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 Questionnaire Replies KPFA Listener Candidates Question Sixteen 
Question Sixteen: What do you see as our station’s strong and weak points?You can find all of the listener candidate's answers to Question Sixteen on this page.
KPFA Listener-Sponsor candidatesCarl Bryantno answer submitted
Steven Conleyno answer submitted
Bob EnglishA few people making too many important decisions behind closed doors detracts from the talent at the station and our great potential with 59,000 watts to reach so many.
Dianne EnriquezI believe that the strongest and most valuable part of KPFA is it’s autonomy from corporate influence and its ability to express progressive and underrepresented opinions. The revolutionary spirit of the staff and listeners is also a strength for KPFA. However, it is also important that KPFA maintain this attitude and allow itself to adapt and move forward with an openness to the younger generations and new technologies and more diverse communities. It is important to include more voices into this progressive expression and maintain a freshness in its content and ideology.
Sherry GendelmanThe strong points are an amazing community and staff, both paid and volunteer. A wealth of talent and professionalism. A strong signal, and untapped millions for our listening audience. Weak points are a tired programming grind that needs to be revitalized; out of touch with the new media paradigm and with new technologies; political bickering to the detriment of strenghtening the station.
Mathew Hallinanno answer submitted
Chandra HauptmanStrengths:
Weaknesses:
David HellerStrengths: Hard working, creative and courageous programmers dedicated to disseminating important information and diverse cultural auditory art to keep us well informed, culturally aware and well entertained. Weaknesses: Some people who want to keep the debate within the realms of what the Democratic Party wants us to hear and uninformed about other political and social possibilities. Some people who want to protect their airtime at the expense of making the station and network more vibrant and financially stable.
Warren Marno answer submitted
Susan McDonough
Strong points include:
Weak points:
Antonio Medranono answer submitted
Attila NagyStrong points: The Pacifica/KPFA Mission; Strong Signal that covers much of northern and Central California; Several good public affairs programs; Good variety of music. Weak points: Not enough public affairs, analysis, and call-in discussion programs. Could have less music to make time for programs that address important current events and issues in the diverse communities in the broadcast range.
Richard PhelpsStrengths: 59,000 watts and many creative and dedicated paid and unpaid staff.
Weaknesses: A small but committed group of people that put their individual and small group desires for power before progressive principles and our Mission. As author Jill Nelson said on the Morning Show a couple of years ago:
Mara RiveraSTRONG: It has a strong signal, progressive programming, and a dedicated staff, most of it unpaid. WEAK: It has a small but powerful staff faction dedicated to protecting their time slots. It has strip programming consisting largely of 1 to 3 hours hosted time slots. This makes it difficult to introduce new programming and present other voices on the air. It makes attempts at the bylaws mandated diversity difficult.
Paul Robins
Strengths:
Weak Points:
CC Campbell Rock
The station's strongest point is the progressive
programming and investigative reports it presents that cannot be heard
elsewhere. The station's weakest point is the lack of local community
investigative news reports.
Tracy RosenbergStrong points: long and proud history, ability to engage the community for its protection when threatened, willingness to broadcast events that need to be heard more widely, ability to serve as a platform for unpopular, minority viewpoints, significant staff diversity. Weak points: tendency to preach to the choir, lack of humor, inability to program as flexibly as needed, limited resources, on-going tension between music and public affairs programming for schedule space, deterioration of arts programming
Gerald SandersStrengths: 59,000 watts and many creative and dedicated paid and unpaid staff. Weaknesses: A small but committed group of people that put their individual and small group desires for power before progressive principles and our Mission.
Sureya SayadiKPFA does important programs that no one else is covering and that is why it continues to besupported however our audience is declining. Listeners are leaving KFPA to KALW, KPOO and other community and NPR stations in Northern California as well as web radio. There have been major obstacles to getting new programming on at KFPA and it more and more is beginning to sound like an NPR station. This is unacceptable in my view. The strength of KFPA an Pacifica is in community radio in which programming is done by people from the community. KPFA has a budget of over $4.5 million and instead of increasing community programmers it is increasing paid staff. This has meant that over 60 days a year are spent on fund raising “marathons”. During this time the issues that need to be addressed are off the air as the station focuses on raising money. We need to put our house in order. We need to hire a permanent manager who is supportive of All programmers, strong yet when she/he is wrong takes responsibility and listens to fix the problem, KPFA board has taken too long to hire a manager, director, 3-5 years of Interim manager and program directors?!!
John Van Eyckno answer submitted
Joe WanzalaThe stations main strength lies in a combination of its deeply committed and talented staff and its listenership. The station is only weak to the extent the bond between the station and listeners is neglected.
Jim WeberThe strong points of KPFA includes the programming that satisfies the 30,000 people who are willing to pay for it. The weak points are the 70,000 listeners who seem unwilling to pay for it because no one has given them a reason to pay.
Stan WoodsStrengths – A legacy of 57 years of alternative broadcasting and 59, 000 watts. Weak points – A ‘entrenched ‘’ clique who run the station and reject and constantly try to impede democratic governance. A news dept. that more often than not apes the methodology of the corporate media.
Steve ZeltzerKPFA does important programs that no one else is covering and that is why it continues to be supported however our audience is declining. Listeners are leaving KFPA to KALW, KPOO and other community and NPR stations in Northern California as well as web radio. There have been major obstacles to getting new programming on at KFPA and it more and more is beginning to sound like an NPR station. This is unacceptable in my view. The strength of KFPA an Pacifica is in community radio in which programming is done by people from the community. KPFA has a budget of over $4.5 million and instead of increasing community programmers it is increasing paid staff. This has meant that over 60 days a year are spent on fundraising “marathons”. During this time the issues that need to be addressed are off the air as the station focuses on raising money. We need to put our house in order. The departing Executive Director of Pacifica Greg Guma in an interview said that Pacifica might have to see one of it’s stations. This is unacceptable but is a result of the disorganization and lack of strategy and planning in the stations. Trackback(0)
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