kbcs 91.3 - a world of music and ideas.
yesterday i did something that is quite unlike my cheap ass, and that was… i donated $52 to a local community radio station, kbcs, 91.3 fm.
it took me a long time to decide this as, you know, $52 isn’t a little bit of money, but i feel that kbcs impacts me in a way no other radio station or tv station really has… ever! for those who are unfamiliar with kbcs — of which there are many — it is an independent, community-run, volunteer radio station based out of bellevue community college. it is the “unhip” version of kexp, 90.3 fm. but in many ways, it is much more a community radio station than kexp will ever be. kexp — as far as i’ve seen — is nothing but music, and often a bit pretentious about that. kbcs, on the other hand, has extremely community-oriented programming that really makes you think. their music selection, when they play music, is targeted towards an older crowd, generally, but it’s sometimes great as well. it’s a bit more global, and like i mentioned, it’s definitely less “cool”.
i first stumbled upon kbcs during one of my “find-a-radio-station-for-tomorrow’s-alarm-clock-wakeup” sessions. i’m not much a fan of too many morning shows in the area, but i always liked to pick a random station to wake up to because it keeps the mind alert and fresh, since it is a new sound. so before sleeping every night, i would just flip the dial a little and see what the next day offered (making sure, of course, that the station wasn’t just static). kbcs had me wake up to some crazy, spastic jazz with huge amounts of sax and trumpet, blaring all over the place. i mean, it’s not really my type of music, but it was interesting as fuck. and that’s where i became a fan.
one of the things i actually strive hard to listen to on kbcs is “democracy now”… one of the few news stations i actually listen to. now, to be fair, “democracy now” is pretty leftist at times so the things they choose to cover might be a bit biased, but they do choose to cover things that are clear injustices within the u.s. government. i’d encourage everyone to head on over to democracynow.org and listen to at least one of their daily reports. the news they cover is global, and it is interesting. i like it so much i generally try to leave work at 5 so i can catch “democracy now” in the way home from work.
but kbcs is not limited to politics, really. they also have community affairs programming right after “democracy now,” and there are a few variations. the one i like the most — “voices of diversity” — is one where they pick a topic and then speak to various community members about it. i’ve only been listening to kbcs for… let’s see… i’d say a little more than half a year… but there have been a handful of topics which have significantly made an impact on me or have made me think. there are probably more but here is a short list::
HIV/AIDS:
the first time i listened to this particular community program, they had an on-air discussion about hiv/aids, and one of the interviewers of the program felt obligated to continuously ask the (local) individuals affected with hiv/aids what kind of stigmas they faced. over and over and over again. i wrote them an email mentioning how inappropriate i felt this was. and i got a response. you would never get this at another kind of radio station… possibly not even at kexp. here is the original letter to them:
Hi,
I like that you had an hour-long talk on HIV/Aids in the Seattle community today for “voices of diversity”, but I feel as though the questions asked were actually unproductive and seemed judgmental, as opposed to being constructive.
About 5 or 6 questions were targeted towards stigma (question after question basically rephrasing the same idea, “what kind of stigma does those with hiv/aids face?” in the first half hour I listened to. Only ONE of these questions asked what we can DO about erasing that stigma.
I feel that the heavy concentration on the stigma of HIV/Aids is intimidating to individuals WITH HIV and would contribute to their fear of disclosure. The concentration on the stigma was not useful to those WITHOUT hiv/aids either. The focus should have been focused on how to ERASE stigma, cause everyone knows the kind of stigma people would face. That’s like asking, “why are people racist?” – everyone knows the reasons to a degree… fear, misunderstanding, lack of education, etc. Not everyone knows how to erase that stigma, which is the important part. That part, however, took a backseat on the show and was not the focus at all.
It wasn’t until Anya from Lifelong came on that there was actually a change in the questioning that actually focused on how to erase the stigma. I feel like by the 6th question+ (more than a half hour into the show), the fact that people with HIV/aids face a ton of stigma had already been bashed into people’s heads… and introducing ways to erase that stigma by now is just kind of… late.
This was my first time listening to the show and I found the line of questioning extremely disappointing and not at all sympathetic, but more antagonistic. The beginning of the second half definitely seemed better and more constructive, but I hope this is not the way questioning is with every episode.
I’m still a fan of kcbs though!
and the original response:
Dear Vivian,
Thank you so much for your feedback about the recent episode of Voices of Diversity. My name is Callie Shanafelt, I’m the executive producer of the show. It’s great to hear your perspective. I definitely see what you are saying. We do a lot of shows that are focused on the solution to a problem, but I can see how this one we kind of missed the mark. KBCS is a volunteer run station. Most of our producers are learning how to make great radio, so this feedback is great to help us learn how to do better next time. I will pass this onto the producer of the show. I hope that you will continue to listen to the show. I also would like to encourage you to call in if you are listening and feel this way in the future. Would have been great to get a call from a listener who said “yeah ok, there’s stigma, but what do we do about it?”.
Take care,
Callie
MEDIA CONSOLIDATION:
as a member of the indie press media consolidation is a pretty big deal to me. what is media consolidation? it is allowing the major media outlets to own up more and more of the airwaves and newspapers. they are limited to a certain percentage, and the higher the percentage they are limited to, the more difficult a time stations like kbcs would have existing. it’s a big deal to anyone who cares about getting diverse media and anyone who doesn’t just like hearing news from “the man.” but had it not been for kbcs, i would have never really heard about the issue, period. i never heard about it in the states outside of kbcs, and the only time i heard about it otherwise was on bbc news in taiwan. i mean, why WOULD the big news media outlets in the u.s. want you to know that the community is fighting against media consolidation and the FCC is for it? they wouldn’t. and they don’t. but yeah, this particular issue bothered me so much that i actually called into kbcs, which was a nerve-wracking first. this was for their show, “voices of diversity.” CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT IT.
ISRAEL/PALESTINE CONFLICT:
CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT IT.