KC DUers, do you realize how wonderful KKFI is? Have you made a pledge this quarter?

[proud2BlibKansan]

I was in the studio yesterday and helped with the pledge drive. I issued a challenge to peace and justice activists to make a pledge and raised a little money for the station. KKFI has been absolutely wonderful for our local progressive community. So I am now issuing a challenge to DUers to make a pledge to KKFI. They are moving to a new building and so this pledge drive is very important. KKFI exists solely on listener support. Our MSM has failed us and I can personally tell you of dozens of times we have sent out press releases about various events here in KC and KKFI is the only media outlet that responds. It is becoming a pattern in this community.

I am copying an email Tom Klammer just sent out about his wonderful show Tell Somebody.

Please support KKFI. Evl, I know you like to listen to the Royals but when they aren't playing, tune in 90.1 :)

This Tuesday on Tell Somebody we'll have Howard Zinn and Ray McGovern on the phone.

Howard Zinn was a bombardier in World War II. After the war, he went to college and became a history professor. He was active in the civil rights movement and the anti-Vietnam war movement, and stashed a copy of the Pentagon Papers at his home for Daniel Ellsberg.

In 1980, Zinn wrote "A People's History of the United States." According to Wikipedia,
"As a historian, Zinn found that the point of view expressed in traditional history books was often limited. He wrote a history textbook, A People's History of the United States with the goal to provide other perspectives of American history. The textbook depicts the struggles of Native Americans against European and U.S. conquest and expansion, slaves against slavery, unionists and other workers against capitalists, women against patriarchy, and African-Americans for civil rights."

In August, 2006, KKFI'er Jeff Humfeld did a segment on the Heartland Labor Forum called "Picture This: Cartoons on the Radio", a show about labor cartoons. One of the guests, cartoonist Mike Konopacki, told Jeff of a project he was working on - "a 256 page comic book based on a lot of great Howard Zinn stories" from "A People's History of the United States."

Well, the book was released last Tuesday April 1, and I'll be talking about it with Howard Zinn on Tell Somebody on Tuesday April 8.

And after that, I'll be talking to retired CIA analyst Ray McGovern. I told him that KKFI's pledge drive was coming up, and asked him if he'd help us out with some of his thoughts on why an independent media outlet like your community radio station is vitally important right now, and he immediately accepted.

Some of you may have read Ray's recent piece on www.consortiumnews.com, "Frontline's Timid Iraq Retrospective" http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/032608a.html.

"Frontline’s “Bush’s War” on PBS Monday and Tuesday evening was a nicely put-together rehash of the top players’ trickery that led to the attack on Iraq, together with the power-grabbing, back-stabbing and limitless incompetence of the occupation", McGovern wrote, but added "Notably missing was any allusion to the unconscionable role of the Fourth Estate as indiscriminate cheerleader for the home team, nor any mention that the invasion was a serious violation of international law" and noted that Frontline really added nothing much to the discussion that wasn't put in to Robert Greenwald's "Iraq Uncovered" 4 1/2 years earlier.

I do agree with Anne Pritchett that despite Frontline's failings in the view of those who have been paying attention and getting solid information from outlets like KKFI, it was an important dose of truth for who get their "news" from the mainstream.

Anne wrote: "Frontline opened their eyes. Sure it didn't go deep enough. But if it had, it would have lost its mainstream audience.

So I applaud Frontline for its Bush's War program. Yes, it was too little, too late, but it got the attention of the American Idol watching Americans. Bravo!!"

I can't disagree. But I also think this just underlines the vital importance of KKFI.

The corporate media, including NPR and PBS pretty much totally ignored the Winter Soldier hearings. The corporate media, including NPR and PBS, covered the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King's death by (rightly, of course) remembering him as the civil rights leader who gave the "I have a dream" speech, but largely ignored his anti-war, anti-imperialism, anti-u"bercapitalism stance (Tavis Smiley on PBS got into this a little bit, and others on PBS or NPR may have mentioned in passing that he spoke against the Vietnam war, but by and large this aspect of King was censored.)

So many vitally important issues are heard on KKFI (and on numerous alternative websites) but not on broadcast media.

We are in our KKFI spring pledge drive now. KCUR is also in theirs, and KCPT just finished one. I believe in supporting both of those as well as KKFI, and want to be careful in my criticism of them, because they both do some wonderful stuff. The recent Frontline series on Bush's war was an important work in the dismal misinformation environment of Fox et al.
PBS nationally is worth of support in my mind just for Terry Gross, and there are wonderful people locally at KCUR.

But they don't give you the kind of information that KKFI does. Nationally there are all kinds of political/funding pressures reining them in from being too critical of the Bush administration or too "liberal" generally. KCPT is apparently feeling so much pressure to bring in money that they air what looks, to me, at least, like an infomercial for Mutual Fund Store. And I don't think any observer of NPR and KCUR over the last 20 years could deny that they have seriously lost their edge.

KKFI has recently made some programming changes bringing more public affairs programming to the air. We hope to continue to improve news and public affairs and have a good balance of that with the wonderful, noncorporate music we provide, as mandated by our mission statement:

KKFI Mission Statement

KKFI is the Kansas City area’s independent, noncommercial community radio station.

We seek to stimulate, educate and entertain our audience, to reflect the diversity of the

local and world community, and to provide a channel for individuals and groups, issues

and music that have been overlooked, suppressed or under-represented by other media.

If you appreciate what you have in KKFI, you need to support it. We need money if you've got some to give. And as much or more than that, we need community involvement, we need more listeners, we need more volunteers, committee members, board members.

KKFI will be what the community makes of it. We can continue to improve, continue to reach more listeners, continue to bring important information. KKFI's 100,000 full power FM signal is practically unheard of in the community radio world. We can reach a lot more listeners with that signal if you will help us spread the word. When I think of our potential, I often think of KGNU, a community radio station in Boulder Colorado. They have been successful enough that they turned the standard model of how things work these days by buying a former commercial AM station in Denver to bring there signal to huge new audience there.

Will KKFI get the kind of community support to reach more listeners, or will we eventually succumb to political and financial pressures and start running infomercials for investment houses? Will support for public affairs affirm our public affairs additions and lead to more improvements, or will we go backward?

It's up to you. Please support YOUR community radio station, with your money and/or your time if you can, or, perhaps equally important, by just spreading the word about KKFI to potential new listeners.

As is the way with radio pledge drives, we have 'pledge premiums' to encourage support. In addition to the station-wide premiums, show-specific premiums are available for some shows, including two audio cd's of interviews and a re-usable, recyclable "Green Bag" brand grocery bag for $60 of your support of my show, "Tell Somebody." I'm pasting a picture of the bag with a listing of the interviews on the cd's here, and there is a link to it at the top of this page: www.tellsomebody.us

You can make a donation with your credit card or paypal at www.kkfi.org, and they tell me this year you can specify the show you want to support. All the money goes into one pot for KKFI, but you can specify the show to get the bag and the cd's. Or you can call 816-931-3122 and make your pledge during the show.

Tom Klammer
host - Tell Somebody
www.tellsomebody.us
Tuesdays 6-7pm Central time
on 90.1 FM KKFI Kansas City Community Radio
streaming live on the web at www.kkfi.org

[evlbstrd]

1. I can donate after payday.

And I do listen to it more.
The Royals are 3-1! And congrats to your Jayhawks.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. A lot of the pledges are for very small amounts

I like that. I can't usually afford more than a small pledge. But if we all gave a few dollars, that would really help. :)

[evlbstrd]

3. Mine is coming.

Remind me to tell you about the brewery.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. We need to get together

I have that CD for you. :hi:

[evlbstrd]

5. Yes, we do.

And we just haven't talked in a while.