April « 2007 « KPFT Notes

WFMU, an independent non-commercial radio station in Jersey City, New Jersey, seeks a creative, motivated individual with background in online media and non-commercial radio to develop and oversee WFMU’s Free Music Archive. Launching in 2008, The Free Music Archive will be an online library of music, audio and radio files which are licensed for free non-commercial use by their creators. The Podsafe Music Library Director will oversee the creation, acquisition and licensing of audio material for the site and will maintains relationships with software developers, producers, musicians and radio stations who are active participants in the Free Music Archive. Candidates must have a strong understanding of internet technologies, copyright / creative commons licensing and online libraries and music sites. Must be extremely knowledgeable about many types of music, have good writing and organizational skills and have the ability to supervise interns, staff and volunteers. Some background in public broadcasting required. For a complete job description, go to http://wfmu.org/pmld.html . Deadline for applications is May 15th. Salary range 35-40k, plus excellent benefits. Please e-mail a cover letter, resume and references to ken@wfmu.org or mail it to WFMU, FMA Search Committee, PO Box 5101, Hoboken, NJ 07030. WFMU is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Women and People of Color encouraged to apply.

KPFT will air two May Day specials this Tuesday.

First, we’ll air a Free Speech Radio News special at 1:30, following a shorter version of Uprising. This half-hour program will focus on labor and immigration issues. The program will feature sound-rich, documentary style features with on-mic interviews. Given the urgency of immigration issues, this program should be a welcome addition to the discussion.

Then, at 11, our usual Latino USA/Informativo Pacifica team will be replaced by an Informativo Pacifica special. The one hour “around-the-nation May-first” broadcast with reports from field reporters in cities where protests and rallies are scheduled. They have coordinated with reporters around the country, who will supply reports from New York, Chicago, Washington DC, San Francisco, Houston, Madison, Los Angeles, and more. The bulk of the broadcast will be in English, with some Spanish-language reports, particularly surrounding immigration issues. If you are interested to hear some of the Informativo Pacifica work in English, this program will be one to catch.

Reminder: Tuesday, KPFT will broadcast His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, who will be speaking in Houston at Rice University’s Autry Court May 1. The events are sold out. KPFT brings you both his public and Rice-only lectures live. The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual and political leader, will speak on “The Meaning of Compassion in Everyday Life,” at 10 a.m., and “Tolerance and Universal Responsibility in the Global Village” (the Rice talk) at 2 p.m.

At 4:30, tune in for a wrapup of the Grady Middle School Citizen Schools’ radio apprenticeship. This is sadly my last foray into youth training on behalf of KPFT (long story), but it was very rewarding. You’ll get to hear from many of the students I worked with this semester… some really great young people. I hope you like them. They were pretty cool!

Fellowship and Grant Deadlines from the AIR Fellowships and Grants Directory

RTNDF Minority Fellowships
May 7

N.S. Bienstock Fellowship: A $2,500 award recognizing a promising minority journalist in radio or television news.

RTNDF Beat Reporting Fellowships
May 7

Vada and Col. Barney Oldfield National Security Reporting Fellowship: A $1,000 award given annually to help a reporter or producer in radio or television news cover national defense and security issues.

Paul Robeson Fund For Independent Media
May 15

To support media activism and grassroots organizing by funding the pre-production and distribution of social issue film and video projects and the production and distribution of radio projects made by local, state, national or international organizations and individual media producers.

KBOO COMMUNITY RADIO 90.7 FM Portland

Job Title: Outreach Coordinator

Function: To increase membership, listenership and volunteer participation of diverse KBOO constituencies with a special emphasis on ethnic and sexual minorities. To work with volunteers to organize events and create and implement multi-media campaigns to accomplish the above. To recruit and coordinate team to conduct outreach activities.

Positions Supervised: Volunteers

Salary & Benefits: This is a half-time position, and the starting annual salary is $14,625. The position includes full medical, dental, life and disability insurance. Employee is eligible for employer retirement contributions after one year.

Qualifications: Candidate should be skilled in cross-cultural communications, and be able to train, supervise and motivate volunteers. Skills that are helpful but not required include: Bilingualism in Spanish/English; experience in public or community radio; connections to or experience with minority groups; advertising, marketing and public relations experience; community organizing experience.

Job Description: The position helps build community relationships, oversees co-sponsorships and creates promotional materials. This position also creates and manages events that focus on reaching new listeners, creating new content, fundraising, involving internal and external communities, and reaching communities of color.

TO APPLY: For job announcement (including full job description), application packet and instructions, please visit www.kboo.fm and click on About KBOO, Employment at KBOO

Application Deadline:

Must be received no later than Sunday, May 13th – 5 p.m.

Questions? E-mail Arthur W. Davis at manager@kboo.org or call 503-231-8032, x201

A group of African American leaders are traveling to the U.S.-Mexico Border this month to investigate the violations of human rights of migrants. The Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) is sponsoring “Braving Borders, Building Bridges: A Journey for Human Rights,” an African American tour of the border in Tucson, Arizona and Sonora, Mexico border region, April 26-29, 2007.

The main goal of the tour is to investigate the human rights violations against documented and undocumented immigrants crossing the border into the United States as well as the violations against U.S. citizens.

BAJI, a San Francisco Bay Area organization, is organizing the tour in cooperation with Coalicion de Derechos Humanos (the Coalition for Human Rights), a Tucson-based organization and the National Network for Immigrant and Refuge Rights based in Oakland, Calif.

“We are appalled by the increasing militarization of the border areas and the reports of rising migrant deaths, detentions of immigrants without due process, and violence against people attempting to cross the Mexican desert into the United States,” said Rev. Phil Lawson, a United Methodist minister and co-founder of BAJI. “As African Americans, we understand the racism and scapegoating directed towards immigrants that are prevalent in U.S. society today.”

The tour is led by Rev. Lawson, who is also a co-founder and co-chair of the California Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights, and Rev. Kelvin Sauls, an immigrant from South Africa who is a BAJI co-founder and the Director of Congregational Development for the General Board of Discipleship of The United Methodist Church. The delegates include a cross section of African Americans from six states and ten cities, including ministers and representatives of faith-based organizations, labor representatives, academics, political leaders, and community activists.

The BAJI delegation will meet with human rights activists, representatives of faith communities, labor organizations, county officials and elected leaders, and representatives of Native American tribes in Arizona. The group will also travel to Mexico to meet with human rights activists, representatives of faith communities, and migrants preparing to cross the border or who have been recently deported.

Immediately after the tour, on Sunday, April 29, the delegation will hold a media briefing in Tucson to present its initial findings and recommendations. When the delegates return home, they will share their findings with their communities. The sponsoring organizations will also issue a full report in June that will be presented to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants.

“We favor a just immigration policy that values human life, protects rights and gives immigrants a reasonable path to U.S. citizenship,” said Gerald Lenoir, BAJI Coordinator. “It is in the interest of African Americans and immigrants of color to join together to fight for the social and economic justice for all people. This is our goal.”

BAJI is an organization comprised of African Americans and Black immigrants founded in April 2006 to support progressive immigration reform and to engage African Americans in a dialogue about the underlying issues of race, racism and economic inequity that frame U.S. immigration policy.

BAJI and Coalicion de Derechos Humanos are members of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, a national organization composed of local coalitions and immigrant, refugee, community, religious, civil rights and labor organizations and activists.