Guma’s New Pacifica Series

Greg Guma is revisiting his days as Executive Director of Pacifica Radio in his latest blog series called Real Life on Planet Pacifica. It is essentially an expansion of his series Planet Pacifica: An Inside Story, which he released last year.

Most who know me know I was a fan of Guma’s. I appreciated his desire to bring an even hand to the winner-take-all world of Pacifica. I saw him work that magic on numerous occasions, defusing tense confrontations and bringing varied personalities to the table. His desire to put a positive spin to things was refreshing. As with any ED, Guma had his share of critics; in my interview with him just before he left, Guma was upfront in saying the Pacifica National Board (with Dave Adelson as chair at the time) ushered him out despite his offer to help with a transition of power. History now demonstrates Greg Guma was more willing to weather the storms than some others after him, most notably the widely hailed Nicole Sawaya, whose on-again, off-again relationship with the job then letter blasting (without the slightest irony) the organization she had unprecedented PNB support to change was one of Pacifica’s more bizarre dramas. Perhaps history will treat Greg Guma more kindly than it did during his tenure as well.

Guma’s first installment of the new series sees him visiting some themes he’s written about before. I recall the meeting he writes about here, as I was Duane Bradley’s replacement that weekend in Los Angeles and gave the KPFT report.

Greg Guma writes Pacifica oftentimes struggled with issues of operations and governance. In his first installment, he likens it to doing radio or creating a small government. Many have tapped this idea since. It would be interesting to read Guma’s opinions on board responsibilities and programming. Many board members during his tenure argued for various programming. Some saw it as a responsibility of board members to offer suggestions or directives about programming, or used the bylaws wording to make the case for same. While he digs into some of the early staff/board conflicts, one might hope he’ll reflect on what he saw as a productive interaction, if any, between board members, individually or collectively, and staff that might signal a direction for the foundation.

Guma touches a bit on the issue of Latino (more specifically Spanish-language) programming that raged during his early days. My hope is for Guma to expand on this over the series because there are contradictions which could be more fully explored. Most stations did not carry Informativo Pacifica. Some, most notably KPFA, still do not. I expect some of the disconnect had to do with personalities, parochialism (the program originated at KPFK with no discernible connection to other stations, and I recall there to be some concerns about how issues for Latinos outside of the Southwestern United States would be represented) and schedule stasis, but suspect Greg Guma might clarify these issues as the series goes on. Furthermore, there seemed to be some disagreement about the overall strategy related to Spanish-language programming. Guma may be able to address that more too.

Specifically, while I believe there was agreement Spanish-language media was big and important, and the need for progressive Spanish-language media was there, how important it was for Pacifica financially remained an open question. Armando Guidino, former KPFK PD, argued such a program needed to be seen as a cultural change in programming, i.e. just putting a half-hour Spanish program was not going to draw Spanish speakers, and there needed to be more programming for these audiences on station schedules. My assumption is most stations, if it comes down to eliminating established programming, even programming that draws little support, in favor of new programming aimed at drawing in new audiences, are not interested in taking that gamble with their schedules. Perhaps Greg Guma has a different view.

I am unsure how perceptions of Latinos in Pacifica led to some resistance, if at all, for diversification of programming and what ideals for diversity might have hurt or helped the effort. Those who saw my interview with Guma may remember he expressed concerns about the destructive use of race in faction fights, and particularly cited dismissive attitudes by African-Americans within Pacifica directed against Latinos. Today Latinos are underrepresented on all of Pacifica’s local boards’ signal areas, and the focus on Latino audiences of Guma’s early tenure is gone. Greg Guma will likely address racial dynamics in the organization during this series. One may wonder what part such dynamics played in Informativo’s stumble and in expanding cultural connections in this medium, and Guma may shed light. Stay tuned.

Check out the past series and the current remix at Maverick Media, Greg’s blog.

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