In a recent op-ed piece in the Houston Chronicle [August 10] KPFT station manager Garland Ganter declares, "Pacifica must re-invent itself to survive." Unfortunately this re-invention has already taken place.

A small group of Pacifica National Board (PNB) members, including Houston certified public accountant Valrie Chambers, have usurped decision-making power of Pacifica and through their hired lieutenants, including Ganter, have molded the network to their particular vision. Using the techniques of union-busting, censorship, banning and abandonment of the Pacifica mission, they have created their desired form of KPFT; namely, dumbed-down mainstream programming emphasizing music with no accountability to the local communities.

The central struggle is between those few who have taken control of the network's checkbook and those who believe that a listener sponsored radio network should have at least an ounce of democracy. The five Pacifica stations-including 90.1 KPFT- were established by a pacifist and activist named Lew Hill after World War II with a particular mission to cover stories that were ignored by mainstream press. And to give a voice to the disenfranchised and powerless, and to give access to the airwaves for political thinkers of all stripes who would otherwise be shut out of "establishment" debates. Pacifica stations are non-commercial stations and their purpose thus is not to play music and sell advertising time. They are community radio stations that have the vital responsibility of informing and educating us in ways that other media do not.

Pacifica has been at the forefront of progressive radio. It challenged the stifling orthodoxy of McCarthyism; it was the first to play Allen Ginsberg's "Howl"'; it was among the first stations to cover the great civil rights and antiwar demonstrations of the 1960s; and since then it has uncovered stories of abuse and corruption of the political process too numerous to mention. It has also featured some of the most important journalists of our time, including, currently, Amy Goodman of the award-winning show Democracy Now!

But Ganter, following the dictates of the PNB, has abandoned KPFT’s mission. Instead of broadcasting public affairs programming, KPFT boasts that it is "the sound of Texas". Ganter, over the past 5-6 years, has canceled most of the programs that dealt with political or social themes. Even the Matthew Momoh Show and Nuestra Palabra, which have black and Latino hosts respectively, do not cover political or social issues of vital importance to those communities. There is no show exploring the Asian community and absolutely no local news coverage.

Indeed, with the exception of Democracy Now! and The Progressive Forum, there is no way a KPFT listener could discover what is happening in the progressive community. Instead, there is hour after hour of Lyle Lovett, Delbert McClinton, Paul Simon and the like [not, as Ganter claims, local artists, who really do get short shrift on KPFT]. This is great music, but it already has a place on commercial radio, and should not dominate Pacifica.

Ganter and the PNB’s abandonment of the Pacifica mission means that the community of Houston has lost an important source of information and public debate. This is why activists throughout Houston have been trying to reclaim the Pacifica mission. Organizing against the systematic changes at KPFT started over six years ago, soon after Ganter became manager. These efforts have expanded recently to counteract the sharply increasing censorship, mass firings and bannings in all Pacifica cities.

Three lawsuits have been filed by listeners in California [where Pacifica is chartered] demanding access to the Foundation’s financial records and seeking to reverse changes in the by-laws of Pacifica. These rule changes have allowed Board members to select their replacements rather than being appointed by Local Advisory Boards, insulating the PNB from democratic process. Valrie Chambers, a local CPA and instructor at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, is a named defendant in these lawsuits for her part in keeping Pacifica’s financial records secret, a serious breech of public accountancy ethics.

Yet Ganter, the manager of what he claims is a progressive station, continually slanders and defames community activists. In his recent op-ed piece, he compares reformers to the Ku Klux Klan; an obscenity for which he should be held accountable and should immediately apologize. Contrary to Ganter’s claim that the reformers are a "few disgruntled former staff and angry listeners", tens of thousands of listeners nationally and locally have donated to the legal reform efforts. The nation-wide movement to reclaim the stations has always been committed to Pacifica’s ideals of non-violence. To claim that the reform groups engage in threats and intimidation is rhetoric intended to discredit for which Ganter has offered no proof whatsoever. His claims of an assault outside the station ignore the provocative role his wife Molly O'Brien, then KPFT development director, played in the fracas by seizing papers from an activist on who was protesting on public property, This episode is indicative of the manager's lack of respect for the first amendment, But, more importantly, Ganter neglects to mention in his piece that the charges were dropped!

Indeed, one cannot understate the hypocritical way in which Ganter has conducted himself. He has been party to the continued harassment and attempted censorship of the DN! host Amy Goodman; now taken to a new level as she has been forced to abandon the WBAI studios due to physical intimidation. Ganter has instituted a one-sided "gag rule" whereby KPFT programmers are not allowed to speak about Pacifica at all, yet management can voice their own arguments, at will. He has canceled a talk show hosted by local professor George Reiter simply because Reiter appeared outside the studio at a rally supporting Amy Goodman. Ganter has also (implicitly) supported the union-busting and anti-worker policies of the PNB. Like all illegitimate rulers, the Pacifica National Board has found, in Ganter, a local manager willing to do the necessary dirty work to maintain control.

Defaming activists, censorship, mass firings without cause and mainstreaming

content are the techniques of control that the small group of PNB members have used to craft Pacifica in their image. Obedient managers, like Ganter, have been found willing to promote this vision. This "Reinvention of Pacifica" has meant the loss of local community content, computer-generated playlists and abandonment of Pacifica's mission of giving a voice to the voiceless. The actions of the PNB are fundamentally anti-democratic and must be resisted. Pacifica nationally and KPFT locally represent the only mass-media outlet free from commercial interests. Progressives of all stripes must act now to save KPFT. Once gone, it will never return.