A bit about our early history
A fairly complete listing from the beginning up to 4/25/07
An update of subsequent activities as of 5/2/07
Further update as of 5/17/07
Further update as of 6/7/07
Further update as of 6/17/07
and on 9/11/07
A central group of a dozen or so people has been meeting regularly in an effort to "democratize" WFCR. It has...
Created a website, http://justiceandpeace.net/WFCRdemocracy/index.html to serve as a repository of information we have gathered, and to inform anybody interested in our project to bring Democracy to WFCR and its operations.
Circulated paper petitions (http://justiceandpeace.net/WFCRdemocracy/petition.pdf) to a few places and without very much effort gathered over 200 signers (so far.) - Action: consider gathering names yourself, and mailing them in to us!
Created an online petition (http://justiceandpeace.net/WFCRdemocracy/petition.html) with over 100 signers (so far.) Action: sign the petition!
Collected Mission Statements from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, National Public Radio, and WFCR where you can compare and contrast them.
Collected copies of letters to WFCR from listeners, and replies fromWFCR, and put them on the website. This was begun, unfortunately, only after well over a hundred people had already written or emailed the station with discontents (according to a Gazette article) but the 25 letters on the website are certainly representative.
Collected stories of other places which had undertaken citizens' campaigns to restore endangered public radio stations, and put these on the website.
Collected articles about WFCR which have appeared in various publications, and put these on the website.
Created a warrant to be presented at the Amherst town meeting, where our activities will be made evident to the public and where we hope to get the support of the town of Amherst for our goals for the station. Available for view on the website.
Created warrants for the town meetings of Pelham and Shutesbury, to be presented soon to those town meetings. Also available for view on the website.
Did research on these matters:
Why did WFCR change its programming, reducing cultural diversity, eliminating popular programs, and reducing locally-produced shows? (Answer: obedience to consultants who urge uniformity in programming, which in WFCR's case meant canceling programs to augment classical and jazz.)
Where does WFCR get its information about what listeners listen to? (Answer: from Arbitron, a commercial company that surveys general radio listeners - not WFCR listeners - in the service of advertisers.)
How does WFCR get input from anybody other than its staff and Arbitron? (Answer: there are two organizations: the Advisory Committee and the Friends of WFCR. Neither gives advice about programming to the station. Neither solicits input from the public. Neither relays to the station staff any information or comments from the public. The Friends do not have open meetings. The Advisory Committee does - in principle - but does not say when or where they are, in any public place, such as the WFCR website.)
What is the relation between WFCR and the FCC? (Answer: The FCC requires certain information to be in a Public File. We have looked into this file and have put a great deal of relevant information from it on our website. The FCC document The Public and Broadcasting is also on our website.)
What is the relation between WFCR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting? (Answer: although the CPB requires public broadcasting stations to have a Community Advisory Board (CAB), and to make available all comments which are sent in from the Public, it makes an unfortunate exemption for stations such as WFCR whose license is held by public universities and public agencies. WFCR's license is held by UMass. So since having a CAB, and making comments from the public available, are not legally required, WFCR does neither. We, the Task Force, clearly feel that WFCR should have a CAB and should make comments from listeners available. Incredibly, Martin Miller, the General Manager of WFCR, has claimed that WFCR has voluntarily created the equivalent of a CAB. This claim is investigated on our website and thoroughly debunked. The central difference is that CABs are intended to openly, enthusiastically, and vigorously welcome input from the public, by holding well publicized open meetings, making minutes of their meetings public, and providing a vehicle for effective community input. The WFCR Foundation board - which Miller claims is a CAB equivalent - has no open meetings, does not make its minutes available, and does not solicit input from its listening public.)
On April 13th we sent a letter to Sharon Fross, the UMass official who is the liaison point between UMass and WFCR, gently asking her for a meeting to discuss concerns. As of today (April 25) she has not replied. Stonewalling?
Came to unity on a statement of our Mission and current Goals, listed on our home page and useful when explaining our purpose to others, for example in the upcoming Town Meetings.
Sent a letter to WFCR's General Manager Martin Miller informing him of the upcoming Amherst Town Meeting petition article and inviting communication.
Sent a letter to Sara Lawrence of Mount Holyoke College, current Chair of the WFCR Advisory Committee, with several questions about the operation and role of the Advisory Committee.
Met with WFCR General Manager Martin Miller, Program Director Helen Barrington, Foundation Board chair Jim Leheny, and Director of Development Jerry Moore in a 90-minute meeting intended to encourage communication between WFCR people and our Task Force.
Presented Citizens' Petitions to the Pelham, Shutesbury, and Amherst town meetings, with the object of encouraging the creation of a Community Advisory Board for WFCR. These town meeting warrants passed in all the towns.
Obtained and published on our website the minutes of the WFCR Advisory Committee from November 2004 to November 2006. Although the Governance Statement of the Committee indicates that there should have been nine meetings in that interval, apparently only six meetings were held. Links to the six sets of minutes are on the page listing the Governance Statement.
On 6/3/07, at 8pm on WXOJ (103.3 FM) there was a program, The Community Radio Show, which had a discussion of WFCR and our Task Force. Matt Herschler of our Task Force was in the studio to start it off, and several callers contributed to the on-air discussion. Nobody supportive of WFCR's position called in. A followup show on June 17 will continue the discussion. WFCR officials have been invited to participate.
Attended the joint meeting of the WFCR Advisory Committee and the board of the WFCR Foundation on 6/4/07, and during the "public comment" portion of the meeting presented this statement in print to the members present.
Perhaps at the urging of our Task Force for availability of Advisory Committee and Foundation Board minutes, these are now posted on the WFCR website for the January AdCom meeting and the March Foundation meeting. These suggest some comments on the activities in these two meetings.
6/17/07: on Valley Free Radio, WXOJ, 103.3FM, the Community Radio Show will again host a call-in show on WFCR and controversies around it. The call-in number is 585-1033.
9/11/07: We have been attending the [open part of the] joint Advisory Committee - Foundation Board meetings. In the most recent one, of 9/10/07, we observed a number of very positive proposals to change the by-laws in the direction of more openness and transparency. Also very recently the WFCR website has added a listeners survey (on the Home page, click on "listener input", or just click here). We believe that both of these developments are in response to our request for more openness on the part of the station, and for listener feedback to the station. For an extensive report on the meeting and the bylaw revisions, click here.
Check out our website, http://justiceandpeace.net/WFCRdemocracy/index.html. We will keep you posted.
The WFCR Democracy Task Force