Updated Chron Story on Incident

Allan Turner’s regularly covered KPFT and has, in my opinion, done a good job at being fair and accurate where most have not.

Something extra at the Chron’s the comments on Kevin Moran’s initial story and then Turner’s.

Two strains of comments that arose regularly after Moran’s piece had to do with the Montrose area potentially breeding this type of criminal behavior, and that KPFT’s brand of commentary making going to the police ironic. I’ve lived in Montrose, not far from KPFT, for over a decade. Those who’ve lived here even longer recount the same experience as I: none could recall gunshots in the neighborhood in any regularity (or irregularity) whatsoever. As for our on-air content, I believe some fail to understand the point of critique in a civil society — people who complain about a nonexsistent health care system, police misconduct, misdirected schools and a misguided foreign policy, by and large, aren’t clamoring for an end to all services, but are seeking improvements in the best interests of a democracy. I shudder to think what the world would be like if those who uttered a criticism were forbidden from participation in society. Also, I suspect that KPFT simply not going to the police and shoring up our own militia or somesuch wouldn’t garner much support either.

End of my comments. Here’s Allan Turner:

Staffers look for clues in drive-by at KPFT
No one was injured and there have been no arrests in the incident at Houston radio station

By ALLAN TURNER
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
Aug. 13, 2007, 7:49PM

A bullet hole in a window, an odd-caliber shell casing found in the street and the shadowy sighting of a slow-moving white car — that was all KPFT-FM staffers had to go on Monday as they searched for clues that might explain the early-morning drive-by shooting at their Montrose studio.

Police said they have made no arrests in the 12:55 a.m. shooting, in which the bullet came within 18 inches of striking zydeco program host Mary Thomas in the head. The incident marked the third violent episode at the iconoclastic, listener-supported Pacifica station in three years, General Manager Duane Bradley said.

Discussion on safety
Bradley said a staff meeting will be held at noon today to discuss security concerns. Station workers Monday listened to recordings of the previous night’s programming, including the sometimes combative comments on a late-night talk show, in search of veiled threats.

The station, whose transmitter was twice dynamited by the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1970s, completed a weeklong fundraising drive Sunday, surpassing its $135,000 goal by 5 percent.

Bradley said the station may replace the shattered studio window, which faces Lovett, with bullet-proof glass and might upgrade a video surveillance system that monitors key parts of the property. They also may consider a key-card system for building access.

“We’re kind of walking a tight rope,” Bradley said. “We want to have an open environment, but we need to ensure safety of people at the station.”

With the police investigation in its earliest stages, identifying a motive for the shooting is difficult. But, Bradley said, “my gut feeling is that this involved an offended listener.”

Sunday’s Community Dialogue program, which airs at 11 p.m., often can generate “wild exchanges on the air,” Bradley said. But Sunday’s program, dealing with antagonism between blacks and Hispanics, was relatively uneventful.

Sitting up saved host
Three people were standing in the doorway of the station in the 400 block of Lovett when a white car drove slowly past. As the vehicle reached the eastern edge of the station’s property, the shot was fired. Staff member John Orr, among the group at the door, told Bradley he had seen the vehicle pass the station earlier in the evening.

Window blinds blocked visibility into the studio, Bradley said. Nonetheless, the bullet narrowly missed Thomas. “She normally likes to kick back when she’s on the air,” Bradley said. “But this time, she was sitting up straight. If she had been half-reclining, the bullet likely would have struck her head.”

In 2005, youths hurled bricks at the station’s windows. Last year, a station supporter who thought KPFT had been co-opted by Microsoft magnate Bill Gates telephoned threats to the station, then appeared in the studio parking lot with a shotgun.

As the man approached the station’s front door, workers advised him they had summoned police. The man fled, Bradley said.