuild their lives? Is the black community homophobic? What’s happened to grass-roots political campaigns in the black community?

Most of the program’s callers are black, but Kamau also gets a steady stream of white, Hispanic and Asian listeners. What surprises the radio host the most are the calls from suburban white men, many of whom are blunt, conservative and ready to challenge on any topic.

“They feel comfortable enough with the show that they can call in and give their opinions,” Kamau says. “And I’m cool with that.”

Every Sunday isn’t “Black Power Movement” night. One Sunday featured a Houston chiropractor waxing about spirituality and healing. Another show – one of his most heated – featured controversial author and archaeologist Michael Cremo, who theorizes that man did not evolve from apes.

“That show,” Kamau says, “really got people riled up, because the implication was that if we didn’t evolve from apes, we evolved from some other force. And people assumed that to be God. Anytime you get into religion, you’re going to rile people up.”

Reaching out

Black talk radio, locally and nationally, has had a sketchy history.

For 12 years, Tom Joyner has hosted a nationally syndicated show that reaches more than 10 million. But that show, which originally focused on news and issues, has evolved into a mix of light entertainment and celebrity coverage.

Tavis Smiley, a Joyner protégé and former BET star, successfully launched National Public Radio’s first black news show in 2001. Smiley’s show reached more than 87 major markets and 900,000 listeners daily before he parted ways with NPR in December 2004 over what Smiley describes as creative and financial differences.

After his exit, Smiley slammed NPR and the radio business in general for not being inclusive and reaching out to a broader audience.

“It is ironic that a Republican president has an administration that is more inclusive and more diverse than a so-called liberal-media-elite network,” Smiley told Time magazine.

KPFT programming director Ernesto Aguilar said a lack of diversity in radio programming is not new, but is surprising considering the country’s demographic shifts over the past few decades.

The industry, he says, assumes urban listeners only want music with a little bit of entertainment news.

“Commercial radio doesn’t think that African-Americans are interested in news and issues,” Aguilar said. “And (when) they do have some kind of talk or issues (programming), it’s one show that airs really early on a Saturday or Sunday at like 5 a.m. Who is going to be up to listen to that?”

KPFT isn’t immune to criticism of its minority programming. A slew of popular public-affairs shows aimed at a black audience were canceled under various managements in the 1980s and 1990s. Outraged listeners were told that the station had to find a balance between its activist roots and fundraising.

Fundraising won. After formally changing its format to a folksy, country-rock sound, the station’s audience and fundraising boomed.

Several years and management changes later, KPFT returned to activist programming, reinstating its Sunday night “block” of black shows.

“Self-Determination” is sandwiched between Akua Holt’s “Pan-African Journal” and Cliff Smith’s “Community Dialogue”.

Another black-themed show, “Connect the Dots” with Robert Muhammad, airs Wednesday afternoons.

The line-up works, Aguilar says, adding that research has revealed that African-American listeners are more likely to tune in when similar programs are grouped together rather than scattered throughout the week.

Kamau credits the satellite radio networks with increasing the numbers of black talk shows, but adds that major commercial networks haven’t gotten the message.

“Black talk radio is unexplored,” he said. “Black people want to talk, want to listen and want to get the issues out there just like everybody else.”

Having a say

On the air with “Self-Determination”, caller Andy is riled up. He’s still waiting for an answer to his question: Why has all the Katrina talk focused on struggles of blacks?

“Yes, poor white Americans were affected, too,” Kamau answers. “(But the numbers of) black Americans (who were affected) far outweigh white Americans.”

Andy seems satisfied. He thanks Kamau and hangs up.

Self-Determination
When: Airs 9 p.m. Sundays, KPFT, 90.1 FM