New Manager For Pacifica Station 90.7 FM KPFK Los Angeles
Selection Process Reflects New Democracy, Spirit of
Unity
WASHINGTON, DC (Jun 5) Community radio pioneer Eva
Georgia has been named as the new General Manager of Pacifica
Radio station KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles, the Pacifica Radio
network announced.
The appointment of the South African-born journalist concludes
an unprecedented two-month search process that involved a
broad array of KPFK staff, listeners, community groups, and
local and national board members.
"This appointment marks an important milestone in the
development of Pacifica as a democratic and accountable media
organization," said Pacifica Interim Executive Director
Dan Coughlin. "Eva is a true radio pioneer who emerged
from a unique, participatory process that is symbolic of the
new democracy now being constructed at Pacifica."
The 34-year-old Georgia cut her journalistic teeth covering
the township uprisings of the early 1980s in apartheid South
Africa. She has been acclaimed for taking the initiative to
help form the country's first licensed community radio station
located near Cape Town, in the township of Atlantis.
Launched in conjunction with the South African Clothing and
Textile Workers Union (SACTWU), Radio Atlantis quickly earned
a reputation for tackling head on the key issues facing the
community, including gang violence, police corruption, violence
against women, the AIDS epidemic, and homophobia.
Atlantis had the highest per capita homicide rate in the
world in 1989 and a 47 percent unemployment rate. But the
radio station helped turn the tide, giving the township a
crucial forum to discuss solutions to critical problems facing
the community.
After violence claimed 21 lives in 1997, gangsters refused
to speak to anyone in authority except to the Atlantis manager,
Eva Georgia. She successfully mediated between the gangs,
the police and former President Nelson Mandela's office to
end the violence. In fact, Radio Atlantis became so important
to local residents that women factory workers went on strike
when managers barred the station from being played in the
workplace.
Subsequently, Eva played a key role in the setting up and
launching of the first and largest commercial talk radio in
Cape Town, where she became assistant general manager in 1997.
For the past two years, Eva served as the Social Marketing
Program Coordinator for Gen Q, a Long Beach, California-based
HIV prevention program for young gay and bisexual men.
The KPFK GM search process highlighted Pacifica's renewed
commitment to democratic participation and transparency. It
was led by a 13-person search committee that included three
paid staff representatives, three at large listener members,
two Local Advisory Board members, two members from the listener
activist Free Pacifica Neighborhood Network (FPNN), one unpaid
staff member, one Pacifica national board member, and one
representative of staff that had been fired and banned by
the previous KPFK regime.
Fifteen applicants were interviewed for the post and three
finalists were selected. The search committee met with numerous
FPNN chapters and reviewed a wide range of listener comments.
Two separate public forums were held. Pacifica director Dan
Coughlin made the final hiring decision based on recommendations
from the search committee
Founded in 1949, Pacifica Radio is the nation's first listener-supported,
community-based radio network. Along with KPFK Los Angeles,
it includes KPFA Berkeley 94.1 FM, WBAI New York 99.5 FM,
KPFT Houston 90.1 FM, WPFW Washington, D.C., 89.3 FM, and
nearly 60 affiliates in 27 states. The network features Democracy
Now!, a daily news magazine hosted by Pacifica's award-winning
journalist Amy Goodman.
In recent years, listeners and rank-and-file staff fought
against the network's board of directors in an effort to prevent
the sale of the stations and restore the network to its historic
peace and social justice mission.
The crisis was resolved last December when a group of lawsuits
brought by reform directors, local station advisory boards,
and listeners were settled. The board of directors was reconstituted,
and the network has slowly been returning to its mission.
Most significantly, the settlement mandated listener elections
for democratic governance at the 53-year-old non-profit broadcaster.
In January, the Pacifica settlement brought a new interim
general manager to KPFK, Steven Starr, of the L.A. Independent
Media Center and the Freenet Project. Last month, long time
staff member Roy Hurst took over for Mr. Starr in the interim
leadership post, and managed the station leading up to and
through the recent record-breaking fund drive.
Eva Georgia will formally take the reigns of KPFK on June
10th.
MAY 28, 2002
PACIFICA RADIO RELEASE
CONTACT: Dan Coughlin
danc@pacifica.org
More:
Eva
gave 'silent voices' a chance to be heard |
