Anti Zydecoists? Terrorists?

DN!:

AMY GOODMAN: A drive-by shooting targeted Pacifica Radio station KPFT in Houston early Monday morning. A single bullet blasted through a Plexiglas window into the station's studio at 1:00 a.m. No one was injured in the shooting, but the bullet came within eighteen inches of Mary Thomas. She was hosting a Zydeco music program at the time.

More than thirty-five years ago, the Ku Klux Klan blew up the station's transmitters twice within the Houston station’s first year of operation. In October of 1970, five months after the first bombing, KPFT's transmitter was bombed for a second time, just as the station was broadcasting folk legend Arlo Guthrie's song “Alice's Restaurant.”


This came on the heels of the 'Summer Sizzle' fund raising campaign that was held to raise the funds needed to finish out the fiscal year for the operation of the station. Happily the goal was not only met but was exceeded by about 6 grand.

KPFT's Summer Sizzle finished a few hours early, achieved the goal of $135,000 and then some!
The unofficial final total has us at just over $141,000, about 5% over the goal!
Thanks to all the staff, programmers, phone volunteers and everyone who contributed.

AMY GOODMAN: Duane, do you think this could be politically motivated?

DUANE BRADLEY: Well, certainly we can't say it's not. There's nothing that’s been found yet in terms of who may have done this. KPFT has been, as you pointed out, at a point of controversy in Houston since day one, thirty-seven-and-a-half years ago. There were no overt threats to the station. We've received no email or voicemail or letters or anything. No one has claimed responsibility for it, but we do on Sunday evenings, prior to Mary's Zydeco Pas Sale show at midnight, from about 6:00 ’til midnight we have some relatively, you know, controversial programming, Afrocentric programming, that can sometimes be quite heated. And certainly we know from past experience that KPFT has been threatened and indeed attacked.

On Sunday morning during the Blues music show "Blues on the Move" Duane went into a bit of a testimonial about the vital importance of the support from the listeners to the existence of the station (member support accounts for 85% of the annual operating budget--the other 15% comes from a Corporation for Public Broadcasting grant) and spoke of the diversity of the programming as one of the station's greatest strengths. He admitted that there was programming on the station's schedule that he did not care for personally but was committed to supporting just as much as the programming that he does enjoy--not just because he is the GM--but because he believes in the mission and service that the station provides to the community that supports it.

I feel the same way about KPFT, as has been evidenced in past posts. It's an amazing resource, a relative rarity here in the U.S. (there are only five flagship Pacifica stations along with several hundred affiliates), one that will endure despite the attempts of individuals who only know how to speak in the language of force and therefore assume that that is all anyone else can understand.

KPFT bills itself as "Radio for Peace." I guess that is just to much for some folks to handle.