Save KUSF 90.3FM stages rally at Entercom offices on 1-year anniversary of station sale

On this date in 2011, the station was unilaterally shut down mid-song, with station personnel informed of a sale secretly negotiated between three parties under a secretive non-disclosure agreement, after over 30 years of community-based non-commercial broadcasting housed and funded by USF. Entercom had been operating a for-profit classical music station, I think on 102.1 FM, for years. The $3.75 million dollar sale - if approved - gives CPRN, a newly formed non-profit corporation owned by the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, ownership of the 90.3FM signal. Entercom replaced its classical station with a repeater classic rock station, I think from San Jose. The effect of the sale is that KUSF, with it’s really diverse musical programming and local public affairs shows in numerous languages to niches of diverse Bay Area groups, is replace by more “classic rock” corporate juke box-style music.

A shocked and outraged KUSF community took to community and legal action after USF head Father Privett made clear that he had no intention of reversing this sale and working out a deal so KUSF could make the purchase and maintain control at another location. A petition to deny the sale was filed in the Spring by veteran radio attorneys Peter Franck and Alan Korn, on the grounds that CPRN is not serving an appropriate non-commercial role which stations on the left “non-commercial” end of the dial are mandated to serve. The legal papers cite many improprieties in the sale, too many to outline here. The attorneys are requesting an evidentiary hearing on the matter.

Investigation into what CPRN actually is and what they are doing shows a big money predator corporation. Their disclosers, funders, and statements are extremely evasive and dubious. The Entercom commercial station had broadcast all the way from Marin to San Jose. CPRN is buying a patchwork of the few non-commercial stations up and down the coast of California in an effort to get a larger listener base. This at a time when most of the non-commercial dial has already been sold to NPR and, in more rural areas, a national chain of Christian stations. Also at a time when no non-commercial dial space is available for any new stations in urban areas. CPRN owns a station North of the City and is actively negotiating for a South Bay station, meaning another college station might go. They have announced negotiations for a sale with a Santa Cruz station

CPRN attempts to justify their non-commercial status merely by being a “non-profit” corporation and that classical music is educational. The station broadcast is horrible, and even its fans are disillusioned. They play songs, then bland, lifeless announcers send the listener to a .com website to buy every song played along with other paraphernalia. The new “model” allows the listener to buy everything broadcast. The Save KUSF attorneys state there is no listener fundraising so wonder where the money is coming from. In the year since USF turned the broadcasting over, attorneys conservatively estimate CPRN has spent around million dollars for operations and still do not own the license. USF dismantled the campus studio. CPRN leases broadcasting space from Entercom
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Where all this start-up and operating money is coming from is a key question. I and a number of KUSF activists had a conversation with CPRN spokesperson Brenda Barnes. She claims that USC is putting up this money from its own operating budget and that neither Entercom or any other profit-making institution is involved. They’ve already paid millions a piece to purchase numerous stations and continue negotiating more. I don’t believe for a minute that USC is allocating all of this money without some other commercial radio backing. Barnes describes a web of call letter non-profits that seem to add up to a web of deceit.

The Save KUSF movement has caught fire nationally and with FCC staff over the “death of college radio”, with one campus after another selling out to commercial interests for millions of dollars in an economic climate where colleges will take whatever money they can get to continue operations in tough economic times. The FCC has rubber-stamped virtually every sale of this kind.

On June 28, the FCC made an unprecedented move when they sent a detailed “Letter Of Inquiry” to each of the parties concerned, demanding responses related to 15 points of inquiry. KUSF received 600 pages of information, the FCC 1,000. The attorneys describe the submissions as “fragmentary, incomplete, and evasive.” “The few substantive documents suggest either misrepresented facts or lack of candor or both”. “…with the obvious intent not to shed light on the matters in issue”. “The Applicants refused to produce key documents…“. Father Privett is especially called out for a lack of good faith response, including that he erases all his E-Mails, as if they are unrecoverable. KUSF and other local college stations pressured the FCC to deny CPRN’s two requests to move the transmitter from USF to Marin.

The FCC has not responded to this date, not an unusual time for this minimally funded, bureaucratic agency. If a hearing is not granted, and/or if the sale is upheld, a court hearing can be requested. Supporters hope the FCC does the right thing and overturns the sale. Save KUSF has done an outstanding job raising 10’s of thousands of dollars for this defense, and court proceedings are more expensive.

Meanwhile the KUSF DJs continue their optimistic ways. You can hear the programming via internet on band space donated from a popular non-commercial music station out of New Jersey in a studio in the Bayview, at savekusf.org. Funds are being raised through local small club concerts, live DJ nights, and direct donations. KUSF is known for breaking new local bands on the radio, sponsoring some of the best club shows around, ticket giveaways, record swaps - all kinds of fun things that create a “music community”. None of the music or critical public service shows have been replaced on radio. Look at the website for events and ways to get involved. I say this fight needs to be won!