Sharam Aghamir Candidate Statement

Over the years, I have had the privilege of collaborating closely on issues of peace and social, racial and gender justice with several local institutions, organizing and promoting community causes, rallying support and shoring up solidarity both within the communities themselves and from society at large.

I think we would all agree that the future of KPFA resides in extensively broadening its listener base in several important new directions: more gender content, a more inclusive ethnic base and certainly younger generations of potential listeners. In my view, development in these areas will insure not only the continuity but the growth of our audience, while encouraging new ideas and innovation.

If I am elected to the LSB, I will work toward fulfilling the following objectives:

1. Hiring a permanent General Manager, since the station has been experiencing uncertainty due to lack of a stable leadership for a long time.
2. Hiring a permanent Program Director who possesses both a vision of programming as well as a spirit of collaboration to work with the Program Council.
3. Addressing the need for long-term financial planning to meet KPFA's infrastructural requirements such as building improvements, technology enhancement, digital upgrades, etc.
4. Ensuring that there is a genuinely collaborative relationship in the triad formed by the staff, the management and the LSB. This will mean a mutually respectful working relationship between the General Manager and Program Director on the one hand and the paid staff and Unpaid Staff Organization(UPSO) on the other.
5. Developing a process for evaluating programming in the overview to determine changes of direction or the emphasis that may be needed Public meetings, well designed membership surveys are among vehicles that can be used in order to collect real community input for developing a programming strategic plan.
6. Collaborating with the national effort to get community commons digital licensing project up and running as well as developing more Internet programming that is not necessarily broadcast on the air.

Having been an activist for many years, as a programmer at KPFA and having served on both Unpaid Staff Organization Council and Program Council, I believe I can play a constructive role as your representative on the Local Station Board to make KPFA a more conspicuous institution and a better place for all of us to work.

Shahram Aghamir
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