Tracy Rosenberg Candidate Statement

My name is Tracy Rosenberg, I’m running for the KPFA Local Station Board as a listener representative and I hope that you’ll vote for me.

In eight+ years of involvement with KPFA and its community, I’ve served in a variety of ways: as the program coordinator on staff, as a listener representative on the program council (twice), as an activist and strategist and sidewalk camper in the lockout days, and as last year’s election supervisor. So I’ve been on the payroll, off the payroll, and in the streets - and I know the issues and the people in and around KPFA. I was honored to be chosen as the program council facilitator from 2005-2007 - by unanimous consent among paid and unpaid staff members, board members and other listeners. As we all know, unanimous consent to anything is not common at KPFA.

As a long-time staff member and now the Managing Director at Media Alliance, the longest-running regional media advocacy center in the country, I’m knowledgeable about the challenges KPFA will be facing as rapid change continues to alter the media landscape. I’m running for the board because I care about the strength of independent media and because KPFA’s 59,000 watt signal can not be replaced. There is no way for community-based media to recapture a media asset of such size and range. We can’t afford to lose it. But lose it we will, if internal battles continue to rip time and energy away from re-tooling to meet the challenges of the Bay Area’s demographic changes, the digital conversion, the lightening fast news and information from the blogosphere, the need to update programming from time to time, and the financial challenges inherent in the listener-supported model.

I’m proud that KPFA and Pacifica have turned toward listeners and not away from them, as San Francisco’s NPR-affiliate KQED did so famously a few years ago. The openness is admirable and all too rare. But it needs to be openness to really working together, not just lip service coupled with obstructionism and parliamentary politics.

I believe I have the track record of working with people on all sides, the knowledge of media policy, a deep commitment to more community-driven information, art and culture on the air, and the group facilitation experience to be an effective board member. I’m running as an independent candidate, not on a slate, but welcome endorsements from any of the existing board members or my fellow candidates.

Please feel free to e-mail me with any questions about my candidacy. I’d be happy to talk to you.

Tracy Rosenberg
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