According to the Contra Costa Times/Bay Area Newsgroup article in today’s paper, KPFA Radio in Berkeley, California is laying off people and being visited by protesters who are unhappy. Being in Berkeley, where they protest about anything and everything, it’s not really all that unusual of an event. What is unusual is that this is a listener funded progressive radio station that’s finding itself in financial trouble after 61 years on the air.
So who’s KPFA? They were probably the first, or one of the first libtard radio stations in the country. Founded in 1949, long before the term libtard was coined, long before most everyone had heard of beatniks and long before hippies arrived on the scene in Berkeley. Maynard G. Krebs (played by Bob Denver aka: Gilligan, on the Many Loves of Dobie Gillis show, wasn’t even a wet-dream when KPFA started broadcasting.
Per Wikipedia, they have a long history of being libtard. They claim the first interview with someone from the gay movement and even as early as the 1950′s were touting marijuana use. Certainly nothing unusual for Berkeley, California also referred to as “Bezerkely” and “The People’s Republic of Berkeley,” with good reason. In the 60′s they pioneered space music. I’m not sure if that refers to outer space music, spaced out music or if you needed to be spaced out to listen to it, but it was indeed spacey, as was much of Berkeley. I know, I worked there in the late 60′s to mid 70′s.
I remember listening (rarely) to them during the 1960′s and 70′s when I was a kid. Even then it was amusing to listen to the libtards and their goofy ideas, but then, as now, I can only take so much of this before I lose interest. You can call it liberal, libtard, progressive or whatever you like, same stuff, different name.
Now, per the Contra Costa Times they’re in trouble……
Facing a drop of about $500,000 a year in listener donations and other funding for each of the past three years, KPFA’s parent organization, Pacifica Foundation, plans to cut the equivalent of seven full-time jobs from a paid staff whose full- and part-time hours add up to about 30 full-time positions, said Tracy Rosenberg, a KPFA and Pacifica board member.
Rosenberg said the station’s budget this year is about $3.6 million, but the station only has brought in $2.5 million through fundraising. The payroll is about $2 million, she said, and that will drop to $1.7 million with the layoffs.
“We’ve had a 20 percent decline in donations every year since 2006,” Rosenberg said. “A lot of our listeners these days don’t even have jobs.”
I don’t know why the shortfall. The article really doesn’t delve into any reasons or even speculates, so I will offer my thoughts on the subject. Perhaps there’s more than just no jobs.
Let’s start with the comment “A lot of our listeners these days don’t even have jobs.” I’ll offer up the thought that back in the 60′s I bet a lot of them didn’t have jobs either. It was a time of peace-love-dope-hari krishna, and there were plenty of hippies running about People’s Park, smoking weed and sleeping there who didn’t have jobs. Funny, if you drive by People’s Park today it’s the same. Different hippies same stuff. Although, there may be a few elderly diehards about who now need walkers and aren’t sure if their memories are shot due to Alzheimer’s or too much LSD in the old days.
Many of those old hippies are now perhaps retired and living on limited incomes or dying off. A good reason for some of the donation drop. Others may have moved to greener pastures (pun intended) and no longer donate because they’re into some other cause or causes like saving dolphins or whales, running pot clubs or whatever.
One could also speculate that perhaps the progressives have gotten even too progressive for the old hippies. Many gave up pot smoking and protesting in favor of getting careers and having a families. Some even got real jobs. Perhaps they don’t agree anymore with progressive ideas such as global warming, free love, smoking weed, dropping acid, and using narcotics now that it might affect their children and even grandchildren. Good reasons to quit donating to a cause they no longer subscribe to.
Perhaps the progressive idea of redistribution of wealth doesn’t sound like such a hot idea anymore, either. Now that they’re on the giving end instead of the receiving end and stand to lose houses, retirement funds, Social Security and Medicare that they worked so hard for, they just might not want to listen about it or donate to promote it. I’d even advocate the Obamacare may have pissed them off enough to stop sending checks.
We also very obviously have the economy. I”m sure KPFA goes along with Obama and claims it’s still George W. Bush’s fault (along with everything else Obama and the libtards can lay on him), even after almost two years. Perhaps those old hippies have grown up enough to realize a load of bullshit when they hear it and don’t want to contribute.
Regardless the reason, I won’t miss KPFA if they go under. They’ve had 61 years of spouting, what I consider for the most part to be liberal-progressive-left wing-communist crap and all good or bad things generally come to an end one way or the other. They certainly do have a First Amendment Right to do so, but if no one wants to pay to hear it, there’s no constitutional guarantee of plenty of money.
Perhaps they can hire Keith Olbermann who can breathe some insanity back into KPFA and get those donations flowing. I hear be may be looking for a job.
Source: Contra Costa Times/Bay Area Newsgroup
