It Will Be A Way Poorer World With Less KUSFs And More Comcast

Last week when we ran the short piece on how what's left of independent media is being dismantled in this country, there were an awful lot of e-mails from people at community radio stations talking about how they've been squeezed out for commercial ventures or for less controversial ventures. I wish I could publish them all, but I decided to run this one by an old friend from Nebraska, currently living inside the heart of the beast. Cogboy:

Oh shit, this really hits home for me. In 1981, my pre-hipster clique of high school buddies and I had a pirate radio station in Omaha. Armed with a van, great punk singles, shit we liked and a stack of kickass promos from Howie, we changed the soundscape (we'd play Cocteau Twins then Caberet Voltaire long before Trent married Ministry to Harold Budd!) Bad Brains, Black Flag then Translator. The Last Poets, Petula Clark then William Burroughs. DK, DAF then Donna Summer and Deborah Iyall cooly sexing it all up! One dj was Howard Zinn's nephew and my dad was the Director of Telecommunications at the NSA. When the FCC nailed us, it wasn't pretty...

Two elderly, extraordinarily wealthy Russian-Jew sisters-- who had long ago escaped to America by following pirate broadcasts in the dark of night-- decided to come to our rescue. They, together with a billionaire friend (yes, that Omaha billionaire) paid our FCC fines, then paid for two 24/7/365 phone lines directly linked to our local cable service provider. We were able to broadcast in stereo audio on tv with no further radio interference from the feces, er... FCC.

20 some odd years later, I'm living in an apartment megaplex at the top of Meridian Hill, just up 16th street from the White House. Comcast had been ripping the city streets to shreds installing new
cabling for high speed Internet, digital cable and value priced phone service.

They ran their cables past my building but the wiring inside was not up to digital standards so no nifty Comcast for us, right?

In a matter of days, Comcast set up a kiosk (balloons, streamers and what I now know to be clowns...) in the front lobby announcing new service, showing off perfect tv reception and über fast internet
(secretly wired directly to the cabling outside) It was all that and bargain start-up packages, to boot! They even had 2 hour hook up windows (with remote activation that same day.) Many of us fell for
it, canceling AT&T lines necessary for buzzing guest (and ever so prompt Comcast cable installers) into our homes.

Well, without proper internal wiring, there was no same day service. No phones on which to call and complain. Calls from working phones landed you on bottomless hold with a fucking recording suggesting you could expedite cable service or resolve glitches by going online! What line?!? Bitching all the way to the main office in Philly only got you confirmation that all of 16th street had had the necessary cable upgrade (they looked it up online!) We had HD gutters!

I demanded service calls but suddenly, the guys in the comcast uniforms, driving white Comcast vans, entering my apartment to install Comcast boxes and presenting me with Comcast service contracts to sign... Were "independent contractors" and not Comcast employees! Con-cast redirected me to my service contract on the flimsy yellow paper with the unreadable small print and chicken scratch scrawlings of the guy who fraudulently jammed a wire up my unit then right into
my nonreceptive box! I remember folks outside the beltway wondering why it was thought that the then uncaptured dc sniper was driving a white van. Makes perfect sense to me!

It was 2 months before service was semi-fixed and then with "low peak" outages as Con-cast ripped up more streets for more cabling. Nightly 4 hour blocks of dead air! And yes, they sent bills! I fought them and won but the balloon after the 3 month trial period was not shifted. I was fucked for two month, toyed with then raped.

I never had all three services functioning at once and ended up going to cyber cafes, using my cell phone and netflix then finally reconnecting my AT&T doorbell line!

These guys want to expand?!? This isn't just a merger, IT'S MURDGER!

Yep-- taking over NBC. All I can say to Cogboy and everyone else at the top of Meridian Hill, count your lucky stars it isn't TimeWarner who managed to get the monopoly in your area! And for those who have been asking... yes, KUSF is fighting back against the child molesting Jesuits in San Francisco.

Over 500 people attended a protest and meeting regarding the sale last Wednesday. At the meeting, USF President Father Stephen Privett remained resolute in his decision to sell the station, arguing that it was not serving the students of USF. Ironically, since students had not yet returned to campus, they didn’t have too much opportunity to counter his claims. After hearing criticism about that at the meeting, he agreed to host a similar session with students.

In the meantime, KUSF volunteers have been feverishly working to spread the word about the plight of the station and remain optimistic that something can be done to prevent the sale from happening. The KUSF Facebook page already has more than 5700 fans and media coverage has been extensive. Other independent radio stations from all over the country (including KALX, KZSU, KALW, KPOO, Radio Valencia, WFMU, KDVS, KSSU and KFJC) have been helping out by hosting KUSF DJs and staff members on their airwaves.

Although everyone is still expressing sadness, shock, and anger over the proposed sale, right now the focus is on organizing and action. The Save KUSF website includes specific guidelines on what can be done immediately: from writing letters to the USF Board of Trustees (in order to stop the sale), to signing an online petition, to attending upcoming KUSF events.

On Tuesday, a peaceful rally is planned in front of San Francisco City Hall at 1pm. Following that, people are encouraged to attend the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ Meeting, in which a resolution is being presented in support of saving KUSF.