IMC/Confluence writer's meeting
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Thursday, Dec. 4 7:30 PM CAMP 3026 Cherokee @ Minnesota in south St. LouisKDHX CUTS AN IMPORTANT NEWS SOURCE
According to an informal community survey conducted by KDHX members this September, listeners and members of KDHX overwhelmingly favor bringing the award winning Democracy Now! back to its full hour broadcast five days a week on the radio station.
This response follows the decision by KDHX management to cut Democracy Now! airtime to a mere ten minute headlines broadcast Monday through Friday back in August (reported back on August 8 on the STL IMC newswire).
Many responding to the survey complained about cutting the news show 's broadcast time: "You can't get the full story on the world in just one hour, let alone 10 minutes," one person responded.
Of the 34 KDHX members and 47 non-members who responded to the survey, only three respondents said they supported the station's decision to truncate the Democracy Now! broadcast. Two people said they had no opinion on the matter, but the other 76 said they wanted Democracy Now! broadcast five days a week for its full hour, just as it was before the schedule change in August.
The results of this survey flatly contradict statements made by the station as to why they cut back Democracy Now! In an e-mail statement, Nico Leone, co-manager of KDHX, wrote, "...based on our listener feedback, the show was driving away many more listeners than were actually listening and supporting it."
Contrary to Leone's statement, only two who took the survey checked the line that said, "I support the decision [to cut back the show] because I found the material on Democracy Now! objectionable;" both were members. "While an alternative voice is a good thing, Democracy Now! is too slanted and overtly political," one wrote.
Much more common were responses such as these:
"An alternative voice such as Democracy Now!...is needed as an important voice for our community."
"With continued media conglomeration, Democracy Now! fills a void... [and the show] will cover stories ignored and not covered by the mainstream media."
Leone defended the KDHX decision, writing, "When we put Democracy Now! on air six years ago, the information Amy [Goodman, a Democracy Now! co-host] covers wasn't readily available elsewhere. That's no longer the case." He pointed out that the show is broadcast by KDHX-TV in the City of St. Louis on Charter Cable channel 21, and is also available by podcast on their website (democracynow.org).
However, several who responded to the survey noted that they do not have access to cable, the internet and/or are working and cannot watch a television during DN!'s broadcast. It should be noted that KDHX is a free radio station and is much more accessible than these other sources, including television, which is about to be digitized and will be even less accessible.
One respondent noted that about the same time KDHX cut back the time they broadcast Democracy Now!, the station listed AmerenUE as a corporate sponsor. Democracy Now has a long record of reporting corporate abuses (including the nuclear industry) ignored by other media.
"Pandering to corporate (AmerenUE) pressure is shameful!!" wrote this person on his survey. Could KDHX have been influenced by corporate money?
At least seven KDHX members who responded in the comments section insinuated that they would not donate to the station until Democracy Now! was restored. "I've donated over $1000 over the last four years, specifically for Democracy Now! I see no reason to donate any further if that program is no longer provided," one respondent wrote.
Over the last few weeks, Democracy Now! has done in-depth coverage of many stories ignored by the major media, that KDHX listeners have missed. These stories that including:
-A deep critique of the federal "bailout" of banks by Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Department in the Reagan administration and a former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal.
-Protests at recent presidential debates by people who felt the candidates were ignoring important issues. In New York, 15 members of Iraq Veterans against the war were arrested while trying to enter the debate to ask Obama how he could support a war he has called "illegal."
-In Palestine, unarmed protesters have been killed by the Israeli military as they protested against the separation wall that divides them from land that is legally theirs.
Do you feel we need a news source like Democracy Now! on the radio? If you want to talk to KDHX to voice your opinion about the change in the Democracy Now! schedule, contact the station by phone during the day at 314-664-3955 or e-mail for station co-manager Nico Leone: nico@kdhx.org
License Option:
I sent e-mail to Nico Leone
I sent e-mail to Nico Leone shortly after the decision. The response I received was what I'd expect from a community/alternative organization that has gone mainstream and commercial.
We need an alternate alternative.
thanks for the info, digger.
thanks for the info, digger. good to know that station volunteers also disagree w/ mgmt's decision
has kdhx released the complete results of the paid research they contracted out which they use to support their position that listeners beg to be passively entertained rather than (politically) informed? or the stats that back up the assertion that, quoting private correspondance, "the community support of Democracy Now! has waned substantially since we first slotted it in 2000"? are there numbers to support this? or is it, rather, a subjective mgmt decision? (it's certainly not the first episode of controversy over the program's status at the station.)
my personal take, fwiw, is that mgmt is bent on growing a local media empire & thus is more interested in tracking toward the least confrontational consumer product. in soma, rather than 'sound-off'. in providing the soundtrack for community complacency in place of nurturing informed voices.
i've already decided to cut back on donating my $$$ next go-a-round. there are good things about the station, but i don't care for the direction i perceive it going in. there are plenty of alternatives for those seeking out commercial-free music.
"Soma, rather than 'sound
"Soma, rather than 'sound off'"
ROTFL! Good one. Now what does that statement MEAN?
"in providing the soundtrack for community complacency in place of nurturing informed voices."
Huh?
methodology
Hey Anonymous blogger/surveyor,
When I first stumbled across this, I thought I might have been reading something about a legit survey, until I read a bit further.
Please tell us more about what kind of questions were on your survey and how/who/where you did your polling?
I find this kind of interesting, but you just haven't supplied enough info to make it sound like it was anything more than you expressing your own opinion through guise of a poll.
"Of the 34 KDHX members and
"Of the 34 KDHX members and 47 non-members who responded to the survey, only three respondents said they supported the station's decision to truncate the Democracy Now! broadcast. Two people said they had no opinion on the matter, but the other 76 said they wanted Democracy Now! broadcast five days a week for its full hour, just as it was before the schedule change in August."
So, 76 people were questioned, and they were presumably posed a question along the lines of "Do you support KDHX's decision to truncate DM to a 10min summary of headlines daily?"
Problems with this methodology:
1. A sample size of 76 people is probably not statistically significant, considering that KDHX broadcasts to an area with an 80mile radius. St. Louis Metro area has a population of about 2Million.
2. You did not state in the article exactly what question you posed in your survey. Surveys and polls can be easily skewed by how you word the questions. For instance, one might answer the question "Do you support KDHX's decision to truncate DM?" differently than "Do you support KDHX's decision to truncate the nationally-syndicated, critically acclaimed political talk show DM?"
3. How many of the people asked had a personal relation (friend, relative) to the surveyor? Friends and relatives do not make up a random sampling of the public.
4. Any more information about the respondents, besides who is or is not a KDHX member? What about age, gender, or occupational status? Sorry to sound blunt, but KDHX may be more likely to pay attention to you when you tell them 500 40somethings with regular income are unhappy about DM going away.
This is an important issue, one not to be fudged with sloppy surveying. KDHX does indeed have a problem in its relationship to its listenership (as opposed to interests like Corporation for Public Broadcasting), and the axing of DM is an example of this.
Please check out these helpful primers on conducting surveys, next time you wish to gauge public opinion. Your readers deserve it.
http://www.kevinboone.com/howto_survey.html
http://www.talkingquality.gov/docs/section5/popups/conduct_pop.htm
digger's response to above
The two previous posts seem to miss the point. Reread the first line of my post:
"According to an informal community survey..."
Nowhere in the post does it state or pretend to be a scientific survey, which are expensive and labor intensive, beyond the available resources of the all-volunteer IMC.
Three other KDHX member and myself talked to 81 KDHX members and listeners during the night of last Sept. 9, for the most part, the night of the KDHX fundraiser hosted by various restuarants in the area. Our purpose was to check on the veracity of Nico Leone's comment, "[Democracy Now!] was driving away many more listeners than were actually listening and supporting it."
We chose that night because it afforded the opportunity to talk to a wide variety of KDHX members and listeners. We did not pretend that we were conducting a scientific survey, we just wanted to to talk to people about this issue. I cannot deny that I knew some of the people that answered the survey, but for the most part the respondents were random KDHX supporters.
The point is, we were hard-pressed to find any one who said they were "driven away" by the content of DN! A few said they preferred music, and I don't doubt that many KDHX members/listeners feel this way. This still contradicts Leone's claim.
KDHX is a community station that should not pander to the masses like commercial stations do! A good community radio station should give time to voices (and artists and musicians) that are not heard on the mainstream media. This is why I feel it's important that the station give a full airing to alternative news sources like DN!
BTW, when mainstream media sources publish or broadcast results of scientific surveys, they talk about details of responders in generalities. They do not reveal all the details such as the age, gender, etc. of each respondent. That the previous poster asks for this information is disingenuous and trivial.
Other editors thought we should make more of the fact that the station truncated the DN! broadcast about the same time AmerenUE was added as a corporate sponsor. One cannot help but be suspicious, since DN! has a good record as a corporate critic. I attempted to talk to Nico Leone several times, but we never could connect. I would have included his response to this situation, but we kept missing each other. I would be glad to talk to him about this matter or see his response posted on this thread. (Yes, I sent him a message which he acknowledged, so he knows about it.)
In the interests of full disclosure, below a copy of the questionnaire we gave people.
-digger
Name (Optional)________________
Check the appropriate response:
__ I am a KDHX member and listener
__ I listen to KDHX, but I am not a member
Democracy Now! The War and Peace Report, a show hosted by journalist Amy Goodman, was recently rescheduled by the station: formerly a 1 hour broadcast (6-7 PM weekdays), it was cut to a 10 minute broadcast (6:50- 7:00 PM weekdays). Please check the response below that best matches your feelings about the change in the scheduling of Democracy Now! on KDHX.
__ I support the decision because I would rather hear music during that time slot.
__ I support the decision because I found the material broadcast on Democracy Now! objectionable.
__I support the decision because (fill in your own response):
__I feel that the whole one hour show should be broadcast on KDHX as a public service to the community.
__ I feel strongly that Democracy Now! should be broadcast on KDHX in its full 1 hour format because the show is a very valuable news source.
__ I have no opinion on this matter.
Please use the space below or the back of this paper to write any additional comments you might want to make.
We will post the results of this survey on the St. Louis Independent Media Center website (www.stlimc.org) soon.
Thanks for your input!