David Landau – Staff Candidate

 

David Landau   Co-host and Producer  “KPFA Weekend News”

I’m running for the Local Station Board (LSB) as an unpaid staff-member, a co-anchor with the Weekend News. Some of you have already asked whether I’m the same David Landau who was on the station’s Local Advisory Board (LAB) about ten years ago.  I am.  Nine years ago I moved to Los Angeles and so resigned from the LAB. I moved back to the Bay Area three years ago and began to work again in the News Department.

I love working at KPFA and I nearly always leave the building with more life and energy I had when I went in. Mainly, I love the fact that we, the staff, are determined individualists who have come together to make a radio-station. The air of liberty and self-expression breathes very strongly here. But as free-speaking, self-expressive people we often disagree with each other, and at times those disagreements, rather than furthering our common enterprise, distract us from what really matters.

As a board-member, I want to stand for the idea that even our divisions and disagreements can be a source of strength.  Today our station confronts external challenges that call on us to act in a unified way. We are steering KPFA into the future. We are working to expand into new communities and attract new listeners. In order to survive, we are trying to break with legacies and patterns – whether technical or organizational – by which KPFA has lived for decades. We all understand that if we want to keep our station, we will have to reform it.

So, how do we reform the station in order to keep it? I don’t think that any single one of us has this expertise. But I am sure that each of us has a part of it. If we can manage to combine what we know in a productive way, we will be unstoppable. The struggle for freedom in 1999 gave a powerful glimpse into what’s possible if we all pull together. The challenge today is more amorphous and more difficult. Embracing change is always harder than fighting against a common enemy. And that is where our determined individualism, the thing that makes us great, must rise to the challenge.

As a staff, the things we have in common are much more important than those which divide us. That’s the most ambitious program I would bring to the local station-board. I want to be a part of the process by which we draw together and make a station that will pay back all the love and work we put into it.

 Questions and Answers

1.         In what ways is KPFA moving in a positive direction, that you would want to continue or perhaps improve?

            KPFA has always had a strong sense of purpose. Whenever a crunch has come, we have known what to do; with our concerted action we have beaten the odds. We now know that we face tremendous challenges in modernizing the station. We have a wealth of ideas and knowledge waiting to be turned into productive action.

2.         In what ways is KPFA moving in a negative direction, that you would want to stop or change? What changes would you work for?

            Our strong individualism and expressive talents are double-edged swords. Let’s use those to further the station’s common goals. We badly need to modernize the station and bring it into the Internet age. And while we’re at it, let’s make our internal processes more efficient–”communicate for action.”  If we can do that, our power as a station will grow exponentially.

3.         What key experience, connections, skills or traits would you bring to the Local Station Board to advance the station’s mission?

            As a reporter who covered the station’s conflict with Pacifica for the KPFA news, I acquired a detailed knowledge of KPFA-Pacifica issues and patterns. From my career as a political analyst, I know about working in conflict situations. As a book-publisher, I’ve got skills I can contribute to the station’s public side. I’m ready to do it all for KPFA.

4.         What ideas do you have for helping the station and the Pacifica Foundation meet the financial challenges currently being faced?

            Work on expanding the listener base and on modernizing the station. That will help our monetary situation beyond the short term. For the short term, democratize budgetary know-how throughout the staff (unpaid as well as paid). Stop bleeding dollars to white elephants like “Democracy Now!” Lose any high-paid consultants and lawyers. Get lean and mean, while working for better days ahead.