Pitchfork: San Francisco Indie Scene Fights to Save KUSF
http://pitchfork.com/news/41554-san-francisco-indie-scene-fights-to-save-kusf/
Last month, the University of San Francisco shut down KUSF, the community radio station that had been broadcasting from the University since 1963, as The Los Angeles Times reports. The University had sold the station's frequency to the Classical Public Radio Network, owned by the University of Southern California, for $3.75 million. As the the Save KUSF website points out, the sale took place behind closed doors, without any warning.The station held an important place in the hearts of San Francisco underground music fans for decades, playing music that rarely made it to mainstream airwaves. According to Save KUSF, it was one of the first stations to play punk rock, as well as local bands such as Metallica and Primus.
KUSF's fans have reacted angrily to the sale. There have been protests on the USFcampus and at City Hall, and the Save KUSF website has been urging the University to cancel the station's sale and the FCC to block the frequency's transfer. The East Bay Express reports that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted last week to protest the sale. In the meantime, the station has moved online. Thanks to EzraFeinberg of Citay for the tip.
Last week, the great rock critic Ann Powers wrote a long and moving elegy for KUSFin The Los Angeles Times; check that out here. And below, check out a video of Bay Area garage rock fixture and former KUSF DJ Ty Segall performing at a pro-KUSFdemonstration at San Francisco's City Hall last week.
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Like the B-52's? Metallica? The White Stripes?
You might have never heard of them if not for KUSF, the venerable San Francisco college radio station that first played their music.
College radio is part of the diverse package of community media voices around the country that with spit-and-glue budgets, volunteer energy and a handful of overworked staff, keep bits of the television and radio waves open to the public, while training millions of young people in technology and how to use it.
These do-it-yourself outlets, which have survived for decades with an open door policy, often feature unique and eclectic formats inspired by the passions and talents of the surrounding community. At the University of San Francisco for the past thirty years, that has often meant the city's flourishing and influential music scene, one of the most vital in the country.
KUSF hasn't gone unnoticed. Besides a lofty alumni list of musical talent that later became household names, KUSF also broadcast public affairs programming in 9 different languages, weekly broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera and other random niches rarely served by larger broadcasters, and received commendations from a hit parade of local and national institutions including the United States Senate, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, American Women in Radio and Television, The National Association of College Broadcasters, The United Way, the San Francisco Weekly, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and SF mayors Willie Brown, Jr. and Dianne Feinstein,
Sounds like a community media success story.
But KUSF broadcast for the last time on January 18, 2011. Howard Ryan, a former DJ, describes the events of that day:
"With virtually all FM channels in well-populated areas already assigned, the only option is to obtain outlets from those who already have them, including commercial, religious, and educational broadcasters outside the public radio system."Educational broadcasters outside the public radio system include a large variety of college-based and community-based stations that criss-cross the country, including the 5-station and 150-affiliate Pacifica Radio Network.
Every year, the public and community media family sing kumbaya at annual conferences like the National Federation for Community Broadcasters or the bi-annual National Conference on Media Reform, where independent, alternative, community-based and public interest media are saluted for their roles as antidotes to the lack of credibility of the commercial and corporately-owned networks, the cable giants and the radio empires of Clear Channel, Infinity and Entercom.
Seemingly united around shared values of localism and diversity, one hates to think that behind the solidarity is a plan for the long-term absorption of all licenses outside the master ship.
At this time, when public media financing is facing serious challenges in Washington, and all hands on deck are needed to help preserve what little public interest media we have, perhaps we need to redefine the private financing needs as Community Radio Capital and the challenge as leveraging the financial resources to keep educational and community-based broadcasters, NPR-affiliated or not, right where they are, servicing their unique neighborhoods and developing formats and programming priorities that are as varied and diverse as the local places they inhabit.
After all, if there's a million channels and they're all playing the same thing all day, what have we gained?
Somebody's got to take a chance with the B-52's.
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Tell USC local, independent media is too important: don't crush community stations from afar
Targeting: Dr. C. L. Max Nikias (President, USC) and Ms. Brenda Barnes (President, USC Radio)
Started by: Russell Newman
The University of Southern California has announced that it will ‘preserve classical music in San Francisco’ via the purchase of the rights to broadcast there at 90.3 FM and 89.9 FM. USC sees this as a chance to connect with alumni and with potential recruits. The deal, however, is a travesty.
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