OPEN LETTER to KPFK new General Manager

Open Letter sent to New General Manager Bernard Duncan
June 21, 2011

Dear Bernard Duncan -
[You may care to delegate the responding to this if you care to, but I would appreciate a response either way please ]

It is bad public relations when "our" KPFK website is preventing any access to staff from $TAKEHOLDERS = all those who pay to keep KPFK going on" - by only showing the wrong e-address for you. The continual listing of gm@kpfk.org is not operational and there you are now, hired, in charge and still there is 'mail failure' when any attempt to communicate with you is made. Please make the corrections necessary.

I had to go to another KPFK source to find your correct email, which is now:
"GM Bernard Duncan KPFK"



but also

For a long time there was a "comments" for general comments to be used as the email address a while back - that was not attended nor responded to ever ! There was long ago an automatic email acknowledgment sent back, and then even that was discontinued. No one apparently monitored or read those emails that we made efforts to write, to communicate, to make suggestions, or to ask questions of OUR station/ staff. Then even that small courtesy was soon discontinued so there was NO response at all to emails sent to that address listed for years on the KPFK website.

And yet there was no access to our giving info / suggestions/ concerns to staff or to be able to make complaints either.. and now there is NO such email address at all, with only a phone extension # listed on website. We all know that an answering machine is inhuman and unresponsive. No human calls back either. Is this a pretense or is anyone at KPFK responsible back to those who make their good efforts to contact the station ?

the "program comments" corner email, as it is called, is monitored by receptionist at front desk - only to send mail on to the proper program ....But it is apparently not going to anyone who cares about how stakeholders, listeners, pledgers respond to programs or to the radio station - and have no input at all as to how & where their money goes.

There is no actual ACCESS to communicate with anyone there at KPFK...for years and years the 'freedom' to communicate is not possible. At all. Programmers do not respond from their separate addresses either. I've tried. Failed. Not OK.

that there has never been responses, to emails, to voice mail messages and thus a total hard cold wall has created a lot of poor - very poor - to no good Public Relations. Nor has there been access to anyone for positive communications from those who care about what occurs in and on air at KPFK ... and I am not talking about the cranking angry venting cursers -- but about those who do care and want to say something and at least receive a"thank you for your comment" automatic response - IF nothing else is affordable ...for now.

what do you think ? With your having been a PR person yourself ? This may not be an urgent chore but one that definitely needs your attention, hopefully. Please dont relegate the connection to all those who work, send money, listen and promote KPFK to the least attended concern for station management.


only because I have in past too often spoken directly to GMs, to staff, to programmers - when I am at station working as pledge taker - only then have I ever been able to briefly even voice a good suggestion - or help ssomeone in charge notice the errors that occur. Problems that seem unnoticed or unattended, whether on website, or on-air- disparagement of one programmer about another,and various other glitches and off-putting occurrences that affect KPFK's proper overall functioning, etc.

It seems necessary to make any and all other poor practices visible & audible to all [called 'transparency'] ... to make errors known to then be corrected -is part of good management. Or else the ongoing poor PR and poor inter-relations with all our $$upporters of the station is bad for all concerned - including the then results being the persistently strain [frustrating to all] of prolonged fund raising. You know this already, right ? .

thanks for checking on this - and passing these concerns on to whomever has authority, is responsible, cares enough to do more than their usual chores - and to MAKE all necessary corrections.

And if you agree with any part of this letter - and make observable changes - or maybe even let me know you have read this effort to communicate with you - as the next incoming manager - or if you pass it on to someone else who can do some work for you, that's acceptable too. But if the silence is deafening, as it has been at prior efforts to communicate - our many attempts to suggest, express concerns, etc. - then the funding becomes, of course, that much more difficult too.

The overall inaccessibility has been a concern of many $supporters and is also a reason for resistance of listeners to then helping this non-profit corporation - one that seems to ignore it's contributors, until money is demanded, that is.

I presume and hope you get a good 'secty / assistant' who helps you fulfill all these details and makes your work more productive overall too. I wish you good experiences and effectiveness in improving and managing this long-valued radio station in LA.

(c) mary j. 2011