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-Eric Verlo

We met today with Mario Valdes and the staff at KRCC. I suggested the meeting because I got wind that Mario would be quoted in an upcoming AfJ article as saying that he had never been presented with our Democracy Now petitions himself. This would appear to discredit our side, but was technically true. Each of us had grown tired of being turned down directly by Mario, so for three years already we’d been trying to go over his head.

Mario agreed to meet the next day, but he cautioned “but you know the answer will be the same!” Hence why we were no longer going to Mario.

Dave Therault, Gary Betchum and I met with Mario, a Media Relations person from the College, and three members of the radio staff. Between us there were three digital recorders to tape the conversation. There turned out to be plenty of statements worth recording.

Mario on Democracy Now:
“It will never happen on KRCC FM.”
“Democracy Now is the same as Rush Limbaugh. They’re both opinion shows.”
“I don’t believe it’s a news program.”
“…unlike a premier show such as Morning Edition.”

A KRCC staffer added:
“Why do you keep petitioning us to carry Democracy Now when we tell you it will never happen?”

Mario on community input:
“We will not decide our programming by petition or election.”
Public input would lead to “killing KRCC.”
Mario explained that if KRCC consented to our request, they might have to give in to the callers who ask that the station refrain from speaking the word “gay” on the air, in the frequent mentions of “The Gay and Lesbian Fund.”

The Colorado College representative wanted to make sure we understood that Colorado College retained all authority over the programming on KRCC, and also that the College had no intention of considering Democracy Now.

When she was asked if the recently announced advisory board to KRCC, yet to be appointed, would have input into the programming decisions, she said absolutely not. Such a board would advise only on matters of operating costs and fundraising. She added that in light of recent underwriting cuts from Colorado College, they hoped that an advisory board would “really roll up its sleeves to help with the fund-raising.”

An an article in today’s Independent outlines the funding cuts and mentions the possible contradiction in the claim that KRCC is “a community service of the Colorado College.” A spokesman for the college explained “We might want to tweak that language slightly.”

Might I suggest: “KRCC is a corporate mouthpiece for Colorado College, in disregard of the opinions of its faculty, students, or local community.”

And let’s add, “and now they want the community to carry the tab.”

Up until now, ninety percent of the funding came from listeners and underwriters. The College has just announced that it will cut $84,000 from what it contributes to the station’s funding. That’s almost equivalent to the tuition revenue the College receives for two students.

I’d like to recount an early conversation I had with the station manager of KRCC.

I moved to Colorado Springs from California in the late eighties. I had been a Pacifica radio listener in California. I was a newbie back then, I didn’t know that Pacifica had been around since 1949, embattled through the McCarthy era, always advocating for the cause of freedom of speech. In fact, the recently rebroadcast testimony of John Kerry at the 1971 congressional hearing is brought to EVERYONE courtesy of Pacifica, the only news agency to archive John Kerry’s full testimony.

It was during the Iran-Contra hearings that I realized what was lacking in NPR news coverage. I remember switching back and forth between stations, incredulous to hear the differences between the reporting.

You might recall that the Reagan Administration put strict restrictions on the focus of the hearings. There was to be no investigation into allegations of drug smuggling, for example. These days we know about the drug smuggling activities of the CIA. Back then only a couple protestors raised those questions and were rapidly arrested.

PACIFICA, of course, was raising those questions. All the issues of shadow governement, of loose canon security agencies, were well known to Pacifica listeners. On NPR, on the major media, nothing.

Now of course all these things are know and accepted. In fact, the major news agencies have the nerve now to call those stories OLD NEWS! Old news, but unreported by them.

Back to my talk with the station manager. When I moved here I was pretty excited about the prospect of hearing some of the Pacifica programming here. This was before internet streaming.

“Pacifica?” He’d never heard of it. Didn’t know anything about it. Boy was this subject out of left field. It seemed like I was suggesting some kind of operation put together in someone’s garage from deep inside the people’s republic of Berkley.

I didn’t know what else to tell him. I was rather naive about Pacifica’s pedigree at that time. I had no idea they were a force that has been nipping at NPR’s heels for decades. At the time of our conversation the KRCC manager had been in the radio business for two of those decades. I believe his feigned ignorance was completely disingeneous.

Let’s shed a light on the life of A Prairie Home Companion at KRCC.

A Prairie Home Companion, hosted by Garrison Keillor, has enjoyed a long run on KRCC and has an overwhelming following among KRCC listeners. It is broadcast on saturday evenings and then rebroadcast mid-day on sundays. But PHC’s run on KRCC was not uninterrupted. Let me explain.

In the mid nineties, at the height of his popularity, Garrison Keillor -with much national fanfare- decided to retire. The show went off the air.

But after a little more than a year, Garrison launched a comeback. He rebuilt his organization, found a new theater, and with a little less fanfare the show began anew.

But Colorado Springs didn’t hear about the show’s comeback. KRCC didn’t pick up the show.

Although PHC had been one of its most beloved shows, KRCC didn’t want it back. This, in spite of what the KRCC community would have wanted, had they known! Apparently PHC was expensive, and too corporate. And nothing to write home about.

But that’s what it took to get PHC back.

Thousands of other public radio stations had resumed broadcasting the show immediately. When Colorado Springs residents would visit their relatives in other parts of the country, they’d hear the show! They thought they were hearing reruns! Was the show back on?! Why weren’t they hearing A Prairie Home Companion on KRCC?

Those of you who contacted KRCC about this anomality probably remember what you were told: “expensive, budget, not that many people interested, etc.” And we’re not talking about a political show! We’re only talking about the highest visibility, most popular show on KRCC!

It wasn’t until you could hear PHC in Denver, as you drove over Monument Pass, that the momentum of disgruntled KRCC listeners built to a critical shrill. After a couple years of missed shows had passed, A Prairie Home Companion finally came back to the community of Colorado Springs on KRCC. It has reigned ever since, once again, as a popular favorite.

Is this a tale of despotic obstinancy? I think it is. Was KRCC behaving very much like a community based radio station? Only eventually.

But hundreds of people had to go blue in the face to make it happen. Why?

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