KPFA Summer Update by Marci Lockwood/General Manager As the summer of 94 draws to a close, KPFA staff and volunteers return from their assorted family reunions, camping trips and vacations with renewed energy and vitality. We can look forward to a fall filled with great promise and expectations. Our Summer telefunding campaign is projected (as of mid August) to have made its goal and we are making plans to purchase our new portable Ku-band satellite uplink. I wrote about the Pacifica-wide Ku-band project in the June 94 Folio. In brief, the purchase of this portable uplink transmitter will allow KPFA to broadcast from virtually any location in California. This will give us much greater flexibility to cover events throughout the listening area. Thanks to each of you who contributed to this campaign. This past July, Pacifica held a 3 day retreat in Berkeley, bringing together programming representatives, general managers and national board members from around the network to discuss programming issues as they relate to local audiences. Needless to say in an organization of political progressives, there were as many differing opinions as there were participants, but ultimately some areas of agreement and understanding did emerge. Much of the discussion focused on increasing listenership and promoting the Pacifica Mission. With five powerful stations in five major urban markets, the Pacifica Network as a whole can and should be reaching a much larger audience. The potential is there and we as managers and programmers must do more to ascertain the needs and wants of our local communities and audiences. Also on the Pacifica national front, many of you know that David Salniker, the Executive Director for the past 7 years and former KPFA General Manager resigned in June. We are now conducting a nation-wide search for a new Executive Director. Even with the guidance of an executive search firm, the process is slow but thorough. We hope to be able to announce a new hire for that position early in 1995. Until then, the search goes on. On another national front, Pacifica has again been targeted by a congressional attack, this year lead by Rep. Joel Hefley from Colorado. Hefley has asked that an additional $1.1 million be taken off of next year's Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) allocation to specifically punish Pacifica for its alleged "hate programming". This now appears to be a yearly battle we'll have to wage. It seems we must constantly remind congressional right wingers that censorship of the airwaves, whether direct or indirect, can not and will not be tolerated in this country. On a more positive note, KPFA will be making a change in our annual Holiday Crafts Fair. After 24 years at the Student Union building on the UC Berkeley campus, this year's Fair will be moving to the Concourse Exhibition Center at 8th and Brannan in San Francisco. The move is necessary because of changes at UC. The decision was made to convert the Heller Lounge, which constituted approximately one-third of the Crafts Fair exhibitor space into permanent library space which would be unavailable for any other use. Jan Etre, the Crafts Fair coordinator, looked into other options in the East Bay but no suitable space was found. Our best alternative was to move the Fair to downtown San Francisco and to the Concourse Center. While this change was unexpected, we're excited at the possibilities this creates. The 1994 Crafts Fair will be held one weekend only: December 10 & 11. However, there will be twice as many exhibitors displaying fine arts and crafts in larger booths. The additional space will also enable us to have more live entertainment. So be sure to put December 10 & 11 on your holiday calendar! You may have heard announcements on the air that we have set up a voice mail extension where you can tell us "why you like KPFA". We are hoping to put together a montage of voices and comments that should be both entertaining to listeners and informative to KPFA programming staff. Please take the opportunity to call (510) 848-6767 ext. 616 and let us know "why you like KPFA". On July 16, at the annual Public Radio Development Conference in San Diego, KPFA received the "Special Development" Award for our Planned Giving Program. This Award recognizes outstanding achievement in the field of Development, and KPFA's Planned Giving Program, instituted by Greg Lassonde, was singled out as the best public radio program of its kind in the nation. If you are interested in finding out more about this innovative way of supporting KPFA, you can contact Greg at (510) 848-6767 ext. 242. Finally, KPFA would like to acknowledge the generous in-kind donation of five computers from Network General Corporation of Menlo Park. This gift will enable KPFA to upgrade some work stations. We very much appreciate this donation by Network General Corp. .