October 2009
October 29, 2009 - RECUPEREMOS RADIO CADENA ¡!!
A new letter from the community is being circulated.
October 23, 2009 - History and KDNA's story
Strangely, the web site touted by the current KDNA management and Board of KDNA as being an example of how they are bringing Granger and Washington into the twenty first century is still imaginary. The management continues to exhibit as their "official web site" a site that Chuck Reinsch built for them 10 years ago. The site is terribly stale now, but they display it as state of the art, and as if they (the new comers that have done nothing but tear down) created it.
Please take a moment (well, a couple of moments) to watch the videos by the Gates Foundation, Latino NW Productions, and Rosa Ramon to learn about what KDNA was before the current management turned its back on the mission, purpose, and hope of community radio in the Yakima Valley. You can see the videos here.
October 18, 2009 - Legacy of Equality, Leadership and Organizing
LELO is having their annual dinner on October 23rd, and raising money to send a delegation of 10 to 12 activists to Venezuela to investigate privatization there. You can lean more about the dinner event and the project at their web site (lelo.org), or by calling 206-860-1400 (ext 3)
Cuentos del asfalto: Más allá del barrio/I
Joseph Trevino has a poignant editorial in the October 13 edition of El Sol de Yakima. You can read it online here. Let us know what you think.
October 17, 2009 - Recent events
After more than a year of talking about the need for a new web site, with much fanfare (invitations to her VIP list, balloons, a new oversize computer (TV) monitor, and a reception), on Wednesday October 14 Maria Fernandez “unveiled” the new site, if you could call it a “site”. There was one "home" page. The streaming seemed to work for a while, but by Friday both the web site and streaming had disappeared. Jorge Lobos told Chuck Reinsch they were paying $7,000 for this web site You can be the judge if they got their money’s worth. One of Fernandez’s VIP guests at the reception walked out, muttering that it was an "embarrassment”.
Meanwhile about fifty farm workers demonstrated at the doors of the building and handed out leaflets calling for the resignation of Jorge Lobos and Maria Fernandez. And, in what has become a Fernandez tradition, every time the community comes to it's community center she calls the police. And the police come, look for the trouble,and walk away shaking their heads. This time the officer couldn't even find anyone willing to admit to making the call.
Inside, the event was attended by a handful of Fernandez’s friends and relatives, and one Board member, Leonard Black, who after complaining to the police officer about the demonstrators, slipped out early.
In her presentation Fernandez made repeated claims to “bringing NCEC into the age of technology”, like no one had done it before. Yet in 2003 it was the previous administration that went out and got a grant for a Technology Center to provide computer literacy training to farm worker children and adults. Today, though, farm workers aren’t welcome in the building, so, what is left of the Technology Center (after the current station manager cannibalized it for parts), sits idle.
The Wednesday unveiling was essentially a show for the Board of Directors that have been waiting for 15 months for Fernandez to produce something of substance (raise some money, write a grant proposal, do something constructive). This doesn’t cut it.
More about the October 8 Board Meeting
Amongst the community attending the meeting were representatives of the Teamsters Union, who described the NCEC Board of directors and management as the most anti-labor organization with which they have ever attempted to negotiate. There was also a member of the Yakama Nation who expressed support for the staff that have been abused and terminated, for the union’s effort’s to negotiate a fair contract, and concern about the current administration’s lack of respect for, and treatment of, elders.
Community Meeting
On October 8th, 72 farm workers met at the “Salon Magic” in Granger with representatives of the Teamsters Union to discuss plans for removing and replacing the current NCEC/KDNA Board of Directors with new, responsible, trustees. All agreed that the current Board’s abandonment of NCEC’s mission of service is unacceptable.
Speakers at the meeting included Roberto Maestas past KDNA Board Chairman, founder and former Executive Director of El Centro de La Raza, and current Executive Director of El Centro, Estela Ortega. They voiced their, and El Centro’s, support for the communities efforts to save KDNA from becoming a toy for the privileged.
The community united with the Teamsters on a plan to continue to apply pressure on current board members at their places of employment and at their homes.
October 13, 2009 - Going through the motions
We received a report that last Wednesday (10/07) they started announcing on the air that the Board would be meeting on Friday (10/09), and that the public could attend. There was no explanation as to why, after months of denying that they were obligated to have public Board meetings, they would suddenly reverse themselves. Could it be that a rumor that an auditor from the CPB Office of the Inspector General will be visiting soon has frightened the recalcitrant Board into compliance? Whatever it takes, it is a good thing if we can learn what is going on with our community radio station.
So what happened? About 80 members of the community came to watch the Board go through the motions. And that is all they did: go through the motions. The community was told they would have 15 minutes at the end of the meeting for their comments.
In Board business, they had no minutes from their previous meeting(s) to review, or approve, although Lobos wanted to “approve” them anyway. There was a report from the controller, in which he stated that the auditors had advised him to let the Board know that the back wages and taxes that will be owed to the suspended and terminated staff are a contingent liability. The only response from the Board was when Lobos, Black and Armendariz asked, one at a time, if there was enough cash to last until the end of the year. What’s going to happen then?
The rest of the Board asked no questions and made no comments.
Station manager Gabriel Martinez reported he is working on a manual.
The Board asked no questions and made no comments.
Fernandez then reported that she was going to make lots of money on the internet, and that she had been firming up relationships with the Migrant Council, EPIC, and OIC, and that they support her plans. (Ed note: It is hard to believe that organizations with a history of aiding the disadvantaged would really support denying programming and services to farm workers, and eventually destroying KDNA. Perhaps they are unaware of conditions at KDNA/NCEC.) When Fernandez was asked by Board member Irma Prieto if she had any written commitments or agreements, Fernandez did not respond, other than to imply that these organizations were having internal issues. Again, Fernandez said that they just have to make it to December 31. Once again, with no explanation as to what happens on January 1st.
The rest of the Board asked no questions and made no comments.
When it came time for public comment, following the pattern they adopted earlier this year, during the meeting, for no apparent reason, Fernandez and her assistant three times called the police. The police came, walked around, and, seeing nothing amiss, left. (It is time for someone to point out to the police that the station has been occupied by trespassers (Fernandez, Lobos, and the rest of the illegitimate Board), and that they need to be evicted.)
The Board asked no questions and made no comments.
Representatives of the Community Advisory Board expressed concern regarding the deteriorating programming, citing the changes (elimination of staff and volunteers) that have resulted in reducing the different voices heard on the air and in all programming sounding essentially the same. They were troubled that the new announcers are not fluent in Spanish and express themselves poorly, that music with inappropriate lyrics is being aired, and that people had complained, and they had seen, a web site that displays the KDNA farm worker design inappropriately.
The Board asked no questions and made no comments.
And they adjourned.
October 4, 2009 - A reminder of what community radio is all about: Radio Movimiento
Take a listen to Radio Movimiento, the station established by Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United), KPCN (95.9) in Woodburn, Oregon. They have been on the air since 2006, and are also streaming on the internet. They express it succinctly on their web site: "Simply giving voice combats oppression and discrimination by lending legitimacy and breaking the silence, while building self-confidence, self-esteem and developing valuable skills."
Maria's Sombrero
In a recent article in El Sol de Yakima, Maria Fernandez told the employees she unjustly fired from Radio Cadena that they should go find somewhere else to hang their “sombreros”. Fernandez should hang her “sombrero” somewhere else far away from Radio Cadena where she is definitely not making any “meaningful contributions”.
Let’s take a look at her record since she arrived 14 months ago:
- alienation of listeners, funders, community organizations, supporters, and friends of KDNA
- closed Radio Cadena to the farmworker community both on the air and off and anyone else who doesn’t agree with her anti-farmworker practices.
- created a hostile work environment that resulted in a walk-out by staff and efforts to unionize to protect themselves from her abuses
- wasted tens of thousands of dollars, raised by her predecessors for community service, on lawyers to defend her abusive anti-labor practices, while not raising any new financial support
- although she denies it, targeted for firing the employees that expressed no confidence in her management and chose to unionize - so far after suspending them repeatedly without justification, she has fired five of eleven - Saida, Lupe, Carolina, Jesus, and Francisco (Miguel is currently suspended)
(The community immediately noticed the loss of News Director, Francisco and asked during the children’s program where he was. They were told on the air several times that Francisco was on vacation. Clearly an untruth.)
- terminated from on-air participation all volunteers and community guests who during the May strike refused to cross the picket line
- deterioration of radio programming, a topic of conversation at grocery stores, barber shops, in the fields and warehouses and almost anywhere where the community gathers
- lost funding from various sources due to the community turmoil over her actions and abusive labor practices
When over 40 people (farm worker families, former employees and others) recently gathered outside her house to hold a candlelight vigil expressing their sadness at what has transpired at their radio station, Fernandez described it as “shameful”. Perhaps she doesn’t know that the Latino community honors courage and values justice and respect and supports the farm worker community. The majority of us are not ashamed that we come from farm worker families. No, the vigil was not shameful but what led to it is and Fernandez is the one responsible. Que siga la comunidad adelante con sus esfuerzas por su Radio Cadena. Si se puede.
See September 2009 posts
