Re: [HCDX] RFPI Eviction

["mu 23" <mu23@xxxxxxx>]

       I'd respect your letter a bit more if you were more honest with us. We all do listen to the radio you know, and most of us have listened to RFPI. It's not all U.S. programming, though a good portion of it is. We have heard them read the Tico Times, and are well aware that it is not a U.S. paper. We also know the Zapatistas don't haunt the streets of Chicago. And while the United Nations news show broadcast by RFPI actually is based in NYC - I've heard tell that the U.N. is known to take a global perspective: fancy that. Nor can I say I have ever heard RFPI "target" the U.S. commercial shortwave broadcasters you mentioned simply because they are commercial broadcasters and anybody with the cash can buy an hour of time; even you, even me. They do target the various Neoklannazimilita shows that are broadcast from said stations and speaking as a person who lives in these United States, I am glad they have been doing it. Why is North America's only national left of center radio station based in Central America?  I get worried when everybody's on the right, and I get worried when everybody is on the left. Those kinds of majorities are grotesque, disfiguring, and dangerous.
    I liked RFPI, and I also had my share of complaints. I think the Far Right Radio Review got too casual and lost much of its effectiveness. I recently tuned into some of their in house programming that consisted mainly of some cranky guy spouting off for ever and ever. That's not radio. 
    Mostly though, I'll miss them. For all it's technological prowess and wealth, or perhaps because of it, American journalism - left, right, and center - is horrible. To find an American who's well informed about international affairs is a rare find indeed. There are a few people here that would like to become well informed, but they really have to dig deep to find a good source. It was a horrible irony when the BBC World Service started cutting back transmissions to the U.S. We don't need foreign aid here, we don't need food, but we sure could use some information aid. The same goes for opinion. We have huge debates between the marginally left and the marginally right and that's about it. 
    RFPI had lots of news, and lots of opinion. They had American labor news! Labor is a dirty word here. You can talk a lot of trash but don't say that dirtiest word of all UNION. So a lot of my labor news came out of Costa Rica.
    For me RFPI's finest hour was back in '94 or '95 when they had gotten an email from someone in a town in Mexico that had been surrounded by the army who were about to go in and stomp anything that moved, but somebody had a computer and a modem, somebody got the word out in real time. RFPI was asking everyone to immediately send email to the responsible parties and get things cooled off. I never did hear any follow ups on the incident. I hope things got settled down. The idea of someone throwing a rock over the wall of a besieged city and having it land in a million mailboxes made a big impression on me that day and that's the day I decided that I needed a computer.
    I hope RFPI gets through this trouble. Someone once said of the Grateful Dead that it "isn't that they are the best at what they do, they are the only ones that do what they do", and that surely sums up this little station. They did a lot with what they had too. For some odd reason they seam to have placed their antenna farm in some sort of tornado alley kind of place and it blew over once a week. They never got the funding they needed to get a sure grip on things, simply because most of the Americans with disposable income have never even seen a shortwave radio and their Central American audience is not all that wealthy. RFPI would sputter and spark for days on end and then roar back to life, only to have something else blow a fuse. People did send money though, lots of people, just not enough I guess. It is unfortunate that there is not an endangered radio genre law because there's a million preachers and 10,000 Brownshirts rantin and a ravin on the radio at any given minute of the day, but only one free voice from the left.     
    I am decidedly left of center in my outlook, however I like to have the "loyal opposition" around too, but I want them to be honest. I won't stand behind any dishonest speech from my own people and I think you do your cause a disservice by playing fast and loose with the truth. It's easier to just make stuff up, anybody can do it, but it takes hard work and determination to check all of your facts and think out something that's honest and persuasive. And if you're angry, really angry: take what you wrote and put it in a drawer 'til you calm down and then look at it. Now if you're always angry, you have a problem unrelated to your politics that is in serious need of attention. This is a common malady; the one who can't blame himself, so he blames the Other.
    If the cause is just, no deceit is needed. If the heart is pure, the anger will subside.   
      
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Henrik Klemetz 
  To: hard-core-dx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2003 2:30 AM
  Subject: Re: [HCDX] RFPI Eviction


  RFPI (I quote) has trained over 300 peace journalist
  who now work all over
  the world, RFPI (I quote) runs courses in Peace
  Journalism and Progressive 
  Media through Radio, RFPI (I quote) specializes in the
  monitoring and
  documenting of hate radio and the use of media by
  extremist groups. 

  Let's take a closer look at the last statement. From
  their UN programming one would think that the RFPI
  outlook was global in scope, but actual listening
  shows that the focus is limited to the USA.

  Here is RFPI's list of study targets.

  PRIVATE U.S. SHORTWAVE BROADCAST STATIONS
  Call letters Location Designator Special Notes 
  WSHB SC R/MN Owned by Christian Science Monitor 
  WCSN ME R Sold by C.S.M. to another religious group

  KGEI CA R 
  KJES NM R Cultish sounding program 
  KTBN UT R Part of Trinity Broadcasting network 
  KNLS AK R 
  KWHR HI R Sister station to WHRI 
  WHRI IN R/RFR Has 100,000 watt capacity 
  KCBI TX R/RFR Rumored Dr. Gene Scott silent partner

  WEWN AL R Four 500,000 transmitters 
  WINB PA R/RFR Pastor Pete Peters considering buying

  WJCR KY R Small church station 50,000 watts 
  WMLK PA R Owned by Assemblies of Yahweh 
  WRMI FL P/PFR Anti-Castro broadcaster 
  WRNO LA P/R/PFR/RFR One 50,000 watt transmitter 
  WWCR TN P/R/PFR/RFR Three 100,000 watt transmitters

  WYFR FL R 

  Per the RFPI website, these are stations susceptible
  of airing "far right" radio, a.k.a. "hate radio".

  So who is then trying to be mean to such a
  'progressive' entity as RFPI? 
  Well, perhaps the Colombian paramilitary groups, or...
  eh, on second thought perhaps it's not them after all:

  "There have been recent concerns that the violence of
  Colombia's civil 
  war may be spilling over into Costa Rica, including
  the possibility of 
  paramilitary groups from Colombia operating
  in-country. While details 
  remain very sketchy, it doesn't seem they are involved
  in the RFPI 
  siege; the initial report cites 'guards from the
  University of Peace,' 
  where RFPI has its studios."
  (http://www.diymedia.net/archive/0703.htm#072303)

  I have tuned in to their unauthorized frequencies on
  many occasions, listening to their homebrew Far Right
  Radio Review, and I have listened to some of their
  Spanish language programs (including those on female
  emancipation), none of which I deemed worth the while.

  An exception to their dull programming is WOR (World
  of Radio), but this program has been and is still
  aired elsewhere, including stations considered by RFPI
  as outlets of "hate radio".

  RFPI has been operating thanks to a presidential
  decree, but their frequencies were considered illegal
  by the frequency board of Costa Rica already from the
  very beginning. This I learnt on a visit to the
  country in 1987.

  Their eviction is long overdue.

  Henrik Klemetz



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