Roy's Shows is heard by many and here was another surprising FEEDBACK example:
Sitting on Venice Boardwalk yesterday at a political info sharing table {only Free Speech and non-selling table on whole Oceanfront Walk ! ] a man approaches to ask "do you know about KPFK ??"
two women sitting there smile as he proceeds to talk about living in San Diego, having just pledged for a DVD about the wizard of Oz [?] and that he fervently listens ON LINE.
Further questioning revealed that he became an "insomniac in 1990's" from listening to Roy Tuckman's programs and how many 'videocassettes' he made to copy the programs that he has saved and collected [before archives & technology was available, of course]
this man was a Vietnam helicopter pilot and then a private oil company pilot providing supplies to on water platforms. Very concerned about state of his country, and has been. Talked also about liking "Stockwell" and others...
but this kind of response is frequent and may NOT BE KNOWN by KPFK staff ...and maybe no one there cares either. as there is only a 1 way info flow in or thru this supposedly transparent station.
Many other strangers I meet when I mention "do you listen to KPFK ? " as it becomes an association to the conversation we are having, at Hammer museum, in a grocery store, on Venice boardwalk, at any misc location I happen to be as I talk to strangers and they to me often...the more common response these last few years has been "I used to but I dont any more..."
and when I pursue to ask "why, what is it you like or dont like ?" there is a nebulous vagueness that is not specific enough to inform me, thus inform you. But somehow many no longer find the station as relevant or innovative and has become very repetitive, "except for Amy Goodman" which is a cue to finding this station.
This same week at the Hammer I also met a woman from Houston and when I mentioned "a station that..." she said "is it the one with Amy Goodman ? we have one in Texas..." and she listens there. This too was a 1x only meeting with a stranger who may have like-mindedness to have this contact and conversation take place.
Thought you may want to know about what happens outside KPFK's walls or meetings or those who do still pay and pledge, after so much begging and harranguing. Many are surely loyal and like the same-old same-old ways of the daytime programming, tho one person also said he was "glad the spanish programming is all together....dont like when they do English and Spanish translations....gets boring..." and tunes out when the languages change for sure.
The variety of topics and the often more innovative edgy emerging personalities and experts show up on SOMETHING'S HAPPENING shows, also because it contains so much programming time, but more so because of Roy's long time willingness to present what the "liberal, progressive, radical, rebels, et al" refuse to allow or they censor out what does not conform confirm their own limited points of view.
At least my impression is that Roy has always been more courageous to present a wider variety of points of view, even ones that other KPFK programers [yes payola counts for many 'volunteer programmers' tho that dirty word is never uttered nor the actions referred to either] refuse to give voice to on daytime programs.
One more important mention:
Some people have given a large chunk just because of Roy's programming and consistency to presenting the most innovative interesting & otherwise-almost -unavailable platform for voices suppressed elsewhere.. In the thousands of dollars in one lump giving sum, but that has been treated by KPFK's management as a 1x gift and the donor is expected to pledge another year and is given no long-term credit nor do they remain a stakeholder sponsor past that year. I know this for sure.
There is no 'subscription" proportionality for large givers, which may even discourage such actions, when wealth is not always available for repeat funding the station. Why is this lack of recognition continued at KPFK ?
The giver may presume and think of themselves as a multi-year subscriber, if maybe they had access to a sum of cash and not that much for continued sharing, but KPFK drops them from the list of belonging after 1 giving.
(C) akfpker 2010
